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; I I i I I i i I ■ ■ I GREAT RACING ISSUES OF THIS WEEK. Opinions of Prominent Persons Touching Pending Legislation in New York. New York. March 2.— This will be a Week of vital importance in racing circles. The postponed hearing on the Agnew-Hart ahti racing measure at Albany will take place on Wednesday and some of the best speakers in the country will be heard. There is a well-defined impression that ea OwtWII Blacks argument in favor of the retention of the present law will be sensational. Those who have read the ex-governors speech before the Home Market Club at l.oston are eager to have further utterances from this big American. It is thought that the assembly chamber will not be large enough to accommodate the crowd which will be present on that occasion. The Jockey Clubs representatives will go to Albany in a special on Wednesday morning at 0:40. Barney Schreibers telegram, in which he ll.it ! took issue with the statement of Governor Folk of Missouri that the stopping of racing In thai state did not hurt the breeding industry in that common wealth, caused a lot of comment in New York during the past few days. Mr. Schreibers statement that he is the only breed r left in Missouri and that he could not afford to continue the Industry were it not for the fact that he found a market for and an opportunity to race his horses in New York caused a prominent western racing man to remark: "There is no comparison between the way racing is conducted in New York and the way it was run in St. Louis. However. Schivibcr is entirely correct. Among the breeders who have sus| enileil op rati Bf in Missouri Is Dr. McAllister of Columbia, who im ported the stallions Shldartha and Lanriutn. anil who bred such well-known performers as Dr. Stephens. T.iagg. Sidkel, l.adj Callahan. lveilo of Memphis and Sidbi.w. The famous Patton Farm at Sturgeon, where such good race horses as Ethel Cray, Gold Bug. Ethylene, Alice Turner and many others of equal note first saw the light, is now an uncultivated waste, being used as pasture for cattle. The once princely establishment of .]. D. Lucas in St. Louis County is another monument to the reformer who would destroy and then investigate. This was the birthplace of the spe ly Oath, one of the best sprinters of the day; Damocles, Jane and others of note. It has been in the market for some years and is fast falling into decay. "Bryan Obear is another Missourian." continued the westerner, "who had to retire. He bought, many years ago. from the estate of the late D. D. Withers the stallion Faverdale and a hand of high-class brood marcs. Then. too. the famous Gray Farm at Marysville. where some of the cracks of the American turf were foaled, is no more. This was the home of Faustus and Free Knight, ami from it came Galea, Bobby Beach. Johnny Hccksch -r, I esarion. Rey del Mar. Night Gown and a hundred others. Louis Lomp and Dr. C. W. Crowley had splendid breeding farms in St. Louis County, but like those named above, they have given up their breeding operations. This brings us down to Barney Schreibers superb Woodlands Farm, the sole sur- vivor. As Mr. Sehreiber truthfully remarked, politics caused the destruction of the sport of racing in Missouri: it was not the sentiment of the people. What will happen to Woodlands if racing is stopped iu New York does not require much farsightedness." Joseph A. Murphy, who was connected with racing in Missouri for many years and who is a resident of that state, says that plans were on foot to establish a breeding bureau, similar to the one now in operation in New York state, when racing arM killed there. Schreilter, Dr. Keith, Dr. Clark, Dr. McAllister and other breeders were interested. Two weeks ago the Department of Agriculture at Washington asked for an appropriation of 00,000 to establish a breeding farm for horses and cattle in Missouri. Mr. Murphy says concerning Governor Folk: ! "Jovernor Folk Is not a Missourian. He came from Tennessee not so many years since and took up the practice of law in St. Louis. There was a political feud between two bosses — Ed Butler ami Harry Hawes. Butler took a fancy to Folk, and he was nominated for circuit attorney and went through with the rest of the ticket. At that time there was on an xfternoou pajier a rejKirter named Galvin. who got hold of a story of wholesale corruption and connected some of the biggest and wealthiest men of St. Louis in it, including Butler. Folk was driven to prosecute the accused persons and was heralded as a great man, and someliod.v told him that, he had a chance to be governor. Hawes was willing to accept Folk as circuit attorney, but he wanted to be governor himself, and here is where the racing people came into the fight. Hawes was chief of the police lioard and in his tight, against Folk he was supported by Messrs. Cella. Tilles and Adler, who controlled the racing situation. Hawes carried the city, but Folk won In the country, and straightway commenced operations to drive his enemies out of racing. It was necessary to kill the sport ami he iliil it. Whil. he was circuit attorney. Governor Folk made no move to stop racing and he Is not today opposed to the sport per se. lie is, however, against his old enemies, and as long as he Is in power there B no chance for racing in Missouri. The governor." concluded Mr. Murphy, "said to a personal friend recently, while in St. Louis, that he believed in racing and would go a lone way to see a horse race and that he believed that St. Louis should have sixty days of racing, thirty Continued on second page. GREAT RACING ISSUES OF THIS WEEK. Continued from first page, i in the spring and thirty in the fall. He wound up his talk with tin- remark: While I am governor, the people w ho now own t he tracks here wont run I day. " And. what is true of Missouri as to the condi Hon of the breeding industry consequent, upon the !