Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-08-03
THE GRANGE AND THE STATE FAIR

The Worthy Master Of the State Grange
has written letter to the official organ of
the Order. inviting attention TO the APP
preaching State Fair and the premiums
offered for county exhibits While the
amount IS less than was desired and advo-
Gated by the State Grange, Master Coulter
thinks that perhaps it is as large a sum as
was. under the circuh.SS:anccs, prudent and
safe TO appropriate Is is not, he says. an
Insignificant amount, and should excite
honorable and wide competition. Regard
ing the Agricultural Board, he recalls that
it has been at heavy expense in COM
pleting and fitting the new Pavilion, and
that it is still in debt. Upon the subject of
racing he says Those who are disposed
to inl fault point to large purses offered in
connection with the speed programme, and
forget TO mention that very large
percentage of the purses is derived from
The entrance fee of the contestants When
those who find fault with the Board for the
prominence given to horse racing shall
make the display in the Pavilion so attractive
and interesting as to allure the crowd from
the race course. they will find the manage
ment ready to yield to their demands
HI then proceeds to point out that while
the Grange is opposed to horse-racing, its
members should remember that q very
| large portion Of the citizens of the State,
who pay taxes for the support Of the Fair
are as warmly in favor Of speed contests,
| and loudly declaim of the folly Of "squan-
dering large sums of State money for the
exhibition of beets and pumpkins and
quilts and petticoats."
The master closes his address with the
| advice to the gTangers to 60 to work with a
determination 10 make their end of the
State Fair so attractive that everybody will
be SO interested in its inspection as
TO forget to 80 to the races" We can
| do it, he adds. Undoubtedly the Ques-
ton OF the supremacy of one or the other
branch Of the exhibition depends upon
the public taste and that in turn
is cultivatable and changeable. The advo-
Gates of the sides are apt TO be extremists
in this matter. To reduce tests of speed to
| mere gambling schemes is wholly objec-
tionable, but to abandon them utterly be-
cause they are subject to abuse is as great
folly. The breeding of fine horse stock
| promises to do for California what the blue
| grass region has done for Kentucky Con-
tests of speed to test and develop capacities
OF animals yariously bred, as well rs con-
l - Of . z
bred animals in competition, are not at all
| likely 10 be abandoned They need not
necessarily he handicapped by gambling
schemes When breeders refuse to permit
their stock to be made the instruments for
the use of gambling jockeys and their
hackers to fleece the public they will do the
State great service. But it is not always
possible for them to do So Very many do
now their utmost to prevent the people
Ibeing swindled upon races by their ami
FINALS. The distinction between the premi-
una Offered for exhibition of fine stock and
the premium offered for the speedicst ami
NAL is not very broad. This question has
long and will long be debated. We be-
lieve with the Master of the Grange
that the way to render jockeying gambling
and the misuse of speed contests of least
| moment, is to make the other features of
| the fair Supremacy attractive. Speed ex-
hibitions and contests that are genuine are
| essential to the cultivation of fine stock, in
which the State has such prominence now,
and will never be abandoned. Reforms can
be worked against the methods employed
by the constituencies jockeying class to
fleece the public and make horse races
denominations, and they viii come IN due
time