The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1879-07-03
1NIT Il LOTTERY?

Prosecuting Attorney Rohrer appears
III last weeks Journal in an article at
tempting to show that our Gift Dis
trlbution is a LOTTERY in the legal
sense. AMI he quotes the decision of a
Pennsylvania Judge in il Gift Distribu-
ton case to prove his point. But lie
overlooked one very material fact, viz:
the two cases are not parallel. They
are no more alike than selling an arti-
Gle to man is like making present
to Il friend.
In the Pennsylvania case the holders
of the Distribution took money for the
tickets and chance in the drawing.
Buyers paid their money for the tickets
and took their chances of drawing
prizes. And on this very fact the
Judge based his decision.
Now what are the facts as to our
Distribution Of Gifts:
l. No tickets are sold or even issued,
hence no money is paid for tickets.
.. No money is paid for chance
i'll the Distribution. The money is
paid Oh subscription and no more is
charged than the regular rate.
3. AL receive an equal return for
their money by receiving tho ADVANCE
ut regular rates and no more. They
pay no more than they would pay if
there were no gifts. Moreover, they
are already o,ciny US the amount paid
by the very terms on which they SUBJ
scrihed. There can he no blanks in
this and no inequality. The money is
already lcgitimately earned and justly
our due, and the gifts are gifts out-anl-
out and nothing else.
!. No money is taken for the gifts.
Whatever they cost us is just 50 much
out of pocket. In round numbers it
costs us about 800 in cash, besides the
amount paid in advertising, for these
gifts.
.. In the decision which Rohrer
quotes, the holders of the tickets paid
their money for the tickets and a
cllalce i'll the drawing. In our distri-
button, they pay for the ADVANCE the
regular rate and nothing for the arti-
cles distributed. If the committee de-
eide to distribute 10y lot, it might be
said that 1.-The McthoL of distribution
was like that Of lottery, but the gist,
gravamen, essence, principle, or what
ever it is, of Il lottery is wholly lacking
6. IN Il lottery, money is made by
selling cllonces an the drawing. We
sell no chances and make no money.
We mike presents and yire ascay several
hundred dollars worth of articles.
eff not for gain, what then is the OBJ
ject of your distributions it may be
asked. Simply to induce our suLscrit-
ers to poy us erhut they are already oc-
ing IT'S. just this and nothing more.
1t WAS collecting scheme from the
lirst, and just us legitimate as saying
to our subscribers, If you will
pay up we will discount so per cent. or
make you valuable present. We
did not even expect to extend our cir
culation 10y it ard the circulation las
not been extended.
Still we are we'll aware that
II judge or Il jury might be
f0und to decide that our distribution is
Il lottery within the meaning Of tn.
statute. To do so, they would have to
decide upon technical grounds ;ltoyctI..
er, ignoring the spirit and principle OF
the transaction and wrestling their de
cision from the mere letter Of the law
We are in for 1t and shall present the
articles to our subscribers on the 5tb
AS originally announced, we shall turn
them over to our patrons and whatever
method the committee may adopt for
fair distribution, will Of course be sat
isfactory. We shall make no DRAWN:
ourself, and shall merely do us WI
agreed, viz: present the articles
and they can divide them among them
selves.