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LIBERTYVILLE RA CING HAS ENDED Meeting at the Half Mile Track in inLake Lake County Declared Off by byProfitless Profitless Promoters Tlio Libertyville racing venture died a natural death yesterday That is as it should be It was out of joint with sport and was only started for the purpose of profiteering by betting The betting was by mechanical device the opening day Such betting is doubly illegal as gambling under an old statute and gaming by mechanical device under a new one Attorney General Brundage stopped the totalisator feat ¬ ure after one days racing which was attended by a holiday crowd of less than 1000 people drawn to the Libertyville track by curiosity and love of racing and betting The speculation of the second days racing and since was by the oral method and probably perfectly legal unless its operators were noisy and persistent professionals professionalsThe The establishment at Libertyville with a ramshackle country fair track no accommodations and poor stables was utterly inadequate to modern racing crowds What there was of the racing was clean and good but too shabby for continuance The halfmile track itself was safe and good Racing on halfmile courses with the proper color and tools is quite attractive to the eye But the color and tools were lacking at Libertyville Therefore it is quite proper that it has stopped Had the promoters been game enough to have gone on faced the oral betting angle in the courts and been willing to stand the incidental financial pinch racing might have benefited by the Libertyville movement badly as it was organized As it is there is only a racing lesson left leftChicago Chicago is a big and splendid town Many of its inhabitants of good class love racing and its specu ¬ lation and health Horse racing without some betting Is not profitable to nearly the point of paying the cost of exhibition because without betting profitable attendance is not possible Well regulated specula ¬ tion over horse contention and the superiority of one splendid and wellbred animal over others is not un ¬ healthy The problem of what is regulated speculation over horse racing has been met by the Jockey Club of New York and solved It has been decided by the courts of the State of New York that as many bets as one chooses to makc can be made between individuals who do not operate from a place or publicly record such bets Such decisions have been repeated by the courts courtsWhatlS WhatlS lawTii New Yorkmay be law in Illinois and it is perfectly obvious that should the friends of racing organize test the present Illinois law and decisions none too stalwart or sharp in their lines unrecorded and individual bets would be giveu legal sanction They are made in every corner of sport in every corner of the land daily without condemnation by public opinion or police interference interferenceThe The day is coming when Oils organized straightening out of the racingbetting problem will be solved in Illinois as it has been solved in New York But it must be made by representative citizens merchants and publicspirited men of high repute over a racing organization and a racing establishment such as were those of the dead and gone but splendid Washington Park Club Such a movement for such an or ¬ ganization is in the clean Chicago mind and when it comes the gambling and gaming device laws of Illinois will be tested and found not to apply to such regulated betting as such racing by such an organi ¬ zation would be sure to bring Racing with professional betting for profit by the old guard which once got hold of great sums through their operations is out of joint with the times Though they do not seein to know it such people are not wanted in any future Chicago racing racingIt It does not seem to be possible to gain legislation in favor of betting by machine or otherwise in modern legislatures But that is not necessary The law can be kept and respected as it stands It is only a question of reasonable operation without profit from the betting attendant on racing after the law has been expounded by the courts courtsDally Dally Racing Form thinks that it knows what racing in Illinois needs It opposed the Libertyville meeting with mechanical betting because it was doubly illegal and because its promoters were not calcu ¬ lated to bring a healthy racing child into the Chicago racing world It would have supported a healthily built racing organization with individual betting on the results of its races The Libertyville venture was not in the hands of such an organization It was always far out of Joint with the law Therefore it is good that it has gone
