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URGES LEGISLATIVE RELIEF NEW YORK STATE RACING COMMISSION MAKES REPORT TO LEGISLATURE. Points Out Destructive Effect of Hughes Legislation Affecting Racing and Shows That Betting Is . Only an Incident of the Sport. Albany. X. Y., April IS. Tin- repeal or the law enacted by the Now York Legislature last year making directors of racing associations liable for betting transactions at race tracks, is lccoiiiiuended liy tilt state racing commisisun in its annual report to the Legislature, submitted last night. Tin; com-mission declares this is necessary "if racing is to survive in any-form whatever in this state." Tins former racing lawjs. the conmiisison points out, were prepared with great care, designed to permit racing and to minimize belting at the tracks, and under1 them "the number of persons who could by any possibility make, lHits there did not exceed one-fiftieth part of one per cent, of the population of the. state." Reviewing the anti-bookmaking legislation of l.IOS and 1110. the couiinision says it has deprived the stale annually of approximately the sum of .00,000 which, had been contributed to the fair associations, practically destroyed the value of the great race -ourses, reduced purses and prizes annually distributed by the associations from !j;2.G45,000 in 1007 to 30,000 in liUO. almost destroyed the Xew York market for the sale of thoroughbred yearlings, and . has given racing a setback from which it cannot recover for years. "This lias all been done," says the report, "upon the theory that betting at a race course must be prevented at aiiy cost, and it all seems to be based on the mistaken idea that the race courses were maintained solely for gambling. The maintenance of breeding tlroroughbred horses is seriously threatened as a result of the cessation of racing, in the opinion of the commissioners, who therefore urge the repeal of the legislation blamed for existing conditions. The conference which It. T. Wilson and Andrew Miller, respectively president and secretary of the Saratoga . Association for" the Improvement -of the forced of Horses, held yesterday with Governor lix. V vas participated In by Senator F.dgar T. l.rackett. Republican minority leader in the upper branch of the legislature and is the first of a series upon the outcome of. which the future of New York racing may depend. Messrs. Wilson, Miller and Brackett urged that there is little, chance of a resumption of the sport on any Xew York state track this season unless the law is repealed that makes directors responsible for gambling on the tracks. They besought the governor to employ his inliuenee with the Legislature to. have that law repealed. The governor asked time to cousidor. The racing men offered no particular plan, but hoped to enlist the support of the governor in a movement to encourage racing, especially at Sara-, toga. Mr. Wilson said that the bill of Assemblyman Martin repealing the directors liability provision of the auti-gambliiig law was introduced without his knowledge and he doubted whether it would afford the relief which the racing interests desire. New York. April IS. There are upward of 100 fair associations giving exhibitions in the various farming districts of New York which have for years enjoyed an appropriation of upward of 50,000. This money for thirteen years came in the form of a tax on the gate receipts of the racing associations operating under license from the Jockey Club, as provided by law. but now it is a direct tax and must be voted year by year. When Governor Hughes succeeded in passing his antl-lettilig measure lie promised the farmers an annual appropriation of 50,000 to take the place of this so-called race-track money. The farmer was not interested in the thoroughbred to any great extent, took his racing in homeopathic doses at the county fair in his district, with the trotter and pacer supplying the excitement which the running horse furnished nearer the greater centers of population, mid wjts not greatly concerned whether the reform measures became law or not. If he wanted to bet a modest or .0 on a colt of his own raising or on one that was 1rcd on an adjoining farm there was none to interfere with what he considered a legitimate privilege. He saw no menace to his. liberty in the law which put jiu end to racing at the great tracks -in the vicinity of New York and at Saratoga, where thousands of siwrt lovers from all over the United States were wont to congregate during the .month of August and where horse racing has Ihoii a distinctive social function; for upward of lifty years. Now ctinips the awakening. The up-state farmer is essentially a Republican. His father berore him was a Republican, ami. generally speaking, when Hie Republican party called for the representatives from "the rural regions to got in line on any measure, as they were in the case of the anti-betting law. the result was almost a foregone conclusion. Now, however, there is a , change. The Republican party Is no" longer Jji power. The Democrats are in the saddle and then? is mure than a mere matter of gossip in the rumor that there may be some opposition to the appropriation for the county fairs. That it will be stricken from the list entirely is not likely, but that it will be reduced is among the possibilities,- ami the premiums to be offered for competitions at the various fairs will be limited according to the action taken. Added to this is the announcement that the reformers, having closed the race tracks in the vicinity of New York, where none of the directors inthese racing associations were willing to risk, a jail sentence through the operation of the personal liability law. are going to turn their attention to the county fails. Under n strict interpretation of the law as at present constituted, a conviction against any and every director of any fair association or race track would stand, oven though they used every endeavor to suppress speculation. It" Is only "becoming apparent at this late d-iv to the directors of the fair associations that thev. too. are included in the list of those who might be "indicted for something that they could not prevent. . Anybody who lias ever attended a county fair lias observed the numerous games of chance which arc part and parcel of such institutions and a fair where jwols are not sold on the trotting and pacing races, though it may be in a small way, would be a curi-fc sijy. rami copIc men. women and children look upon I lie count v fair as the great, holiday occasion of the vear. The men exhibit their line horses, cattle, hogs, sheep, chickens and the produce of their litlds. while the women make displays of butter, houey and the various specimens of fabrics wrought by their deft hands, ami the rivalry in the various communities is exceedingly strong. Any boy who has ever Ix-en in the country, and especially those who were reared oii a farm, milked the cows night and morning and helped to cut the hay. wheat, oats, barlev and other grain crops, knows that the one great promise held out to him as a reward for good conduct was that he would lie taken to the fair in the autumn. Everybody at the county if airs takes an interest hi the fat cattle, line hogs, pedigreed sheep and the iKiultry: but it is in the afternoon when the starters liell calls the freo-for-all class for ;i race on the half-mile track that all the other features are forgotten. The grandstand is crowded and all around the railing of the course eager faces a- dozen deep are massed nothing else Counts while the contest is on. The clown in the sideshow kuows this and relaxes his grimaces and antics for the moment, liven the fireworks in the evening are a secondary consideration and their beauty" is only ml -topic of discussion for a day or two. while the performances of some of the trotters or pacers are spoken of until the next fair comes around. The statement of the Rev. 0. U. Miller, the secretary of the Civic League, who declares that his organization will sec that the anti-betting law is rigidly enforced at all the ifair associations during the coming autumn, lias caused much perturbation in the country districts. President Wiswcll of the Saratoga Fair Association is one Ollicial who is on record already as stating that lie will take no chances of getting into trouble through the operation of the directors liability law. and there are others who feel the same way about it. The latest report available of the fair associations In the State of New York, shows that outside of the great State Fair at Syracuse very few of the associations have any money to their credit. It might be remarked that nearly every reiwrl made by the various associations has an itemized account of receipts and expenditures. The word "privileges" occurs frequently. This might mean restaurant. popcorn, lemonade, program cards, or it might include the poolseller. which it often did. Nobody objected particularly to the poolseller so long as he was not forbidden by the law. but this year he is likely to get soiuelKidy into trouble if the directors liability law is enforced.
