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To Thresh Out Dispute At Meeting on Sunday HBPA Committee and Lindheimer To Take Up -Agreement Matter By J. J. MURPHY Staff Correspondent WASHINGTON PARK, Homewood, HI., June 9.— The meeting of the midwestern Branch of the Horsemens Benevolent and Protective Association held at Washington Park following the races Friday failed to produce anything of a sensational or heatedly argumentative nature. In fact, it was anti-climatical with the real issue, the protest against the proposed agreement between the Arlington Park management and the horsemen, to be threshed out tomorrow morning at 10:00 oclock at Arlington Parks Chicago offices. At that time a committee of HBPA members and Ben L. Lindheimer, head of Arlington and Washington Parks, will meet to talk over the situation. Mr. Lindheimer was an absentee from Fridays meeting due to illness but was represented by Bernard J. Fallon, president of Washington Park; John D. Jackson, general manager of Arlington and Washington Parks, and Al Meserow, attorney for both tracks. Robert O. Read, of Columbus, Ohio, national president of the HBPA, did most of the talking for his organization. Ahrmt. 150 TTRPA members were nresent when the meeting was opened by Harold Hoffman, secretary-treasurer of the mid-western division, who introduced Read. The latter stated that the proposed agreement or rule which appears in the first Arlington Park condition book was not new to him. He had read, it when the TRA put it in operation for a brief period in 1943 he said. It was rescinded after a few months. Read, an attorney, stated the rule was unenforcible if only because of the 24-hour stall vacating clause. He said "Three days notice must be given to vacate and suit must then follow." He termed the proposed agreement a "veiled threat" and recommended that it be stricken from the condition book. Fallon and Meserow replied for the track. Meserow, also an attorney, cited the ,500,000 racing program and said the management was merely trying to protect itself and their investment in these uncertain times. He stated any problems between horsemen and management were always open to discussion as far as the management was concerned and if the horsemen were not satisfied with the purse distribution that could be discussed also, providing an increase in business warranted. Fallon stated the rule or agreement as he chose to call it, was merely a protective measure on the part of the racing association and that purses for the first eight days of the coming Arlington Park meeting had been increased 4,000 over last year as a gesture of good faith. He stated he approved the appointment of a committee of HBPA members to meet with Lindheimer and, although the latter was unable to be-in the gathering, his Fallons presence and that of Messrs. Jackson and Meserow was mute evidence of the racing associations desire to work in harmony with the horsemen. "The thing Continued on Page Forty-Two HBPA Committee to Confer With Lindheimer on Sunday Continued from Page Three about racing is thai all should co-opei ate," he said, and he assured HBPA men bers that Lindheimer would be delighted i meet with a committee, from their grou Jackson did not address the meeting. Al Gaal, a director of ~ the midwestei division of the HBPA, moved that a con mittee be appointed to meet with Mr. Lint heimer, and William Hal Bishop, via president of the division, named Howa] Wills, J. P. Sallee, John McShane, Tomn Root and Jake Lowenstein to that commi tee. Bishop stated he had talked wil Stuyvesant Peabody, Jr., chairman of tl Illinois Racing Board, and the latter hi stated the board was neutral in the mattt During the course of. the evening a tel gram from Michigan horsemen was re$ pledging their full support, while chairnu Read stated that all other divisions of tl HBPA were solidly behind the midweste: branch in their protest. It was stated 1 HBPA member Joseph Bilberry that mai horsemen had already signed the agre ment but chairman Read pointed out th as the agreement was unenforcible the signature was no commitment. The sessii adjourned with Monday being designat as the tentative date for the meeting b tween the horsemens committee and and Lindheimer.
