Short of Bank Robbery

Tax-free U.S. colleges and universities make excellent heirs and business partners, as many a businessman has learned. Dozens of colleges own commercial real estate, apartment buildings and factories, some own ranches and farms. New York University gets the profits of the C. F. Mueller Co. (macaroni), while the University of Michigan operates the airport at Willow Run. Last week, the University of Louisville found itself hooked up with a race track.

The deal began back in 1946 when the directors of the prosperous Churchill Downs track, home of the Kentucky Derby, set themselves up as a nonprofit corporation called the Churchill Downs Foundation. Last week, they arranged to buy the track (from themselves and a few minority stockholders). From now on, they will take no profits, pay no taxes (saving up to $40,000 a year). They plan to split the surplus left after salaries and operating expenses between the university medical school and general charities.

The Cardinal, student weekly, archly wondered whether teachers might begin grading students Win, Place, Show, and Also Ran. But President John W. Taylor had no qualms. Said he: "Personally, I am for anything short of robbing a bank to help the university." If all went well, he hoped the medical school might get at least $300,000 a year by the painless-extraction method of the mutuel machines.

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