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ADVOCATES THE PARI-MUTUELS. I It has at last dawned en the War Department that the absolute killing of raring, thereby driving tin breeder! of lhaioaghlinil boraea out of boslaesa, and the shipment of nearly all of tie magniti- i nt breeding studs to other countries means a state of [ affairs most disastrous to the army, for an army without horses would l e about as useful in time of war as a warship without ammunition. While it is ] true that the chief cause of the legislation so hos tile to racing whieli has been enacted in many states resulted from the avarice of the managers of the big running tracks and their senseless tactics in permitting the bookmakers to become a dominant tactOT in raring affairs, it is equally true that there was no necessity to legislate ttie sport out of existence, in order to put the bookmakers out of business; and tin- general abandonment of the breeding of thoroughbred horses, which is bound to leave the country helpless in case of war. is likely to cause a reversal of public opinion on the racing question In the near future. So far as the bookmaker is concerned, however, there is neither wish nor Chance : for his reinstatement as a racing factor. That per sons so inclined will continue to wager their mom y is something no one can successfully dispute. If they do not do it on horse racing, they will on football. baseball, the result of the election, or any one of the hundreds of occurrences which offer the opportunity. That racing will have to be encouraged. however, is a foregone conclusion in view of the report to Congress of Major General Leonard Wood, in which he plainly states the position in which th abandonment of thoroughbred breeding in this country lias placed the War Department. Just how racing will he reinstated as a great national sport is difficult to state, but that it will come into its jwn again is almost certain. At present the most reasonable solution of the question is to be found in the method of wagering now permitted in Kentucky and that has been adopted by some of the prominent racing associations in Canada, the pari-mutnel system, by which the bookmaker and his ilk are eliminated entirely, that portion of the public which desires to make wagers on the result of the races doing so through the medium of the pari-mutuel machines. It would have been an easy matter in New York and other states where racing was practically legislated out of existence to have saved legitimate racing and the big breeding establishments, and at the same time put the bookmakers as surely out of business as has been done, and by so doing the War Department would not have been placed in the position it is now. a position which is a very serious one. as General Woods report to Congress shows. — Horse Shoers Journal.
