Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Black Sox Scandal

2009-05-13T02:05:17Z

Telegraph: /* References */

[[Image:Whitesoxteam1919.jpg|thumb|350px|right|The Chicago White Sox, September 26, 1919.]]
The '''Black Sox Scandal''' was an event centered around the 1919 [[World Series]] between the Chicago White Sox of the American League and the Cincinnati Reds of the National League, in which eight baseball players of the Chicago team conspired with gamblers to intentionally "throw" (or lose) the Series. The fallout from the scandal caused the owners of individual teams to create a powerful commissioner of baseball in Judge [[Kenesaw Mountain Landis]], who's first step at reforming baseball was to ban the players involved in the fix for life.

==Prelude==
[[Image:CharlesComiskey.jpg|thumb|150px|right|Charles Comiskey, owner of the White Sox.]]
[[Charles Comiskey]] was a former big league player for various teams in baseball until he became the owner of the White Sox in the American League from 1900 to 1931. As the owner, he led the White Sox to five A.L. championships, and the World Series of 1919 promised to be the best year in baseball, as he boasted about having the best team on any field.

But Comiskey was a miser, and notorious for it. His players were among the lowest-paid in the league, and being subject to the "reserve clause" they could do nothing about it. He even forced his players to do their own laundry, as he wouldn't hire extra help to deal with the player's uniforms. The players responded for several weeks in 1919 by wearing their filthy uniforms on the field; the eventual buildup of the dirt, sweat, and grime turned their once-white uniforms to a dark shade of gray in places, resulting in the nickname of "Black Sox" being bestowed on them before the scandal took place (Comiskey had the uniforms removed from the lockers and the players fined for the infraction [http://www.chicagohs.org/history/blacksox/blk1a.html]).

Interest in baseball was low as a result of American involvement in World War I, but climbed considerably at war's end, so much so that baseball owners decided upon a best-of-nine format instead of the traditional seven games for the 1919 World Series. Interest in the betting on baseball also climbed as well; gamblers had for years hung around the parks betting on individual games while the occasional rumor circulated that a player was supplementing his income by throwing games. Comiskey, aware of the rumors, posted signs at his park banning gambling, but had failed to see the other signs pointing to the resentment against him and the tempting offers of high rewards from gamblers. [http://www.chicagohs.org/history/blacksox/blk2.html]

==The Fix==
The majority of accounts and sources indicate that the fix was started by first baseman Chick Gandil wanting to get even with Comiskey; he allegedly talked to pitcher Ed Cicotte about throwing the World Series. They in turn had approached former ball player William T. "Sleepy Bill" Burns, who had connections to gamblers, and Billy Maharg, who had connections to gamblers at the underground level. Eventually the cost to throw the game would be $100,000 split between the players, with [[Arnold Rothstein]], a man who had connections to organized crime, to provide the funding. [http://www.mc.cc.md.us/Departments/hpolscrv/blacksox.htm] According to author Eliot Asinof, Cicotte also had personal reasons for the fix: he was promised a $10,000 bonus in his contract for getting 30 regular season wins, but was benched by Comiskey soon after his 29th, allegedly to avoid paying it.

====The eight players====
[[Image:Blacksoxeight.JPG|thumb|250px|right|''Top row, left to right'': Eddie Cicotte; Chick Gandil; Lefty Williams; Happy Felsch. ''Bottom row, left to right'': Swede Risberg; Buck Weaver; Shoeless Joe Jackson; Fred McMullin.]]
* Eddie Cicotte, pitcher.
* Arnold "Chick" Gandil, first baseman.
* Claude "Lefty" Williams, pitcher.
* Oscar "Happy" Felsch, centerfielder.
* Charles "Swede" Risberg, shortstop.
* George "Buck" Weaver, third baseman.
* Joseph Jefferson "Shoeless Joe" Jackson, leftfielder.
* Fred McMullin, utilityman.
Of the players, McMillan overheard conversations regarding the fix and wanted in, making a threat to inform Comiskey if he wasn't. Weaver sat in on details of the fix but did not participate in it at all. Cicotte asked for, and received, $10,000 up front, finding it in his hotel room the night of Game 1.

