The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-06-04
JIM CORBETT SAYS WILLS WOULD BE CREDIT TO GAME
lCorbett Claims Johnson Case Was Exception-DisCusses
 Color Line
nv JAMES J. COnBErT

,(Copyright, 1922, by King Features
 Syndicate, Inc.)
 The opinions of a sportive public surely can undergo a quick and re- lmarkable change
 After Jess Willard whipped Jack Johnson in Havana, there was wild acclaim everywhere-and almost uni- versal, among the white race. was the expression:
 No negro ever again is to be per- mitted to get q crack at title"
 It was all because Jack Johnson had disgraeed himself and the game while he wore the crown. The popu- lace. almost en masse. was against a white champion of the future meet ing negro In titular bout
 It's Different Now
 Yet today countless thousands. whc were loudly of that opinion then, now are agitating. with all their vocal power, meeting between Jack Dempsey and Harry Wills, the giant negro.
 It's possible that the sentiment on the part of that public may force Dempsey to give to the negro race another-and real chance-to gain the highest honors of the boxing world.
 John l.. Sullivan was a champion who drew the color line He wouldn't light negro. He made that decla- ratlon most emphatic at the time when Peter Jackson came from Aus tralia and hurled challenges at him
 Personally, I never drew A color line. l figured that If 1 wanted to play fair ] had to fight all the good ones-whtte or black. When Sulli- van refused 10 take on Jackson I met the negro and the battle which re- suited was the fiercest and longest of my entire career.
 l didn't fight any negroes after that simply because there were no great ones to fight after J met Jack son.
 My thought long has been that some white fighters refuse to fight ' negro largely because they regard mat dark boy as too tough for them. it sounds nicer for a white fighter 10 say ne IS drawing the color line than IL does to explain afterward why he was beaten. e
 Binme It On Johnson Ever since Johnson's dav tba hcv. who have drawn the color line ai- ways have explained that they did II because Johnson disgraced the sport and that the next negro might ao the same thing" But why dc these fellows pick out an isolated case?
 Johnson did some things that weren't right; he did stunts which not only reflected on the boxing game but also upon his race. But oeyond Johnson what negro was other than credit to the sport?
 Cans was clean living. fine boy, Wno dld as much 10 help the ring game as any man alive. Dixon was another. Wo1eott never brought dls- grace upon himself nor anyone else. | Jackson lived straight while he was q fighter.
 Go over the entire list of black fighters and there's none, beyond Johnson, who hasn't been a lasting honor to the sport; there isn't one | who. all things considered, didn't play the game square and clean. | It's Unfair. Says Jim | So 1t seems wholly unfair for some white men to balk at battling ne- groes by using the Johnsonian con- l duct as the subterfuge. 1 If white fighter doesn't want to l mix 1t with negro. that's his own
 
 shouldn't try to justify his attitude by citing the Johnson case. As far as Wills is concerned there l should be no fear that if he arose to | championship heights he would | follow in the footsteps of Johnson Instead Wills probably would be- real credit to the game. He has been so; there is no reason to be- | lievs that possession of title would change him from his steady. clean, honorable and home loving ways. l Johnson was always a bit wild" l even in the days before he became l champion. So what he did after ward was only the expectation Wills ] always has been the opposite. And men do not radically change their 1 ways or their modes of living after they've lived them for 30 years. Whether Dempsey will fight Wills depends largely upon Dempsey. If 1 Jack doesn't want to mix it with the big negro slugEer, there's no l rule to force him into that match. | But it's to be hoped that if Dempsey l doesn't fight Wills he won't say It's | because he fears that if Wills won he would disgrace the game, as John- l son did. For that wouldn't be square, nor right.
 | But I don't think Dempsey ever will use such an excuse for ths simple reason that. fearing no living man, he would fight Wills if proper