Sunday Closing Bill in District of Columbia
Among the more than one hundred bills pertaining to the District of Columbia remaining unacted upon the calendar of the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia at the adjournment of the recent session of Congress was H. R. 16483, “requiring certain places of business in the District of Columbia to be closed on Sunday.” This measure, which applied especially to grocery and meat stores, and was supported by the clergy and the clerks’ union, passed the House at the previous session of Congress and was sent to the Senate and referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia, where it remained unacted on during the entire period of the recent session. This measure had a similar experience in the previous Congress. Tho apparently there were no special efforts made by its friends to secure action on this bill, or “act,” as it had become by its passage by the House, at the recent session, it is very likely that the constant inflow of petitions against it which were sent in by Seventh-day Adventists throughout the country from the very beginning of the session had much to do with its demise. The Adventists endeavored to but were unable to secure a public committee hearing upon the measure. Their aggressive opposition doubtless deterred the committee from taking the matter up at the short session. This, or some other measure in its place, will doubtless be introduced in the next Congress and may receive more attention than it has had by the last two Congresses.