St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1890-04-19

does not turn for success or failure
q ION some elements Of chance. The
farmer risks thu seasons and the
floods; the lawyer trusts to courts
and juries the issue Of his reputa-
ton Is m advocate, and consequent
advancementin life or retrogression ;
the physician must look for his in
come to tae varying and variable
Ills that flesh is heir to- and the
merchant looks to the ever shifting
phases Of demand and supply to
determine whether prosperity or
adversely shall he his. There is not
. sphere Of human activity which
does not rest upona basis Of chance.
The world itself is q huge lottery
shop in which farmers, lawyers, ply
sioians, merchants and handicrafts-
men buy the tickets and trust to the
tickle goddess of fortune to deter
mine whether their lives shall be
crowned with success or doomed to
failure.
A lottery, therefore, is neither
better nor worse than any other en-
terprise. 1t is legitimate sphere
for the exercise Of business talent.
II conducted with honesty and in
tegrity it involves no wrong-doing.
nor the semblance Of any. It is
simply and only q business which
should pay the State . license pro-
portionate to it's income, just ~
other trades and professions are
required to do under existing laws.
There u rank absurdity in the con-
tentiosf that the running Of . lottery
Is more immoral than the running
Of . bank. The elements Of chance
in the one are substantially the same
Is in the other, and only men who
have not given the subject sufficient
thought, assert the contrary. A
hotel, . bank, = newspaper, an in
surance company and . lottery all
stand upon the same footing a. pure
~ Legitimate spheres for the employ
ment Of the talent of men to earn q
livelihood.
As there is, therefore, no moral
issue involved in the matter, the
State Of Louisiana must look at it
from . standpoint OF expediency
and self-interest. Shall We grant
the privilege to Mr.. John A.
Morris of maintaining . lottery in
this State, and make him pay what
it is worth! This is the question
in . nutshell.
With the present tax rate Of six
mills on the dollar, and with the
10000 per annum now paid by the
State Lottery Company
for the support Of the Charity Hos
pital, We find that the means at our
disposal for the absolute necessities
Of the State are utterly inadequate. !
Dur insane asylum is crowded to
the doors, . single room in many
containing half . dozen of
these poor unfOrtunates. Mean
several parishes are ugently
petitioning the Superintendent to
admit some poor creature bereft of
reason, who now lies rotting in the
Jail. The children of the
masses are growing up in semi-i2nor-
lnce because the State, in her pow
srty: can provide instruction for
more than half the common
year. The only Charity
Hospital in the interior Of the S...c
8 forced to close its do DTS at inter-
rails because there is no money in
he State treasury to pay the war
ANTS drawn for its support. The
lOods come and the rich alluvial
section Of the State, with its meagrc
evee fund, can do but little to stay
he Onrush Of the waters. The most
section Of our southern coun-
~ is exposed each year to utter
because, in truth. We
AVE no money to erect barriers for
Is protection.
With this distressing situation Of
fairs thus candidly stated to q
'eople who know only too well that
We have said is true,
! would he folly to make an
fort to reject the means OF relief
nered in the proposition of Mr..
dOrris, and we cannot but believe
hat the people OF the state, with
heir sound business heads on their
shoulders, will urge their
representatives. to submit the pro-
osition for . lottery charter to be
oted upon at the general election
/ 1892. y