TWENTIETH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART III 213 



the 2:16 on a half-mile track for their first start, and be thereafter 

 classified in accordance with the records that they make in winning 

 races. There has been a lot of discussion about this and we don't be- 

 lieve it will do the unlimited good that is claimed for it by the 

 author of the idea ; and you must take into consideration in reading 

 the newspaper accounts of what will happen if this rule is adopted, 

 also the fact that one of the first things that a writer for a newspaper 

 has got to learn is to exaggerate. Last night as I was leaving Chi- 

 cago I picked up a paper and read where some hold-up man had 

 gone in and robbed a pawnshop of probably two or three thousand 

 dollars worth of diamonds, four or five thousand dollars in cash, 

 and yet that paper carried a big scare-head reading "$100,000 

 HOLD-UP IN THE LOOP." We expect the newspapers to do 

 that and they don't live up to their teachings if they don't do this. 

 I don't believe this rule will bring all the good that some people 

 think it will, nor do I think it will do harm that others think it will, 

 because the horses are re-classified very quickly and it will be a sur- 

 prise if you will check over the horses that really get much more 

 allowance than they are getting now under the allowance rules. 



There is another matter that is of interest to all members of the 

 American Trotting Association, and that is the matter that has been 

 talked of for quite a number of years in relation to the amalgamation 

 of the various trotting horse interests, and I will be very brief about 

 this. It would not be proper and I would be open to criticism if I 

 made any recommendations in any respect, as I am a director in three 

 of the organizations. The oldest organization is the National Trot- 

 ting Association, with its headquarters at Hartford, Connecticut. 

 It has a board of directors which functions just the same as the 

 American Trotting Association. It was organized and incorporated 

 in 1870 and had the whole field to itself. The conduct of the officials 

 of the association became so arrogant that the members in the 

 west could stand it no longer and they started a revolt and organized 

 the American Trotting Association. At the time of this revolt there 

 were only 350 societies in the whole United States that belonged 

 to the parent trotting association. With a vigorous campaign put 

 on by the American Trotting Association, it was but a few years 

 until the two associations had over 1,200 members, and the breeding 

 of the American trotter was at its zenith, due to the new blood and 

 the vigorous efforts made by the American Trotting Association. 

 The Registry Association was a stock company organized for profit, 

 and it has an authorized capital stock of $110,000, of which $90,000 



