ON GAMBLING.

White Ribbon, Volume 30, Issue 361, 18 July 1925, Page 8

ON GAMBLING.

The “Eden Gazette" in a recent issue writes as follows:—-

"In a reecnt “Star" I notice the Kev. (}. Gordon Beil struck a true note, when recently, he asked at a Council of Christian Congregations meetings. “If we, as a Christian 1» believing that betting and gaiujling are productive of evil, are we prepared to stand by our convictions and to agitate for the abolition < f tin* totalisator, and the efficient combating of the evil of bookmaking? In less we are prepared to do that, all our talk about art unions and other things will be useless, and the public will take very little notice.” The Rev. C. J. Tocker, (The League of Nations Secretary), also spoke on the far-reaching evils of gambling. He held “that gambling produced in the individual and in the community a moral and spiritual condition which could only be described as destructive.” It was, he declared, an insidious peril. There was a great deal of loose ta'k abroad, and out had to make near what was meant by “gambling,” To say that “Life is a gamble," and “Business is a gamble” was**-rasa stupidity. The evil might be summed up under three heads. First, it was something that exploited the element of chance; secondly, it meant the giving of no service in return for the gain sought for; and thirdly, the making of gain out of another’s loss.

Ifw*»s time the press, the schools, and Ut Government, combined to create and to foster a public opinion which should be hostile to gambling, continued Mr Tocker. It was usel<*ss to aigue that human nature was always the same, and that gambling was a natural impulse, as history revealed tha* human nature changed. Cannibalism had gone, so had unashamed drunkenness, duelling, and negro slavery. But they bad gone only becaus* nubile opinion had been educated. Gambling could go in the same way.

Many respectable people and members of the church, be wont on to say, used the argument that so long as they could afford it. there waa no harm in putting a shilling on, and that it did not hurt them now’ and again. But was there over a time when on< ccuM niTowl to gamble? Economically, gambling was an r.b-

surdity; it Infringed the law of love and service, and was a fru’ ml source of crime.”