Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1890-05-03

ton Will be referred by the Legislature
to the people, and that the voters will
be asked to decide whether for Sl2,-
10000 they will grant to this company
another twenty-five years lease OF life.
At first glance this looks like an OPP
portunity for Louisiana to follow the ex-
ample of Monaco and support itself by
the taxation of the people of other
States The operations of the Lou
isiana company will. of course, be
national. In case that State furnished
no more than double her share of the
victims, only 100000 of the $12, $780,
600 of promised license fees would
come from her own citizens. The bait
is certainly a tempting one and high
standard of public honor will be neces
sary to keep the taxpayers of Louisiana
from attempting to clear twelve million
dollars, by the licensing of law-break-
ing in other States. Yet, although the
loss to the people of other States is a
certain one, the gain to the people of
Louisiana is worse than uncertain. A
close examination of the question will
show that Louisianians alone probably
lose through the lottery more every
year than the entire amount which the
company proposes to pay to the State.
This is indicated in the first place by
the revenues of the state lotteries in
Italy and Spain. Italy's revenue from
her lotteries is Sl4,000,000 year.
Italy's population is but thirty times
that of Louisiana. In case, then, the
Louisiana Lottery Company makes the
same rate of profit from the people of
Louisiana as the Italian Government
from its own citizens, the lottery COM
pany costs the Louisianians every year
$3.50, 600; or, approximately, the same
amount that it now offers the State for
its charter. In Spain the legalized
fleeing is still greater In the budget
of 1887 -S8, the income from the lottery
was estimated at $15, 400, 900. SPANS
population is out sixteen times that of
Louisiana. If the profits of the pri-
yate lottery company IN Louisiana may
be estimated from those of the state
lottery in Spain, they amount to one
million dollars year, or double the
sum which the company is now offer
ing as a bride to the taxpayers.
Everything indicates that Louisian
ians are victimized by their lottery
quite as much as Spaniards by theirs.
Lee Meriwether in his report of investi-
cations conducted under the United
States Labor Bureau, says that in New
Orleans the lottery has an important
bearing upon the labor problem. The
poorest of the poor are its victims.
The seamstresses who work from Z
o'clock in the morning until II o'clock
at night may have for breakfast, din
der and supper only tive-cent loaf of
bread, but they are apt to have lottery
tickets in the pockets of their thread
bare dresses. or slowed away behind
cracked mirror or picture frame. Tick
cts or parts of tickets for the daily
drawing can be bought for rs cents.
They are hung upon strings in the
windows of nearly every corner gro
Gerry. Servant girls do not think it
wrong to slightly curtail their
employers regular food supply
that they may have chance in
the wheel of fortune. Those women
whom one sees in the lottery building
on st. Charles street, with market bas-
kets on their arms, waiting for the
blindfolded boy to draw them prize
may be depended upon to show short
age in their market account by the
price of at least one lottery ticket.
When decentralization such as this
ensues, the State of Louisiana canno
afford to recharter the lottery Ole
France abolished the institution sixt,
years ago. 1t is high time that new
France followed its example. j B. Say
the most distinguished French econo
mist of this century, expressed tn,
sentiment of all enlightened peopl
when he declared that "The legislator
who sanction a lottery license vote
certain number of thefts and suicide
every year There is no pretext of eS
pense which can justify proyocation t
70 crime"
From tile ST. Louis Post-Dispatch April =
1900
The Louisiana Lottery Company o
r fers 10 pay the State 81, 800, 900 &c
the privilege Of carrying on its bushes
o twenty-five years longer This is sin
ply a proposition to relieve the Loui