The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1892-06-07
a Needed Crusade.

Our New England brethren have very
elastic standard of morality. When they
apply it to southern affairs it is very mar
row and very rigid, but when they use
it at home it is very wide and all the
time expanding.
A few months ago northern sentiment
was worked up to fine frenzy of virtu-
GUS indignation over the lottery evil. The
lottery CHANGED to be In the sOuth-in
Louisiana. 1t was supposed that the con-
Germ attracted numerous dollars from
patrons in the north. SO the good people
up that way flew into rage over this
iniquitOuS wheel of fortune. Their
preachers, newspapers, statesmen and
business men joined in the cutlery, and
urged the federal government to enforce
the anti-lottery law strictly. When the
issue was before the people Of Louisiana
mass meetings were held in Boston to
encourage the anti-lottery men.
Well, the northern agitators had 1t all
their own way in this instance, as in other
instances when they have held mass meet
ings in Chickering hall and in Taneuil
hall to attend to the business Of their
southern neighbors.
A few people down here in Dixie
thought that possibly q wave of morality
was sweeping over the north, and that
gambling had received its death blow.
They are mistaken. After the lottery
was smashed, an anti-optiOn bill was
introduced in congress by -lr. Hatch. The
object of the bill is simply to stop gam
bling in the exchanges and boards Of
trade. 1t purposes to restore the traffic
in cotton and other agricultural products
to its legitimate basis, by preventing
gamblers from buying and selling millions
Of bales which will never be delivered,
thus manipulating the markets to the
injury of the producing classes 1t is
so framed that it will not interfere with
actual buSineSS-With the men who are
really buying and selling cOtton-but it
will stop the gamblers who are trying to
get something for nothing, drawing CAPT
tai into their game of chance and leaving
the agricultural classes poWerless to take
care Of their interests when the markets
have been fixed up by the gamblers.
When 1t was known that such Il bill
was pending, the farmers of the west and
south took it for granted that the north
ern enemies of the lottery would favor
an anti-optiOn law. But there VIII be no
help from that source. This gambling in
options and futures is infinitely more
dangerous and destructive than the soli-
tary lottery in Louisiana. 1t reaches out
and directly and indirectly hurts hun
dredS Of thousands of honest people who
never gambled in their lives Yet north
ern public sentiment sustains it, The
business pays, 1t IS the favorite occupa-
ton of Wall street, and all the plutocrats
and Well-to-do classes, and all the organs
controlled by Wall street are denouncine
the Hatch bill
The other day The New York Times
opposed the bill, and now The World
speaks out against it, and appeals to dem
ocratic congressman to vote it down. The
course of these two newspapers is incOn-
sistent and dishonest. They Joined in
the movement to suppress the louisiana
lottery, and yet they are the rampant
defenders of gambling in Wall street
gambling in future cropS-gambling in
the toll and tears and poverty the
helpless farmers of the land!
If this shameless corruption can be
checked in no other way, perhaps the peo-
pie of the south and west had better
resort to the methods adopted by the
nOrtherners in their crusade against the
lottery in Louisiana. Let us hold public
meetings, and send out speakers and doc
uments to work UP u revival of public
morality in the north. Let us send mis-
siOnareS to the benighted regions in the
shadow Of Wall street. and preach the
gospel of honesty until we convince the
people that they cannot fight gambling
in the south and defend it i'll the north.
Let us not mince matters, but make these
Wall street men and their dlpeS under
stand that, whereas the lottery only alb
serbs the money Of it's voluntary custo-
mers, and spends millions of its revenues
for the public good the option and future
gambling business is able, when there Is
not a bale of cotton in the market, to beat
down prices to an extent that will drive
tne southern farmers to the verge Of
starvation!
The farmers are losing patience. They