Sacramento daily record-union., 1890-07-31
THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.

Inc special message OF President Harri-
son to the Congress of the United States
this week is rare document, for it is a
most unusual thing for a President to ad-
dress the National Legislature upon any
social evil question. His communications
are almost entirely confined to political,
international and financial questions.
President Harrison's message on the lot
terry evil IS, therefore, of unusual charac-
ter and rare in its scope and direction.
But it is message that will win from the
great mass of the American people a
hearty "Amen" in response.
The President assumes the position that
State chartering a lottery may not be
interfered with if the vice of its act is
confined to the limits of the State bounda-
ries and the use of its State agencies, but
that it cannot utter a word of protest,
worthy of any consideration, against the
refusal Of the Government to permit the
mails to be made the avenues and agencies
tor carrying on the nefarious business.
The postal machinery is governmental; a
State has no power over it, no greater in
terest In it than any other member of the
Federal Union, and cannot, with any show
of reason, claim the right to make it the
vehicle for the transmission of matter con-
demned by the common judgment of man
kind as vicious and demoralizing.
Since it would be practically impossible
for the lottery companies to exist if the
mails were closed against them, and since
the policy of the United States has been,
ever since the establishment of a postal
service, to exclude from the mails matter
that has tendency to defraud citizens, to
corrupt the people and demoralize society,
the duty of Congress to forbid the use of
the mails to gambling organizations, of
which lottery concerns are the most mis-
chievous, is clear and imperative The
President makes an especially strong point
when he says that the other States have
no power to protect themselves against the
assaults of lotteries chartered by one State
because they cannot forbid the bringing
in of the United States mails. Unless
Congress, therefore, comes TO their relief,
they are helpless to resist vicious agency,
and must sit idly by and see their youth
corrupted and the spirit of gaming fos-
tered in its most dangerous form.
Fully one-third of the leading papers of
the United States reap considerable rev.
enue from advertising for lottery compan-
les. They charge for this sort of work the
highest schedule rates. They receive
heavy payment also for the publication of
reading matter, thinly disguised as news,
that purports to give accounts of lucky
hits, of prize winnings and of the wonder
ful fortune of some ticket-holder The
bill now before Congress, and which the
President asks it to pass, cuts off ali this
revenue from these papers unless they are
prepared to give up the use of the United
States mails. 1t will be interesting now
to notice how these newspapers that have
fattened on the lottery companies will re-
ceive the message of President Harrison.
If they assail it they will lay themselves
open to the charge of conserving the inter
ests of their advertising columns at the ex i.
pense of public morals if they commend it
they will say to the people that they have
been engaged in nefarious business all
along and have sold ont princinle for co,p
If they deny that the lottery is danger
Gus and demoralizing agency, they will fly
in the face of history, reason and the COM
mon verdict of mankind; if they admit
that what the President says of it is truth,
they will confess themselves as having
given aid and comfort to an influence cor
ruptlng and vile, while they have posed
before the people as conservators of morals
and exponents of enlightment and cleanly
intelligence.