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CANADIAN VIEW OF A LIVE TOPIC. Whether or not the Horsemens Protective Association, an organization composed of American horse owners, should agree to the compromise offered by the Second Circuit in the matter of purses, or whether the dead-lock continues, and racing is abruptly stopped, the high-handed attitude of the Association stands out as one of the most ill-judged and flagrantly-grasping actions which the already wobbling racing has had to contend with. The Association could not have chosen a worse time to practically "stiek up" the track owners for the present demand is little less than a hold-up. The sport of racing is already regarded with a lionc-too-friendly eye in influential circles. Claims by the horsemen of the large profits derived by the tracks must inevitably result in the imposition of a war tax which will make racing impossible, or force a still further reduction of purses. Despite what the gentlemen of the Protective Association have to say, racing on the half-mile - and other tracks is not today the lucrative sport it was two years ago, before the war started. The almost fabulous earnings of that time have been reduced to a comparative meager basis. The half-mile tracks depend upon the syndicate betting rings for their earnings, and the betting of today is far below the volume of halcyon days prior to the war. Money is still being made, but the tracks are gambling as well as the public. A plunge by the public on a winning horse in any syndicate ring hereabouts cannot be wilted out, and replaced with a surplus as it could a few years ago with the winnings of the next day, or perhaps of the next race. The horse owners should be aware of that fact. The trouble seems to be that the possibilities of their recent organization has, like new wine, gone to the heads of some of the owners, and that regardless of the future of racing, they believe they can, by their own combined efforts, force compliance with their demands. There is another point which the horsemen, in their grab-all fight, appear to have overlooked. Supposing the purses are raised. With increased purses will come to the half-mile tracks an influx of those owners whose strings are not quite good enough for the Major Circuit, but just a little too good for the present half-milers. Then the owners who are fathering the present agitation will be obliged to sit back and watch these new-comers gathering in the fattened purses which they fought to secure. "Let Well Enough Alone" is a pretty good motto. AVe heartily commend it to The Horsemens Protective Association. Montreal Herald.
