The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-03-30
NEW ORLEANS. MARCH 80. 1878.
THE LOTTERY WAR In WASHINGTON

NEW OWBEANs. " NH&iFt stWs 1917
THE LOTTERY WAR In WASHINGTON
The arrival OF 9. Il. Howard, Of tho Lottery
Company, In Washington has been announced
In the Geographic dispatches. The interests
of the company have been seriously imDerilec
V by D. movement to enforce section 1894 Of the
United States Revised Statutes, which prohib
It's. under severe penalties, tho circulation Of
lottery matter through the malls The statute
originally prohibited the calculations only Of
the circulars, etc. of illegal lotteries but
an act OF Compress approved July u, 1876
amended the statute by striking out tho word
illegal" Consequently it Is now in direct
violation OF the laws of the United States to
circulate letters or circulars relative to lot
teries OF any description. The laws OF the
United States virtually declare such instit,l-
lions to be immoral and debasing, and place
their tickets, letters, circulars and devices
upon the same footing with indecent publica-
tions.
Were the United States authorities to en-
force this law, the business OF the Louisiana
h Lottery Company would be pretty badly
broken UP, and the concern would dwindle
Into local nuisance, to be swept entirely
out of existence by the first honest
Legislature which may assemble in this
State. The company have. not un-
naturally, become alarmed at this move
ment to enforce very salutary law. and
Mr.. Howard has gone to Washington to fr
theAttorney General and the Postmaster Gen
eral, as he did enough OF the late Legislature
to save his bacon But he has now harder,
and, we apprehend, more expensive job
than that he carried through In the st. Louis
Hotel last winter. Cabinet officers are not as
cheap as Radical and fishy Democratic mem
bers OF the Louisiana Legislature He is not
man, however, to stand on expenses, and
we observe that he has employed nine
distinguished and high-priced attorneys to
argue with the Attorney General against the
enforcement oft, amongst them JudgeJfo. A.
Campbell and Mr.. T. j. Semmes. of this city.
In fact Mr.. Howard has drawn upon the legal
talent OF New York, Cincinnati, Washington
and New Orleans to argue the Attorney Cen
eral into the belief that section 1894 Of the
statutes is unconstitutional and void. If the
Attorney General shall prove obdurate Ben
Butler has been hired to introduce bill in
the House repeating the law. This Is the
business which has carried our eminent fel-
low citizen, Mr. Howard, to the national CAPT |
tai, and we doubt il we may reasonably an
ticipate his return until he has succeeded or
attempted to buy out Congress and the Adj
ministration.
The statute Is, without doubt, constitution
al but it cannot be denied that many diff
culties surround Its rigid enforcement. In
fact, it cannot be thoroughly enforced with
out establishing an obnoxious espionage over
the mails. But it is fully competent to pre-
vent the fragrant prostitution Of the United
States mails which disgraces the New Or
leans postofice. The Postmaster here is q
very large stakeholder in the Louisiana Lot
terry Company. and 1t is openly charged
that the New Orleans Postoffice is an adjunct
of the Louisiana Lottery Company. AS many
as fifteen hundred letters, we are informed,
have been received by the Lottery Company
In one day through the Postofice here A
few weeks ago we mentioned the fact that a
clerk Ia one OF our business houses was
forced to wait a long while for his mail. while
one Of the lottery clerks, who arrived at the
Office subsequent to him, signed large num-
Der of registered letters for that favored in
stitution. 1t would certainly require no vex-
atious or obnoxious espionage over the mails
to prevent such abuses as this. postmaster
should be appointed here who has no interest
in the Lottery Company, and consequently
an interest in checking this scandalous abuse.
In postoffice through which openly passes
such an immense mass Of lottery matter, an
honest and disinterested postmaster and
few vigilant and iudicious detectives would
soon make such violation of the law more
expensive luxury than even the Louisiana
Lottery Company could long indulgein.
We trust the Attorney General has some
idea of the almost universal anxiety felt
this city relative to his final action
In this matter. We beg him to believe that,
however able, learned and ingenious the argu-
ments of our distinguished fellow citizens,
Messrs. Campbell and Semmes in favor of
The lottery may be, there is great law in the
hearts Of the honest, right thinking people of
his city and State against its legality and
aebasing influences that is more eloquent and
still, if he will but read and inter-
,ret 1t.
Rhode Island holds an election next Wednes- (