Joseph Jefferson Jackson was considered by many to have been the greatest ball player of his time, with a third-highest batting average of .356; his .400 average in his first year of professional baseball was the highest for a rookie. His special bat was hand-made from a plank of hickory nearly four feet long, and stained black from various coatings of tobacco juice. [[Babe Ruth]] was said to have modeled his own power hitting on Jackson who, he said, "had a special crack to it." Shoeless Joe was discovered in the minor leagues playing one game in his socks because his new cleats were too tight; a fan shouting an offensive epithet would give him his nickname.

==The World Series==
The 1919 World Series began October 1, 1919, in Cincinanati's Redland Field, and the pre-arranged signal to the gamblers that the fix was on was when Cicotte hit Reds batter Morrie Rath in the back with a fast ball at the bottom of the first inning. From that point on, play was sporadic with the Chicago players, as the players involved would play well one moment, and play badly the next. This would frustrate the honest players not involved with the fix; during Game 9 a fly ball successfully fielded by Jackson was thrown to home, but Cicotte on the mound intercepted it, allowing it to deflect from his glove, resulting in a Reds score and an error for Cicotte. Rumors also were rampant regarding bets placed. Before the Series had opened, Chicago was heavily-favored, but by the end of September, large amounts of money were changing hands as bets were cast in Cincinnati's favor by five-to-one odds.

By the beginning of Game 2, only Cicotte had got his money. The other players began to grumble about not being paid, and more so by the end of Game 3. Gandil received a mere $1,000 and distributed it among the players; Jackson would eventually be given $5,000. Halfway through the Series, the players, having realized they were being hoodwinked by the gamblers, played like they were going to win, but the damage had been done. Cincinnati won the Series by October 9, 5 games to 3.

==Trial==
[[Image:Blacksoxtrial.jpg|thumb|250px|right|The players in court are all smiles after their acquittal on August 3, 1921. Seated starting second from left are: Joe Jackson, Buck Weaver, Eddie Cicotte, Swede Risberg, Lefty Williams, Chick Gandil.]]
[[Image:Landis.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Kenesaw Mountain Landis]]

In September 1920, has rumors piled up regarding the fixing of baseball games in general, and the 1919 World Series in particular, a grand jury was convened in Chicago to investigate. Both Jackson and Cicotte would confess, causing Comiskey to suspend the seven players of the fix still on his team (Gandil was already out of the majors). Their confessions, a key part of the trial, vanished from the Cook County Courthouse before the trial opened in June, 1921. Without the confessions, as well as a lack of evidence, all eight were acquitted on August 3.

Before the trial was even underway, baseball team owners got together to create a baseball commisioner, who would oversea baseball's integrity and restore public confidence in the sport. As new commisioner they chose a retired judge, Kenesaw Mountain Landis [http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/hofer_bios/landis_kenesaw.htm], a no-nonsense jurist who once sent an old man to 16 years in prison for robbery. "Judge, I ain't got that much time left," the man protested. "Well, do the best you can," Landis replied.

On August 4, 1921, the day after the verdict in the Black Sox trial, and using the unlimited power granted to him by the owners, Landis set about correcting baseball's image, and the first act he did was public, decisive, and uncompromising:

:''Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player who throws a ball game, no player who undertakes or promises to throw a ball game, no player who sits in confidence with a bunch of crooked gamblers and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball.''

All eight players were banned for life. Subsequent letters protesting innocence and asking for reinstatement went unheeded, even Buck Weaver, whose guilt in the matter was very much in doubt, sent letters to the next six commissioners; each time he was turned down. "I had Weaver in my office," Landis said, "and I asked him if he sat in on the meetings." Weaver replied that he did, but that he never took part in the fix, stating that he played the best baseball he could. Analysis of baseball records indicate that he indeed did do just that. [http://www.blackbetsy.com/1919ws.htm] But Landis would not compromise. "Son, you can't play ball with us anymore."

Seven of the eight players would find life in the minors, either in outlaw baseball or under assumed names, and taking ordinary, unassuming jobs after they were physically unable to play the game. Being banned from baseball meant that one of them, Jackson, whose guilt was also in doubt, would not be eligible for the Hall of Fame, as many of his records still stand.
Like Weaver, baseball historians still dispute as to whether Jackson was or was not part of the actual fix. In the Series he was 12-for-32 with a .375 batting average, with 5 runs, 3 doubles, 1 home run and 6 RBI.

