Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-07-29
Public Helps
Cheap Punk
To Govern
Track Owner in Florida
One Of State Bosses
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER

YOU know how one casual
idea suggests another and
YOU go bouncing all over the
country without moving out Of
your chair?
What l mean is something
like this;
Last week a certain gambler
gets into a jam over in New
Jersey. Somebody slugged a guy
and busted the guys chin and
they tried TO cover il up but
LaGuardia got wind of il and
LaGuardia hates this fellow so
he needles up a prosecution in
New Jersey so now the gambler
has 10 stand trial.
This is strictly unimportant
stuff. but the fellow is big
magnate in the Wall Street of
the horse-gambling racket
VII ich operates in Frank
Hague's town and he is also in
terested in tracks at Miami.
Wall Street of the horse
room racket is a fairly correct
description of the thing which
has been going on in Jersey
City all this time.
Frank Hague won't stand for
any vice where he Is boss and
they practically won't let you
put your arm around a girl in
J. c. unless you are lawfully
welded to her.
But they don't regard the
horsc-room thing as a vice so
&c is the big national head
quarters Of the activity
WELL, Hague is supposed 10 be
w II simple, rugged man OF the
people but Ire doesn't spend
much time sharing the squalor
and the Summer heat and Win
ter cold of Jersey City with his
subjects. He keeps a Winter
plant in Florida and a home on
the Jersey shore for his Summer
vacation and a big apartment in
New York the year around.
When Miami tracks are rum
ming he IS right there day after
day but Of course his pleasures
are subject 10 Interruptions in
the interests Of the party and
humanity as on that occasion
when he and I'd Kelly Of Chi
Cago collaboratcd with Harold
(Sduare Guy) ICkCs in Chicago
20 nominate Mr.. Roosevelt for
the third term.
In Florida, the horse tracks
have a strange hold on the gov
eminent Of the state and the
fellow. whom LaGuardia de-
-ffgt1tv rrTti ct7rap punk
gambler and whom the New
York police have orders 20 shove
around. is bigger in a way than
the governor and The legislature
although he doesn't even live in
Florida lie just runs an old
horse track
TIIE Florida tlYcks turn in. a
Il big pot Of easy money as
mutuel and other taxes 20 tho
state treasury every year and
this money is divided evenly
among the counties and %
course, back in some Of the
jungle and dry-graSs counties
whore people arc few and some
of the few have thumbs on their
feet. that easy money greatly
cases the burden Of local taxes.
So the counties are all very
strong for I he Miami horse
tracks and never mind who runs
them and the more days the
tracks are allowed 10 run the
more the counties get which
means that the track operators
are sitting very nicely too be-
cause the more days they run
the more money they make.
Then. for another thing. GER
tain members Of the legislature
have a habit of attaching them
selves and ill4eifa- eeHst ttHeffts ard
their no-accounting- laws 10 the
Otrack pay rolls and these Jobs
are political patronage so
statesman who gets his share
Of jobs is expected TO consider
the tracks when bills are intro
duccd which might impair
earnest. patriotic efforts of guys
like the one LaGuardia Is after
TO improve the breed Of horses
so that our brave cavalry boys
may have only the best mounts.
The tracks give out enough
Of these Jobs 10 keep the boys
in line but even If he boys
should get out Of line that
wouldn't embarTasS the tracks
because the county treasures
want that horse racket. The
people would repudiate legis-
lators who voted 10 abolish the
source of this easy money.
We free people certainly play
some funny tricks on ourselves
in the operation of our beautj-
full democracy.
a cheap punk in New York
Is a substantial financier and
associate OF the great plain man
of the people Just across the
river and, in Florida, by virtue
of a race track. nc is one of the
great governing powers of
state in which he isn't even a
resident. -
Copyrighted by United Features synd, Inc.