• Mim lion of racing, will lie equally true of every oili r Mite in Hi" liiion if the s[ ort in New York should be wiped out. Racing, as has been said. and it eani.ot too froipienily l e reiterated and em pheaiaed, is the only medium through which a dc terminal iv test of the value of blood lines may lie had. Without It, the rai-ing of the thoroughbred ■Sghl he i Ik- tad or the ncteal Uh of an isolated BBMl a wealthy individual, but. :is an industry, it would gaaaaateai entirely. There would b no in-iiiie to breeding brPBBar there would be no aaarket, and there would be ae icsi srherehf atighl Ik- del ist rated eoiilusively the superiority of anj strain or the eorrectneaa of inj theory. Il i~ with breedUg as i: is with any other in.lus try. There must ! •• demonstration of excellence In tie agent ■aihal hatara the man engaged in M eaa be requited for his industry, his enterprise and liis InteUlgence. The only medium through which this may !«• had is racing. This is true wheilier the product of a farm is a trotter at I Barer at I theteajghhred. values an baaed la the bane arortd, as the ate in sew own world, upon sehl reaatat. It was achievement and deinonstralion. coupled with lineage, that made, among others. Sun.. I sell f,,r ftgl.OM ami Axle!! rot ."..oiHi. :nid Ari.m lo- M25. Inki. jitcl that, in tin- thoroughbred world, mad. St. BjBdec -II tot 00,000 and Hamburg for S7o. hhi uud Rvuitul tSC flO,UW aud liastuiiis lor 337,000 i 1 i j 1 j 1 , t | , ■ • . x I , I t j I r , N , i I I , I | i , I i i t and that litis brought Rock Sand to this •country at the expenditure of 2.1.000. exclusive of shipping and insurance charges. It is racing that aerated out the excellence of the individual and of the blood lines included In his pedigree. Contest arlth ids fellows is what fixes relative values of horses. It is what establishes standards and what tires the enthusiasm of the breeder, whether he be sportsman, millionaire or a man engaged in breeding .is an Industry through which ha is making his living. Racing is an abso-lute essential to the maintenance of breeding, wlnther the breeding lie along the lines of the thoroughbred at of the standard bred. Just a word as la the iui| ortaneo and the wide spread territory that is interested in this breeding industry. Men who stop not to consider are prone t to assume that it is only the thoroughbred that is involved in the disaster which Senator Agnew desires the legislature of New York to precipitate. Not I bit of It. The bill singles out Section 18 of the Percy-Gray law. which is the trotting horse section of the statute, and would wipe it out. What would that mean? That the breeding of the trotter would be as dead as the breeding of the thoroughbred would be if the bill became law. The last report of the Department of Agriculture showed there were 105.000 trotting horses in America.- In the eighteen months prior to June 30 hurt there were actually registered as standard bred foals during that period* 3.573 colt foals and 7,145 filly foals. Average the value of the trotting horses that is. the legitimately standard bred, at nearly IBM each, which is a reasonably fair valuation —and there are standard breds in this country marketable at lie grand total of if07.5OO.00O. Add to this the value of the sires and the dams and of the stock farms where they reside and the depreciation that would come to them if racing were stopped, and the tidal loss mounts into figures that stagger. This. too. is only the business side of it. and takes into account not at all the other end. Which is the turning adrift of the employes and attend- tints, to many of whom the breeding industry is all they know — men who are managers or foremen or workmen, veterinary surgeons, platers, grain men. and transportation corporations. In their z.cal fat what they term reform. Agnew and Hart have run amuck of devastation and, in their fervor, can not see the wake of ruin and of desolation that they will leave behind if. through some unfortunate chance, their bills would become law. » Most readers of newspapers in New York are somewhat familiar with the thoroughbred and the vastness of the industry which has been maintained and enhanced by the racing statutes of New York. The writer was speaking yesterday with the great est breeder of thoroughbreds in the world, and some of the figures he gave were interesting. He would not even venture an estimate of the valuations of the farms of James R. Keene, or of August Belmont, or Harry Payne Whitney, or of Clarence H. Mackay. Nor would he be quoted directly through his books, but all the items relating to his farm are at the command of the Codes Committee in the legislature. The farm lands, the paddocks and the bleeding establishments of this man cost him in excess of •fl.oOO.OOO. and his stock more titan a similar amount, though, because of depreciation through age of stallions tind mares, be writes It down a! only ,000,000. The wages of his superintendent, foremen and stock hands figure up ."i0.000, anil in the average, ordinary year, he is a purchaser from his neighboring farmers of hay. oats, grain and such like of at least 00, K . while to railroads, for the transiiorttition of his yearlings to market he I. as not in a dozen years paid less than 0,000. Bearing in mind these figures, and remembering that this is but one breeder out of thousands who contribute their share to this vast industry and nations wealth, power and prosperity, some idea of the staggering amount expended annually upon ihoroughbred and trotting horse breeding operations throughout the country may be realized. It is from the lips of such men as he. who can give figures and statistics of the enormous, nay. prodigious sums of money which have been expended upon an industry which has the thoroughbred for its nucleus, its base, its building material and the fabric which has made the horses of America what they tire today, and which, with the thoroughbred Maad removed, will dwindle into impotency. In direct proportion to the scope of these breeding operations, every state in the union will suffer if lie Agnew-Hart bills prevail. C. J. F.
