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PLAN FOR CONTINUATION OF RACING AT CHARLESTON WILL HAVE TO FACE OPPOSITION The recent announcement of General Manager Francis J Pons of the Charleston Fair and Racing Association that an attempt would be made to con ¬ tinue racing at Palmetto Park next winter has aroused the opponents of the sport at Charleston and the matter is being extensively ventilated in the columns of the Charleston press The News and Courier of Wednesday last devoted the following paragraphs to the subject Yes I think we will conduct races here in the future said Francis J Pons general manager of the Charleston Fair and Racing Association when he was asked the question by a reporter for The News and Courier I do not know positively tiliont racing next year Mr Pons continued Mint I think there is an opixirtunity to hold a race meeting here My lawyers advise me that we will be able to race raceAsked Asked just how it was intended to get around the law passed at the last session of the General Assembly prohibiting race track betting in this state after July 1 1012 Mr Pons said he did not know That he said was the lawyers business and it would be up to them He stated however that nmler the terms of the law he could conduct races here and still be lawabiding President John Marshall of the Charleston Fair and Racing Asso ¬ ciation declined to make any statement when the question was asked whether or not the association intended to hold another meeting here next season while President O G W Marjenhoff of the Charles ¬ ton Ad Cluli who has lieen one of the most enthu ¬ siastic of the merchants who have taken a stand in favor of the race track and who was asked the same question stated that he did not know whether or not the racing here would continue but that he hoped it would Other local men connected with or prominently advocating the race track could not be reached last night nightThe The report current among racing people here to the effect that the association will endeavor to hold a meeting next season starting perhaps on Thanksgiving Day is beginning to gain credence among the citizens in general Those who believe the report speak of fiaws in the law though they do not so far as has been learned state explicitly what these alleged Daws are supposed to he It is evidently the belief of many of the turf followers that the Act passed by the General Assembly has 1 loophole somewhere which will render possible the holding of another meeting hi Charleston Others who favor the continuance of racing In this city are of the opinion that the Charleston Fair and Racing Association may go ahead1 and hold a race meeting here next year and yet suffer no Inter ¬ ference for the reason that the law will not be en ¬ forced They point to the fact that the laws against the sale of liquor and against gambling of other sorts than race track gambling are disregarded every day and they appear to hope that the same will be true of the race track gambling law The belief is generally held among turfmen here that in Columbia also racing will be carried on next season the meeting there to be held in advance of the meeting here as was the cast this season seasonCharleston Charleston has uatla good taste of racing during the winter meeting of the Charleston Fair and Rac ¬ ing Association which will conic to a close April 2y and people here are now iu position to know from personal experience what a race meeting is like and what its effect Js upon the town in which it is held The observer however who discusses the matter with the citizens in general with a view to getting their opinion in the matter finds that sharp diversity of opinion exists On the one hand he is told by this arid that merchant that he has sold a far greater quantity of goods or commodities than would have been the case liad the race meeting not been held here He is told that the racing has been the salvation of the town from a financial standpoint and has more than offset the effects of the storm of August Others however take a dia metricully opposite view These maintain that while some merchants have benefited others and perhaps the majority have not been helped by the coming of the race track and its followers They declare that a desirable class of tourists which had been coming to Charleston in larger and larger numbers each year so that the town was fast becoming really a tourist town has fallen oft sadly this year largely for the reason that the hotels were filled with race track people and accommodations were not to be had hadThe The moral effect of tile race meeting now in progress upon the town is yet another question Certain it is that the expectation of many that the betting done at the track would be done practically entirely by the regular race track followers who flocked here from other cities has not been fulfilled The races have been largely attended by Charleston people and the great majority of those who have attended the races have not hesitated to wager money on the performances of the horses There have been reports from time to time of large sums won or lost at the track by local people It has also become the common practice of many of the ladies of Charleston who attend the meetings from time to time to place bets on the horses horsesThe The management of the race track Itself has been entirely free from disorder Racing men state that the conduct of the races has been good Rough riding and the fact that the stewards did not at once apply the penalty has led to some criticism and at one time a number of phonylooking races caused many to believe that the public was not being given a square deal These however oc ¬ curred during one comparatively short period and latterly there has been little talk of crooked work A race track writer who has had largo experience on many tracks gives it as his opinion that the meeting at Charleston has been on the whole a re ¬ markably gowl one This of course refers simply to the conduct of the races the conditions at the track and the class of horses that have raced