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GOVERNOR HUGHES NOT BEHIND CRUSADE. Assistant District Attorney Elder Acted on His Own Responsibility in Gravesend Arrests. New Aork. September 20. Covernor Hughes returned to the capitol at Albany today after a mouths tour of the county fairs. The lirst matter brought to his attention was the arrests in connection with betting at Cravesend. The report that the arrests were made by olliccrs acting for Covernor Hughes was denied by the governor. It developed that tht! arrests at Gravesend were the voluntary work of Assistant District Attorney Elder of Kings Cr.ithiy following the governors formal notification to the New York City police commissioner and the Kings County sheriff and district attorney of complaint that the anti-race track gambling laws wero not being enforced. This was the first bona fide complaint which Governor Hughes had received .that the law was not being lived up to since Justice Bischolls decision permitting oral betting. It is the policy of Covernor Hughes hot to act except on charges of a reputable citizen or organization, and it was made plain today that any such complaint from any part of the state regarding the specific noii-enforcenient of any law at any place would receive immediate attention at the executive chamber. When Covernor Hughes notified the authorities in New Aork City that he desired the anti-book-niaking law enforced. Police Commissioner Baker and the Jockey Club replied to the governor declaring that the anti-gambling laws were being strictly enforced. Covernor Hughes action in this matter ended when he notified the public officials that the law must he enforced. A majority of the men arrested on Friday were at the track today and laying odds as usual. Thev do not know exactly with what they are charged. They an; supixised to find out next Monday, when they will bo called upon to appear in a Brooklyn court. There is perfect unanimity of opinion among those arrested that they will lie discharged, as they one and all claim that they have not violated the llart-Agnew law in any way. From what can lie gleaned it will be a question of veracity between oniplainants and defendants. No incriminating evidence in the way of memoranda was found. No one knows what precipitated the trouble, when things wero going along so nicely. Some say it is politics. According to one high in the counsels of the Jockey Club, If the law has been violated the racing association will be pleased to have the violators lemoved from their tracks. It is their opinion that horse racing can live without the law being violated. AVhatever the result of the renewed activity of the anti-betting crusaders, horse racing will continue to occupy its usual place In the world of sports. In the meantime the future stakes for 1910 and 1911 are lieing framed. The Coney Island Jockey Club has issued stake blanks for the Croat Filly Stakes for 1910 mid the Lawrence Realization for 1911. In both cases there is a provision in the conditions that the stakes may be called olt without notice and without liability except the return of the entrance money. Inspector OBrien, representing the New Aork police department, says that he and his men will ciiitiuue to do their duty and enforce the law as hi; highest courts of the stale have interpreted it. Ho has received no new Instructions from Mulberry street to do anything ho has not already done ami lie will not change his policy until ordered to do so by the Kilico commissioner or his deputy in charge of the Brooklyn department. "Wo have enforced the law at all metropolitan tracks." declared Air. Ol.rion. "and have nothing to fear from an investigation." Mr. OBrien laughed at .published stories to the c licet that the police department had received compensation from any source to keep one eye closed at the track. So did Sheriff Hobley. who was reported to be in imminent danger of having charges of neglect of duty preferred against him at Albany. Mr. Hobley had this to say of the situation: "I was informed by Covernor Hughes that information had readied him that there were violations of the gambling laws at the race tracks, but I reported to him that I could not obtain evidence of the same. There is betting going on at the tracks, but the courts have held that oral betting is not illegal: that it is the recording of a hot that is a violation of the law. I have gone to the race tracks every day to see that there was no violation of the law. 1 have had to guide my actions by the decisions of the courts. If there is any charge brought I against me in this matter 1 am ready and willing to meet it." The story that the race tracks or the bookmakers have a .corruption fund willi which to silence the police, is calculated to excite mirth among persons who know all about racing affairs. Tin? clubs and associations operating under the authority of the Jockey Club are having all they can do tills year to keep t lie sport alive. Their revenues are so meager it is with difficulty that they can, with the help of voluntary contributions from a group of horsemen and breeders interested in the perpetuation of racing, make botli ends meet. The race track managers would throw up their hands