open, or suffer his or their agent or employee to keep open, his or their place of business, or who shall sell, give away, or dispose of or permit another to sell, give away, or dispose of, on his or their premises, any spirituous, malt, vinous, or fermented liquors, or any mixtures of any such liquors, on the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, or upon any day upon which any general or special election is being held, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction, shall be fined in any sum not less than twenty-five dollars or more than one hundred dollars, or imprisoned in the county jail not to exceed three months. SECTION 2644. BUSINESS PLACES SHALL BE CLOSED ON SUNDAY EXCEPTIONS. It shall be unlawful for any person or persons, company or corporation, to keep open any barber shop, store, shop, or other place of business for the transaction of business therein, upon the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday; Provided, this section shall not apply to newspaper printing-offices, railroads, telegraph companies, hotels, restaurants, drug stores, livery stables, news depots, farmers, cattlemen and ranchmen, mechanics, furnaces or smelters, glass works, electric light plants, and gas works, the venders of ice, milk, fresh meat, and bread, except as to the sale of liquors and cigars. Any person, company, or corporation who shall violate the provisions of this section, shall, on conviction thereof, be fined in a sum of money not less than twenty-five dolars [dollars], nor more than one hundred dollars, for each offense. Places of business to be closed Nullifying 1 Here is a sample of what is found, to a greater or less extent, in nearly all Sunday laws. At first all labor, business, and trade is prohibited; and then follows a list of exceptions, twenty, thirty, or more in number, as here, practically nullifying the law, giving those engaged in this trade and that trade, this business and that business, this occupation and that occupation, permission to continue their regular lines of work on Sunday. This, however, is only in harmony with the example set in the first notable Sunday law known to history, that of Constantine, in A. D. 321. This law commanded the judges, city people, and all tradesmen to rest on "the venerable day of the sun; but it permitted "those dwelling in the country freely exceptions. and with full liberty to attend to the culture of their fields.' See page 752. Unlike the divine Sabbath law, which simply sets forth the great principle of six days devoted to our own work and the seventh to God; and the divine Word, which seeks to promote true Sabbath keeping by laying down broad principles rather than by entering into minute details, the makers of Sunday laws go into all sorts of details; assume to become conscience for other men; and not to say just who may and who may not work on Sunday; what lines of business may and what lines may not be conducted on that day; and what kinds of goods may be sold and what kinds may not be sold on the first day of the week. Instead of appealing to the divine law, to men's own conscientious convictions, and to the blessings resulting from true Sabbath-keeping, which, in the very nature of the case, must be voluntary, the authors of these laws appeal to human law; set up one man's conscience as a standard for the conduct of other men; and institute a forced Sabbath rest, which, to the obsequious and indifferent, means enforced idleness; and to those whose conscientious convictions differ with the standard thus set up, persecution. They intrude into the domains of conscience, and the inevitable results are religious legislation and persecuting proceedings. A false standard set up. VIEWS OF PRESIDENT TAFT'S PASTOR. Rev. U. G. B. Pierce, President Taft's Washington pastor, spoke wisely when he said: "I shall refuse to take up an attack on people who entertain on Sunday, because I believe the matter rests entirely with them, and no one should interfere. It is a question for a man's conscience to decide, and not for any other man to decide for him." Washington " Post," March 6, 1911. THE CANADIAN LORD'S DAY ACT. The Canadian Lord's Day Act, which went into effect March 1, 1907. and which some of its friends, in spite of its name and general character, declare only a civil law, contains no less than thirty exceptions. Speaking in defense of this law, Rev. J. J. Roy, of Winnipeg, revealed its true character and object. He said: "It is incumbent upon the state so to legislate in a general way, and in a special way, and restrict individual liberty of action on Sunday that undermines the Christian religion and the religious observance of the Sabbath." "Should Parliament Prescribe Your Religion?" page 6. According to this, the personal liberty of the individual is to be sacrificed one day of the seven in order that through a statutory law the Christian religion may be fostered, and the religious observance of Sunday promoted. And still such laws are not religious, and do not interfere with individual liberty! THE PLAIN LESSON OF HISTORY. A Roman Catholic contributor to the "Catholic Standard and Times," of October 30, 1908, signing himself Ardee, makes the following earnest protest against the enslavement of conscience under religious laws: "A persecuting policy is an anachronism. There must be an end of it. Humanity cries out against it; patriotism