The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-05-21
WESTERN UNION IS
STRONGER THAN LAW
President CIowry's Order Did
What Law Couldn't
WIRES ARE NOW REMOVED
No Matter What Judge Feagin's De-
cision May Be, There Can Be No
Calling of of Races Under
the Sweeping Order.
WIRES ARE NOW REMOVED

The Western Union Telegraph company
has proven stronger than the mighty
arm of the law in Alabama.
For almost a year the law has been
graph company and the alleged pool
room it was operating.
Several days ago President Clowry of
the Western Union, issued an order which
has been more far-reaching than the
law, and which has caused a cessation of
they're on from one end of the coun-
try to another.
The effect of this order has been felt
throughout Alabama as we'll as other
places, and now the pool rooms are
without "tickers' to tell the eager ones
how the ponies are running. Quietly the
instruments were removed from the places
where there were any chances of getting
race results and now there is no known
system by which the results can be Sc
cured.
Local Pool Room Affected.
The local pool room was closed pend
ing decision of Judge Feagin on the
constitutionality of the city ordinance
prohibiting the posting or calling of race
results in places to which the public was
admitted. The decision of the judge has
not yet been made. and there is a great
deal of doubt as to what the decision
will be.
While this was pending, the order OF
President Clowry put a stop to all chances
OF the pool room opening again. In
structions have been sent to the man.
ayers in every city that they must take
their wires out of all places where it
was possible to get race results; that
they must watch the wires of all bucket
shops and see that no race news was
sent over them All private wires of
every kind are also to be watched, and
thus no means Of sending race news
can be had.
Here and elsewhere the pool room oper-
ators expect that they will be able to de-
wise some method of getting around this
order, but 1t is believed they are going to
find it extremely hard.
Could Send CIPHER Messages.
There is practically but one method OF
getting around the order. That is to get
code and send messages over the reg
ular wires of the company. In this way
| the results of the races could be sent
but the telegraph companies can refuse tc
rush these messages so that they could
be delivered in time to be called at the
| pool rooms
| In fact If the telegraph companies are
bent on enforcing this order to the limit
| they can delay all messages which they
think relate to races and make them be
entirely worthless to any one
| 1t is thought that the companies can be
forced to transmit race news on account
of their being public carriers, and this is
true. But the companies cannot be forced
to collect and distribute news to any part
! of the country. All messages will have to
| be sent from a regular office or delivered
| from a regular office. This delivery would
| make it impossible for a pool room to
operate, because persons interested in
faces want to hear the results called off,
Has Been Done for Years.
For years the telegraph companies have
collected this news at the tracks as the
races were run and distributed 1t to the
various pool rooms on leased wires so
that the races are called out as they are
run.
Another feature to the order is IL the
pool room people try to send the results
by the regular wires they will have to
pay full rates. and this is SO expensive
that it would cut down the profits to a
remarkable degree.
From these facts it will be seen that
the pool room people have struck hard
snag and will have some trouble in get
ting around 1t.