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HORSEMEN DOING THEIR BIT"! Kentucky Turfmen io Plan Extensive Aid to Red Cross. John E. Madden, H. P. Headley and Other Prominent Breeders Taking Active Part. Lexington, Ky., December 17. After consulting today, at Paris, with Messrs. T. II. Talbot, vice-chairman of this Kentucky State Racing Commission, Cutesby Woodford, vice-president of the Kentucky Association, and over "the phone with Messrs. Diaries F. Grainger, president of the New Louisville Jockey Club and member of the Kentucky State Racing Commission; John Hachmeister, general manager of the Latonia and Douglas Park Jockey Clubs, and Judge Allie W. Young, member of tile Kentucky State Racing Commission, Arthur It. Hancock, vice-president of The Thoroughbred Horse Association, announced that a meeting will be held at the Phoenix Uotel here next Saturday afternoon at 1:30 oclock. The purpose of the meeting is fo lay the ground work, out of which it is hoped will grow a stipulated contribution from the race tracks and horsemen to the American Red Cross, for each day of racing at every track in the United States during the remainder of the war, beginning with January 1, 1918. Every racing association in the country is invited to have representation here, likewise every horseman is invited to express his views in some form to the meeting. Tiiose who cannot be present are asked to write or wire their approval of the proposal to give a specified per cent, whether it be five or ten per cent, of their purse and stake winnings. "Every man who reads and thinks about what lie reads is, 1 am sure, alive to the needs of the American Ited Cross on account of the war in Europe," said Mr, Hancock. "Every such man must know that those needs will be ever increasing until the end of the war. I take it that every man who is interested in the ownership of race tracks in -this country and in the breeding" and lacing of horses reads and thinks, therefore I urge them to come together for daily contribution of a percentage of their earnings. I am suggesting to the track owners that they give ten per cent of their gross receipts from all sources and to breeders that they give ten per cent of the sum they receive for eacli yearling they sell for a price above 00 and to the owners that they give five per cent of all money they earn in stakes and purses and trainers and jockeys five per cent of the sums they earn in excess of their salaries, which would mean the commissions the trainers are paid on the winnings of horses they train and extra fees received by jockeys from owners of horses they ride. SYSTEMATICAL CONTRIBUTIONS URGED. "It is a patriotic duty we should discharge, but aside from that I deem it a movement necessary to refute the charges that have been and are being made by reformers that race tracks are mere gambling devices and that those who breed, race and train and ride horses, together witli those who attend the races, are for the greater part mere gamblers with no thought of God and country. As individuals we have contributed thousands of dollars to the Red Cross, but to refute the calumnious statements that have been made and are being made against our industry as breeders and our sport as turfmen, we must make our contributions systematically and as a group. I will be glad to hear from all American turfmen upon my proposal to the end that we may soon get together and work out something tangible and certain." Kentucky horsemen, barkening to President "Wilsons call for at -least ten million more, are lxost-ing the membership in the American Red Cross. Their plan is to subscribe for membership for themselves and each of their employees and pay their subscriptions to the solicitors, who are assigned to the locality in which they live. They . are listing their subscriptions with Thomas It. Cromwell, sectary of the Thoroughbred Horse Association. The largest number of memberships for men working with horses, was seventy-five taken by John E. Madden, master of Hamburg Place, who now has the distinction of being the most extensive breeder of thoroughbreds in the world. He is the owner of more horses of that breed than any one man. He also is a breeder of trotting horses and, in addition, maintains training establishments for both runners and trotters. Hal Price Headley, master of Beaumont and La Belle Farms, will pay for ninety-eight memberships and these include his tobacco warehouse and grain elevator employees. Arthur B. Hancock, proprietor of Claiborne and Ellerslie Studs, pay for thirty-seven; Charles II. Berryman, president of the Thoroughbred Horse Association, twenty-five; Thomas C. McDowell, owner of Ashland Stud, twenty; J. O. Keene, owner of Keeneland Stud, fifteen; John S. Barbee of Glen Helen Stud, fifteen; J. C. Milam, twelve; Gallaher Bros., eight; Tlios. Piatt, six. The list will be vastly extended . before the campaign closes.
