Sunday Trains and Railroad Bankruptcy
Last December, at the Washington City Sunday-law convention, Mr. Elliott F. Shepard, to make a strong point in favor of Sunday laws, said: “The West Shore Railroad of New York ran Sunday excursion trains and bankrupted. The Lord blew upon it. Then others took the road and stopped all that, and the road is now making money.” Now we find that the New York Central Railroad Company controls the West Shore road, and we personally know that the New York Central runs Sunday trains both freight and passenger both on its own and the West Shore lines. This shows plainly enough that it was not the Sunday trains that caused the bankruptcy; because Mr. Shepard’s own testimony is that the company which now controls the road is making money, and that company runs Sunday trains. Or does Mr. Shepard mean that the Lord is so discriminating as to “blow upon” a company for carrying passengers on an excursion train on Sunday, and to give prosperity to another company for carrying many of the same passengers on a regular train?