Catoctin clarion., 1911-03-30
THURSDAY, MARCH 80, 1911.
WASHINGTON LETTER.
(FRoM OUR REGULAR CORRESPONDENT
WASHINGTON, D. c., MARCH 70.

WASHINGTON LETTER.
frRoM OUR REGULAR CORRESPONDENT
WASHINGTON. d. c.. MARCH 2O.
The Jockey Club of New York and
the sporting gentry all over the coun-
try are very bitter against the 'hypo-
critics" who have been so successfully
legislating against horse racing. The
breeding of race horses in America
has been doubtless given staggering
blow, but what of it? The race horse
is the least useful of the equine race.
He is small, a light weight carrier,
AL hot sand and ginger" unfit for
the saddle, unless it is the saddle OF
a light weight jockey, and is tit for
nothing but gambling. If crossed
with cold blooded horse of good
bone and size, good saddle or car
riage horse may be obtained, but
there is no longer any demand for
the thoroughbred race horse in peace
or in war. The telephone or wireless
telegraph with the motor cycle or the
automobile will call and bring the
doctor much quicker than the swift
est race horse, while for courier pur
poses in time of war or in stress OF
battle, the telephone and wireless
telegraph, to say nothing of flying
machines, have put the equine racer
horse de combat. Mr.. Belmont com
plains that the "hypocrites" have
refused to recognize the great good
racing was accomplishing for the i'm
provement of the breed of horses. 1t
is only sporting men of the Belmont
character that claim that racing does
any good for the improvement of the
breed. 1t doubtless improves breed,
but what kind of breed? Horses
doubtless will long be used for the
saddle, for draft on the roads and on
farms, or for pleasure, but it is as
tonishing to see the extent to which
motor vehicles have in very short
time taken the place of horses. Mr..
Belmont has announced that he will
ship to Great Britain four of his best
two-year-old colts. Well, let them
go with their jockeys and their black
leg encourage. Farmers and breed
ers are importing Clydesdale, Nor
man and Percheron horses, which are
far better.
1t is said that the United States
imported more than forty millions of
dollars worth of diamonds last year.
This country, as might be expected,
is the greatest diamond market in the
world. 1t also furnishes the greatest
harvest in the world for diamond
thieves. 1t is said that ladies of the
four hundred" wear paste dia-
monds in order to avoid the exposure
of their real gems to the cupidity of
the light-fngered experts. Good
scheme, but why pay for the real if
the spurious will do as well?
1t appears that the distinguished
military experts of France and Ger
many are strenuously at work to
show that the United States and Japan
must fight. The argument of the
German experts is that the control
of the Pacific is essential to the COM
mercial existence of Japan, and that
in order to maintain thiS supremacy
Japan must have the control of Guam
and Hawaii as coaling stations and
bases Of supply. But can Japan con-
troll the Pacific? Will not England,
Germany, France, Russia and other
European powers have something to
say with reference to the control of
the Pacific? Great Britain is easily
five times as powerful on the sea as
Japan, and yet she does not pretend
to control the Atlantic or even the
Mediterranean, of which she holds
both the gates, Suez and Gibraltar.
The Mediterranean is an open sea.
Japan {. mot control the Pacific. 1t
is doubtful if she could control the
inland sea of Japan, to say nothing
of the Yellow Sea, the sea of China,
and other contiguous waters. The
Pacific is by odds the biggest of
oceans, and no nation or nations can
control it. The same writer argues
that the United States has only 23
warships in the Pacific, while Japan
has 1875. He is mistaken. Japan
has 1875 thousand, but they are most
ly san pand, kind of fishing boat
carrying two or three persons with
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