Douglas daily dispatch., 1926-12-29

Since. this unfortunate affair was
made public BY Judge, Lands, I have
been continuously urged. to discuss
it with representatives of the press,
which / have so far refused to do.
However, feel at this time tha
because of, certain misstatements tho
various versions of this affair, i
should emphatically set right in the
minds of the public several points
at issue.
when / presented in June, 1926,
in Chicago, my claim against the
Detroit baseball club to the proper
authorities for damages sustained by
me through loss of salary covering
period of all of the years 1922,
1928 and part of 1924, and after a
full hearing Of this claim by these
authorities it was determined that
my claim was Just and valid and
such claim was by them settled in
full
'The terms of this settlement were
put in writing and a duplicate copy
of this is in my possession, setting
forth the nature of my claim and
the amount that was due and paid
to me and other details.
1T was on account of this claim
that I received money from the
Detroit baseball club and on this
account only.
Il never received any money di
rectly or indirectly for any letters
or for any information in my pos
session. On the contrary, I refused
Judge Landis and others to go east
and give any testimony involving
any ball players in any Irregular
ties.
'grhe letters which have appeareS
in print were letters which, among
others, I received.
..Some weeks after the settlement
in question had been agreed upon,
1 surrendered these letters to base
ball authorities when these baseball
authorities convinced me t'lit it was
cuty which owed to the Detroit
team and to tae baseball world ia
general, to help thereby and clear
up certain runners and information
vtich they has. previously in their
possession.
II was told and believed that by
SO doing 1 was lending assistance
in clearing up certain existing con-
ditions which We're detrimental to
the good of baseball and that !
could do so without creating pub
licity. in fact without the conditions
and circumstance beconr. ng public.
The delivery Of these letters had
nothing to do with the settlement
of any claims for salary due. The
agreement for this settlement was
made some weeks prior to the sur,
render Of these letters, and as | said
before, the delivery of these letters
was without any money considera-
tion either directly or Indirectly
I'm making this statement, Tn
rot calling anybody "a 'blackmailer'
or a Judas" or using any Other
like expression. Those are terms
only used by one who has no facts
to sustain his position and is hence
forth to resort TO epithets of like
character
..rhe public wants. if they want
anything at all, facts.
Il have given these facts as con-
c.selv as possible after refrainins,
for some time before going into print
at all, as 1 feared by SO doing /
would be injur.ng the standing of
baseball
Il feel now that the entire occur.
renee is a closed incident. The news
papers have made various alleged
statements of mine and I have been
misquoted in statements have made
to others.
"The foregoing is the only author /
ized statement | have made with
reference to this affair and as now
feel it will be the last as do
not at this time mean to go into
this or any other occurrences at
-s,,., 1o,,.,tl, or detail"