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RACING OUTLOOK IMPROVES PROMISING EFFORTS BEING MADE TO RESTORE SPORT IN TEXAS AND ARKANSAS. Judiciary Committee of Texas Senate ReportB Favor ably on Bill Providing for State Racing Commission Arkansas Movement on Similar Lines. Following closely the welcome announcement ot the passage in West Virginia of legislation permit tin;; poolsclllng within enclosures where racing is being conducted, comes tidings from other sections of the. United States of the progress of efforts to restore racing in localities where adverse conditions have been prevailing. Texas furnishes the cheering Information that the judiciary committee of the -Senate of tlint state has presented to the Legislature, now in session, a favorable report on a bill introduced by Senator Paula to create a state racing commission with power to regulate racing and betting In the Lone Star State along the same lines as the Kentucky State Racing Commission operates. Prospects for the passage of the bill in both branches of the Texas Legislature are regarded as favorable and Governor Colqul favors the idea, it is asserted. An antl-bookrnaking law was passed by the Texas Legislature in 1500 and there has been no racing of any consequence in the state since it became effective. From Arkansas comes the information that the business interests of Mot Springs are aligned behind a movement for the establishment of a racing commission in that state, patterned after the Kentucky State Racing Commission. The business men of the Vapor City have been quietly at work with the restoration of racing in view for some weeks. Secretary of State Brunei of Kentucky has sent, by request to the Committee on Public Morals of the Arkansas Legislature a copy of the racing laws of Kentucky, and expressions from the business men of Iouisvillo. Lexington and Lutonia. as to the popularity of the pari-mutuel system of betting. This request came from llnmp Williams, who represents Hot Springs in the Arkansas Senate, and from David Laser, chairman of the Business .Mens League, ot that city. Secretary of State Brunei complied with the request by not only sending the act of 3500, L t-Tcrttiug the Kentucky State Racing Commission, but also the decision of the Court of Appeals, which construed the law placiug the racing of the state of Kentucky in the hands of the commission and legalizing the pari-mutuel system of betting. Front the tenor oC the letters to Secretary of State Bruner it is thought that there is a good chance for the revival of racing at Hot Springs and Little Rock. The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court and ihe Court of Appeals of New Vork will be required to pass upon the constitutionality of the 1507 reapportionment act in that state. Justice Edward 15. Amend of the Supreme Court has handed down bis decision in the action begun by William S. Reynolds, F. Granville Munson, Godfrey Lippe, Daniel Hogan and Bache Whillock to overthrow the act in question. He declared that "while the present act may not satisfy all the requirements of the constitution." lie believed that the other courts mentioned should make a llnal adjudication. The effort to upset the reapportionment bill is in reality an attempt to restore racing by showing that the Hughes legislation, hostile to racing, was jammed through the extra session of the Legislature by the vote of an unconstitutionally elected Senator from a district created by an unconstitutional reapportionment act. Those who have brought the action and their lawyers maintain that if the reapportionment act is declared unconstitutional, not only the Hart-Agnew law. but all legislation passed at the extra session of the Legislature will be wiped ott the statute books. There is a great difference of opinion on this point. Justice Aniends decision has encouraged the men who have determined to test the law. They have strong authority, they aver, for their contention, and assort 1 lut t when the justice refused to dismiss their petition lie virtually admitted its force: In California Assemblyman D. M. Dencgri of San Francisco has announced that he will ofTor as an amendment to the bill of Assemblyman L. 1. Bohnet of Sun Jose for a State Racing Commission, a paragraph allowing pari-mutuel bettiug. He believes that such a system of betting will moot with the sanction of the members of the Legislature and with the people of. the slate generally. The Bohnet bill is now in the bauds of the Committee on Public Morals. The Church Club or Jacksonville lias launched an anti-racing league to oppose the movement for the repeal of the anti-bookmaking law that is scheduled to become effective in Florida May 1. The legislature of Florida will meet in April and will take up the proposition of the management of Moncrief Park lo provide a great state fair without expense to Ihe state if permission is given for the continuation of betting on a limited scale. If the desired permission is obtained. Jacksonville will have a meeting of fifty days duration next winter in connection with meetings of equal length at Havana. Cuba, and Charleston, S. C. The plans call for the construction of a modern plant in Alman-dares. a suburb of Havana, while the Charleston Jockey Club proposes to build a race course patterned arte Moncrief Park.
