A Judge Decides the Question

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 30, 1908

A Judge Decides the Question

ADVOCATES of Sunday laws, when seeking to show that the legislation they seek would not mean a union of church and state, have frequently declared that such laws were merely “police regulations,” enacted in order that the people might rest. But Judge Sheldon, of the district court of Johnson County, Kansas, has given a judicial decision of that question. The matter under consideration

was the legality or illegality of playing baseball on Sunday. He decides that, according to the Sunday law of Kansas, Sunday baseball playing is illegal. Concerning this decision the Union Signal of January 16, giving its own version of the judge’s reason for rendering that decision, says editorially:—

The judge holds that the Sunday laws are designed to guard the religious privileges of the people, and decisions should be rendered in harmony with the spirit of the law.

They must decide so; for the purpose of a Sunday-law promoter is never met when the people merely rest on Sunday, and take the kind of rest that suits them best. The promotion of religion is the underlying motive in every Sunday law ever enacted. Will our National Reform friends admit it, now that the Kansas judge, in declaring Sunday baseball a violation of the law, has settled the other question also? If they do, we shall expect to hear no more about Sunday laws being mere “police regulations,” not religious legislation, but civil only.