The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-06-01
THE BUSINESS VIEW.

THE BUSINESS VIEW.
The business men of Salt Lake are
just beginning to wake up to the fact
that the horse racing game, as an ex-
cuse for gambling, is a calamity for
legitimate business. One of the most
prominent men in the city, the head OF
a big commercial establishment, writes
The Herald on the subject. saying:
I would like to suggest, as a bust
ness man of Salt Lake, interested in
its progress and business opportunities,
that you use your paper TO discourage
horse racing in our city, and instead Of
publishing hattering accounts Of the
days doings at the track, as though
We were entertaining a fair guest in our
midst, the hellishness' of the whole
thing might be given the public. /
know. and so do all merchants. that
trade is even now hindered and that
the so-called new money that races
bring to a town is myth, and that
instead the spirit Of the whole game
pauperizes individuals and diverts
mems minds from legitimate business to
a worthless and exciting pastime that
ends in grief.
The largest commonwealth in our
nation have ostracized the race horse
in the face Of tremendous opposition,
and it is a pity that Utah, with her al
ready heavy handicap, should be de-
spoiled by forty days Of the most
vicious gambling, and that the press
should report its virtues every day.
Il would like TO see your paper throw.
II into them and begin the campaign
that has got TO come to arouse public
opinion 20 the point Of action that VIII
eventually forbid racing in Utah.
Besides the moral side of the ques-
ton, the business side is an enormous
one, TOO, and on all sides I hear mer-
chants deploring the fact that the
races should come TO further hinder the
return Of normal prosperity in Salt
Lake"
The Herald's notion OF horse racing,
as conducted here, has already been
defined. It is sure the community is
being robbed scientifically by a COM
bination of horse owners and book
makers, and that, as a partner in the
proats, the state administration Of Utah
is particeps criminis. Moreover there
can be no doubt but that the whole
racing business is demoralizing those
people Of Salt Lake who are weak
enough to be attracted by the game.
In the long run everybody loses. and
the merchant in legitimate business
suffers most of all.
It is q matter Of history that Ogden
With its short season Of track gam
bling was literally cleaned up so that
merchants complain Of collections, en-
ployers discover their clerks have lost
what little money they had saved and
tho people generally have dissipated
means that otherwise would have gone
into the channels Of honest trade.
II there is a word TO be said in be
half Of race-track gambling, The Her
aid has yet 10 hear it. No one win
pretend that it is an honest sport as
conducted here; the suckers don't even
get a chance to win, except by acct
dent The pretense that it encourages
livestock interests is a joke; and the
argument that II brings money IN" is
too fimsy to discuss. It helps sell
liquor and maintain vice; It helps swell
the criminal record; it has compelled
the employment of additional police, If
that is a recommendation; and It Is en-
titled 10 Just the same ncouragement
that a crooked faro bank ought TO have
no more and no less.
The Herald's reports Of the races
have been like its reports Of other pub
lie affairs. but they can hardly be
called '1attering" since they have been
an open chronicle of the crookedness
that has marked the running Of the
races