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Show to i;u,vm.)ii lose Ward Says Injunctions Won't Stop the Players' League. WHAT HE BUILDS ITS HOPES ON. W. L Harris Presents the Arguments ol the Brotherhood Men and Tells Why They Expect Their Flan to Yield Handsome Hand-some Salaries to Players and Good Profits to Dackers. "Win or lose," says John M, Ward, "tlis riayers' league will go ahead In 1890." Mr. Ward referred to the great injunction injunc-tion suit, the decision of which is now pending. pend-ing. What he meant was that the new league would start with or without the men who played last season with the National league. The presumption is that should Jt be without them they would oome to the Players' Play-ers' league in 1391. If this decision on the part of the lenders of the Brotherhood league, as announced by Mr. Ward, is honest, it indicates a confidence in the success of the now movement, not only em the part of the players, but on the part of the backers as well, that is remarkable in view of their owu arguments, upon which they base their chance (or success. ; This letter is for the purpose ot presenting the main point upon which the1 Brotherhood depend for success in tho battle with their old employers, if they make it. It is written at the request of several correspondents, who have asked me to give a resume of the Brotherhood Broth-erhood side ot the question. ' The players are sanguine of success, and so sire the gentlemen who are aiding them with money. They believe that ball players draw the public like star actors by their individu-, individu-, ality more than by the merits ot the game which they present. 1 hoy argue tnac me oasetMUi patrons uo not cars a picayune for A. (. Spalding, A. H. Bodra, John B. Day and other baseball elub owners. They believe that tbe players of the National league and certain stars of tbe American association, as being the most nkilkid men in the profession, will draw the public to the exclusion of any teams that can be organized by the said A. O. Spalding, A. H. Soden, J. B. Day and others. They believe be-lieve that it will take the old League so long to educate men to take their places and they will have lost so much money In the operation opera-tion that the old League will retire from the business m disgust, leaving the field clear tor the Flayers' league. It is this abiding faith of the players that they are tbe attraction individually which forms tbe basis of their hope of snccess. The players at the start counted very largely large-ly upon toe sympathy of the pnblio in the treatment they have heretofore received from the magnates. During the pact two months this position has been directly vacated, va-cated, although indirectly they expect that sympathy for them will prove a big factor in their sucons, and their supporters and agents have been engaged in getting labor organizations to express this sympathy now by resolutions, and tbey expect that the laboring la-boring men everywhere will expreas their sympathy in the summer by hard cash in the form of fifty cent admission fees. . The Brotherhood men justify their secession seces-sion on the ground that the National loague has taken advantage of them for years and bused them by oppressive rules, and in a majority of casos by forcing them to play for salaries inadequate to the measure their ability and the profits derived from the game. And as a final clincher tbey bring forth the maxim that every man bas a right to go into business for himself whenever he desires to do so. The players think that the arrangements for distrlbntioB of 'profits and the chance it holds out for them to share in the product of their labor will cause them to play such fine ball that no opposition can, by any possibility, possibil-ity, touch them, and hence they will attract all of tho patronage that always goes where tbe best ball is played, and this class, together with personal admirers and sympathizers, will make the game a mint. , Theprcwpect for the player is an alluring one if all these rosy calculations come out right. The first fli.SOO of profit over and above all expenses will go to a prize fund ot $20,000, from which the players ot the leading lead-ing teams will draw down a share. Indeed, it is understood that each team will get something some-thing out of this purse. Then the surplus of profits over (13,000 in each club will go into a general pool, to be divided equally among tbe 120 or so players of the league. It will be seen that should this fund amount to $12,000, each player would get about $100, and that if it should amount to 180,000 each player would get $500. Then the players who are stockholders will get a splendid thing out ol it in case of moderate success, even if tho other players should get nothing at alL For instance, Ed Hanlon bas $4,000 in stock invested in-vested in the Pittsburg Brotherhood club. Bhould that organization make $13,500 in profits, $3,&00 would go to the prize fund, and the balance being divided among the stockholders, Hanlon would get $2,000 as his hare, which added to his port of whatever prize money this team might get, his sabwy of $3,500 and his share of the players' pool in vent of suocess would give him a pretty good thing. , It will be seen that the player stockholder! would have a snap even with moderate success, suc-cess, while in the event of a great success all the players would got something besides their salary. These are the inducements that have influenced in-fluenced the player to "go into business for liimselt" tho well to do players because they could be stockholders and double profit sharers, the impruvidont players because they might contingently be profit sharers; and even it they were not, they would rather see the well to do players get the profits than i those whom once Ward told me all ball players play-ers considered "their natural enemies," meaning, of course, tbe magnates who have controlled baseball for the last fourteen years. The Brotherhood men argue that the deserters de-serters who have left their ranks will not be of any value to the league, because that small section of the publio patrons of the sport who may attend tho gomes of the old Xeague will detest them, aud will so deride and taunt the men who have returned to the power of the magnates that they will be uu-. uu-. able to play good ball. They argue also that the action of these men will forfeit by their desertion of the Brotherhood the popularity they have earned by skillful playing in tbe past. - , In fine, tbe Brotherhood players argue and believe that tho alleged public disliko of the magnates, the publio admiration for the - players individually and collectively, the great skill of these players, the public sympathy sym-pathy tor them and detestation of back--sliders, combined with tbe inferiority of tbe teams that will form tbe opposition, will tuoka the Players' league a glorious success. Personally I believe most of these arguments argu-ments to be fallacious, but I have tried to oblige my correspondents as fully and fairly M the imits space would permit. V. I. Habjus. 1 There have been landed at Granton by tbe Danish mail steamer Laura, from Iceland, 223 cases and casks containing over 7,500 braces of Iceland ptarmigan, which are really white grouse, valued only at $1,300. During the severe snow ttorms of winter the ptarmigan coma down from the mountainous regions of Iceland to the seacoast in quest of food, where they fall easy victims to the huntsman's hunts-man's gun. |