The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-17
A POPULAR CRUSADE.
The "Call" Has Gained Many
Friends for Its Stand on the
Lottery Question.

Friends for Its Stand on the
Lottery Question.
It is better to be right than to be victor,
is the spirit and intent if not the wording
of very ancient but very wise proverb.
1t is the spirit with which the. CALL began
the anti-lottery crusade. 1t was with the
determination to fight the lotteries as an
evil to the commonwealth, to down them
If possible, to decrease their power for
harm at all events, whether the fight
proved financial loss or gain, popular
or an unpopular cause.
Necessarily the fight has proven costly
one. 1t often costs money to dare to stand
for right and the truth. Necessarily to
fight the lotteries meant the loss of a GER
tain amount of advertising patronage for
which the very highest rates are paid.
But the CALL calculated the cost and
would have entered the fight had it been
hundred-fold greater than it has been.
Even the possibility of the cause being
an unpopular one was considered before
the crusade was started. In certain quar-
tiers a loss of subscribers was to be eX-
pected if the lotteries were assailed. New
ertheless the lotteries were assailed. And
the result has not been disastrous-not to
all appreciate extent.
On the contrary the Calls anti-lottery
crusade has won for it a thousand new
friends for every subscriber lost, because
of its unique attitude on the lottery ques-
ton. Unique, though a very pregnant
word expresses the situation in this City
exactly. The CALL stands alone among
the great daily newspapers in its attitude
toward the lotteries. 1t is not pleasant for
one who takes a pride in his City to reflect
that all but one of its newspapers are con-
stantly breaking the law by opening its
columns to lottery advertisements. But it
is the truth.
And those who consider the CALLS atti-
tude an unpopular one, unique as it is in
San Francisco journalism, are very much
mistaken-as the CALL has ample reason to
know, and as but little inquiry among
the law-abiding people, both rich and poor,
in and out of the churches, will readily
prove.
From all quarters have come words of
praise for the CALL attitude on the lot
terry evil; commentator of the CALL S
crusade against the pernicious traffic as well
as moral and active support in its behalf.
y W
mum Der OF church people that bought lot
terry tickets" said Western Addition man
who has grown rich by selling lottery
tickets and running tiny cigar-stand,
yesterday afternoon.
Thirty per cent of my customers in the
last ten years have been members of
churches in this City. For two years 1
sold a lottery ticket every month to a
preacher of one of the Protestant churches
in this part of the City. He doesn' t
patronize me any more, and I'll tell you
why: / had bet with friend of mine
that he was not preacher. So to decide
the bet, l up and asked him one day,
| Aren't you the Rev. So and SOP I>asked
him, right point blank. He answered that
he was, but he never came here after that.
I won the bet, but lost a customer. It
wasn't a great loss, for he only bought one
ticket month, but if preachers can buy
them, why should not laymen?"
Because it is against the law for either
laymen or preachers to buy lottery tickets,
and because a conscientious man can't
square his own conscience on any such
fimsy plea as that OF breaking the law be-
cause minister of the gospel did so. Ii
the preacher turned thief, that would not
furnish even fool with an excuse for petty
larceny.
But this is lottery ticket-seller's story.
and it may or may not be true. And if it
is true it only makes the matter so much
worse, the need of an aggressive crusade
against the baneful traffic so much more
pressing. If it be true that one minister of
the gospel has SO far forgotten the tenets of
his high calling as to become even mod
crate gambler, it is certainly not true that
the ministers of San Francisco as a body,
either opaniy or covertly, countenance the
lottery evil.
Every man of them, with this one posi-
bic and doubtful exception, is unalterably
opposed to lottery gambling or gambling
in any form. Not long since the CALL pub
lished brief interviews with the represe
tative clergymen of this City of all sects
and denominations. And among all the
interviews there was not one that did not
emphaticaly indorse the attitude OF the
CALL on the lottery question and deplore
the fact that the advertising columns of
the other daily papers were still open to
the pernicious advertisements of the lot
teries. Those who declared themselves at
that time were the Revs. w. D. Williams
Plymouth Church; George E. Walk, Trim
ity; DR.. Ollie, Central Methodist; NJ. J.
Ferguson, Christian; w. H Moreland, st.
Luke's; Robert Mackenzie, First Presbv-
terrain; John Hemphill Calvary; w. E.
Goodwin, California-street Methodist;
Jacob Voorsanger, Temple Emanuel; A.
M. Russell, Hamilton Baptist; DR..
G. 0. Brown, First Congregational; A. G.