The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1890-05-17
LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE.

u OF the turning queStFOHS VI thoa
hour for the people of Louisiana is the
proposed extension of the charter of
the Louisiana Lottery. The present
charter of this institution will 500 ex-
pire by limitation and a proposition
has already been made through the
press, and will no doubt soon be laid
before the Legislature, for an extern
sion. The offer of the lottery for a
re-charter which was originally for
half a million dollars annually, has
been increased TO ambition a year., for
rs years.
That is certainly. large offer which
| demands at least the serious consider
alton even of the opponents of the
lottery, before being east aside. The
State is in Strengthened circumstances
and sadly in need Of funds. The floods
have swept over the most fertile sec
tions ofthe country, leavingeverythinc
everywhere ruin. ~aesolation and blank
despair in their wake. With vanished
l~evees, an empty treasury and n res
tricted taxation to replenish it, there
is no other immediate aid to the levees
overlooked districts is as dark and
gloomy as their present is pathetic and
bo,,t ,o,Iinr Dasnoir ctapoc a,.ary
one in the face.
And then the various State charita-
BILE institutions are now and have been
for years sorely in need of funds, to
the great injury and suffering of the
more unfortunate classes of our citi-
zens entitled to their succor. The
public schools. too, have fingered on
and education has languished, to the
deprivation of the children of the hum
bier and poorer classes. without the
means to send their children to pay
schools. The school tax is insufficient
to run the schools and yet the burden
of the tax payers is perhaps as heavy
as it should be.
If the offer of the lottery is accepted.
it would prove sufficient and ample for
the present pressing wants above emu
merated. 1t would inspire new hope
in the Responding hearts of those
stricken by the overflow, and spur
them to renewed energy for the future;
for they would have the assurance of
prompt and designate assistance in
rebuilding the broken levees and keep
ing them up for the future.
It would relieve our various charita-
BILE institutions; afford the proper
care and treatment to the unfortunate
insane; education and sustenance to
our deaf and dumb and blind, and a
place of refuge, with proper medical
attendance and treatment, to the sick,
the lame and the halt. 1t would give
a new impetus to Il public education,
which has already, within the past
decade, materially improved, notwith-
standing and in spite of the many dis
advantages under which we have lab
ored.
All these enumerated Improvements
are certainly desirable, nay, indispen-
sable advantages which many of our
best citizens would be loath to forego.
They present serious questions, with
many qualifications, and far reaching
consequences, in the opinion of some
good men; and their solution affects
the people most vitality and concerns
them most intimately.
They present a new issue which was
not before the people when they elect
ed their actual representatives. and
the people should be given an oppor-
tunity to pass upon the matter. SO
far as the alleged question of morals
involved in the matter, ii is one upon
which people differ. and that, too,
should be left their final arbitration.
Few, if any, hold the question of lot
teries as immoral per Sc; so that, the
immortality, if any there oe, must con-
sist in the abuses of the thing, the
suppression Of which, like the sup
preston of all abuses, is a matter of
e%xpediency to be decided ultimately
by the people.
We, for one, do not believe the lot
terry to be so bad as we have seen it