he future.

The first general complaint arose from the players who composed the
membership of the smaller clubs. They demurred at the fact that they
were asked to perform equally as well as the players of the clubs in the
larger cities at smaller salaries. Not that they did not try to do their
best, for this they stoutly attempted under all conditions. It was the
effect of a discrimination which was the result of the imperfect
regulations that existed relative to the management of the game.

This attitude of the players resulted at length in the formation of a
body known as the Brotherhood. To offset not the Brotherhood, but the
cause which led to its formation, Mr. Brush devised the famous
classification plan. Imperfectly understood in what it intended to do
for the players, it was seized upon as a reason for the revolt of the
players and the organization of the Brotherhood League.

At heart it was the idea of Mr. Brush so to equalize salaries that the
players of all clubs should be reimbursed in an equitable manner. As
always had been the case, and probably always is likely to be, the
players who received the larger salaries were in no mood to share with
their weaker brothers any excess margin of pay which they thought that
they had justly earned, and it was not a difficult matter for them to
obtain the consent of players who might really have benefited by the
plan to co-operate with them on the basis of comradeship.

The motives of Mr. Brush were thoroughly misconstrued by some, and, if
grasped by others, they were disregarded, because they conflicted with
their immediate temporary prosperity.

The dead Base Ball organizer had looked further ahead than his time. His
plan was born under the best of intentions, but it unfortunately
devolved upon the theory that players would be willing to share alike
for their common good. Later in life, through another and unquestionably
even better method, he succeeded in bringing forth a plan which attained
the very end for which he sought in the '80s, but in the second resort,
by a far more efficacious method.

The Brotherhood League came into existence and rivaled the National
League. The players of the National League and the American Association
deserted to join the Brotherhood League, upon a platform that promised
Utopia in Base Ball. Unquestionably it was the idea of the general
Brotherhood organization that the National League would abandon the
fight and succumb, but th