here and does not touch either the question of whether cr not the meeting here has been a good thing for the town or whether the betting habit that it has engendered among the j eople in general lias done them moral injury It is moreover the opinion of one who is himself a race track follower and who hopes that the races will be held here again next season and it is quoted here simply as showing the opinion of a racing man regarding the quality of the racing held at Charleston CharlestonOn On one point the turf followers here seem to be agreed It is that it Charleston has racing next year a far larger numl er of race track people will come here than was the case this year and bad weather and several postponements of the meeting having kept many away awayMajor Major J C Hemphill editor of the Charlotte Observer following his recent visit to Charleston praised the race track highly in the editorial col ¬ umns of his paper and expressed the hope tlmt the state would not drive out horse racing Another editorial on the same general subject appeared iu the Observer of Wednesday and is as follows It is announced that the race meetings at Charleston will be continued from year to year the excellent management of this enterprise having im ¬ pressed many of those heretofore opposed to the racing business with the good faith of those conduct ¬ ing tills particular undertaking General Manager Pons said the other day that there would be another meeting next year predicting his prophecy doubt ¬ less on the fact that under proper control a racing enterprise Is in no sense opposed to good morals The Charleston correspondent in a dispatch to the New York Morning Telegraph says It is argued that with the town wide open and the authorities tolerant of the club rooms and gambling carried on in them against which there are laws far more drastic than those imposed on the race betting there is no good reason why a crusade against the race track should result This is one view to take of the matter There is another view the breeding of good liorses ought to be encouraged in every propeir way Speed aiid endurance are qualities that are developed on the race course The booking and the gambling are not the chief aim of the sport Mcn like to take chances and they will take chances on almost everything This may not be a creditable thing in human nature but It is in human nature just the same A race course on which there is no jockeying a race course conducted under the rules of the New York Jockey Club and conducted as the Charleston course has been conducted is an enter ¬ prise which should be encouraged because It has been of large advantage in a financial way to the community and it lias afforded the wholesome amuse ¬ ment to many thousands of worthy people Of course the winter meeting at Charleston will not be held next year unless it can be held according to law but the meeting this season has been so well manaired that it may be the Legislature will provide at its next session such regulation for the conduct of the enterprise as will restore in a sense the dig ¬ nity of this sport of kings at least it is hoped so On Thursday the News and Courier printed the following The statement of Mr Pons looks very much like a breach of faith with the General Assembly which in passing a law prohibiting race track betting in this state refrained from making this law operative at once because the representatives of the race truck at Charleston stated that all they asked was that they be allowed to carry on the present meeting until its close so as to prevent great financial loss to those whose money was invested in the enterprise To say that there is any loophole In the present law whereby racing may be carried on here in the future is absurd absurdThis This was the crihiment made yesterday by Repre ¬ sentative II L Erekmnnn one of the leaders In the legislative fight against the race track in reference to the statement of Francis J Pons general manager of the track at Palmetto Park that he thought the Charleston Fair and Racing Asociation would con ¬ tinue to conduct races here and that the terms of the law were such that racing could be carried on legally legallyC C Bissell Jenkins president of the CamcrbnBark ley Company one of the most prominent among the merchants here who opposed the establishment of the race track at Charleston said yesterday in refer ¬ ence to the statement made by Mr Pons that in his opinion there was no doubt that the law against race track betting would be enforced and not winked at Should an effort be made to race here next season said Mr Jenkins those who made the attempt would discover at once that the opponents of the race track were in earnest and that they would see to It that the law was carried out outThe The statement of Mr Pons printed in The News and Courier of yesterday excited much interest among citizens in general The report that an attempt would be made to have racing here next season in spite of the law yhich prohibits race track betting after July 1 1012 has been heard frequently of late and the statement of Mr Pons was taken as confirmation of the rumor Some however ap lieared to lie incredulous and discounting the hints at Haws iu the present law which fiaws it is said might permit of technically legal racing in this city and state suggested that Mr Pons was speak ¬ ing for himself and not with the authority of the Charleston Fair and Racing Association and that while the association might make an effort to have racing here next season It would not do so by eva ¬ sion of the law recently enacted John Marshall president of the association was asked yesterday whether he had any comment to make regarding the matter hut Mr Marshall declined to say anything for publicationJust publication Just how much Charleston capital is involved in tha Palmetto Park race track enterprise Is not known though it is understood tliat more than half of the money invested is of local origin This money is said to belong to twelve or fifteen men whose names President Marshall has declined to divulge
