Huntsville gazette. [volume] (Huntsville, Ala.) 1879-1894, 1890-08-02
OPPOSED TO LOTTERIES.

Inc PRESIDENT Sends Message to Con-
sress Calling Attention to Recent At
| tenpts to Establish and Perpctuate
LOTTERY Schemes. and Urging Legislation
| TO Reduce Their Pernicious Influence to
the Minimum by Closing the Mails to
Them.
WASHINGTON, July 30-The Presi-
dent sent the following message to
congress yesterday:
Inc recent attempt to secure q charter
| from the State of North Dakota for a lot.
tery company; the pending effort to obtain
| from the State of Louisiana renewal OF
the cnarter Of the Louisiana State Lottery
and the establishment of one or more lot
| tery companies at Mexican towns near our
| Dofder, have served the good purpose Of
| calling attention to an evil OF vast propor-
tlons. IL the baneful effects of these lot
teriea were confined to the States that give
the companies corporate powers and a
license to conduct the business the citizens
| OF other States, being poweress to apply
| regal regulations, might clear themselves
| OF responsibility by the use Of such moral
| agencies as were within their reach. But the
case IS not so. The people of all the States
are debauched and defrauded. The vast
sums of money offered to the States for
charters are drawn from the people of the
| United States, and the General Government,
through its mail system, is made the
effective and profitable medium of
intercourse between the lottery company
and its victims. The use OF the mails s
quite as essential to the companies as the
State license. 1t would be practically i'm
possible for these companies to exist il the
pubic mails were once effectively closed
against their advertisements and remit
tances. The use of the mails by these COM
panies is a prostitution Of an agency only
intended to serve the purposes Of a legiti-
mate trade and decent social Intercourse.
1t is not necessary, / am sure, for me to
attempt TO portray the robbery of the poor
and the width of corruption of public and
private morals which are mere necessary
incidents of these lottery companies The
National capital has become sub head
quarters of the Louisiana Lottery Company,
and its numerous agents and attorneys are
conducting here a business requiring prob
ably larger use OF the mails tan that of
any legitimate business enterprise in the
District of Columbia. There seems to be
good reason to believe that the corrupting
touch OF these agents has been felt by the
clerks in the postal service and by some of
the police officers Of the District OF Colum-
bia
Severe and effective legislation should
be promptly enacted to enable the Post
Office Department to purge the mails Of all
ing to this business.
The letter of the Postmaster General
which transmit herewith, points out the
nadequacy of the existing statutes, and
suggests legislat ton that would be effective.
1t may also be necessary to so regulate the
carrying of letters by the express COM
panies as to prevent the of those agen-
cies to main tain communication between
thS lottery companies and their agents or
customers in other States
1t does not seem possible that there can be
any division of sentiment to the pro-
priety of closing the mails against these
companies, and therefore venture to ex-
press the hope that such proper powers
are necessary to that end will be at once
given to the Post office Department.
[Signed. BENJAMIN HARRISON.
Executive Mansion. July 29, 1897.
accompanying the message are two
documents, one letter of the Post
master General directing the Presi-
dents attention to the subject; the
other compilation of the laws relat-
ing to lotteries heretofore enacted, to-
gether with the decisions of courts de-
fning those laws. In his letter to the
President, the Postmaster-G General says
that the urgent necessity Of the case
impels him to anticipate his annual re-
port by this special communication in
regard to the use Of the mails by the
Louisiana Lottery Company.