The President exercised patience and waited until November 2, when the regular session of Congress opened, and the Liberals took their seats. At this time the Liberals practically stultified themselves by agreeing to discuss and finally to approve the loan project which they had formerly opposed. After transacting this and some other business, Congress adjourned in December. Among the reforms which President Menocal promptly undertook to effect was the abolition of the national lottery which had been established during the Gomez administration. In his messages and through the influence of all legitimate presidential influence he strove to abolish this form of legalized gambling. His arguments were that the low price of the tickets, only 25¢, and the appeal which was thus made to the poor and ignorant, to servants and working women as well as to men, had caused great injury and had brought about a certain degree of moral decline among the masses of the people. It had induced many individuals to borrow money and even to steal in order to purchase lottery tickets, in the delusive hope of winning one of the large prizes, which ran up to $100,000, and thus exempting themselves from the necessity of work for the rest of their lives. The lottery, it is true, yielded a considerable revenue each year for the government, but General Menocal regarded this as far more than counter-balanced by the social and moral evil which it wrought, and by the reproach which it brought upon the good name of the Republic. He was unable, however, to persuade Congress to abolish it, partly because of the popular love of gambling which so largely pervades Latin American countries, and partly--perhaps chiefly--because the privilege of selling tickets at wholesale, at a handsome profit, was farmed out to many members of Congress.