Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1884-09-18
DIR. GLADDEN. on Gambling.
Rev. Washington GLADDEN., WI

Rev. Washington GLADDEN., whose
devotion to theology spoiled an excel
lent journalist. discourses in the August
Century of Three Dangers" First,
intemperance; second, ''those unsocial
forces that make war upon society by
assailing the family" and third, ''the
gambling mania. which he describes
as ''by far the most dangerous of the
unsocial forces now threatening the de-
struction of society"
1t is not gambling by means of faro
tables, cards, or any Of the games of
chance, of which DR.. GLADDEN. chiefly
speaks, nor is it lottery gambling,
which ''still holds its own pretty firm
ly, especially among the poorest class
es;" but it is that form of gambling
which wears the mask of business"
and (which is sometimes called specu-
lation."
But speculation it is not, he says,
sin any true sense of that word. To
buy property of any sort and hold it
for rise in value is 4 legitimate bust
ness transaction. Buying and
selling may be selfish business; but
buying and selling is wholly different
operation from gambling; and very
-
cial operations of this land to-day is
not buying and selling at all, out sim
ply and only gambling"
The distinction between CONNER
cial transaction and gambling trans
action is always clear enough, though
there is 4 constant tendency to confuse
the two. A man buys dry goods, gro
ceries, grain or stocks for cash, or ex-
IatN III Il Of s..
other by way of barter, and that is le-
Ultimate trade the world over. He
may buy for future delivery, rs millers
buy wheat, as merchants buy the sea-
sons product of mill, or the years
Iproduct OF an orchard, and that is not
gambling. Anticipating q rise in the
valIe, he may still do the same. When
the war broke out, certain dealers
bought up all the bunting in the mar
ket, foreseeing a demand for National
flags. This was simple exercise Of
Ishrewdness and sagacitv. When Fort
Sumter was fired upon, A. T. Stewart
lost no time IN securing every yard of
blue army cloth in New York, and en-
gagged the product months ahead of all
the mills that were making goods of
that class. There could be no obiec-
ton in morals to the transaction, but
if he had paid the mill-owners a GER
tain sum for the privilege of calling on
them at his option for the delivery of a
hundred bales of cloth at the expira-
ton Of three months, the nature of the
business would have changed from
commerce to gambling. A man may
gather in every barrel of apples or
flour. or every share Of 4 certain stock
within his reach, if he will, and no.
! body comp! aims of it rs unlawful or
contrary 10 the usages of trade; but
when one gives Mr.. Russell Sage so
many dollars to-day for the privilege
of putting" to him so many shares of
q certain stock within given time at
q stipulated price per share, with no
! thought on the one side of actually
selling any stock, or on the other of
actually buying any, except in the
event that the stock should 90 I'D or
down in value SO as to make = profit
for the man who owns the put" the
operation is gambling, pure and SIM
pie. There is no need of multiplying
illustrations. A transaction that is in
effect a bet that at or within certain
time SO many bushels of grain or so
many shares of stock will be worth q
certain sum is as much gambling as a
bet that q roulette ball will stop on a
certain color when the wheel is set a
whirling.
DR.. GLADDEN. writes: ITO say that
gambling in margins is as bad as faro
OF roulette is 4 very weak statement; it
| is immensely worse. 1t is far more
dishonest. The gambler in margins
does his best TO load the dice on which
he bets his money. 1t is, moreover,
far more injurious. By this practice
values are unsettled; business is often
paralyzed; the price of the neccssaries
of life are forced upward. The poor
mans loaf grows smaller as the gam
bler's gains increase. Every cent
made by this class of men is taken
from the industrial classes with no
compensation.
The widespread suffering that has
come in the last year-and in every
year within the last decade-from the
failures of banks has in almost every
instance been owing to the gambling of
some of their officers. They have
''speculated' in oil with the funds of
the bank, or in grain, or in stocks.
They have become gamblers outright.
gamblers as truly and as disreputably
as though they had spent their time in
gam bling-houses and lost the money of
their patrons at play.
There is good deal in calling things
by their right names. 1t is not worth
while to speak of a gambler as q spec
ulator. A bank President or Cashier.
merchant minister, lawyer, doctor,
carpenter or cobbler who CANDLES in
margins or puts" and calls is
just as hopelessly in the path of ruin
as one who CANDLES at faro or in lot
teries. When popular condemnation
and reprobation are just as strongly set
on the stock and grain and oil gam
blers as upon the unfortunates who
waste their substance in the more an
cient and therefore better understood
schemes for betting, there will be hope
that not so many of the men who are
looked upon as financial leaders will
M