and flee shrieking to the high brush if anyone suggested that they raise any more money than they are getting. As for a bookmakers fund, there is none, because there are no bookmakers. "Of all the ridiculous stories ever printed, the one of Saturday stating that certain interests were paying ,H a day to the police authorities for protection Is certainly the banner one." In those words Charles Honey, one or the board of governors of the Metropolitan Turf Association, ridiculed the story that men higher up were being paid 1909.sh,000 a week not to make arrests at the race tracks. "The charges of graft, as usual, are general in scope and not specific." continued Honey. "They are wide in latitude purposely so as to embrace all officialdom. But they fail in their intent because no man or men an; mentioned anil no organization or club named. Its an easy matter to call thief, thief. hut its quite another case, and a serious one. for a man to say. John Doe, you are a thief. For that, you know, must he proved, and if a person cannot make his charge giNiil the prison stands ready to receive him for criminal libel. Its all sheer nonsense that story of ,000 hush money. AVI10 would pay it? Certainly not the Mots and certainly not the racing associations. In the first place, why should the Mots or the tracks iay tribute? The men whooller odds do so under the courts decision that oral bets are not gambling or liookniaking and are perfectly legitimate. Not one of the members of the Metropolitan Turf Association has diverged the width of a hair from the spirit or the letter of those decisions. So, why should we. who arc living within the law. as the men of odds have been doing, fear the police? AVhy pay for protection?" The Gravesend arrests may put the Hart-Agnew anti-betting law to a further test that will be welcomed by the turf governors. The recording of wagers by persons who accept them is conceded to be illegal, and if it can be shown that any of the accused men violated this particular point in the new law there will be little sympathy for them. But according to eminent legal authorities the acceptance of a cash deposit before entering a race track as a guarantee against possible loss cannot be twisted into an infraction of the law on the part of a layer of odds. As a matter of. fact some lawyers who have looked into the oral betting problem maintain that if it is legal to make an .oral wager which can be settled with cash later on. It is equally lawful to make a wager with money. "Surely the courts in deciding that oral bets are legal did not rule that such bets could not ,be paid." said a prominent lawyer. "Therefore it is simply common sense and good law is generally based on common senee that a man who makes a cash wager is acting within the legal requirements as much as a man who bets orally on credit. For that reason it is hard to believe that a man who is willing to give credit violates the law by accepting a cash guarantee of good faith. It lias already been decided that a so-called layer can quote odds and accept wagers without limit and at the same time does not break the law against liookniaking unless he records such wagers, for the moment he makes written records of transactions he becomes a bookmaker. "The Hart-Agnew law abolished liookniaking. which consisted of the acceptance of bets which were recorded on sheets or in books by clerks. But the law did not abolish betting, as the courts have since ruled. If tiie men arrested at Cravesend can be convicted of accepting and recording bets, well and good, for they will not have a leg to stand on. but the charge that they received a cash guarantee in return for credit will open a controversy which may prove to lie a boomerang. The law as Interpreted by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court is plain enough, and I am satisfied that it has been enforced to the letter as far as possible. It may be shown that some of the prisoners just gathered In have violated the law. In which case the Jockey Club will applaud the authorities. But at the same time the courts may have another chance to show that the Hart-Agnew law is by no means invulnerable, in which event there will be more, freedom of action than has existed hitherto." The track officials refuse to discuss the situation in any way, except to say that tiie race track police have had orders to eject all persons who might be even suspected of violating the law. Bets are being offered that not one conviction will result from the arrests made Friday. A prominent member of the Metroiolitan Turf Association says of the situation: "There are no grounds for the now cases except technicalities, and the people who are interested ill racing need not bo alarmed. The men who are laying odds at Jockey Club tracks are not violating the law. They would not be permitted to do so by the track police or city and county officials. Belting at race tracks in this stale is being conducted under decisions of the courts rendered last winter and will continue to be so conducted if those decisions are not overruled bv the Court of Appeals. Bookmakers are not eager to break into jail, and for that reason have obtained advice from eminent legal authorities."
