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SARATOGANS ARE UP IN ARMS. EeandftiorBtttcketts Proposed-Action the Outcome of Agitation Over Loss of Racing Patronage. ,Xiw York. March 28. It is said that Senator Braeketts proposed bill to reucal the directors lMUf JftV WjH bp introduced at Albany as soon iJ?thpopg-deffrredfcloetion of a United States Senior Is accomplished by the Legislature. Senator liraeketts proposed taction, according to report, will be taken in response to a general protest by citizens of Saratoga and the fanners interested in the state fairs. Because of the existence of this law the Jockey Club tracks have decided to remain closed until some relief may be obtained from the Legislature or the courts. This inactivity has compelled the reformers to taku another tack in the shaiie of a crusade against the directors of the fair associations which conduct trotting and running races as part of their ifrograuis. As it is impossible to prevent private betting among individuals on such events it is poiulcd out that the fair directors must abandon lacing altogether or run the risk of criminal prosecution. It is possible to hold the fair directors liable for bets that are made in remote parts of the en- closure in spite of extraordinary vigilance on the part of the race track police. Many well-known citizens rc directors of these fairs and none of them is :nx ions to break the l;iw. The attitude of the Jockey Clubs tracks has brought the situation into the limelight to such an extent, therefore, that the Impression prevails among the farmers that unless there is some relief the fairs will bp deprived of seme of their most attractive features, for a fair without a horse race is said to be decidedly funereal. President It. T. "Wilson, of the Saratoga Association, was preparing for a forty-days meeting at the Springs when a majority of the track owners decided to keep their gates closed. Mr. Wilson therefore was compelled to abandon his plan In spite of a storm of protests from Saratoga business men. There has Iieen so much agitation against the new law in Saratoga that last week Senator Braukett received a pe tition to introduce a repeal bill, and. after looking iuto the matter, he agreed to draw up the desired measure, it is reported. Persons identified witli tho racing Interests say they know nothing about it. but admit that there is much 111 feeling up the state and that Saratoga Is particularly active. The cause of the present agitation was shown by a prominent race track man. who said. "The Rev. Dr. Miller, aided by Harry Brolaski. a reformed gambler, is at the head of au organization in this state which has succeeded the International Keform Bureau in the crhsade against race track gambling. Since the announcement that the Jockey Clubs tracks will remain closed until some relief can be obtained from the courts or the Legislature regarding the enforcement of the so-called directors liability law. Dr. Miller has decided to turn Ills attention to the state fair associations which conduct trotting and running races with betting inside their enclosures. It is learned that Dr. Millers bureau will call upon the various district attorneys up the state to enforce the anti-bettliiT laws which were passed last year and will make a hard light to have the direciors of fairs indicted if betting takes place. If Dr. Miller carries out this plan It is believed that the fair associations will he compelled to cut out the sees rather than run the risk of criminal prosecution." In the course of a summary of the enormous loss entailed as a result of recent hostile racing legislation in the United States, the Morning Telegraph of New York points out that in addition to the irreparable aud deplorable damage done to the thoroughbred breeding establishments of tho country generally, the city of New York lias sustained a financial loss that is au important feature of the situation. It says: "Conservative merchants, hotel and restaurant proprietors .and" managers of places of piiblic amusement calculate that the crusade against racing, begun in 1908 bv Governor Hughes, cost the city of New York from forty to fifty million dollars in 1901 and 1910. Bacing. as it was conducted under the Percy-Gray law, not only kept wealthy Americans with a liking for wholesome sport at home with their money, but it attracted thousands of summer visitors from "the states of tbe west and south. , ""The speculation incident to racing, far from lie- lug regarded as a demonstration of moral depravity or a public menace in the progressive and admirably governed states of modem Europe, is recognized as a manifestation of legitimate human desire, and. regulated by rational laws, powerfully stimulates circulation. Somebody if always winning, aud .the winner is always spending. He cant help it. "If by destroying racing in New York state and thereby crippling the breeding industry, which is of such vast economic imiwrtanee. the individuals and Ihe party responsible for the legislation of 190S and 1910 hail improved tho moral tone of the community by stopping betting in this and others cities of the Empire state, they might claim some justification for their activities. "But tuey cauuut claim ti victory for public uior- ality. Any man who seeks action here on races run in other states gets it. The sham reformers have only driven out native wealthy dispensers of money who like to spend their thousands at racing and diverted to other cities of the United States. Canada and Europe thousands of men aud women who were wont to come this way in summer from the states of the north, east, the west and the south, because the city of New York afforded the ktud of entertainment thov fancied most. And herein lies the grievance of the" proprietors of the great hotels, the shops great and Kinall. the theaters and the transportation folk. "The New York Legislatures of 1908 and 1910 are wholly responsible for this havoc, because New York Is the focus of activity in American racing. -Whether the thoroughbred market be good or bad depends en-tlrelv upon the crowds which attend the races at Aqueduct. Jamaica. Belmont Pftrk, Sheepshead Bay, Gravesend. Yonkers and Saratoga. For. big crowds enable the racing associations to hang up liberal purses, and when the purses are liberal, breeders can get enough money for thuir young stock to enable them to keep their plants going. "It may not be out of place to hint here that the people of this and other cities in New York state expect the gentlemen now representing them at Albany to do something to relieve the situation, also to remind leaders of the dominant party that If tiiey faii of zeal for the true interest of their constituents, their constituents will, at the first seasonable opportunity, kick them out of power as bllthly as they did the representatives of tlitf party which was forced by Governor Hughes into au attitude of antagonism toward a great popular sport. "Baciug Is not today and was never a party issue, although the Hon. Charles Evans Hughes succeeded in 1908 and 1910 In hypnotizing his Republican legislators into so construing it. The rational Percy-Gray law was put on tho statute books at Albany ur.der the administration of tbjo Hon. Levi P. Morton. Governors Black, Roosevelt. Odell and Illggins set their faces stubbornly against movements to destroy racing similar In every respect to that which Mr. Hughes espoused as his own in 190S. "It is difficult to believe that tho legislators of 190S and 1910 realized what they were about when, in blind and unreasoning fear of Mr. Hughes, and the not disingenuous reformers behind him, they banished so many money spending millionaires from American soil, and legislated oiit of the tiockets of the farmers of New York state and the merchants of New York city, who furnished provender for tho horses which made up the racing establishments of these sportsmen and food and raiment for the men who cared for their horses, the hundreds of thousands of dollars it cost to maintain them on Long Island and at Saratoga. The result of the elections of November, 1910. however, would seem to indicate that the citizens of New York were partially alive to the damage their representatives at Albany inflicted upon them."
