LOTTERIES’ LURE

Hokitika Guardian, 16 March 1933, Page 2

LOTTERIES’ LURE

POPULARITY IN RUSSIA. “SOCIAL MASS ACTIVITETS.” Lotteries are a favourite method in the Soviet to raise funds for special patriotic purposes, at least a dozen different ones being in progress at this time, writes a Moscow correspondent. The <AI capitalistic ambition of large returns for small investments has not been stamped out by the S° v iet regime, and it is really doing its utmost to gtimulat e this human partialty fo r something for nothing. Prizes in these lotteries rang e from a bicycle to a trio round the world, and ardent young Communists make pressing sellers. A cow may be a prize for a sixpenny ticket, an apartment for 2s —or a motor-car for is—if the b u y er selects the ticket with th 0 night aumb*r. These lotteries raise money for such varied purposes as aeroplanes for the Red Army, the development of roads, the support of Jewish colonies, and the cane of homeless children. The Soviet regime is rigidly, opposed to private charities, but this type- of .indirect charity and public to achrove specific charitable or patriotic purposes le not only tolerated but encouraged. It comes under the heading of “social mass activities.”