The Washington times., 1934-11-23

hlrk MiAer my pal, Al
bert Cabell Ritchie at the polls.
The defeat of the handsom-
est and, so far as I am con-
cerned, best governor Maryland
ever boasted, is almost sure to
bring about two important
sports changes.
think one of them would have
been brought about even had
Mr.. Ritchie succeeded to his
fifth term.
Big Tax Must Go
I believe the $4,000 daily tax
demanded of the four mile race
tracks which operate in Mary
land would have been mod
Grated had Governor Ritchie
been returned victor to the
the State House at Annapolis.
I am sure the new governor
elect, Mr.. Nice, a Republican,
as we'll as the pro-Democratic
legislature, wants to do some
thing to relieve the excessive
levy under which those four
tracks are functioning. un-
derstand Mr.. Ritchie, during
whose regime the $4,000 daily
tax was born, had come to the
point where he was convinced
that times will no longer traf-
fic so heavy a financial mill
stone around the neckS Of
Bowie, Laurel, Pimlico and
Havre de Grace.
Cant Stand Tax
Unless the incoming admin.
istration with its chronic Dem
cratic legislature does lift the
$4,000 daily double cross, my
friends, at least two of the
four major plants in the Free
State will not survive long.
Neither is there any doubt
in my mind that Maryland
University, which has received
more State money for devel-
opment of its academic and
athletic facilities during the
regime of Governor Ritchie
than in all it's previous history,
as an agricultural college, is
likely to feel the pinch of a
reduced budget. Possibly
Maryland'S good friend, Sena-
tor Millard Tydings, will be
able to alleviate some of this
reduced financing.
And then there is the secur.
ity of my friend Curley Byrd,
vice president, ETC., ad lib ad
1nfinitum, OF Maryland Uni
versity.
A couple OF semesters ago
Byrd stood up very solidly
against the darts of sharpshoot-
ers from various sections of
Maryland when they were criti-
cising him for holding too many
jobs, including that of football
coach which he has since, after
a fashion, deferred to other
hands, mostly Jack Faber's.
Byrd and Governor Ritchie
have been closer than this sec.
ond and the next. And TydingS
is also a godfather to Mary.
land University. Byrd gets the
students at the impreSsionistic
periods of their lives and makes
good Democratic boys and girls
out of them-kindling for elec.
tion days to come to preserve
and hold the administration
strength. Senator Tydings is the
sponsor of the football trophy,
a cup for which Maryland and
Virginia play annually.
Nice Mr.. Nice
Verify, have heard on no
few occasions among my fellow
voters of Prince George county
that Ritchie was grooming Byrd
to some day succeed him.
However true or false such a
rumor may have been, none, it
seems, was reckoning with a Is.
year-old bugaboo by the name
Of Nice from Baltimore city.
So, with Ritchie on his way,
imagine the powers who be at
College Park are at least ap
prehensive for the future OF
their sports institutions, which
are many and magnificent.
do hope that things never
come to such a pretty pass that
they have to take the name
"Ritchie" off the facade OF
Ritchie Coliseum and replace il
with the word Mice" or thai
they take the nam Byrd" of
Byrd Stadium and replace il