Mr. Crafts in Riverside, Cal.
FROM the Phoenix, of August 31, we clip the following report:— Last Monday evening, Mr. Crafts, of New York, lectured in the Congregational Church on behalf of the American Sabbath Union, or what he calls the “American Sabbath.” The working classes were especially invited to come out, but they were conspicuous for their absence. The church was about two-thirds filled, mainly by church people and advocates of a State and National Sunday law. Considering the fame of the speaker, such a turnout does not argue much in favor of a Sunday law in Riverside. Mr. Crafts is field secretary of the American Sabbath Union, and is a good specimen of what might be termed muscular Christianity. He is a fluent, forcible, and pleasant speaker. Phrenologically speaking, no one would take him for a logical speaker or an intellectual giant, nevertheless he would be inclined to carry conviction to a certain class of minds. We doubt, however, whether he made a single convert to his views; indeed, there were few at the meeting who would be inclined to dissent from any views expressed by him. What Mr. Crafts lacks in logic is made up in force, and what is wanting in argument is made up in assertion. The workingman has nothing to gain from the American Sabbath Union which proposes to give him a rest on Sunday. We have never heard that the workingman complained of overwork, but rather of lack of work, and so when the workingman asks for work, and wants to be relieved of the incubus of Chinese labor, the American Sabbath Union tells him, We want to give you a rest on Sunday. Mr. Crafts claims that the American Sabbath Union is indorsed by the Knights of Labor. This we deny. There are estimated to be 1,000,000 idle workers in the United States, and the American Sabbath Union proposes to help them by giving them a holy day on Sunday, so devoid of anything in the shape of rational amusement that they will be forced to go to church in sheer desperation. Compare the stone, which the church proposes to give the workingman with what he himself is asking for. In the International Workers’ Congress, held in Paris a few days ago, the workers agreed on “Eight hours as a maximum day’s work to be fixed by international law.” “At least one day’s holiday to be given each week.” “Abolition of night work as far as practicable for men and entirely for women and children.” “The total suppression of labor by children under fourteen and protection of children up to eighteen.” “Prison and workhouse labor to be conducted under the same conditions as free labor, and to be employed as far as possible on great public works.” Mr. Crafts’ arguments were a tissue of sophistries. He claims that eighty per cent. of the people of the United States are Protestants, ten per cent. Catholics, and the remaining ten per cent. is made up from all classes. From what he says, one-half million of foreigners, “unwashed refugees, professors of liberty,” are the sole cause of Sabbath-breaking, while the AMERICAN SENTINEL counteracts all the influence of the American Sabbath Union. It would be hard to say just what Mr. Crafts wants. Jesuitism is by no means confined to the Roman Catholic Church, and there are many in Protestant garb who think the “end justifies the means.” The subversion of our civil and religious liberties will be the result if the American Sabbath Union can have its own way. This country is great and prosperous because it is free politically and religiously, and wherever the civil power is controlled the most by the religious power, there is the least freedom. Not by accident, but by design, is the absence of any religious test in our State and National Constitutions, and long may it continue to be. The battle of civil freedom has been fought on this continent for the whole civilized world, and as appearances go, the final battle of religious freedom will also have to be fought on our soil. When the day comes that the religious arm controls the civil arm, there will be an end of our greatness.