New Britain herald., 1930-12-12
WAR IS DECLARED
 BY BALL LEAGUES
Three Big Minors Hope to Chal. lenge Majors for Supremacy

New York, Dec, r tP-Defnitely aIlenated from the majors. the three big minor leagues, American Asso- citation. International and Pacific Coast circuits, hoped today to build their organizations to the point where they can challenge the base ball supremacy of the National and American leagues.
 Charles H. Strub, president Of the San Francisco club of the Pacific Coast league, thinks the minors, in three or four years, can so develop their circuits as to compete on equal terms with the two major leagues.
 The program that the minors must follow 10 achieve this is four fold as Strub sees 1t.
 First, the minors must have some sort Of court of final arbitration. such as is represented now in the person Of kenesaw NJ. Landis, high commissioner of baseball.
 Secondly, the big minors must adopt toward the smaller minors the same attltuQe the majors have in the past in the way of leadership and help.
 Thirdly, the big minors must see that in order 10 protect their own investments, they must offer tinan- cial and material assistance to leagues Of smaller ciassiications.
 Fourth, the minors, particularly the class A circuits, must build themselves up in the next three or four years to the point where they can offer themselves 10 the public a. new major league circuits.
 Struo pointed out that the three class A organizations have far wider distribution than the majors, covering as they do the country from the east coast to the west. He be- lieves that the big minors, by keep Ing their stars instead Of selling them to the majors. can develop within few years to league of ma jor classification. in fact If not in name.
 He added further that it was his belief that the majors, with their stars growing older and no longer replaced by youngsters who used to come in steadily from the class A
 minors. will have dropped so Tn standard of play that they will not be able to compete with the class A teams who will, in the mean time. have hung onto their stars and developed them.
 Most cities represented in the three big minors, he went on, are plenty large enough to support ma Jor league baseball. He hopes eventually to secure worlds series recognition for the three class A organizations, believing the public will come to demand II.
 The majors, on the other hand, perhaps will see to it that certain class 4 leagues are strengthened to A standards and then select these circuits for developing their players, The ma ajors still will be able 10 dralt players from the smaller minors just as they have in the past but the fact remains that most major league ball players have had to have the benet1t Of class A competition before they were ready for the majors.
 The wide open split between the two groups came over the question ot optioning out players for season. ing and the price to be paid for athletes selected in the draft. The majors wanted to be able to draft players who had had four years experience in the minors anywhere. The class A minors insisted they be allowed to hold player thres years regardless Of what previous minor league experience he had had AS for the draft price, the majors offered $500 where sl7,5o0 had been offered at the recent Cleveland conference. The big minors de- clined to accept any sum less than $I0. 900.
 When the conference reached an impasse, the big minors suggested that the whole matter be referred to Commissioner Landis for arbitra- ton and decision but the major league representatives turned down this offer.
 Most observers felt that q. costly baseball war vas in the making with both parties to the dispute sure to suffer financially through in- creased expenses, particularly in the price of aying talent. There were no signs at all that either side would move ona inch from the po- sitions they took at yesterdays con- terence 4 peaceful solution may be found, but 1t does not seem likely.