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TO REPEAL LIABILITY LAW REPORT THAT SENATOR BRACKETT OF SARATOGA DISTRICT WILL INTRODUCE BILL. His Constituents Represented as Bringing Pressure to Bear Following Announcement that Enforcement of Law at Fairs Would Be Sought. New York, March 27. From Saratoga comes the story that Senator Edgar Rrackett will soon introduce a bill in the state Senate at Albany designed to wipe out the so-called directors liability law, or to add an amendment to cut its sting. Senator Erack-etts constituents, who see in the closing down of the race tracks the wiping out of racing at the state fairs and the trotting courses, are hriucing pressure to bear on the Saratoga senator. Senator Rrackett has never posed as the champion, of the race tracks. Rut lie and his constituents see in the directors liability law a measure which involves others than those who violate its statute. Like many lawyers, he discounts tiie legal strength of the measure. He frequently declared it to be unconstitutional. The threatened crusade against the racing at the state fairs and at all trotting tracks this summer, as outlined in an interview witli Dr. Miller, president of the New York Civic League, lias aroused the fanners and small breeders of thoroughbreds and harness horses to action. "The league will pay particular attention to the state fairs and the trotting tracks this summer now that the big race tracks have closed their gates " said Miller. "We will Insist that the laws pertaining to gambling, bookmaking and poolselllng be strictly enforced. We will prosecute violators and the directors, stockholders and officials of the grounds. This prosecution can lie made under the statute commonly known as the directors liability law." It was this interview which told of the Intentions of the Civic League to see that the law was enforced on the minor trotting tracks and at state fairs, which eaused-many directors of fairs-and race tracks, fearful of beiug arrested, indicted and prosecuted under the law, to resign and sell out their stock. "It is not that Senator Rrackett is in favor of bookmaking or poolselling at race tracks," said a man from Saratoga who dropped into Manhattan today, "hut the senator believes that the measure is an unsafe one because it involves men who have no thought or intention of violating the gambling laws. Now that his constituents are anxious to have it repealed Senator Rrackett is preparing a bill to that effect. The trouble with this so-called directors liability law is that it is a trap to catch the innocent. Take the track at Saratoga. It has been closed to racing since last August. Now if a raa were to stand on some part of it and make book on races at other tracks the directors of the Saratoga Racing Association, even though they were tnilea away from the scene of the violation and without knowledge of a transgression, would be amenable? under the directors liability law. "The news that the race track at Saratoga will not open tills summer and that there will be a crusade against trotting tracks and the racing at state fairs, with its probable raiding parties and scenes of violence, has caused the citizens of Saratoga and the farmers of the state to call upon Senator Rrackett to introduce a hill to wipe out tills law." If the directors liability law is repealed there will be racing on the big tracks this summer. Rnt while it remains on the statute books the owners "of the tracks, as they announced publicly last Wednesday, will not open their gates.
