{"id":36,"date":"2014-02-25T04:14:55","date_gmt":"2014-02-25T11:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/holyokemass.com\/?p=36"},"modified":"2014-02-25T04:21:25","modified_gmt":"2014-02-25T11:21:25","slug":"feb-25-beano-called-salvation-of-holyoke-catholic-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/holyokemass.com\/blog\/2014\/02\/25\/feb-25-beano-called-salvation-of-holyoke-catholic-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Beano called “Salvation” of Holyoke Catholic Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

25 February 1943<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Beano<\/a>

Vintage Beano Game
Milton Bradley Co., 1930’s<\/p><\/div>\n

Game Defended Against Attacks That It Has Become Racket In Some Cities.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Boston. — Bills to investigate, abolish and also to extend licensed gambling in Massachusetts were stoutly defended and attacked in heated argument before the Legislature’s Legal Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n

The proposals to restrict present legalized gambling consisted of a batch of bills to investigate, regulate and abolish beano.\u00a0 Measures to extend the state’s present partnership in horse and dog racing consisted of two measured to license bookmakers and another a recommendation of a special state commission to open branch offices of the State Racing Commission where bets could be made on races at licensed Massachusetts tracks.<\/p>\n

Beano defenders at the hearing consisted entirely of Chicopee and Holyoke legislators who urged continuance of beano as conducted by two churches in the two cities and by the Knights of Columbus and a textile workers union in Holyoke.Beano in Springfield came in for attack when Rep. Perlie D. Chase (R) of Boston, author of one of the bills to abolish beano, declared:<\/p>\n

“The game of beano was originally legalized to raise money for charities but instead has become a racket in the control of a group of men who have made millions of dollars out of it.\u00a0 We all know what happened in Malden, and we all know what is going on in Revere and Chelsea.\u00a0 It is common gossip what sort of games are being operated in Worcester and Springfield.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The beano game conducted by Immaculate Conception Church in Holyoke attracts 3200 to 4000 participants at the weekly game on Fridays, the committee was told.\u00a0 Beano has been the “salvation” of the church, said Rep. Laurence W. Law of Holyoke.\u00a0 Holyoke should not be denied the right to license beano games if city officials wish to do so, Law said, praising the “well-run” manner in which the games are conducted.<\/p>\n

“People get a good shake for their money” at the Holyoke games, Rep. Law asserted.<\/p>\n

He explained that the Holyoke church had a mortgage of “more than $400,000” when the depression rendered many parishioners unable to pay their pledges toward the cost of the new church building.<\/p>\n

Mortgage Reduced<\/strong><\/p>\n

The mortgage has been reduced “substantially” with the help of beano profits, he said.\u00a0 Law intimated the Holyoke church does not intend to conduct a beano game permanently but will drop it when the church “gets on its feet.”<\/p>\n

If the church had been forced to drop its school during the depression, the taxpayers would have had to pay $25,000 a year to provide public education for the parochial school pupils, Law said.\u00a0 The beano game has thus saved taxpayers $75,000 annually, he argued.<\/p>\n

Rep Edward Lysek of Chicopee declared repeal of the beano law would “unjustly hurt” bona fide charities which are conducting beano games legitimately and in a businesslike manner in Chicopee and Holyoke.<\/p>\n

Rep John J. Falvey of Holyoke opposed repeal of beano but declared, “We would welcome an investigation.\u00a0 Our skirts are clean.”<\/p>\n

The heavy attack on beano came principally from Somerville.\u00a0 Numerous religious and civic leaders and legislators from that city joined in a demand that the bean law be repealed.\u00a0 Beano in Somerville is a “racket,” the committee was told, run by “three men” who can “walk into the mayor’s office without knocking.”<\/p>\n

Beano games take $20,000 nightly in Somerville, declared Rep. Foster of that city.\u00a0 One of the repeal measures was filed by Rep Paul A. McCarthy of Somerville.<\/p>\n

The Somerville Knights of Columbus made $80,000 on its beano game in seven months and gave $50,000 of it to charity, Rep. Foster said.<\/p>\n

Adapted from the Berkshire Eagle<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

25 February 1943 Game Defended Against Attacks That It Has Become Racket In Some Cities. Boston. — Bills to investigate, abolish and also to extend licensed gambling in Massachusetts were stoutly defended and attacked in heated argument before the Legislature’s Legal Affairs Committee. The proposals to restrict present legalized gambling consisted of a batch of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,131,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/holyokemass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/holyokemass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/holyokemass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/holyokemass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/holyokemass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/holyokemass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9558,"href":"http:\/\/holyokemass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions\/9558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/holyokemass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/holyokemass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/holyokemass.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}