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GITTINS BILL GOES OYEE FINAL ACTION DEFERRED UNTIL SEPTEMBER ON RACING RELIEF MEASURE. i Friends of Proposed Legislation To Continue Their Efforts In Its Behalf During Midsummer Recess of the Legislature. 1 Albany, N. Y., July The Legislature last night took 11 recess until September and the Oittins bill, designed to relieve directors of race tracks from criminal liability for violations of the gambling laws of wheh they have no knowledge, goes over until that time. A thorough canvass of the Assembly yesterday disclosed the probability that the bill would lack four votes of the number required to send it to the governor for approval, and rather than risk Anal defeat its friends decided to let the issue remain in satu quo until the Legislature! reconvenes in .September. So there will be no racing at Saratoga this season and perhaps none at any of the other New York tracks, since the legislative relief, if it does materalizc, will come so late in the year that it may not be considered worth while to reopen the tracks this season. In the interim between now and the reconvening of the Legislature in September both friends and foes of the proposed legislation undoubtedly will bring all the influence to bear ou doubtful members of the Assembly that they can. There arc 150 members of the Assembly and it requires 7i allirmative votes to pass a bill in the House. There were 34 members absent on the roll call on the Gittins bill. As soon as the vote of 53 aves to 03 nays was announced Thursday Majority Leader Alfred E. Smith moved to reconsider the vote by which the bill was lost, for the purpose of calling it up again in a final effort to pass it. This motion was adopted without comment. The Republicans who voted for the bill were As-. .semblvnien Jones of Jefferson. Nolan and Waters of k Albany, Pappert of Monroe. The Democrats who op-msed the bill were Assemblymen Beach. Briden-Riccker, Chanler, Collin, Day, Drummond, Evans, Geuton, Gurnott, Hoyt. Huber. Larue, McDa.iiels, Miller, Saunders, Trombly and Wheeler. Those absent or present and not voting were: WL Democrats Assemblymen Dlauvelt, Rush. Cosad, F Dawson, Donovan, Egan, Fitzpatrick, Fry. Gerhardt, Glllen, Holman, Monczynski, J. J. ONeill, Patrie, Schlfferdcekor, Shiede, Washburn, Zorn, Speaker Frisble. Republicans Assemblymen Ahern. Drerton. Con-nell, Goodman, Ilinman. Lincoln, J. S. Parker. C. W. Phillips, Pierce. Sullivan, Talmage, F. A. Waiters, White. Winters. Independence League OConuor. The debate oil the bill was practically a repetition of the discussion on the Gittins bill in the Sen ate. Assemblyman Oliver arraigned the foes of the bill so severely that former Llent.-Gov. Chanler, who was in the chair at the time, insisted that Mr. Oliver would have to eliminate personalities. Assemblymen A. J. Levy and Sliortt discussed the present law and the Gittins amendment from .1 legal standpoint. They insisted the statute which made officials of racing associations or of any other body guilty of crime when they had no knowledge of it was radically unfair. Mr. Shortt insisted he knew the supporters of all the anti-race track gambling legislation of the past and knew they were inspired by commendable efforts. He felt,, however, that in this instance they had gone too far and that lie was compelled by a sense of fairness to support the Gittins bill. Assemblyman Oliver, in supporting the bill, said that the present law had been secured by bribery upon the part of county fair associations and Grange societies throughout the state. Forty were bought by the state by appropriating .50,000 for which the people are taxed and today the county fairs are infested with shell games, card sharps and skin games of various kinds, that he had no sympathy for gamblers, but believed this bill should receive the united support of every member who had the courage of his own convictions on the subject. Among other meinlers who spoke in advocacy of the 1111 were Majority Leader A. E. Smith, Louis A. Cuvillier. Joseph A. Warren, Peter P. McElligot and Edward Weil. Leader of the Minority E. A. Merritt made a siecch in opposition, as also lid Murray of New York City and Frank L. Young of Westchester. Minority Leader Merritt declared that horse racing in this state could never be conducted without gambling. People up in St. Lawrence county, he said, did not care much for horse racing, anyway, and they were opposed to any interference with the laws which might encourage gambling. Assemblyman J. S. Phillips of Allegany expressed similar sentiments, which brought the suggestion from Mr. Oliver that the people in St. Lawrence and Allegany counties never got any further away from home than the county fairs and knew nothing about big cities ami horse racing. Majority Leader Smith insisted that millions of dollars worth of property tied up iu the race tracks was only one reirson why a great majority of the I!fiple wanted racing to continue. Lawyers of all political parties, he insisted, agreed that the Gittins bill was a sane proposition which ought to be enacted Into law. v All day yesterday the friends of the bill worked hard with the idea of calling it from the table in the Assembly and voting a second time on it, but after the last canvass had been made by Senator Gittins, Assemblyman Alfred E. Smith and others who led the tight for the proposed legislation declared that it would be hopeless to bring the matter up again. "The votes arent here to pass it," said Assemblyman Smith, leader of the majority, "and why should we vote again? It takes 70 to pass it. Last night we lacked There are quite a few, I understand, wiio would vote with us now, hut not enough. The great trouble is that many of the Assemblymen here, while knowing that the Gittins bill is good legislation, and being entirely in sympathy with what it seeks to do, are afraid of a little alleged sentiment in their districts. They are afraid of their shadows. They hare not the courage to do what they know to-be right." Senator Gittins fully expected the measure would go through the Assembly. In fact, he, like some f others, thought the real danger lay in the Senate "1 cant understand." said he, " why it should not pass. It was not designed to aid the bookmakers, but merely to give race track owners and directors a fair deal. As the law now stands they cannot be expected to keep the tracks open because there is hound t Ik; betting, no matter how vigilant and conscientious the police authorities may be, and if there is betting the directors may lie sent to prison, oven if they were in Honolulu or Shanghai when it was going on."
