The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-07-17
RULES DO NOT PREVENT HIRING;
 DUROCHER QUIZ
Time to Make Statement Says Czar of Nations
 Great Game

NlAOdSOp OuAy 4S.-NOEJ-0dSeUdll commissioner Kenesaw M. Landis said today that there was no rule against Major League Clubs hiring negro baseball players.
 Landis' statement was issued after he had questioned Leo Durocher, manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, about a story in the New York Daily Worker. The story quoted Durochcr as saying he would hire negro players if he were permitted.
 BIowOff
 Durocher was said to have denied making the statement After the conference Landis said certain managers" had been quoted as say ing that "the reason negroes are not playing in organized baseball is that the commissioner would not permit them to do so."
 T have come to the conclusion that it is time for me to express myself on this important issue" Landis said. Negroes are not barred from organized baseball by the commissioner and never have been during the 21 years I have served as commissioner.
 Up To Owners
 ''There is no rule in organized baseball prohibiting their participa- tion and never has been to my knowledge. If Durocher, any other manager or all of them, want to sign one or 25 Negro players, it is all right with me. That is the busi- ness of the managers and the club owners. The business of the com missioner is to interpret the rules and enforce them."
 DurOchcr Denies
 Chicago, July 16. Organized baseball has no bar against colored players, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis declared today.
 The Judge spoke of baseballs open-door policy after Dodger Manager Leo Duroch9r had been called down to his office this morn ing to explain Daily Worker article. He was quoted as saying he would hire colored players "only they are barred by oWn2rs." Duro- cher, passing up breakfast to hurry to the judges office, denied having made any such remark.
 Later, at WrigIey Field, Landis told reporters he had informed
 Durocher there was no ban against colOred players, either by rule or by agreement or by sub
 terfuge.
 "A manager" said Landis, "can have one or 25 colored men if he cares to-"
 Almost at the moment that Landis was being interviewed in his third-baSe box, the Wrigley field public address system was an- nouncing that Satchel Paige Day will be observed July 18th. Paige is one of the most ballyhooed of colored stars A veteran now, he was once considered good enough to have pitched in the major leagues. His team, the Kansas City Monarchs, will meet the Memphis Red Sox in a double l 1lCdQCA OLl LID Qdy.
 No Understanding" Chicago, July 16-Judge K. M Landis, Commissioner of Baseball, uchemently denied today that there was any "Rule, formal or informal, or any understanding. unwritten. subterranean or sub-anything" against the hiring of Negro ball players in the ranks of organized baseball
 Leo Durocher, manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, had been called | to the commissioner office today, the Judge revealed to interviewers during the Dodgers-Cubs double header at Wrigley Field, to answer statement credited to him in The Daily Worker Durocher was SUD- posed to have said that he knew of several Negro players he would sign for his ball club if Negroes were permitted to play major league ball. He denied having made any such statement.
 Durocher was told then and base ball reporters later that there is no rule in the books of baseball and no understanding among club owncrs which would bar the Negro from becoming a member of 8 major league team.
 T told Durocher," the commits sioner said, ."that he could hire one Negro or twenty-five Negro ball players just the same as the whites. :"