New Britain herald., 1923-07-03
TITLE BATTLE HAS NOT
 BEEN CALLED OFF
tcontinued from proceeding page,.

The champions manager then wen, to his quarters. Major Lane, asleer in another hotel was awakened, and informed there would be no fight. He hurried to Kearns' room to begin the series of conferences that resulted in the restoration of the battle.
 Kearns offered to agree to a post ponement to July 25 to enable the f. nances to be reorganized and new drive started for the sale of tickets This did not meet with the approval of the promoters and Kearns went 7 into room with the newspaper cor respondent for discussion of the situation.
 Talks To Reporters
 kearns asked the newspapermen just what they thought of the situ- ation and they unanimously were of the opinion that the fight should be held. They counselled with the man. ager to go back and make the pro- posaI to gamble" with the gate re- ceipts for his final s10o,OOO guarantee provided the preliminary expenses of the show were assured.
 Kearns studied a few moments and then went to the room where the pro- motors were conferring and made the gambling" proposition. The pro- posal was not accepted immediately hoEever and Lane, Molumby and former Judge Roy E. Aires asked for a few minutes by themselves to talk it over. They discussed the proposi- ti1,, a,,t1 hao t,, y,,ir, ,i,fn An saying they would accept.
 The first announcement-or the last--to the newspapermen came from Lane who opened the door of the conference room and shouted:
 Boys the fight Is on.'
 The conferences of the night were not always peaceable and often through the closed doors of the room loud and angry voices were heard. Frequently one of the promoters would shout, apparently at Kearns:
 Tt would be a shame to let you get out of Montana with all that money without a fight" -
 Kearns was obstinate up to the last insisting he had a perfectlyslega con- tract which called for payment of $3o0,OoO before Dempsey stepped in- to the ring. He declared this money had been promised him and that he had been assured day after day it would be forthcoming before the time limit expired.
 He also clinched his argument by pointing at the clock and stating that the contract for the fight hal expired at midnight.
 Up to the last minute Kearns be- lieved the fight was off. His belief was so firm that he already had pre- pared a statement explaining his posi- tion
 Kearns' statement which he had in- tended giving out upon the calling off of the bout follows in part;
 "The failure of the Dempsey -Gib- l bons fight at Shelby is due purely and simply. to the inability of the promo ters to meet business obligation. I did not. seek the contract which they are unable to carry out. In fact, it was virtually forced upon me.
 At the very outset expressed my doubt as to the feasibility of the pro-
  ed that they were able to put the | show over; that the money was al- ready in hand to meet the terms of my contract. I did not immediately accept their offer. They followed me via airplane from Salt Lake to Chicago | and back again to Shelby and finally to Chicago.
 Tn the meantime I had had an of- fer for the Dempsey Gibbons fight rom Tex Rickard and another from Tom O'Rourke both better than the Shelby proposition. ..
 T emphatically stated to Loy J. and Mike Collins that l had hese offers and asked them to cancel he Shelby proposition as I did not hink they would be able to live up to heir obligations. From the outset they have never ; ,een frank with me. I have been up gainst the same misrepresentation of acts as have the press and public: { When the second $100,000 was due {