The Semi-weekly leader. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1905-1941, 1921-10-01
GAMBLING IS PERIL
EDUCATOR ASSERTS
House Party Given in North
Louisiana Scored at Upton
Bill Hearing.


were declared serious Wednesday
night when the judiciary B commit
tee of the House conducted a hear
ing on the anti-gambling bill intro
duced by Representative L. L. up
town of East Feliciana parish. Act
len of the bill was deferred
Thomas H. Harris, state superin-
tendent of education, said students
at Louisiana State University and
every other college town in the state
were subject to the temptation of
the gambling den, white lightning
and immoral women.
DR.. H. Jordan, representative from
Richland parish, said house party
given recently in his section of the
state by district attorney who was
a delegate to the Constitutional Con-
vention had furnished common talk
all over North Louisiana and upon
the streets of Baton Rouge" and sit
is talked that the rake-off ran into
the thousands of dollars"
THAT party alone is sufficient to
warrant the passage of the Upton an
ti-gambling bill by this Legislature,
he said.
Mr.. Upton said that this "house
party was onel of his reasons for
introducing the bill. He said it was
reported that many prominent men
for all over the state had attended
1t, among them former governor.
II invited both this former governor
and the district attorney who was
host at this party to attend this hear
ing and speak in behalf of my bill,
but am sorry to say / have not no
ticed their arrival in Baton Rouge"
he said.
Neither the name of the host of
the house party nor the former gov
ernor who was among the guests
were mentioned.
The Rev. w. d. Kleinschmidt, pas
tor of the Louisiana Avenue Metho-
dist Episcopal ChurchA South, chair
man of the social welfare committee
of the New Orleans Ministerial I'm
ion, and the Rev. A. H. Zeimer, pas
tor of the Claiborne Avenue Presby-
terian Church, New Orleans, made
pleas for the enactment of a rigid
anti-gambling bill.
Representative T. H. Mcclellan of
New Orleans, member Of the commit
tee, asked the different speakers
many questions about the drastic
provisions of the bill. He asked If
it would not prevent the playing of
a pool game for championship cup
Under this bill If you and I should
match to see who would pay for din
ner we would be liable to go to jail''
he said.
Z Mr.. Mcclellan also said that many
CHURCHES gave fairs and resorted to
gambling devices to raise money. The
Rev. Mr.. Kieinschmidt replied:-
There Is not a single evangelical
HI srch nat wisl nerrit- Of any gam
bling device ID gain money for the
church.
ze also cited the fact that Mrs. A.
Baumgardner, who was elected to
place on the Orleans Parish School
Board last year, had prevailed upon
the board to pass an order prohibit
ing the using of any kind of chance
device to raise money among the diff
ferent school associations.
Superintendent Harris pleaded for
protection against temptation for the
youths.
Several hundred of the finest
boys in Louisiana are leaving their
homes now to enter schools through
out the state" he said. II met an
old friend of mine recently who has
a son just out of high school. He
asked me for suggestion as>to what
to do with the box and 1 suggested
that he send him to L. S. u. He
asked me about conditions in Baton
Rouge. / told him that if his boy
wanted to visit gambling dens, to
buy wildcat whiskey and to associate
with immoral women that I supposed
he could get thees things in Baton
Rouge as well as in any other town.
Il admit that most of the boys
who come to L. S. U. miss. these
temptations, but when one boy is
lost then society is hurt. There
ought not to be any gambling dens,
any white lightning to tempt, and
there would not be If society did its
duty and removed this temptation
Mrs. A. f. Storm, of Morgan City,
president of the Louisiana Fedora
tion Of Women's Clubs, said:- II
have not read the bill, but / do not
think it is necessary to say that the
women Of Louisiana, as a body, are
opposed to gambling. I know that in
my parish there is far too much,
and any bill you pass to eliminate
gambling has the backing Of the wo-
men Of Louisiana"
Representative ]. w. Ethridge, of
Grant parish. spoke in behalf Of the
Upton bill and presented petition
which he said had been sent to him
by the Mayor of Colfax and which
bore many signatures.
Representative w. ]. Hammond Of
Jackson parish. urged that the COM
mittee return favorable report up
on the bill IN order that the repre-
sentatives might "Hght 1t out upon
the floor Of the house. Give every
body chance at this, he urged.
Representative David NJ. Evans Of
Madison parish. chairman of the
committee, often had to rap for order
when some of the younger members
Of the committee persisted in ques-
tioning the various speakers and in
dulged in leyity. Mr.. Upton declar-
ed that the attempts Of members Of
the committee to make jest of his
bill would not deter him.