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p B _ to , „ f, i _. t] t] m 0j of n , £ be 1, J. „ «. J! in * C jt r. t I b I I o fi in j J ! J 1 J I I t • a t t s t I , ] j j j , , . I POLITICIANS ARE DEFIED BUSINESS MENS RACING ASSOCIATION WILL MANAGE ITS AFFAIRS IN ITS OWN WAY. Governor of Louisiana, Informed Thai the Coming New Orleans Meeting Will Be Strictly on Last Winters Lines. New Orleans, La., December 15. — "Tliere will be absolutely no change in the iiolicy adopted by the Business Mens Racing Association last winter in the management of its racing this winter. We raced forty days then and, at the conclusion of the meeting, the grand jury in a written report stated that the Locke law nor any other law of the state had been violated. With that record there is no reason why anyone should tbink we mean to do anything this winter in contravention the law. "Under the terms of my contract with the Business Mens Raring Association I have the right to appoint all officials and once appointed they are to immune from the influence of any officer. No person has ever been appointed to a position on tho track by anyone but myself, and no one will be. I am a stranger here, to some extent. I have no political affiliations and will have none. No greater curse could befall the racing than to have it mixed politics. It was the attempt to elect Harry Hawes governor over Folk that destroyed racing in Missouri, my own state. It was the interference with politics and a personal quarrel with Governor Johnson by Tom Williams that destroyed racing in California. Mixing in politics has done more to injure racing than all the professional agitators and reformers in the world. I have determined from the lieginning that if that is the rook on which the Business Mens Racing Association is split, it will be with some one else at the helm besides myself." "I have already appointed my main officials. shall in the next few days appoint all the minor ones. Those already appointed are published in the first book of the meeting and have been published the press. As the others are appointed, they will bo published and a list furnished the governor, the local officials and anyone else who wants them. Those who worked last year and gave satisfaction will be reappointed. They were appointed purely from the viewpoint of efficiency ami the same liolicv will lie continued in the new appointments. take it that the Business Mens Racing Association does not owe anybody anything. It has never declared a dividend and. as no stockholder has over 00 worth of stock, even if it declared a dividend of 100 iier cent., no one holding stock would feel that he had an investment. "The policy " of the Association has been that every officer. every official and everyone who puts foot on the race track, shall live strictly up to the laws as defined by the proper authorities. This we will live up to strictly. In justice to local and state politicians. I wish to state that not one of them has ever attempted to influence any appointment by me." The above statement by Joseph A. Murphy came as a result of Governor Halls expressed desire twlav that the race track lie kept free from political affiliations or the injection of politics into the racing at the Fair Grounds, which is scheduled to begin January 1. For several days rumors have been rife that local politicians would wield weighty influences to secure for their henchmen soft berths at tho track during the term of racing. This aroused tlie governors ire and he made it patent to tlie management that he did not propose to have the race track used as a political instrument. While some of the more timid horsemen regard the new nhase inimical to the racing, those who are closely in touch with the situation aver that there is nothing to be alarmed over, and that the entire affair will be clarified and adjusted within the next forty-eight hours.
