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Show LATEST HiLnDV Frcf. Hatthcvs, Dean cf the Chicago University Eivin- ity Cchccl, Cays Gambling Is Society's Direst Enemy CIIICAGO, May 1. "Officeitis" is the latest mania, according to Prof. Shailer Matthews, dean of the University Univer-sity of Chicago Divinity school. . . He defines -it as the mania to keep doing something. He declares that the craze for gambling gam-bling poker, bridge whist and the like together with the '"bohemian. life,' is responsible for social decline. His lecture was on 4 Happiness." His formula for happiness is this: 1 Be good. 2 Give the other fellow a right to be happy. 3 Be sane. 'The only excuse that I ever beard for gambling is that the money is the f ambler's and that he has a right to o with it as he pleases. Gambling is a distinct issue, in American society today. to-day. The craving for gambling is one of the direct enemies of the stability of society. ' .. "There may seem to be nothing wrong if Mr. A plays poker and Mrs. A plays bridge whist for money, but the society which has the conception represented repre-sented by Mr., and Mrs. A. is a society on a moral deeline. "I do not expect people to confine their amusements to church socials, but I do not - countenance the statement, 'He must sow his wild Tats.' I cannot understand the moral attitude of those parents who may know of the misdeeds of children and yet think it is all right aa long as the children are 'not caught. "Americans are suffering from the disease of 'officeitis.' They must ' be in the office' continually, if only to sit in a swivel chair and look wise. Automobile riding on Sunday is one of the forms of 'officeitis.' "Of course, the real meaning lies in pathology -the condition of the nerves, we do not seem to recognize that the possibility of happiness carries with it the necessity of sanity and the living of a well-balanced life. "We should take measures to increase the leisure of the lower classes. Even if increased leisure should in exceptional excep-tional eases mean that more time would be spent in saloons, we should work for it just the same, for the good effects of leisure will outweigh the bad." |