TURF PROPHETS IN THE DAILY PRESS.
[To THE EDITOR OP TEE "SPECTATOR.']
Six.,—In your note in the Spectator of March 11th, on Mr. Will Crooks's remarks on the betting evil at Harringay, on Sunday week, you ask, " Why does he not go on to ask the millionaire philanthropists of the Liberal Party, Mr. Cadbury and Mr. Rowntree, to refrain from publishing in their widely read newspaper, the Star, furious incitements to betting P" I have no concern with either of the gentlemen named above, but am I in order in suggesting that you might enlarge the scope of your indictment or else say no more on the matter P If betting be the evil you, I suppose, assume it to be—and I say nothing to the contrary—could you not say a word on the enclosed advertisement in the leading organ of Toryism and the Church in the provinces—the Yorkshire Post ? The Post is the accepted mouthpiece of the Anglican clergy in the northern industrial counties, and you will see from the enclosed advertisement that its " Midday Sporting Special" makes a feature of Captain Coe's prophecies—Captain Coe being the Star tipster. To say that the Post, though the hand- maiden of the Establishment, is exempt from criticism because it makes no pretence to virtue in this matter, is a piece of sophistry which will hardly explain why, from the Bishop of Ripon downwards, the dignitaries and ministers of the Anglican Church never say a word in condemnation of "incite- ments to betting," the very publication of which was the making of the paper in its early days. Certainly no one would deny that eminent Churchmen like Dr. Boyd Carpenter or Dr. Talbot have been much more closely associated with the Yorkshire Post than Mr. Crooks—a mundane layman—has been with the Star.—I am, Sir, &c., SPORTSMAN. March 14th.
We have dealt elsewhere with " Sportsman's" very mis- leading representation of the issue.—ED. Spectator.]
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