Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 132, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 June 1918 — MOGULS LACKING IN ENTHUSIASM IN WAR [ARTICLE]

MOGULS LACKING IN ENTHUSIASM IN WAR

; Captain Huston Raps Owners of; Major League Clubs. 11 ■— ■. ■■ * Baseball Paying Too Much Attention to Dollar* and Cent*—lt Wa* Boaa of Yankee* Who Suggested Drilling of Player*. Capt. T. L. Huston’s scathing .arraignment of big league baseball men for what he calls a lack of interest to the proper extent in the war, may be traced, to a large extent, to the statement given out by Captain Huston, almost a year ago. At that time Captain Huston was in a training camp near Detroit, Mich., he hammered the Interview out on a small typewriter while he sat on a camp stool in a tent. It was the part owner of the Yankees who suggested the idea of drilling American league ball players, which Was gobbled up by Ban Johnson, president of the league, so quickly that Ban was given the publicity that went with it. The fact that Captain Huston was the originator was lost sight of in the praise for Johnson. Seeing into the future, and outlining forthcoming difficulties for baseball, Captain Huston suggested in this statement that drilling be prolonged in the American league by having the accomplished men in the clubs drill companies of fans who would act a* a sort of home guard in case of need.' In this manner. Captain Huston pointed out, there would be some good from the drills so patriotically paraded before the fans last summer Instead of taking up Captain Huston’s suggestion Johnson and his colleagues ignored It to such an extent that it has now been dropped from the league. There will be no drilling at all this summer in the American Jeague. Captain Huston’s missionary work in the American league has gone for naught, which may account for some of the bitterness his letter from the land of fire and brimstone carries. Captain Huston points out a grave and forceful fact: That baseball is paying too much attention to the dollars and cents of business, rather than to the business of exerting everything in the Interest of the war. The American public is patiently standing for It, but whether it will continue to do so is a qustioon. The action of the magnates in raising admission fees above the cost of the war tax will not serve to make the public more patient.