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THE LAW THAT ILLINOIS NEEDS. Racing moo, bookmakers, track owners and the daily newspapers are the woist enemies of racing:. Racing men and track owners do their worst through the avenues of self seeking, bookmakers along the lines of jealousy and verbal defacement of the sport when their plans go awry, and the newspapers by the publication of slap dash rumors that are untrue to the average of about eighty per cent. Influential public opinion, so called, but really the prejudiced opinion of carelessness growing from the busy good citizens misinformation out of the newspaper he reads, has bean a powerful factor against the horse industry of Illinois But the acts and verbosity of interested or disappointed operators in various turf lines have done most of the damage. Illinois suffers most nowadays. There is a vast amount of money invested in breeding farms, racetracks and racing stables in this state. The industry is not confined to one section. It is broad and general. The men engaged in it can be favorably compared with those of any other business in Illinois. A few operators in the large cities have run against the laws of the state and their offense has injured the good folks less active in a public way but who are honestly doing their business in accord with the law. The fault of the few has caused the many horse breeders and owners to be punished most severely. The best evidence of the pinch is shown by the prices of horses which have fallen off some 40 per cent, in the last five yoais. It seems as if broad public opinion now favors a racing law. But the same public opinion does not lean toward betting, although betting is hardly separable from racing contention. Public opinion would lean more kindly toward lesB public betting. A strong and high-class effort through the courts would probably give betting on racing contests the legal stamp that has been given it by the courts of Great Britain, Prance and other countries in Europe. The present legislature cf Illinois would be likely to pass a racing law if the proper measure was laid before it. Such a measure could be put into one hundred words. It need only name a season; say from May 1 or 15, to October 15 or November 1, of each year and set aside so many days for each association limiting the associations to what is considered the public need. A tax should be paid to certain state funds, based upon the gross receipts at the gate of each association, the tax graded into one or more classes. For cities of one million or over, mile tracks should be made necessary with a tax of 5 per cent., divided between one or two state funds devoted to agricultural interests. Illinois is a peculiar state in the matter of its cities. Chicago is more to the state than Paris is to France. There is not another city in the state with 100,000 inhabitants. Peoria is second with some 75,000. It is not just to tax the annual harness horse or mixed gait meetings of 6uch towns. They usually last but three or four days. In most, the agricultural societies of theii county, would be benefitted by the tax. If there were cities of 250,000 population in the state the measure regulating racing should provide a secona class for them, with a tax of two and a half or three per cent, on gross receipts. It might be well to make such a class for associations in towns adjacent to cities of other states likely to be drawn upon for race meetingsEast St. Louis for instance. In no case should any part of the monoys derived from racing taxation be allowed to go to any state fund that in any way defrays, or helps to defray, the expense of criminality. The tax even from Chicago tracks alone would give the state a large annual sum. But before any measure is sent to the legislature the track owners of the various sections of the state should agree. After agreement the proposed law should be puc on paper in as few and as plain words as possible. It nesd say nothing about betting. It should then be laid before the House or the Senate by a member who is above suspicion. The measure should not be supported by a lobby or a bribery fund. It could well be backed by the endorsement of a few high class business men of the best cities and localities of the state. Such a bill would invite attention, could be intelligently discussed and would have an excellont chance of becoming a law. Why not try such a plan? There are local rumors about a locally drawn bill of relief that is to be introduced into the Senate within a few days. It is said to provide for thirty-day terms of racing and the legalization of betting by amending section 127 of the criminal code which is definitive of common gambling. The amendment is said to bo a declaration that section 127 shall not be construed to include betting upon racetracks within the state over races in progress thereon. Such a bill is not likely to meet with enough favor to pass both houses, though its provisions are but fair to an industry that has been most unjustly punished. The Kettering bill introduced in the House yesterday seems too sweeping a measure to meet the approval of both legislative bodies.