denounces it as antinational; it is an evil that tells against the interests of all classes. If history is of any value, the plain lessons it teaches must be taken to heart, and one of the most imperative of them is the folly of attempting coercion in the domain of spiritual life. Any Englishman who cares for the reputation of his country must look with pain and horror upon the blood-stained pages of her annals disclosing fearful religious strife in which citizen acted toward citizen as a sort of human wolf. And what is true of England may be said of all Europe. The internecine warfare on the score of religion is an awful blot on men's Christianity not indeed on Christianity itself, but on their modes of interpreting it." In a speech delivered in London June 3, 1876, Hon. Joseph Chamberlain said: "Persecution is not inherent in religion. when it becomes connected with the State." It is only imported into it "A Present Danger," page 8. CHARACTER OF SUNDAY LEGISLATION. The persistence with which Congress has been besieged, even from an early date, for Sunday legislation, may be gathered from the fact that the petitions sent to Congress which called forth Col. Richard M. Johnson's first famous Sunday Mail Report, that of 1829, came from no less than twenty States, besides the District of Columbia, and from four hundred twenty different cities, towns, and localities throughout the country, and aggregated 467 in number. As in the fourth and fifth centuries Sunday laws were secured from the Roman emperors through the influence of the church bishops, so these petitions were sent out for signature, in the month of December, 1828, by "a most respectable committee, composed of gentlemen of different religious denominations." "Memorials Presented to Congress During the Last Session," Boston, May, 1829, page 4. Their source indicated their character, and that of the legislation sought by them. Sunday laws are, always have been, and always will be religious. Government is never the gainer in the execution of a law that is manifestly unjust. . . . Conscientious men are not the enemies, but the friends of any government but a tyranny. They are its strength, and not its weakness. Daniel, in Babylon, praying, contrary to law, was the true friend and supporter of the government; while those who, in their pretended zeal for the law and the Constitution, would strike down che good man, were its real enemies. It is only when government transcends its sphere, that it comes in conflict with the consciences of men."— President Fairchild. UNITED STATES. For more than a hundred years the government of the United States has enjoyed a pre-eminence among the nations of the earth as a result of its recognition of the unalienable rights" with which the Creator has endowed all men as a sacred and inviolable possession. Every other nation had played its part in violating those rights, so that every avenue of escape from the cruel hand of oppression seemed closed. But just then the government of the United States arose, and espoused the cause of human freedom, placing a guarantee of religious liberty in her Constitution, thereby inviting to her bosom the victims of ecclesiastical tyranny of every land. But by persistent skill and subtlety, this monster scourge of the ages, religious persecution, seems determined to push its conquests into this last earthly asylum of soul liberty. And by no other means has this work been carried on here so persistently or so successfully as in the matter of the making, the preservation, and the enforcement of Sunday laws. The matter contained in the preceding sections of this book shows conclusively the character of these laws. They are religious. And being religious, they afford the bigoted and intolerant a convenient means for persecuting those who differ with them in religion, and particularly in the matter of the Sabbath and Sabbath observance. Notwithstanding the warning voice of history, bearing to us, like peals of thunder, the cries of the oppressed from ancient, mediæval, and modern nations, resulting from the enforcement of the religious opinions of the majority enacted into civil laws, still many are oblivious to the dangers of this same kind of legislation now, and are wont to inquire, "Where have Sunday laws resulted in religious persecution in this country?" That religious legislation is the same evil now as ever; that it operates in the United States the same as in other countries; and that Sunday laws here have already been seized upon by religious bigotry as convenient tools for persecution, and their enforcement resulted in religious oppression to conscientious observers of another day, the matter presented in the following pages abundantly testifies. It also very forcibly witnesses to the evil of allowing such laws to remain upon the statute books, and suggests the propriety and the absolute necessity of repealing these laws, as the true American principles and the plainest constitutional provisions demand. So long as these laws remain unrepealed, honest, innocent, industrious, and upright citizens are liable at any moment to be subjected to oppression, persecution, and hardship. Under such conditions, as Jefferson says, "a single zealot may commence persecution, and better men be his victims." Pre-eminence of national government. Evil elements at work here. Many oblivious to danger. Bad laws should be repealed. |