The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-02-28
THE LOTTERY LIVES.
1t Gains a Great Advantage by
Removing to Mexico.
POSTOFFlCE ON THE ALERT.
Purchasers of Tickets to Be Pros ecuted
A Better Use for the Money to
Be Suggested.

ISo A4C AOtACl - Sill EESdElc4
as q living menace by the postoffice depart
ment. New heads grow upon the hydra
whenever they are cut off. and the trans
fer of its abode to Mexico restores III a
large measure its opportunities for carry
ing on its business in the United States.
That business, so far as the mails are con-
cerned, will be conducted by sealed letters
and packages, which are inviolaole. The
government authorities cannot intercept
matter so sent, and the management Of
| the gambling concern will be safe from
| prosecution outside of Uncle Sans terri
tory. So it appears that the fight is about
to assume new and more difficult phase.
This country Will soon be flooded again
with fractional tickets, and the new law
Furnishing the senders by criminal pro-
ceedings instituted wherever the specula-
tive securities are received will be useless.
There is but one way to solve the prob
lem. Accordingly, the postoffice, when it
finds itself unable to attack the lottery di-
rect!y, proposes TO assail patrons OF the
swindle-the purchasers of tickets in the
United States. No legal enactment for
bids any one TO buy ticket, but the law
will punish anybody caught using the
mails for that purpose. Ii it is ascer-
the lottery company to pay for share in
the gamble, you are liable to $500 fine and
a years imprisonment. That is the pen
atty for each offense. Sealed communica-
tions being sacred, evidence NAV be diff
cult to get, but the department regularly
employs corps of the most skillful detec-
tives in the world, and they have means
of finding out such things, so that no per-
~ A faaT
safe. They are ready with certain meth
eds for testing" people who may be sus-
pected of this sort of transgression. These
tests" they declare to be very different
from ''decoys'-iust as postal employees
are tested" by letters sent through their
hands containing marked money-but the
nature of them they refuse to disclose, for
obvious reasons.
1t is expected that 4 few determined
prosecutions against individuals detected
in sending money by post for tickets will
brighten people out of using the mails for
this purpose. However. that will not pre-
vent the gambling concern from dispatch
ing tickets in bulk by express from Mexico
to cities and towns all over the Union, ad-
dressing them under seal TO agents, by
whom they can be distributed to pur-
difficulties placed in its way, the lottery
will again reap harvests of millions of dol
lars annual in profits obtained from the
speculatively inclined in this country.
Making. as it intends, regular special
drawings for the United States, other
draw ings for Mexico. others yet for Great
Britain, and possibly others in addition
for other countries, its gains are likely 10
be far greater in future than hitherto.
This prospect does not concern the post
office. Ii is not an institution for the
propagation of good morals. and its only
| aim is TO prevent the mails from being
utilized 10 vicious ends.
The lottery company will have no
trouble in securing all the privileges it
wants in Mexico. That country is the
home of a gambling people and hotbed
OF lotteries of every conceivable kind. Not
only is there a great lotter concern in
operation in the City of Mexico, as well as
numerous smaller ones eyeryw here, but
all business is done more or less on a lot
terry basis. Everything in the way of
property from real estate to 4 mule, is sold
by rattle, and even the churches are largely
supported on the same speculative system.
Postmaster-General Wanamaker is anxi-
Gus that the spare cash of the people shall
not be squandered IN lottery Investments.
The scheme he has most at heart is TO in
vite them to deposit their savings with
| the government, using the postoffices as
| places of deposit. He says: THE making
OF money Is part of the genius OF the
American, but the saving of it is not so
conspicuous" Let the government an
nounce its willingness to receive deposits,
and millions of individuals who now have
nothing will quickly become small capt.
talists. For proof one need only look TO
Great Britain, where one person in every
eight inhabitants has cash to his or her
I l. 81
office, nearly 1,oo0,0o0 new accounts hav-
ing been opened, with an aggregated sum
of $1O5 GOO 900, during 1880
Other foreign nations lind the postal
savings system equally successful. People
in this country commonly hoard their
money in stockings. cracked teapots and
stoves, because they are dlStrustful of
| banks. Their confidence in them has not
been increased by the recent smashes of
such institutions in New York, Phila-
delphIa and Boston. Nearly all of the
vast sum which is now kept thus hidden
away by nervous persons would be quickly
turned over to the government, the guar
antee against loss being absolute. Every
one who accumulated deposit of would
Immediately acquire an appetite for saw
ing. There is a most eager demand for
the adoption of the system in the United
States, as is shown by the numerous letters
and petitions addressed on the subject 10
A plan suggested is TO issue at postoffices
| certificates of deposit, bearing interest at
the rate of half a cent day on 500. OF y
little less than , per cent. per annum-
principal and interest payable 10 the de-
posltor on demand at any money-order
office. Sums deposited should be not less
than 81, and any amount over so might
draw interest. always from the beginning
of the next month after the deposit was
| made. The secretary OF the treasury could
receive the money. keeping account of de-
posts from each state separately, and put
il in circulation by offering the funds 90
tanned in each state as q loan TO the
national banks OF the same state, exacting
a suitable rate of interest.
The postmaster general expresses conf
dence that the telegraph and telephone
will become important adjuncts TO the
postoffice department within a very few
years. He says that there would be no
difficulty in blending telegraphy with the
present postal system. using for service the
force already under pay. This accom-
plished, kilograms could be sent between
any two points for cent word, which
would bring the lUxuary of quick inter
change OF intelligence within reach of per
sons OF moderate means. Special rates
would be given the newspapers. and the
use OF certain wires might be given TO the
press associations at a merely nominal
tariff during certain hours of the night.
when their lines would otherwise be com
paraively idle.
Ten cent telegraph messages and cent
telephone messages IN connection with the
postal service are near possibilities - saws
Mr.. Wanamaser. Collection boxes in
the towns could receive the messages.
written on stamped cards like postal cards.