The Haslingden Gazette. — 1914-01-03 (Haslingden, Lancashire, England)

WHAT ARE THE MORAL EFFECTS':  SWEEPING OONDEMNATION OF GAMBLING HABITS.  Rov. W. McNeill, speak ng at Park Cop. gregnfonal Onurch. Acorington. on Banda,. oat lithes of flan.W...g,•' tiotinod gananing as  "the determination of the owneriiiiip of property hj nnooal to ohanco.•' By chance wa nivant the remit whien folkovit froni a play of foram that iranrot bo controlled or oakulated by tin.. who appeil to it.- Thu," in (heeding tho poweiedou of a tont by toseing " head: or tail*" the adjustment of tho formic whiolt determined on whieli side the .00:0 woutd fah wns not in the knowledgo or oatItrol of either p•irt.y. We had here the element of leiter:iv. and by acimitMg this method to decide ehall possen the coin. we had gambling in ire fonn.  Alr.Nei:l prunes aid to dismiss the morality raareilng, and dealt with the question: C4lll gambling be uplwid on grounds of morality and I tonal Ponce as a legitimate method for the ' it :., 0 property is TAO, brought in the indictment that guru bin; as a mode of transferring prop•rty Is a pernicious system which deetreys the moral foundation, of iostividual character, and of the riocial and trttOlit , 1 It-. Priterty might be trzneferris' the prinertee of benevolence. ono man ?niece Its kin:lnes, giving to another sonetithe.; irf that whiih he ;assessed, bread to satinfyhis bung..r, Or some souvenS as a token ..f friendship or penaonal esteem. Or again. it might be tratchirred by the principle of exchange, thus becoming pure:y a business' trannocton. so that what belettged to one rnan becanie henceforth telt*. asd indisputably the possession of &nether. In both en.9l.i a traneferenoe of property haat boon effected on pricciplis which wore universally recogniaed as, sound and equitable, and inns sheik there entered no element of chance. But in geniis ling, the distinguishing feature of sbieh was the reprotionsibl element of ohitoie. there was introduced a principle aliich wood appeal neither to reason nor conscience as being morally sound air nicht. In our midern system of betting and gam', Iliac the sieniatial wrong front an ethical point of view lay in the appeal which was mauls to this issound pr:t.ip:u of chafer. The man who put • shillitg on • horse had no oertain knowledge than the particular b.-ei would win; the probabilities might appear to be in bit favour; but he was dependent upon chum,. The nesting-place id the little hall on the niulette table Wiali likewise entirely a matter of ellen,, for no man was quick enough to balance the foes, which were determining its final position. The man, therefore, who put hin shilling upon red wan trotting to chance. The amount of akill sometimes acquired in tho calculation of probabilities was simzetimes urged an reducing tho element of chance to a negligible quantity. In this way it was said that in a successful bit onc kind of :rained ability was rewarded in the canto way itri a carpenter or a novelist Waft past by those alto iiurchased their respective produotions. But this was not so, for at net time did the transference of property in betting cease te be boned on oliance in the mind of at least one of the parties to the bet. Indeed, it was impossible to bet on any event without the element of chance entering in it. In the case of billiards, if two players were on the whole equal, then over a large number of games the results would be about equal; but the winning or losing of any particular game, ti-u,, tot•foreltand. alien the bet was agreed to. a matte, of tturn 0.11112 re. Then if red NAN knewa to be a worst player than white, a handicap would be demanded. The moment that two players are known to be so unequal that one had no alum«. against the other. arrangements were made te equalise the chances. Thus the bin never rented avoaedly on the skill of either player. but always upon the equality of the chances for or against ratiii plainer. The trateaotion involved in a bet wee becaum property was transferred from ono to another upon the oecturence of an event whit to that two parties to the bet. was a matter of centplate chanoe, or as nearly no as thtiir adjhatunant of the ounditionn could make it. The essence of gam& ling eons:tied in the abandontnern of reason, the setting niide of the factors of human control. It was a deliberate revemion to those passions and that mental attitude shieh characterised the savage as opposed to oiriliised man. Gambling was also to be condemtwel on the ground of its effect:. Which were evil, and only evil. The evil effects of gambling were seen in two important directions—upon the character or the individual, concernee. and upon the social and economic life of the community. In the one it led to a lowering of character. which in turn resulted in many evils, such as deception, theft. suicide, etc. In the other it Ind to wholesais dentscurdisation. Because gambling was irrational and immoral, it involved an intellectual and it moral descent to a lower plane of thought and fee.ing, and areseed a more absorbing pneion than any other human interest. alcohol itseif scarcely asserting a etronger dominion over ins devotee,. Once let the erasing for gambling get firm hold of a young mull, and there VMS no end to the possibilities of hi, moral tlebanement. As the statistics of crime would amply prove, he might lose all regard for the secrotin.a of property, and at length might fill a suicide's grave. Ths. gambling habit degenerated • and debased character by eating away its very vii ids.  .le, to the effirt of gambLng on the national  Lord Ikaiconsfield called the turf " a vast engine or national dernoralia&mt'• A community or state cou:d he no betivr nor worse than the aggregate character of the social units that comprised it. Whon. therefore, a einsderable number of those social units were demoralised in character by the habit of gambling or any other evil habit. it fellowso as an ine.itable consequenco that the Economia and cocial foundations of the community or state were in serious danger of demoralisation. When gambling became a national habit, it destroyed the foutalat:on principkw of the national life. Its Great Britain it had become a national habit and a national curse. -If I may aamme for once the role of the prophet." concluded the preacher. I venture to predict that ere many years have passed legislation of a mo-t drastic character must be introdu,oci in this land to deal effectually with the craze and cure of gambling."