Copyright berkshireeagle
The tabulation of ballots in Tuesday's election, revealing a majority of Bay State voters favor a state lottery to pay old age pensions recalls the popularity of college lotteries in the early days. Soon after Williams College in Williamstown was founded, an effort to increase the finances resulted in the Legislature granting permission for a lottery. This permission was authorized Feb. 11, 1789. Other colleges previously had resorted to the same idea. Yale staged a lottery in 1747, Columbia in 1754 and Harvard in 1722. Under glaring newspaper headlines, the Williams College enterprise was announced: Nothing Venture Nothing Have; Not Two Blanks to a Prize; Scheme of Williamstown Free School Lottery." Variations in the headlines were noted. Some read, "A Grand Chance" and others "Now or Never." Under the jurisdiction of Trustees Sedgwick, Skinner & Little, of Williams, tickets were offered at $2. Prizes amounted to $5,800, therefore profits couldn't have been large. Three classes were drawn in Boston. The location of the drawing was made in Boston "in order to gratify those in and near Boston who have discovered a disposition to encourage the lottery." This change immediately started trouble. A Charlestown lottery had been under way and the competition became serious. After a few drawings, the Charlestown group criticized Williamstown for coming into Boston and cut the commission of the ticket sellers. Williamstown officials, perturbed, called a special town meeting for advice. The advice was to be prudent and arrange all drawings in advance of the Charlestown enterprise. This was done. However, after two months the promoters of the Williams lottery found their own personal affairs had been suffering and relatively few tickets were being sold in Boston, therefore the "eastern campaign" was dropped. Then more troubles developed and the managers were embarrassed by the primitive currency they reverted to in the transactions. "A very great failure," they announced Dec. 21, 1789, would delay the drawing of the second lottery. Cash was also scarce and the managers had no idea of doing business on anything but money. They did, however, accept various sorts of currency, consolidated notes, new emission, old Continental currency, wheat and neat cattle. In any event, the lottery prospered fairly well and contributed $3,449.09 to the treasury of the "Williamstown Free School."