Charles Comiskey died in 1931. Four years after the trial was over, the missing confessions turned up in the office of Comiskey's lawyer; no one knows how they got there. Comiskey has had two baseball parks built for his team named after him, and he also has a plaque of honor in the Baseball Hall of Fame. [http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/hofer_bios/Comiskey_Charlie.htm]

==References==
*Asinof, Eliot. ''Eight Men Out'', Henry Holt, New York (1963).
*Pietrusza, David ''Rothstein: The Life, Times and Murder of the Criminal Genius who Fixed the 1919 World Series'', Carroll & Graf, New York (2004).

==Links==
*[http://www.chicagohs.org/history/blacksox.html Chicago Historical Association on the Black Sox]
*[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/blacksox/blacksox.html Famous American Trials article on the Black Sox, from the University of Missouri-Kansas City]
*[http://www.1919blacksox.com/ 1919 Black Sox.com]
*[http://www.blackbetsy.com/joepics3.htm Selection of photos from 1919 Chicago White Sox and Joe Jackson]

[[Category:Baseball]]
[[Category:Crime]]

Calvin Coolidge

2009-05-13T02:02:19Z

Telegraph: /* Bibliography */

{{President|
|name=John Calvin Coolidge Jr.
|image=460px-Calvin Coolidge photo portrait head and shoulders.jpg
|country=the United States
|seq=30
|party=Republican
|term_start=August 2, 1923
|term_end=March 4, 1929<ref>http://home.comcast.net/~sharonday7/Presidents/AP060301.htm</ref>
|vp=None
|vp_dates=1923-1925
|2vp=Charles G.Dawes
|2vp_dates=1925-1929
|previous=Warren G. Harding
|next=Herbert Hoover
|seq2=29
|office2=vice
|term_start2=March 4, 1921
|term_end2=August 2, 1923
|pres2=Warren G. Harding
|previous2=Thomas R. Marshall
|next2=Charles G. Dawes
|birth_date=July 4, 1872
|birth_place=Plymouth, Vermont
|death_date=January 5, 1933
|death_place=Northampton, Massachusetts
|spouse=Grace Goodhue Coolidge
|spouse2=
|religion=Congregationalist
}}

'''Calvin Coolidge''' was the 30th [[President of the United States of America]] from 1923 to 1929, an era of peace and prosperity. He was elected Vice President in 1920 as a [[Republican Party|Republican]] and took office in August 1923 upon the death of President [[Warren G. Harding]]; he was reelected by a landslide in 1924, but in 1928 at the peak of his popularity he announced in typical laconical fashion that he did not choose to run again.

==Early Career==
Coolidge was born in Plymouth, Vermont, July 4, 1872, the son of John and Victoria Moor Coolidge. Both parents were Yankees; his ancestors came from England to New England in the early seventeenth century. Coolidge's father was a farmer and a successful country storekeeper who dabbled in local and state politics. Young Calvin was educated in the local school and later at Black River and St. Johnsbury academies. In 1891 he entered [[Amherst College]] in Massachusetts, where he showed an interest in philosophy. Reserved and reticent, he did not mix readily with his fellows. In his senior year, however, he was selected as class speaker.
==Early Public Life==
After his graduation in 1895 Coolidge studied law, was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1897, and began to practice in the city of Northampton, where he became active in local GOP politics. In 1898 he was elected to the common council. Thereafter he was seldom out of public office. He was elected to the Massachusetts General Court (legislature) in 1907. After two terms he was elected mayor of Northampton and then was elected to the state senate; during 1914-1915 he was president of that body. He had also served as chairman of the Republican State Committee, and he spent three terms as lieutenant governor of the state.

In 1905 Coolidge married Grace Anna Goodhue of Burlington, Vt. The couple had two sons, John and Calvin, the younger of whom, Calvin, died on July 7, 1924, from blood poisoning.

