Show men ev ever er susceptible to lure of lotteries it I 1 Is s curious iha that t proposals for a strict curb on stock exchange gambling should coexist with a rising demand for the release of similar curbs ou on gambling elsewhere in some bome congressional circles margin trading Is considered wicked in itself the professional fess ional lonal 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 raco race track gambling for years under ali the ban cities are considering means of capitalizing on the gambling propensities of their citizens and even the federal government I 1 itself Is being urged to adopt a national lottery many profess to see no inconsistency in this they hold that while speculation ought to be sharply restricted strict ed on the exchanges for tile the protection of the investor and the whole industrial system the gambling instinct is too deep seated to be repressed altogether taking as their text mrs Roosevel ts recent remark it seems impossible to say to people you shall not gamble they propose first to give them such national outlets for their speculative impulses as horse racing and second to turn at least part of the proceeds into public channels hard times have leave been as potent an influence in ili 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 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 and for more than two centuries it was a regular source of public revenue in that country soon spreading to france germany spain and austria eng land raised money for the british museum by means of a lottery kings college now columbia university was founded on the proceeds of a lottery we are told that the first french lottery held in was won by the king an outcome which for a time dampened the ardor of his subjects t after having been under tinder the ban for for a linn hundred dred years the french lottery was established reestablished re and met with instant popular enthusiasm the best known and roost most widely patronized lotteries in the world today are the irish free state sweepstakes and tile the calcutta sweepstakes opponents of lotteries point to the tong long record of corruption and crookedness associated with them during their early use here and abroad they condemn them on social as well as moral grounds pointing to the fact that the desire on the part of hundreds of thousands of americans to get rich quick in tills this fashion was one of the causes of our financial crash it Is also argued that lotteries with cheap tickets have their greatest appeal to persons with small incomes and therefore 01 eo operate as an antisocial anti social tax on the poor in considering sider si hig the attitude of government toward gambling it Is possible to draw a line between those measures which recognize changing clia nging moral standards wide interest to in horse racing th the e difficulty of enforcing pro statutes and even the de of obtaining some public return from various sporting events and those measures which seek to put the government whether federal state or local directly into the business of promoting an outright gambling institution like a lottery A british royal commis slun appointed to investigate the subject brought in a report last year opposing the re establishment of lotteries in england on the ground that private lotteries invited invite I 1 fraud that the government should not engage in practices offensive to many of its citizens that the psychological effect of a national lottery would be bad and that th athe fille income would be only trifling new york times |