544 THE HORSE OF AMERICA. 



April, 1895, I think it was, a committee was appointed, consist- 

 ing of Messrs. Brodhead and Boyle, if I remember, to consider 

 and report to the next meeting amendments to the standard ad- 

 vancing the requirements for registration, and everybody was 

 advised to hurry in their pedigrees or they might be excluded. 

 At the meeting in 1896 the committee did not report, but Mr, 

 Brodhead reported in a series of resolutions, in which the num- 

 ber of standard dams was advanced, which suited Woodburn 

 exactly, but there was no advance in the time to be made, and 

 the tin-cup record against time was carefully protected. The 

 resolutions were adopted unanimously, and went before the 

 breeding public as the new advanced standard that would be de- 

 cided at the next annual meeting. From time to time the breed- 

 ers were duly informed of the proposed advance and cautioned 

 many times to get in while they could. The annual meeting in 

 April, 1897, came, and instead of a rush of breeders interested one 

 way or another in the proposed advance, the same stereotyped 

 half a dozen men were there who had been manipulating the 

 scare for two years, and not one of them, even Brodhead himself, 

 voted for the advance. This is no advance at all, in a practical 

 sense, and would accomplish nothing, and would do no good to 

 anybody except Woodburn or some other establishment that like 

 her has been breeding trotters for forty years. It was merely in- 

 tended for a scare, and it failed under such circumstances as to 

 fully disclose the object in placing it before the breeders. The 

 scare is all out of this kind of humbug and deception, and now 

 what? When the standard was adopted on the basis of 2:30 that 

 rate of speed was sixteen seconds behind the fastest record then 

 made. To-day if the standard were placed at 2:20 it would be 

 about sixteen seconds slower than the fastest time now on record. 

 But this real advance, which is imperatively demanded by all the 

 considerations of philosophy and progress, will never be made so 

 long as the standard is under the control of Woodburn. The 

 reason for this is made obvious by reference to page 504, etc. 

 Mr. Brodhead's ambition has been fully gratified, he is in full and 

 absolute control of the registration of the country, he has com- 

 pletely demonstrated, his incompetency for such a position, and 

 he has the satisfaction of knowing, if it be a satisfaction, that no 

 sensible business man on the face of the globe would be willing 

 to pay ten per cent, of the cost for the property he now controls. 



