Nelson Chronicle, Colne Observer, and Clitheroe Division News. — 1895-05-03 (Nelson, Lancashire, England)

LETTERS.  The Chairman openecit-ce-p—rOcc edings by reading several letters expressing regret at the inability of workers to attend the meeting. Mr. \V. F. Ecroyd wrote from Credenhin Court, near Hereford, as follows:--" Your letter and circular have been sent to me. Had I been in Lancashire I should have made a point of attending your meeting, and as it is I can only regret that it is out of my power. I fear your protest will be of no avail. What we want is such a condition of the public conscience as will make all public betting and its agencies a crime against society, and will justify effectual and severe legislation for its repression without respect of persons or classes. The cheap press, and especially the evening papers, constitutelone of its chief agencies, and the only remedy is to make all printing, publishing or other circulations of betting news penal. I fear that in this present phase many athletic game, good in themselves, are a mere peg to hang the practice of gambling upon, and these have i become a powerful agency for corrupting the young. 1 Rather than permit such an evil, I would forbid the publication of notices, of football, cricket and other matches altogether. But it must also be remembered that a great deal of business on the Stock Exchange, and in raw materials like cotton, corn, iron lee., is practically mere gambling on time bargains. This could only be stopped by requiring all baigains to be registered on a stamp by a public officer placed in each such exchange, and making it eompulsoiy to deliver and take delivery of actual shares, stocks, and commodities against every bargain under heavy penalties for failure to do so. But I fear the moral sense of the nation is too blunt to pereehe the terrible rottenness of charactee which is growing up ttirough these various agencies, and the fearful decline and disaster which must ensue, and that public opinion would consequently rot sanction the effectual measures which alone would be of service." Mr. R. M. Prescott wrote: " I have received your letter of invitation 1,, the enacting on the 53rd, and regret I cannot attend it owing to another engagement on the same evening. I fully sympathize with the object of the conveners, although it seems to me the Corporation is doing its very best to deal with the evil."  Letters were also read from Mr. Barrowelough (Burnley), the Mayor of Burnley, the Rev. C. Jones, of St. Andrew's Burnley, and others.  The rev. Chairman, who is' President of the Council, said there was a crying evil in their midst which was growing in strength and intensity, and unless they resisted the gambling practice it wou'd sap the very foundation of the manhood of the town. They had not yet arrived, he feared, at the true knowledge of its gigantic proportions, but he hoped that the churches would speak as loudly against the evil of gambling as it did against drink (bear, hear). The practice was indulged in by all classes of people, from the prince to the beggar, and the prime minister, downwards; in fact, it had laid hold of young men and young women, and even upon boys and girls. In Nelson he believed it was the practice of bookmakers to wait at the mill doors and take the money from young men as they came out of the sheds and put it on horses, while in Burnley it was stated at the las,, Council meeting that there were 20,000 betting men in the town. Half of the inmates of their prisons, it had been said, were sent there through betting. He spoke of the power of the Press and its evil influence in spreading betting news, and said if the Press really was as powerful as the pulpit, it ought to take care and preach as high a standard of morality --(hear, hear). As to gamblers flocking into public free libraries after betting news, he said he would, if he had the power, blot out all the betting news from the newspapers before they were put into the library, so that respectable readers would not be crowded out by gamblers thronging after betting news.  Councillor Haytock moved the following resolution, and in a vigorous address he spoke highly of the grand work the Nelson Moral and Social and Vigilance Society was doing :—" That this meeting expresses regret at the large amount of betting and gambling which goes on in this town, and pledges itself to oppose every form of these evils and to do its utmost to develope a more healthy public opinion on the subject; it is further of opinion that as the demoralising system of betting upon horse-racing largely owes its extension and support to the publication of the betting odds in newspapers, it is desirable to introduce a Bill into Parliament to render such publication penal " (applause). Mr. T. W. Wilkinson, Barleyfield, in seconding , the resolution, shewed how the great curse of ' betting was going on in most of the towns and , villages of England every day, and he said he simply came to that meeting to express publicly his own opinion on the question which was opposed to betting—(hear, hear). Some years ago he vigorously denounced betting in cricket and football and called on his fellowmen to help to put a step to the evil practice, and he did so again with all his heart and soul—(applause). It was useless for parent, and teachers to strive to keep up the standard of morality in Nelson unless they all as common citizens did their utmost to put the curse of gambling down—(applause). The Rev. Richard Westrope, of Leeds, supported the resolution in a long and convincing speech against the principle of betting, affirming that the slave of betting sank to a lower level of morality than the slave of drink or the slave of lust. He denounced the idlers, as a burden to the community, and said they ought to be drummed out of society by the working classes themselves. He denounced betting as it demoralised old English sport, and suicide was often the outcome of it, and besides that it degraded and dehumanized men— (applause). The motion was carried unanimously.