The record-union., 1891-08-14
THE LOUISIANA CAMPAIGN.

The excitement in Louisiana over the
lottery campaign is now at its hight, and
1t is described as something wonderful,
but still the election is nine months dis
tant. For three-fourths Of year to come,
then, this unequaled, excited and dis
turbed condition of the public mind is to
continue. From this simple statement of
fact we can gather some idea of the in
tensity of feeling among the people upon
the subject. Naturally the aggressive
and most excited of the parties are those
fighting the lottery octopus. The con-
test of the latter is made with greater
cunning and the unsympathetic chink of
gold coin. 1t stands boldly, unblush-
ingly forward with its purse in its hand,
tempting the State with an offer of one
and quarter millions of blood money
annually, and bribing voters with an
effrontery unparalleled.
All political lines in the State are aban-
doned; the pros and antis make the
only issue For once in the history of
the State all the people, on one side or the
other, are running over each other to
secure the negro vote, and it is certain
that next spring there will be no attempt
made to keep the black man from the
polls. Unfortunately it is true that In
Louisiana, as throughout the South, he is
susceptible to bribery more than are the
whites. His impoverished condition
makes the ring of coin exceeding tempt
ing to him, and hence the efforts of the
friends of decency to "brace up" his
moral courage, and to give him backb
sufficient to stand against the allurement
of the dollar.
There is growing hope for the anti
lottery cause. Its supporters are well
organized in every parish; all the clergy
Of all denominations are with them; the
Governor and many leading Democrats
support them; the Farmers Alliance has
indorsed them by an anti-lottery plank
in its platform; anti-lottery mass meet
ings are numerous and enthusiastic, and
pledges to vote against the curse are
being signed throughout the State. So
aroused and earnest are the people that a
proposition is seriously debated, to rise
in revolution if the lottery is not crushed
at the ballot-box. The Creoles and
foreigners are mainly for the lottery; the
blacks are most easily worked" by it's
agents; some astute, but unscrupulous,
politicians argue before the people that
the subsidy fee the lottery will pay for
its charter is sufficient to atone for the
gambling evils it promotes; that lotteries
are drawn elsewhere, and that the people
will play at the game anyhow, and there
fore it is wiser for Louisiana to reap the
profit. All this is stale argument, the
answer TO it is too obvious and crushing
to need to be repeated.
The most humiliating thing about the
case is that in this latter part of the nine
teenth century, with all the experience of
the ages TO teach US, and the ethics of
common honesty to guide US, any con-
siderable body of our people should be
found to stand forward as apologists for
licensing gaming, and that, too, at the
very time when Europe is shutting up
her gambling dens, and closing her
statute-books against charters to lottery
gamblers, having found, after half a
century's experimenting with the mons
ster that the only efficacious treatment
for it is to choke the life out of it.