==Governor and Vice President==
When Governor Samuel W. McCall retired in 1918, Coolidge became the unanimous choice of the Republican Party for the governorship; he was elected and took office in January 1919. As governor, Coolidge made no radical innovations nor did he sponsor a legislative program. A conservative, he devoted himself to a program of economy in government. The Boston police strike, and his handling of it, first brought him to national attention. On Sept. 9, 1919, the police struck in protest against the police commissioner's refusal to permit them to join an American Federation of Labor union. Immediately there were riots and disorder. After some urging Governor Coolidge called out the state guard to preserve order and personally took charge. The governor answered Samuel Gompers' objections to his actions with the statement: "There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, at any time." The statement received nationwide publicity. After the nomination of Warren G. Harding by the Republican national convention in 1920, the members of the convention rebelled against the dominant senatorial clique. They nominated Coolidge for second place on the ticket after his name had been presented by a comparatively unknown delegate. Coolidge was elected along with Harding in 1920 and became president on Aug. 2, 1923, when Harding died of natural causes. Coolidge was at his father's house in Vermont when the momentous news arrived. His father, a notary public, administered the oath of office.

==Presidency==
The elections in 1922 had reduced the party's numbers in Congress to a scant majority. Moreover, the scandals connected with the Harding administration were in the process of being made public by a congressional committee. Yet, a little over a year later, Coolidge was elected for another term by a landslide over both [[John W. Davis]], [[U.S. Democratic Party, History|Democrat]], and [[Robert M. LaFollette]], Progressive. Davis got 29% of the popular vote, carrying the South from Virginia to Texas, and 136 electoral votes, LaFollette carried Wisconsin and many German and railroad centers, but Coolidge won easily with 382 electoral votes. Four years later, when he left office, his party was in a much stronger position than it had been in 1924.

Felzenberg (19978) shows that Coolidge battled intolerance, lynching and especially the [[Ku Klux Klan]], which lost all its influence during his term.

In 1924 he appointed a commission to investigate the circumstances of the Teapot Dome oil lease, a scandal inherited from the Harding administration. By focusing all the blame on Harding, he permanently tarnished Harding's name and promoted himself.
===Economic policies===
Coolidge famously said, "The business of America is business."

The Coolidge policy was a simple one, made easier by the continuous prosperity and the weakness of the liberal opposition. He believed in government economy, reduced taxation, and gave aid to private business without accompanying restrictive regulation. In 1927 he vetoed the soldiers' bonus bill. Coolidge opposed any government control in interstate electrical power and was against the proposal for government operation of the Wilson Dam at Muscle Shoals on the Tennessee River; in 1933 it became part of the [[New Deal]]'s [[TVA]].

Throughout the farming regions of the traditionally Republican Middle West loud complaints were heard about the farm crisis. It was characterized by low prices for crops and the overhang of the land bubble that burst in 1920, leaving many farmers deeply in debt for new lands they purchased at high price during the war. The farmers wanted the federal government to intervene in the market, by buying crops at high prices and dumping them abroad cheaply. Congress passed the legislation, known as the and the [[McNary-Haugen Bill]], a farm relief bill, but Coolidge vetoed it. He supported the alternative program of Hoover and Jardine to modernize farming, by bringing in more electricity, more efficient equipment, better seeds and breeds, and better business practices.
===Foreign Affairs===
In the realm of foreign affairs the president urged the nation to become a member of the World Court, but the bill authorizing it was hedged with so many qualifications that the other member nations refused to admit the United States. Under the direction of Secretary of the Treasury [[Andrew W. Mellon]], plans for the payment of foreign government debts to the United States were negotiated and approved. During the Coolidge administration the Kellogg-Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of national policy, was signed by most of the important nations of the world. The appointment of Dwight W. Morrow as ambassador to Mexico did much to restore good relations with that country, although the policy pursued elsewhere in Latin America in the interest of American investors helped maintain the Latin-American distrust of their northern neighbor.
===Evaluations===
In the short view, the Coolidge administration was a preeminently successful one. Income taxes and corporate taxes were greatly reduced, a major part of the national debt was retired, and the nation experienced some of the most prosperous years in its history. The Coolidge policies were in part responsible for these benefits, but some hostile historians claim they were probably responsible, in part, for the great depression that followed.

