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THE TURF CONGRESS. It i8 reported that Mr. W. F. Schalte, President of the American Turf Congress, has called a. special meeting of that body to convene in Covington, January 15. It is stated, or supposed, that the main purpose of the meeting is to act juBt racing dates. If intelligence, moderation, conciliation and a real desire to promote the general prosperity of racing in the West prevails among the delegates, such a meeting can do a vast amonnt of good and is to bs commended. It should be one of the f auctions of Buch a body as the American Turf Congress to apportion racing dates to its membersj But as conditions now are it is a difficult matter to handle. The splendid consistency and unselfishness of the Washington Park Club, when in the famous Worlds Fair year it adhered to its regular twenty-five days of racing, despite the general expectation that it wonld give a meeting of forty, fifty or sixty days, Bhonld be the model for the clnba of today. With a kindred spirit animating the representatives of the clubs there wonld be no difficulty whatever about adjusting dates so that all the weaker clnbs could have time for at least as long and aB prosperous meetings aB they gave eight or ten years ago. If, on the other hand, selfishness, cliqoism and the grinding of private axes are, as has been intimated, likely to be prominent features of the meeting, it is quite possible that it willjresult in more harm than good.
