Page:America's National Game (1911).djvu/241

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AMERICA'S NATIONAL GAME
211

violate their legal contracts. He showed that the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players had been either unable or unwilling to correct the abuses, in either of which events it was unfit for further control of the game. He closed his remarks by producing a constitution which we had prepared in advance for adoption by a new organization, to be then and there formed under the title of "The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs." Section II. of this constitution declared the objects of the new League in the following unmistakable language:

First—To encourage, foster and elevate the game of Base Ball.

Second—To enact and enforce proper rules for the exhibition and conduct of the game.

Third—To make Base Ball playing respectable and honorable.

When Mr. Hulbert had finished, if there had been any fight in his auditors when he locked the door it had entirely oozed away. A Quaker prayer meeting could not have been more decorous than the proceedings from that time until the adjournment which soon followed.

Mr. Hulbert magnificently dominated the whole situation. The new man from the West had risen supreme and was absolute monarch in that assemblage. His "mailed fist" was strong enough to brush away any opposition that might manifest itself; but there was no opposition in sight. Mr. Hulbert nominated Mr. Morgan G. Bulkeley, of Hartford, as the first President of the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs, and