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NEEDS OF AMERICAN RACING Judge Murphy Considers That Health 4Lives in Organization Governing Bodies Needed in Cen ¬ tral States West a Sleep ¬ ing Giant By Judge Joseph A Murphy AVe are at the dawn of a new day in western racing Tlie sport has come through the war with so much to commend it and with such a kindly feel ¬ ing toward it from those high in the councils of the army that if we can avoid the rocks that wrecked it before the future holds much that is good No better sign of the times is needed than the rebuke handed to Governor Folk in my own state We rolled up a majority of over 30000 against him in St Louis alone and it will carry home in his own State of Tennessee and his adopted State of Missouri initial storm centers in the cru ¬ sade against racing some years ago the settled conviction that the peoples of these states have tired of the regression that Governor Folk imposed I have believed for some time and still believe that we should have a western governing body My friends have asked me what there is for i western body to govern I am a firm believer in organization I have a Jockey Club of most sub ¬ stantial citizens of St Louis now in a nebulous state There is one in process of organization at New Orleans There should be one at Chicago Detroit and in Tennessee The heads of the se units could meet and weld together an organ could accomplish much If legislatures of the vari ¬ ous states are approached and asked for legislation favorable to the sport ic is a most natural question for them to ask into whose hands the sport is to fall If it is to be prostituted ami abused as it formerly vas with the gambling noT an incident to the racing but the racing itself not even raring people will want to see it revived If on the other hand an organization of substantial men could give legislatures uersoual assurance that any privileges granted would not be abused it would aid materi materiallj allj RACING IN WEST SLEEPING GIANT GIANTThen Then too there is a sleeping giant in the west illy organized and impotent through sheer weight of deadwood I refer to the Thoroughbred Horse ¬ mens Association It could be made a powerful agent for constructive things It should be liqui ¬ dated and reconstructed There are only three classes of men who should be members of a horse ¬ mens association viz breeders owners and train ¬ ers Jockeys are of necessity employes of horsemen and their interests can be looked after by their employers Bookmakers bettors and the followers of racing are not horsemen By no stretch of the imagination can a bookmaker be classed as a horse ¬ man He is a concessionaire like the peanut and hot dog man and is not an actor in the drama of racing Racing officials duties are to assume jurisdiction over horsemen in the enforcement and construction of rules and not to sit in their councils Newspaper men can serve their consciences better unfettered for criticism of acts of a horsemen s association than bound by the masonry of majority rule in things in which they have a voice voiceThis This is not cautious criticism but a bid for a pow ¬ erful ally in the great constructive program ahead If such a body is formed if it will keep within its own directory its great power for good and not weaken the whole fabric by delegating to irrespon ¬ sible committees the power to embarrass strugglin associations by calling public meetings that in ¬ evitably deteriorate into mere theaters for the ex ¬ ploitation of ersonal grievances it will become a most potent factor in western initiative and eventual government governmentWith With Jockey Clubs even in embryotic states in the various cities and the Horsemens Association house put iii order we will be ready to move actively A circuit of New Orleans Memphis Nashville Hot Springs St Louis Kansas City Chicago and De ¬ troit is in sight witli active cooperation with Ken ¬ tucky A dreamer say you The fruition of this is nearer than anyone thinks
