THE LOGIC OF THE LOTTERY.
By Editor
THE Louisiana Lottery was chartered in 1868 for twenty-five years. Its charter expires, therefore, in 1893. The next Legislature meets in May. It will be urged to pass a bill submitting to popular vote a constitutional amendment making the charter of the lottery perpetual. If the amendment is adopted, it will probably become law in 1892, and the lottery will continue. The lottery has been a curse, not to Louisiana alone, but to the entire nation. It inculcates the gambling fever, which, once fairly started in a man or women, overrides all restraints of law and morality, and defies the claims of honor and honesty. A widespread effort is being made to prevent the rechartering of the lottery either in Louisiana or elsewhere, and failing that, to prevent by act of Congress its use of the Federal mails. The daily press of the country are taking up the question and thundering anathemas at the evil. But in Louisiana, and especially in New Orleans, the daily press are, almost without exception, silent as the grave, or if they speak at all, it is in extenuation. What is worse, if reports can be credited, the church and its ministry are, with some noble exceptions, halting and stammering or altogether silent on the question. Rev. Mr. Canadine, of the Methodist Church in New Orleans, says:— "The lottery is gagging and silencing the Christian church in this city and surrounding3country. It long ago silenced the Legislature, and in ways that each legislator who has lost his condemning voice can best tell, and must answer to his conscience. It has silenced the newspapers. . . . Here is a gambling institution that is the natural enemy of the church, and yet, mournful to relate, it is not found in antagonism with it, but is in good fellowship and amity, and is seen pouring its gifts into its bosom. And the church has dropped its head upon the shoulder of the lottery, and says, 'You are so nice and good that I can't say anything against you, to save my life.'" One reads this with a feeling akin to horror. What possible palliation can be offered for such connivance on the part of decent citizens? Oh, there are many! In the first place, the lottery pays $40,000 each year to the Charity Hospital. In the second place, as long as people will gamble anyhow, why not license the evil and get a revenue of $250,000 from it for the State? In the third place, if Louisiana doesn't license the lottery, some other State may, or at any rate it can go to Mexico and carry on operations. In the fourth place, the lottery already exists, and one must be willing to take a step at a time, and a big fee like $250,000 is a step toward its eradication. As a member of the Dakota Legislature said when the lottery bill was up for discussion there a few weeks ago:— 'It is a necessary evil, and why should not the State derive some benefit from the traffic? . . . With this amount of money placed at our disposal, we could relieve all destitution, pay a large amount of our annual expenses for running the government, and derive financial profit from the evil which we are powerless to prevent.' In the fifth place, "personal liberty" requires that a man have a right to spend his own money as he pleases. The lottery doesn't require anyone to purchase its tickets. All these reasons are freely advanced. What is the matter with these reasons? Are they not wise, judicious, and prudent?—No, they are false as hell itself, from which they emanate, and even the editor of a daily paper can see their falsity when they are applied to a lottery several thousands of miles away. There isn't a vice so low and base that it could not plant its feet on these same reasons and hold up its head in the light of day. But let these same reasons be applied to the saloon, to something that is here on our own thresholds, and good men and able editors support them as God's own fundamental verities, which none but a fanatic would call in question.—N. Y. Voice.