Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1917-08-14
An APPEAL TO PROHIBIT
RACE TRACK GAMBLING.
Communicated

DtdI ftllUN 0itIAtu.
When As States have abolished race
track gambling. why is not this
good example for Maryland to follow?
When the United States Congress
has driven it out of the District of
Columbia. why should our State be one
OF the two TO legalize it?
Wholesale race track gambling in
Maryland began with the opening of
the Hayre de Grace track. The Havre
de Grace track was created under an
innocent looking law passed for the
alleged purpose of reopening the fair
grounds at Belair but in reality to
open the floodgates TO all the gambling
crowd of the country which had been
kicked out of other States.
Do you know that the man who
helped to frame the law for the Havre
de Grace track committed suicide
when he discovered what he had done
and gave that as his dying reason?
Do you know that even the Cover
nor of our State was deceived into
signing the bill, and that not a man
interested dared to show his hand?
DO you know that even the race
track men themselves admit that So
100000 was bet one year at Pimlico,
Laurel and Bowie. to say nothing of
Havre de Grace which is as large or
larger than any of the others, so that
it is safe to say that the total was at
least $4,000 900 a year?
The President of the United States
has called for economy and sacrifice
on the part of every citizen of the
country. Why should this awful
waste of money be permitted when
not one dollar of it is expended for
any good purpose?
Do you realize that Maryland with
her two trunk line railroads running
from Washington and New York,
thus reaching the most densely pop
ulated district in the United States,
offers the most attractive location to
be found for this race track gambling
game?
Do you wonder then that the gam
bling crowd are making such frantic
efforts to retain their foothold in this
good old State and to further gain
control of the entire situation by a
commission at nominal salaries and
large revenue to the State, thus be-
coming entrenched in our finances so
that nothing short of a revolution will
dislodge them?
Do you know that the race tracks
at the last session of the Legislature
were ready to pay 100000 year as
license to be allowed to continue to
rob our people and ruin our homes?
Do you know that now they are
willing that this license should be
made 100000 as war measure in
order that they might appear as pa
triots when in reality their only de-
sire is to fasten themselves as leeches
upon the finances of our State in or
der that they may wreck our homes
and ruin our firesides?
Has the State sunk so low that she
will go into partnership with gam
bling and take revenue from source
surrounded by every kind of evil in
its most alluring form?
Do you know that before the days
of the Hughes Law in New York it
was declared on good authority that
gambling at Saratoga in twenty-five
days was equal to Monte Carlo in ten
years?
Do you know that many respect
able men and women begin gambling
at race tracks and wind up in dens
and dives of the city?
For the sake then of home, of fam
lily, of sons, of daughters and even
of your wives-for no one is immune
won't you enroll yourself as a men,
Der of the Maryland Anti-Race Track
Gambling Association and help to put
this curse and pestilence out of
Maryland so that the name of our
fair State will no longer be trailed
in the dust as the greatest harborer
of criminals and the greatest pro-
moter of gambling of any State in the
Union?
Yours very truly,
MARYLAND ANTI-RACE TRACK
GAMBLING ASSOCIATION,
Vim Silver