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TEXAS ADVOCATES HOPEFUL Ragsdale Bill Beaten, but Turf Gains New Adherents. Measure to Restore Racing Defeated by Small Margin in House State Losing Much Needed Revenue. AUSTIN, Texas, April 4 Although apparently defeated so far as this session of the legislature is concerned, advocates of racing in Texas made a tremendous gain in legislative support. The Ragsdale bill late yesterday failed to kill a motion to table, losing by 67 to 60. When the repeal bill passed .the House in 1937 it was, by a majority of about 4 to 1. The only chance to bring up the bill again in the House this session would be by a two-thirds vote. The racing forces are not very hopeful of this but they are. encouraged toward ultimate success by the closeness of yesterdays voting. It is significant that representatives of the four cities near tracks at which major racing was previously conducted, voted 12 to 5 on the side of racing. SUBSTITUTE BILL. A substitute bill had been offered, designed to eliminate objections raised as to the constitutionality of the original draft stressed in the recent opinion of Attorney-General Mann. The substitute was accepted by the House, 75 to 56. Again the foes of racing, led by Representative Bradbury, who sponsored one of the repeal bills in 1937, attacked the sport on moral grounds. Bradbury was answered by Representatives Ed Winfree and Ragsdale, author of the bill. Ragsdale told the House that the breeding industry in Texas alone represented an investment of 0,000,000, that ,000,000 in insurance was in force and that ,000,000 is spent annually on improvements. Some who had studied the provisions of the Ragsdale bill had predicted that the state would have received a revenue of ,000,000 annually. Six per cent of the mutuel pools, plus half of the "breakage," would have gone to the state. "We had to borrow 00,000 to pay pensions because racing was repealed," Winfree reminded the legislators.
