ASKS NEWSPAPER WRITERS TO SELECT THE

REFEREE

--------------

     Weather indications in fightville: Growing more cloudy with continued storms.

     No referee has been agreed upon for the Welsh-Wolgast fight.

     Yesterday brought forth only a wall from Freddie welsh who wants his manager to come down from San Francisco and get on the job so he can train in peace.

     Baron Long, Freddie’s manager, wired that he couldn’t possibly come down, but suggested that a committee of three Los Angeles sporting writers be allowed to name the referee and then sit as a jury on the decision of said referee.

     Meanwhile Tom Jones yesterday morning with Jim Jefferies and an automobile party on the big coyote hunt.  Before leaving he said that there was no change in the situation and that no change would be possible.

     “The articles name Jack Welch as referee,” he said. “And Jack Welch will be the referee or there won’t be any fight.  That’s all there is to it.”

     It was announced yesterday afternoon, however, that, upon Jones’s return, there will be a big conference at McCarey’s at which all parties to the row will be present.

     As Jones is not expected back until late tonight and as the Rivers-Conley fight takes place tomorrow, the conference will very likely be postponed until late Saturday afternoon.

     Indications are that Freddie’s manager will not be present at the conference and that the little boxer will have to interrupt his training to do his own quarreling.

     A special dispatch to The Times from San Francisco last night stated that Long is fixed opposed to Welch as referee, but will not be able to come to Los Angeles to present his objections.

     Said the special dispatch:

Long Doesn’t Want Welch

     San Francisco, Cal., Nov 16—[Exclusive Dispatch] Baron Long is convinced that he doesn’t want Jack Welch to act in the match and will stand to the end on the proposition.

     Long was a little more open this evening in hiss statements about the naming of the referee.  Repeated telegrams have come from Los Angeles urging his presence in that city to settle the dispute, but he declares that his business means more to him than all the boxing matches in the world, and that he is sure Freddie Welsh is competent to handle the situation.

     “If it must be said,” declared Long last evening, “we would prefer some other referee than Jack Welch.  I have nothing against the San Francisco man personally, but from what I have seen of his style of referee and his reluctance to break the men when they are clinched, I think that Wolgast would be favored.”

     “Wolgast is getting practically all of the money for this bout and as the only thing left for Welsh is the chance at the title.  I can’t see why Freddie should allow the other fellow to do all the dictating.”

     “It does look to me as if Wolgast wanted to be sure of something and he will find that he can’t run the whole show to suit himself.  Almost any man in the business with experience will suit Welsh and myself.  We are not hard to please and Wolgast can do the picking outside of Jack Welch.”

     “I am unable to leave my business at the present time because of the illness of one of my associates, but I have kept Welsh fully informed and I know that Freddie can look out for himself.”

     “From Freddie there came a most interesting telegram.  He wires me that McCarey claims Jones inserted the name of Jack Welch in the original articles and that Jones says it was done by McCarey.  Hancock, who works for McCarey, sys that I inserted that name.  That is impossible.”

      “I have been given to understand that the name of Welch was written with pen and ink.  Now, if I had done anything of the kind, after the articles had been drawn up and signed I would have initialed the insertion in order to make it authentic.”

     Jimmy Coffroth, the San Francisco promoter, is scheduled to leave for Los Angeles tonight.  Ostensibly Coffroth is going to Los Angeles on business matters foreign to the boxing game, but Sunshine Jim isn’t given to neglecting his immediate affairs and the chance are that he will want a heart-to-heart talk with Wolgast.

Long Suggests Committee

     Freddie Welsh telephoned to The Times last night the contents of a “wire” that he had just received from Baron Long.

    In this telegram, Long suggested that the entire matter of the referee be left to a committee of the following sporting writers:

     H.M. Walker of the Examiner, Jay Davidson, Herald; Dewitt Van Court, The Times.

     He suggested that this committee either select a referee in the ordinary way, or else appoint a sort of tentative or acting referee and the three sporting writers to sit as a board of review to confirm or turn down his decisions.

     Freddie seemed in favor of this or any other plan that would relieve him of the remainder of the row.

     “I am anxious to have all this fuss settled,” he said.  “All this row is ruining my training.  I am not a businessman and, even if I were, I have a big fight ahead of me and I need all my time for training.  It seems to me that I ought not to be bothered with all this business when I’ve got to train for a fight.”

Friday, November 17, 1911

Los Angeles Daily Times

Los Angeles, California