Proposed Sunday Law for the District of Columbia

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 23, 1913

Proposed Sunday Law for the District of Columbia

UNDER the heading “Opposes ‘Blue-Laws,’” and with the subheading “Religious Liberty Association Will Hold Protest Meetings,” the Washington Post of January 9 contained the following article:—

“Bent upon preventing the enactment by Congress of any Sunday ‘blue-laws’ applying to the District of Columbia, W. W. Prescott, secretary of the Religious Liberty Association of Washington, is now arranging for the holding of a public meeting to arouse sentiment against a bill which the Lord’s Day Alliance of the United States has drafted and is now preparing to introduce in the Senate.

“This measure, which Mr. Prescott says is known as ‘A bill to punish violations of the Lord’s day in the District of Columbia, and for other purposes,’ is to be substituted, he asserts, for a measure which is now before the Senate, having been introduced several years ago by Senator Joseph F. Johnston, of Alabama.

“No effort has yet been made to present the bill to the Senate, but it is understood that a representative of the Lord’s Day Alliance will soon come to Washington from New York for this purpose. The Religious Liberty Association will announce the date and place at which its meeting will be held immediately following a meeting to be held by the Lord’s Day Alliance, Sunday, at the New York Avenue Presbyterian church, at which the proposed bill will be explained.

“The Sunday law, as drafted by the alliance, provides:—

“That it shall be unlawful in the District of Columbia for any person to labor or to employ any person to labor, or to pursue any trade or worldly business, or to employ any person to pursue any trade or worldly business on the first day of the week, commonly called the Lord’s day, except in work of necessity or charity. In works of necessity or charity is included whatever is needed for the good order and health of the community. It shall also be unlawful for any person, partnership, firm, corporation, or municipality, or any of their agents, directors, or officers to require or permit any employee to work on the Lord’s day, excepting in farm labor or household service, unless within the next succeeding six days during a period of twenty-four consecutive hours he or it shall neither require nor permit such employee to work in his or its employ.

“‘Any person who shall violate the provision of this act shall, on conviction thereof, be punished by a fine of not less than twenty-five dollars nor more than fifty dollars for the first offense, and for each subsequent offense by a fine of not less than fifty dollars, nor more than one hundred dollars, and by imprisonment in the jail of the District of Columbia for a period of not less than one month nor more than three months, in the discretion of the court.

“‘SECTION 2.—That all prosecutions for violations of this act shall be in the public court of the District of Columbia and in the name of the District of Columbia.’

“Congress, in placing such a law upon the statute-books, Mr. Prescott says, would be acting beyond its province. It would open the way for further religious legislation, he says, carrying the country back into the shadow of religious oppression of the middle ages, and erasing the benefits of religious liberty, which America was the first to offer to the world.

“For more than twenty years, Mr. Prescott declares, there has been a concerted effort to establish Sunday laws in the District of Columbia, which, with the State of California, is now the only portion of the United States that is without some form of particular Sunday regulations.

“The Lord’s Day Alliance, he adds, claims the credit for adding the rider to the postal appropriations bill enacted last year, closing certain post-offices on Sunday. This year, he says, the organization is making special efforts to have Congress act favorably on its suggestions, despite the fact that there are many who do not observe as the Sabbath the day to which the alliance would have its measure apply.”

Up to the present writing (January 14) the bill printed above has not been introduced into the Senate, although the mass-meeting was held last Sunday evening (January 12), and announcement was made that the Lord’s Day Alliance proposed to do all it could to secure the passage of a model Sunday law for the District of Columbia.

Remonstrances against the passage of the Johnston Sunday Bill or any similar bill, adopted by our churches throughout the country, are being presented daily in the Senate, letters are being written to congressmen, and other measures are being taken to prevent the enactment of any such bill as the proposed one. The progress of this work will be reported from time to time.