[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR, —As Canon Green prits
two definite questions to me, you will perhaps in your kindness allow me to answer them. To answer is not difficult. Duelling is always sinful, because it involves the taking of human life.. The telling of a lecherous story is always sinful, because it offends against the law of purity. Betting, like_ drinking, is sinful, not in_ itself, but in its excess or abuse. It stands, therefore, in a different category from acts which are intrinsically sinful. If, then, it is legitimate to impose a tax upon the Liquor Trade, it cannot be illegiti- mate to impose a similar tax upon the gambling fraternity. There may be, indeed, economic objections to the taxation of betting. All that I have ventured to say is that, if such taxation can be made profitable to the State, it should not be condemned on moral grounds. Betting has become a gigantic national evil ; it affects all classes and conditions of people ; it is a source of widely spread demoralization. . But when an evil has attained such proportions as these it cannot be effectively remedied or mitigated by any power 'except the State. Private voluntary agencies are practically impotent to restrain it. It is so that betting has immensely increased and is still increasing, despite all the efforts which such agencies have made to cope with it. Canon Green refers to " the creation of a healthy public opinion," but he does not state how the healthy public opinion is to be created. The taxation of betting is one form of action which may be taken by the State. It would, certainly free betting from some of the malpractices which now attend it. It might, and I incline to think it would, diminish the amount of betting. For there is some reason to hope.that the regularization of betting, if it were undertaken , the State, would - produce the . same effect as the regularization of drinking under the system of licensed houses has produced. But the State must take some action, or the evil of betting will remain and will increase. It seems to be incumbent, therefore, upon, persons who oppose the taxation of betting to suggest some other remedy. If they will neither accept nor suggest any measure which the :State may take, the responsibility for so great an evil as betting is to-day must, I am afmid, ,be held at least in some degree to
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