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DEMAND REVIVAL OFRACING BUSINESS INTERESTS OF NEW YORK SEE GREAT LOSS IN SPORTS SUSPENSION. False Sentiment Fostered by Professional Reformers Against Sport to Be Counteracted Hope for Relief in September. New York, July 25. "The failure of the Gittins bill relieving directors of racing associations from criminal liability for wagers made without their knowledge may be "a blessing in disguise," said a well-known race track owner yesterday. "While it is a severe hardship for Saratoga people to have no race meeting there next month, the harm done to citizens of that resort may serve to illustrate the necessity for legislative action in September. In my opinion racing won a victory entirely tinexpected when the Senate at Albany passed the Gittins bill by one vote. That .success gave us a foothold, and though the bill did not get through the Assembly, we hope to secure enough votes when that body reconvenes after the present recess. "The agitation over the Gittins bill has plainly shown that there is a popular demand for the revival of racing in this state. It is a fact that 10.000 letters were sent by local business men to Governor Dix asking him to sign the bill if It reached his bands. These citizens included merchants, bankers, brokers, lawyers, doctors, hotel proprietors, restaurant keepers, florists, tailors, taxicab owners, theater managers, cigar sellers, liquor dealers, motor car manufacturers, railroad officials and others. If 20,000 more had been necessary they could have been secured, but the original 10.000 batch showed that New Yorkers were anxious to have the tracks open, believing that racing would bring back millions of dollars to this city and restrain American millionaire turfmen from spending their money abroad. "These advocates of racing have simply begun the fight for legislation that will bo carried luto every city and town up the- state. Tho reformers have misrepresented the facts to many persons who never saw a horse" race and are horrified when they hear of so-called gajnbliug. The enemies of raciug have aroused a false sentiment that will soon be wied out. "The fact that business has been harmed and that fair-minded citizens have begun to realize that racing men are victims of persecution and bigotry will gradually offset the reform element. You cant stop betting whether it is on the result of a ball game, a glove fight, a football match, a rowing contest or a horse race. It isnt fair to say that you can wager 0 on the Giants against tho Cubs without being arrested, but that you must go to jail for wagering 0 that August Belmonts AVatervale will win a certain race. "Since the New York tracks closed a year ago Ill venture to say there has been more betting iu poolrooms in this city and up the state than ever before. The argument that the young clerk who stole his employers money to bet on the race track could no longer go astray when the Agnew-Perkins .bills were passed last year is an absurdity, for such wayward employees dont have to leave their duties .except to run around the corner to a poolroom or a handbook in some saloon. They can get as much action on the races iu Canada and Kentucky aa if the horses were running at Sheepshead Bay. "If a young man steals his employers nioney it is because he is crooked at heart. If he couldnt bet on a horse race hed find something else. I know hundreds of men who have followed the races for a quarter of a century who never stole a penny and whose word of honor can be depended upon with absolute confidence. "The cry against so-called gambling at race tracks lias been raised by two classes, persons who hava axes to grind or have personal grievances and other individuals who because of ignorance of the facts have been easily imposed upon. "The racing interests have abandoned the idea of ever permitting bookmaking again. They are satisfied to let the law which prohibits bookinaking with or without writing remain unchanged. That law alone prevents public gambling even on a small seale. Yet the reformers have insisted that tho Gittins measure would rcstorewido open gambling. Nothing could be more remote from the truth. "Enemies of the sport say that there is nothing to prevent racing if the track owners want to bar professional bettors at the gates. That is misleading. Under the present liability law every professional bookmaker and bettor could be barred at the track gates, yet the owners of the Gravesend track, for instance, could be indicted and possibly convicted if two "men from the district attorneys office quietly made a bet in the grandstand. Just let one raca track begin to operate under the present conditions, with the betting fraternity barred, aud seo how long the reformers would wait before trying to put up a job on the directors, even though the latter might be spending tho summer in South Africa. "The racing question is not a dead issue and in due time the general public will understand it better. Just at present, though, we are a" laughing atock Ik England and France where real freedom is enjoyed and meddlers arc curbed."
