ations will be agreed
upon.

As proof of what the new National Agreement may do, although it has
barely had time to be considered, the editor of the GUIDE would submit
the following for consideration:

Ever since the National Agreement was organized the members have always
striven to aid the players in their efforts to gain the top rank in the
great national game. They have had a hard proposition in handling all of
the cases that have been brought to their attention, but their decisions
in all cases were absolutely fair and impartial. Then the matter of the
new agreement occasioned many hours of laborious work on the part of the
members of the Commission, and when the instrument was finally announced
it meant that all of the parties to such an agreement were satisfied and
that there could be no improvement. There was one detail that covered a
wide field, and that was in the matter of players; drafted by the two
big leagues and later sent back to the minors. Under the old National
Agreement it was possible to pick up a player by means of the annual
draft from one of the Class C leagues and just before the opening of the
season send him back to the club from whence he came without ever having
given him a chance to land with a club in some higher organization.

Realizing that such players were not given a chance to advance in the
Base Ball profession, this matter was thoroughly thrashed out and the
new ruling under which all of the National Agreement clubs operate was
adopted. Now it is possible for a player in any of the smaller leagues
to be drafted by a major league club, and when the latter party does not
care to retain possession of such a player he is first offered to the
Class AA clubs. All of these clubs must waive on him before he can be
dropped farther down in the list, and if such should be the case he
would then be offered to the Class A clubs. In that way the player,
although he is not fast enough to remain in the two major leagues, is
always given a chance to advance, for if any of the clubs in those
classes higher than that from which he came had grabbed him he was bound
to receive an increase in salary. That meant that he had his chance to
advance, and that was the sole purpose of the National Agreement in
drafting such a rule.

During the past drafting season there were sixty-nine players drafted by
the two major league clubs, and of that number twenty-seven have already
been sent back to the minor lea