St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1891-10-17

~ ~ A1oC-
itself by taxing the poor, the ignoran
and the deluded alone? My friends, yor
can do great many things in this worle
4 indirectly which you could not do directly
although what is done indirectly is eqniva
i lent in substance to what is done directly
i | tell you that if the lottery advocate.
were standing before the people of Louis
lana to-day with proposition to exemp
banks, railroads, insurance companies anc
rich people from taxation and to put il
upon the poor, the ignorant and the de
luded, the people would tear them te
pieces and there would not be q remnant
left Of them. They would boot every ad-
vocate Of the lottery out OF this State. And
that would be the result if the direct pro.
position were made. My friends, the pro-
position as it stands is in substance and
essence, nothing more, nothing less than
this
Do you want an illustration of what l
have said? Go and stand at any one OF
these pest-holes scattered all over the city
as have done; go and stand at the door
of any of these
| INTERNAL POLICY SHOPS
and see who goes in. Go and follow one
of the ticket sellers as he goes along the
street and you viii see the percentage of
poor people who buy tickets day after day.
| That would not only be your experience, it
has not only been mine, but my friends, it
has been the experience Of the world
This lottery question is not any new
thing. This experiment has been tried be-
fore. What we say to you on this subject
is not mere speculation as to what is going
to happen, but we can look back in the
past and can see where lotteries have been
used and what has happened there; and,
with the light of history before us, we can
see that the most destructive, the most in
furious, the most terrible method by which
a government can undertake to support it.
self is the establishment of q lottery. Zap
plause) For that reason it is condemned
universally condemned-by the political
economists-and what mean by a polite
al economist, my friends, is man who
makes special study of his branch of
knowledge just as the astronomer studies
the stars, as the chemist studies the organ
ization of things and as the iron man
studies the characteristics of iron The
study of
THE METHOD OF GETTING RICH:
of the production of wealth, the distribu-
ton of wealth, the way society grows and
supports itself. and what has good effect
on it and what has bad effect on it-men
like Adam Smith, Jean Baptiste Say, John
Stuart Mill, McCulloch, DR.. Wayland and
many others. All those great men who
have studied this thing, who have watched
the operation of lotteries in France, in
Belgium, in England and other countries
where they have been established, without
dissenting voice unite in the statement
that public lottery for the support Of gov
ernment ID public curse. {Applause.)
The growth of society in wealth, comfort,
knowledge and health is based on the two
great foundations of industry and frugali-
ty-they are the constant application of
human energy of mind and body to labor
in the fields, the forests, the mines, the
portat;on of yar;ons L;n5s ~ thors.na
small industries thatgr as society grows;
the other, the content of mind and the
temperance of habit which loads mon 70
live within their means n waste notb;r.
in destructive vices and to Law hv their s,r.
plus earning. A lottery strikes At both
these cardinal v;rt,es
tt teaches man tha there is a wav ~ oe+
rich other Than hv the d;v;nalv anno;ntad
patf Of honest labor And tba tand;no =
false. IT makes men DRINK with Tia IA.
lusive sight of gold within their grasp and
when they have been robbed of their all,
it dashes them down to despair,
It impoverishes and degrades the peo-
pie. 1t provokes embezzlements and sui
cides.
1t drains the savings banks and the
boarded money of the people. No other
form of gambling appeals SO strongly to
the speculative instinct inherent in human
nature To use the language Of the
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
twice repeated at intervals of thirty years.
Experience has shown that the common
forms of gambling are comparatively inno-
cuous when placed in contrast with the
pestilence of lotteries The
former are confined to few persons and