Coolidge's image was to a degree shaped by Madison Avenue. Buckley (2003) reveals the role of advertising giant [[Bruce Barton]] in the remaking of the public persona or image of Coolidge during 1919-26 and, in so doing, guiding a dramatic shift in politics and the wide acceptance of consumer culture. The dominance of the political party bosses, who selected Harding in 1920, ended when the business elite wrested control from the party, using their ability to raise money for advertising and ultimately commodifying the political process. Members of this elite suggested that Barton refashion Coolidge from an aloof man driven by the advancement of his career into a voice of the masses, the "silent majority," which Barton accomplished with press coverage, exploiting the new technology of radio for political speeches, newsreels, an exclusive "spontaneous" interview with Coolidge, and by arranging events that would be covered free, as news. Coolidge's election to the presidency in 1924 was the first campaign of personality, in which style was promoted over substance, tapping into "intense private longings" of a public uncertain of its moorings in a rapidly modernizing society. Gilbert (2003) and Gilbert (2005) argues that Coolidge suffered from clinical depression throughout his life. Gilbert discusses the major symptoms of the disorder as evidenced in Coolidge's personal and political behavior. He exhibited symptoms from a very early age, beginning with his grandfather's death when he was six and again with the deaths of his mother and sister during his adolescence. Ascending to the presidency in 1923, Coolidge at first was diligent, effective, and respectful of others. After the death of his teenage son in 1924, however, his demeanor and degree of political engagement changed drastically. He developed hypersomnia, sleeping as much as 15 hours per day, and he began to treat White House staffers and his wife rudely, often publicly humiliating them. Moreover, he became far less effective as a decision-maker and grew increasingly detached from political issues.

==Silent Cal==
A woman once told Coolidge that she had bet someone that she could get him to say more than two words. He told her, "You lose."
===Retirement===
In the summer of 1927 Coolidge made the statement, "I do not chose to run for president in 1928." He did not indicate his choice of his successor. Coolidge left the White House on Mar. 4, 1929, amid the acclaim of the nation. Returning to Northampton, he published his autobiography and wrote articles for newspapers and periodicals. These and his business activities kept him engaged until his death on Jan. 5, 1933, in the midst of the [[Great Depression]].

==Quotes==
*"Nothing is easier than spending the public money. It doesn't appear to belong to anybody."
==Bibliography==
* Buckley, Kerry W. "'A President for the "Great Silent Majority': Bruce Barton's Construction of Calvin Coolidge." ''New England Quarterly'' 2003 76(4): 593-626. Issn: 0028-4866 Fulltext: in Jstor
* Felzenberg, Alvin S. "Calvin Coolidge and Race: His Record in Dealing with the Racial Tensions of the 1920s." ''New England Journal of History'' 1998 55(1): 83-96.
* Ferrell, Robert H. ''The Presidency of Calvin Coolidge.'' U. Press of Kansas, 1998. 244 pp. The standard scholarly study.
* Gilbert, Robert E. "Calvin Coolidge's Tragic Presidency: the Political Effects of Bereavement and Depression." ''Journal of American Studies'' 2005 39(1): 87-109. Issn: 0021-8758 Fulltext: in Cambridge and Swetswise
* Gilbert, Robert E. ''The Tormented President: Calvin Coolidge, Death, and Clinical Depression.'' Praeger, 2003. 288pp
* Greenberg, David. ''Calvin Coolidge'' (2006), short biography. [http://www.amazon.com/Calvin-Coolidge-David-Greenberg/dp/0805069577/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1194420081&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Haynes, John Earl, ed. ''Calvin Coolidge and the Coolidge Era: Essays on the History of the 1920s.'' Library of Congress, 1998. 329 pp. essays by scholars
* McCoy, Donald R. ''Calvin Coolidge: A Biography'' (1967), 447pp, the standard scholarly biography
* Pietrusza, David (ed.) ''Silent Cal's Almanack: The Homespun Wit and Wisdom of Vermont's Calvin Coolidge'' createspace: 2008.
* William Allen White; ''A Puritan in Babylon: The Story of Calvin Coolidge,'' (1938) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=1105748 online edition]

===Primary sources===
* Calvin Coolidge. ''The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge'' (1929), [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=82302633 online edition]
* Howard H. Quint and Robert H. Ferrell, eds. ''The Talkative President: The Off-The-Record Press Conferences of Calvin Coolidge,'' (1964), 276pp [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=77365439 online edition]

==External Sources==
*[http://www.millercenter.virginia.edu/academic/americanpresident/coolidge excellent essays & documents from Miller Center U Virginia]]

====notes====
<small><references/></small>

{{USPresidents}}
{{USVicePresidents}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coolidge, Calvin}}

[[Category:Republican Party]]
[[Category:United States History]]
[[Category:1920s]]
[[Category:Conservatives]]
[[Category:Massachusetts Governors]]