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HITS AT TROTTING AS WELL AS RACING Suggestion cf Powerful Corporate Influence Behind the Sims Sterling Bill Who is behind the SimsSterling bill The answer is easy It is the socalled reform ele ¬ ment restlessly active In tlio endeavor to legislate moralily into the public whether it will or no As a matter of fact raring of nil kinds attended by betting or not is hated by the professional reformer And there is every reason to believe that if the SimsSterling bill becomes a law it will be only the entering wedge and will speedily be followed by other measures intended in other ways to put racing out of business irrespective of betting lit the hist analysis a nationwide cru ¬ sade is not at all unlikely for the purpose of biinning it altogether in any form Things parallel have been attempted and in some instances car ¬ ried through throughIut Iut the reform element is obviously not tho only one behind the SimsSterling bill There is every reason to believe that the enormous leverage of motor propaganda is also being employed TIis ultimate purpose of hose in control of the motor industry is avowedly the relegation of the horse to the realm of museum exhibits This has been publicly proclaimed innumerable times by motor spokesmen As long as any interest In racing sur ¬ vives as long as racing remains popular and be lovPd as an outdoor sport and pastime the elim ¬ ination of the horse is by just that much delayed A great many millions of dollars in the aggregate several billions in all probability are today in ¬ vested in the horse industry of the Tinted States of America counting all different ramifications from the race track to the army and the plow horse to the city cxpressor The professed pur ¬ pose of motor propaganda is to not only drive the horse off the street but off the farm as well and in fact to remove him absolutely and en ¬ tirely Kvery means is being pushed toward that end in order that the motor octopus may fasten its tentacles upon the money which is now in vested in horses but from its point of view be ¬ longs to itself itselfThe The task of fighting two such powerful and un swHpiiioiis nuwrsariCN us me pioressionarrelornier and motor piopaganila is indeed a formidable one and it is no wonder that the levoteos of racing and of the horse are watching the development of affairs at Washington with the utmost solicitude We regret to say however that thus far none of our harness racing organizations has made any stir in the matter whatever being apparently oblivious of the menace and their duty to min U Every tMng has been loft to the thoroughbred interests and these well and powerfully i ianisul as they long have been are putting up a good flslit against the SimsSterling bill and doing their best to con virce those congressional committees notably that on interstate and foreign commerce of the un ¬ fairness the lack of justice or equity to say noth ¬ ing of the positively oppressive features inherent in it and its enforcement as 1 federal statute statuteIt It is probable Unit in no other country in the world making any pretense to a liberal dnd thor ¬ oughly democratic form of government would such a measure as the SimsSterling bill receive a mo ¬ ments consideration from the lawmakins pow ¬ ers Only in this one is the idea ralnpant that morality can be legislated into a periple against their will or indeed in any way That betting upon a horse race is immoral is however some ¬ thing that lias never been established except by the reformers and their interest iu the matter when it reaches such a status as the SimsSterling bill is anything but disinterested Iteform with such people is neither a purpose nor a passion but simply a profession from which they derive their livelihood And as fast as one re f 01 m is either achieved or Ise definitely shown to be unattainable another is taken up not in re ¬ sponse to any public demand but purely as a matter of business The Horse Hcview
