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Show At 33 Years of Age, Max Schmeling Scarcely Looks Like Title Contender By BILL CORl'M International News Sports Writer NEW YORK. Psb. Max Schmeling Schme-ling la in New York on hie twentieth trip to the United States, planning, he says, to stay 14 days on a "visit to friends and a brother who Uvea in New Jersey." Of all his trips this. Tm sure. Is the "most strained and unhappy. That's too bad. It should be that the more often a fellow came the more welcome he would be. the more at home be would feel. If this were strictly n sports trip, I'm happy to think It would be so. For sports la almost the last stronghold against prejudice and suspicion a little Island In a sea of Intrigue and misunderstanding In which we take a man strictly on a basis of what we can do In his chosen field. Goad Right Hand Max Schmeling la a quiet, pleasant, pleas-ant, decent, upstanding fellow, who could fight pretty well, not terrifically. terrific-ally. I do not believe that he ever was a great heavyweight. But he could clip you with that right hand, and he was smarter than most. ws are not deeply concerned whether he lives in Detroit or Berlin. Now, I don't believe Schmeling haa even a vague idea of aver tackling tack-ling Louis again. Right out of the book he haa tha best claim to tha challenger's toga, since he beat Joe quite as decisively, If not as quickly, as Joe beat him. Still I could detect nothing In Max's attitude or conversation that indicated a keenness for It. Hs wouldn't even admit that he wanted want-ed it. But Sflkm-lln. Inl.UI.. - At I'm not sure what Schmeling Is doing In the United States Just now. But please don't believe that he came to visit friends, as hs told ship nsws reporters. Or that he came to get a fight, as hs Intimated to us sports scribblers. Neither is the real re neon. If he had come to visit friends, ths friends would be somewhere in evidence on the first night after he landed, wouldn't they? He'a Almost Alone I have just come from a long visit in hie hotel apartment, and there were only four of us present. Schmeling. Schme-ling. himself; Max Machon, his trusted friend and real manager throughout his campaign in this country; Bob- Considine, Ihe sports writer, and your obedient servant, another sports writer. Only once while we were there did the phone ring, the call coming from Eddie Walker, a handyman around the fight racket. So Max did not come to the United Btatea to visit frlsnds, and in the Interest of frankness and honesty, thsre might aa vell be a general agreement agree-ment on that score. Rematch Doubtful As for hia coming here to arrange a fight . . , well, there'a only one prlsefight In the world that means 1 anything to Max, and that is a 'third, and rubber, match with Joe 'Louis. Another shot at ths championship cham-pionship of the world, which is relatively rela-tively unimportant on this side of the ocean. But, apparently, a tremendous tre-mendous thing in Csrmany. Which la easy to undsrstand. The heavyweight heavy-weight crown was new there when Max so proudly wore It home. A nation can get to take championships champion-ships aa much a matter of course, aa It takes other commonplace I things. And that's something I I don't think European countries, and I possibly Europeans, svsr have quite understood about us. I Presidsnt Roosevelt and congress are almost totally disinterested in the heavyweight championship of the world. As a matter of fact, a lot of congressmen probably still think that John L. Sullivan is ths head man. ! I mean that, for all our faults, we I Americans aren't very narrow. So long aa the beat man wins fairly, slon of another Louis match by Insisting In-sisting that hs would have to have at least two warm-up bouts to convince con-vince himself , that he wasn't through. "And if you lost one of 'em, or your ehowing didn't satisfy you. you wouldn't want to fight Louis again?" asked the Interviewer. "No." said Max. "If I am at the end. then that settles It. Why should I fight him If I am too old to fight?" He's tS Years Old There Is only one answer to that, and 1 am pretty sure that deep Inside In-side him Herr Max knows it. He Is an old fighter now. Thirty-three years old, hs says. - And Max's years are beginning to show in bis face and figure, whether wheth-er or not he cares to admit it. There are wrinkles of fat ovar his collar and the heavy set of maturity about his frame. He is also worried. About what, I wouldn't presume to say. So Schmeling Is not here to make a match, or matches. It's doubtful if he really wants any. He might pretend to. I didn't ask him, his personal business being his own, but my guess Is that he came here to collect money due him from the pictures of his last fight with Louis. These weren't particularly valuable In Germany. Trouble at Home? Max made a small fortune ovar there with the films of the first fight. The films of ths second fight have done fairly well on this sids, and ths chancee are that there is something due the hsrr from them. When, and if, he gets it, I think he will return almost Immediately to Germany. Nor do I believe he ever will be here again in tha role of a fighter. He made IS fights in this country and the last wsa ths unluckiest. My gussa Is that It really was the last. Hs denlss rumors of troubls with nsii authorities, but is not too convincing. con-vincing. My hunch is that Max will be going home to a battle more destructives, more dsngerous, more lasting, than any Joe Louis ever has started. Let ui all deeply hope not, but let us not be too sure. |