Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-06
Boxing Indicted Racket Cards and Macks Start Oer Aga
FIGHT GAME HELD TOOL
OF CROOKED POLITICIANS
|Cunmen, BoOtleggers and Vicious Forces Generally
Asserted to Be in Control of Pro Pugilism
and the Men in the Ring.

less than helpful. Upon these commits
sions can be laid much of the RESPONSE
bility for the presence of racksteers in
the game.
Presumably boxing commissioners are
6iSinterested Sportsmen. Actually, in
many States, they are politicians only a
cut above the very confidence men and
scoundrels they are called upon to reg
ulate. And so politics has come to play
a big part in the fight game, and the
result Is that boxing rests even less on
its merits than 1t did in the days when
fans were forced to sneak away to
hargeS and canebrakeS, when the
roughnecks we're avowedly in control.
Certainly. whether or not this is true
in New York State boxing commissions
ever the country as a whole have won
no lsurels for themselves. Politics has
dictated decisions and nullified their
rulings.
The racketeer, the gunman, has po-
who furnishes the repeaters at election
time. the man who intilnidates the hon.
est voters and frightens them from the
polls And usually, too, he is splitting
the proceeds of his larceny with some
outwardly respectable wardheeler.
Take, If you wish, moderately hon.
est politician who has been named a
boxing commissioner. He may wish to
do the right thing, he may wish to
faker, the bad actor, the clown. And
tim the trouble starts.
Subsidized Politicians.
THE boxer controlled by a syndicate
i goes to a politician conveniently
subsidized Money passes. Sud-
denly pressure is brought to bear. The
wardheeler goes to the commissioner,
who eventually will need his support.
The elections are coming on.
The bad actor has been ousted in
definitely, but suddenly the suspension
is rescinded. The boxer goes back in
the lists. His misdeeds have been
charitably pardoned, his defiance con-
doned. He Is simon pure again and the
control of boxing has slipped farther.
Politics has nullified the rulings of that
that the acts of commission are held in
contempt
1t is no secret that the first move of
a manager who brings a ringman into
the big time is to get the support of
some one who knows the ropes. It is
not enough that the manager has an
athlete who packs punch In either
hand, for matches often are not made
on merit First, he must engage him.
self political godfather and divide
with him. percentage of his man.
ager1al control. Then he will get his
matches; there is some one to see that
he does.
Even the honest fighting men must
submit to this tyranny Every foreign
boxer who visits the United States must.
even though he brings his own repre-
sentative, shell back so much of his
pront TO his New York sponsors. A
study OF the records will make this
clear.
Accept ExtortiOn or Quit.
THE thing, however, goes farther
l. than that. Boxers who arrive in
New York from other cities In the
United States must do the same. New
ertheless, they keep rushing in because
the big money Is to be found in New
York. The manager back home in
Sauk Center takes little share of the
geit. but the main share stays in New
York
Recently a good light-heavyweight
leaped back into prominence after many
months in eclipse. He had fought this
extortion for long time, but he found
It meant retirement. Eventually this
is what happened-the manager In the
Far West walked out of the picture and
the light-heayy gave up the ghost. He
signed up with the gunmen's trust and
now ne fights regularly with profit to
himself and his sponsors.
This, then, is the result of the legal
izing of boxing. This is the sport that
red-blooded youth of America must
wonder at and admire. Fights are not
fought on their merits and the honest
man hasn't chance. The best boxer
in the world can't prove it unless he
gets an opportunity to show his wares.
Subsequent articles in this series will
show how the racket now is worked,
how championships are bought and
sold. how the supergovernment of the
racketeers has not only put the price
on our liquor, our milk. out meat and
out cabs, but has taken over a great
sport and made 1t fake and a fraud.
Copyright, 1880, by North American News
paper Alliance.)
(Tomorrow's article will show how
the gunner function and will cite two
apfffai matches fV1