Enforced Sunday Observance — Who Are Its Allies?
By Editor
In the Bulletin of August 27 we attempted to show the inconsistency of the Chicago Daily News in its attempt to bring into Chicago enforced Sunday observance over the deceptive issue of closing the Sunday saloons. Since the writing of that article, the utterances of the Daily News have been more pronounced than before, and the charge then made abundantly proven to be just. In the Morning News of September 9, under the leading editorial, “Sunday Observance,” we find these significant words: “And this suggests the point, which has doubtless occurred to many of our readers, that a wide-open saloon is only one of many forms of violation of the divine command, ‘Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy.’ Open barber shops, open grocery stores, and other open places of traffic, are infractions of this command, only less mischievous than the open saloon.” In the News of September 23, in the leading editorial, “Some Progress,” we find these words: “For nearly two months the Morning News has devoted an unusual amount of its space to an endeavor to bring about Sunday observance in Chicago. . . . The fight has been carried on because the Morning News believes in Sunday observance. It believes in it, not only from a religious and moral standpoint, but also from an economic and hygienic point of view.” And how does it work to bring about Sunday observance?—By appeals to the civil authorities. We deny the right of any civil ruler to enforce the fourth commandment, or to enforce Sunday observance, from a religious, or any other standpoint. God says to this self-appointed guardian of the Almighty, “Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord.” Heb. 10:30. The News quotes Cardinal Gibbons, and many Catholics, to show that the Church of Rome favors Sunday closing. In a letter commending the course of the News, from “Fides,” of St. Charles, Illinois, which appeared in the News of September 21, we read: “No man with a knowledge of the teaching and doctrine of the Catholic Church could be so inconsistent as to accuse her of failure in the slightest degree to enforce the most exact and religious observance of Sunday.” This is too true ever to be contradicted. The question is whether the country is ready for such enforced religious observance of the fourth commandment as shall please the Daily News and the Catholic Church. The fight is not for temperance; it is not against the saloon; it is not for prohibition. News of September 17, editorial, “One War at a Time.” “It may be even admitted that in a certain sense the fight is not specifically against the saloon, but against unlawful Sunday toil and traffic of every sort. Nevertheless, the fight on hand now is against the Sunday saloon, open in violation of an express law of the State. When we have won this fight, we will reform the lines, plant the standard on the ground thus gained, and press the attack on other specific instances of Sunday violation. But just now, ‘one war at a time, gentlemen, if you please.’”—Workers’ Bulletin, Des Moines, Iowa.