Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1886-08-06
COMMUNICATIONS.
About tho Lottery of the G. A. R.

About tho Lottery of the G. A. r..
To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
To the members of the Grand Army of
the Republic our lasting and substantial
gratitude is due for their good service in the
time of our country's peril. The relief of
their worthy and suffering comrades is a
noble object of charity. But is a lottery,
such as is publicly announced for to-day, the
necessary means of the greatest good, either
to the g. A. R. and it's needy members, or
to the community? It is too late in the nine
teenth century to argue that a lottery is a
good and wholesome thing in itself. The
ruinous effects of lotteries are known every
where, and most enlightened nations have
laws against them; in Connecticut, as well
as in other States, stringent laws in respect
to them have often been enforced against
offenders; the Congress and the Supreme
court of the United States have alike con-
demned them as species of gambling.
The G. A. R. undoubtedly makes use of
lottery, because that seems the easiest way of
getting the needed money. But why is it
the easiest? Is it not because there is a
stlong fascination about lottery that helps
forward nightly the work of raising money!
And how comes this fascination, but from
the hope-held out or cherished-of getting
much for a little? This hope is often disap-
pointed, yet the fascination grows stronger
with every time of indulgence, whether the
hope is grati6ed or disappointed. Is not
the passion which is reused and fostered by
lottery or by gambling Of any kind, which
debases and ruins men and women and
children, rightly named by God and man as
covetousness, the veriest foe of true benevo-
lenoe or real neighborlinessa Success in
raising money by lotteries involves, with
other evil consequences, the cultivation of
covetousness, and the decrease and destruc-
ton of the very principles
gave existence to the 6. A. R. Why,
too, if the g. A. R. may have a lottery to
raise money. may not all other associations
and churches, like some already, use lotter-
les to sell carriages or horses or anything else
that they think it expedient or profitable to
dispose of in this ways
No one of us has a right to do evil in this
way to his family or neighbor or comrade or
how has the G. A. R. or any
association a better right to do evil than its
individual members havel Surely might |
does not make right; nor do numbers make
right. How little or much our influence may
be, we, as well as others, are bound to say to
evil with them: 'FNo it is not right" We
may not assume authority or dictatorship
over others; but friends and neighbors
may we not desire and seek their well
fare and the welfare of all the people4 We all
have the natural appetites and desires of hui
man beings. We must all meet temptations
and tempters and may not find ourselves so
strong as we think; but some (who or how
many none of as can telD will certainly be
harmed by this sort of temptation, and who
will be responsible for its Many have been
:uined, financially and morally, by lotteries.
Such is human nature that lotteries will do
heir harm and ruin, though their avowed
objects may be good and their promoters be
,eally good people. Certainly no one of us
in
natter by asking, as Cain did, Gam my |
orother's keeper2' B.