The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-02-17

should be submitted by the Congress
of the United States forbidding any
State from granting a lottery charter,
or franchise of any kind to carry on
lottery schemes, and annulling all
such charters and franchises if already
granted. That the president of this
oody be requested at In early day to
memorabilia Congress in the name OF
tbs body, praying for the passage OF
such an amendment.
"Resolved further, That a committee
of three be appointed by the chair,
whose duty it shall be, under the
supervision of the executive commit
tee, to correspond with all the Ali
ances and Unions throughout the
United States, and with all other
bodies in sympathy with the move
ment, requesting the presentation at
once to Congress of similar memo
rails"
In submitting to your honorable
body the resolution thus adopted, and
in, discharge of the duty imposed on
your memorialist, speaking for said
convention, the following considera-
tons, in addition to those stated in
the resolution are presented
l. That if there is a single principle
in social morality and in political
economy, upon which there is no
division of opinion among the States
composing this Union, it is as regards
that principle which condemns puolic
gambling as vicious, immoral, and
preiudicial to the entire interest of a
community.
2. That of all the forms and modes
of gambling, lottery gambling is the
most insidious and pernicious in las
corrupting influence, the most wide.
spread in its operations, the most
ruinous in its effects, and the most
difficult to detect and repress.
3. That the unanimity of opinion in
all the States of the Union in con
demning lottery gambling is demon
strated by the fact that forty two
States have in their constitutions or
statutes expressly prohibited lotteries,
and placed in the category of criminal
acts the buying are selling of lottery
tickets.
4. That the practical impossibility
of s~uppressing lottery gambling in
other States as long as it is tolerated
in one State, is shown by the fact that
the Louisiana State Lottery Company
has existed in the State o. Louisiana
for mOr than twenty years, and
openly boasts that it derives more
than 81 per cent. of it's vast revenues
from the sale of it's tickets in States
where the sale of lottery tickets is
forbidden by law. On computations
often published, and the correctness
of which has never been denied, its
g~ross.annual revenues have been stated
to exceed $28, 600, 900. AS the com
pany has existed for over twenty years
this sum would represent an aggregate
of more than $500, 600, 900 collected
during the period of its existence, by
this single lottery, from the American
people, in defiance and through viola
Iion of law This enormous income
of this one concern alone, raised from
the whole body of the American PEG
pie, in open AMI avowed disregard of
law, is all the more remarkable as the
scheme of this particular lottery gives
its players so few c1ances of winning
that 1t has been denounced as fradu-
LEM even as a lottery.
A distinguished and perfectly i'm
partial mathematician, the late Pro.
fesscr 2ichard A. Proctor, has exam
ined the problem OF winning in the
Louisiana State Lottery Company,
and as the result of his examination,
has made the following statement:
"But the greed for ehance-won
wealth is so great among men of weak
minds, and they are SO large a majority
of all communities, that the bait may
be dangled for them without care to
conceal the hook. In all lotteries and
gambling systems which have yet
been known the hook has been patient,
and the evil it must do if swallowed
should have been obvious, yet it has
been swallowed greedly.
"A most remarkable illustration of
the tu,iy Of those who trust in luck,
ami the cool audaeity of those who
trusr in such folly, with more reason
but with more ~rascality, is presented
by th+ Louisiana Lottery in America.
This IS the only lottery of the kind
now permitted in America. Indeed.
it is nominally restricted to the State
of L ,uisiana; but practically the whole
country takes part in it, tickets being
obtainable by residents in every State
in the Union. The popularity of the
lottery is the calm admission, in all
advertisements, that it is a gross and
unmitigated swindle. The advertise
ments announced that each month
100, 900 tickets will be sold, each at
SIS, shares of one.ifth being purchas.