Show men ever susceptible jo to lure of lotteries sw 1 I 1 it Is s curious that proposals for a strict curt curl on stock exchange gambling should coexist with a rising d demand for the release of similar curbs on gambling elge elsewhere where in some congressional gress lonal circles margin trading Is considered wicked in itself the professional fess ional speculator fleeing from the stock exchange Is now to be driven out of the commodity exchange likewise and yet at almost the same moment states are legalizing racetrack gambling for years under the ban cities are considering means of capitalizing on the gambling ambling of their citizens and even the federal government itself Is being urged to adopt a national lottery many profess to see no inconsistency in this they hold that while speculation ou ought it to be sharply restricted strict ed on the exchange e s for the protection of the investor and the whole industrial system the g gambling ambling instinct Is too deep seated to be repressed alto altogether other taking as their text airs Roosevel ts recent remark it seems impossible to say to people yov you shall not gamble they propose first to give them such national outlets tor for their speculative impulses as horse racing and second to turn at least part of tho the proceeds into public channels hard times have been as potent an influence in this effort as changing moral standards indeed lotteries are regarded by their sponsors like representative kenney it if new jersey author of the billion dollar veterans lottery bill primarily as a means of raising money to fill depleted depicted government treasuries the lottery is an ancient institution the promised land was divided among the twelve tribes of israel by lot queen elizabeth introduced the lottery into england in 1509 ana and for more than two centuries it was are areg war ular s source of public revenue in that r country soon spreading to fran france ce germany spain and austria ing land raised money for or the british inn gouin by moans means of a lottery kings college now columbia university was founded on an the proceeds of a lottery we are told that the first french lottery held in 1681 was won by the king an outcome which for a time dampened the ardor of his subjects alter after having been under the ban tor a hundred years the french lottery was established reestablished re and met with instant popular enthusiasm the best be 8 t known and most widely patronized lotteries in III the world today are the irish free state sweepstakes sweepstake s a and ad the calcutta sweepstakes opponents of lotteries point to the long iong record of corruption and crookedness associated with them durin during their early use here and abroad they condemn them on social as well as moral grounds pointing to the tact fact that the desire on the part ot of hundreds of thousands ot of americans to get rich quick in this fashion was one of the causes of our financial lal crash it Is also argued that lotteries with cheap tickets have their greatest appeal to persons with small incomes and therefore operate as an antisocial anti kocl social if tax on the poor in considering si the attitude of government toward rambling gambling it is possible to draw a line between those measures which recognize changing moral standards wide interest in horse racing vie the difficulty of en enforcing forcin prohibitory hibi tory statutes and even the desirability sir of obtaining some public return franf various sport sporting lh events and those measures which seek t to 0 put the government whether federal state or local directly into the b business us of promoting an outright gambling institution like a lottery A royal commission appointed to investigate the subject brought in a report las year opposing in the re establishment of lotteries in england on the ground that private lotteries invited fraud thattie that tha be government should not ed engage a ge in practices offensive to many of its citizens that the psychological effect of a national lottery would be bad and that the income would be only trl trifling fling new york times |