Untitled article

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · February 25, 1892

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 7, No. 8

The World of the 16th inst. remarks, editorially, that “the Minneapolis decision to permit open bars on Sunday seems to be very imperfectly understood in the East. It is in fact a war measure, an act of defense in the struggle between the Twin Cities for supremacy.” The facts are thus stated:—

Minneapolis has a large and costly hotel “plant.” So has St. Paul. The St. Paul saloons are open on Sunday, while those of Minneapolis have hitherto been closed. The observed consequence has been that the whole army of commercial travelers have regularly retreated from Minneapolis to St. Paul every Saturday night, to the enrichment of St. Paul hostelries and the financial embarrassment of those of Minneapolis. Minneapolis wants its big West Hotel to prosper by the entertainment of its due share of the commercial traveler business, and hence it has decided to offer to sojourners the inducement of open saloons.

This is the explanation, and to it the World adds this: “The change signifies nothing beyond business ‘enterprise.’” But this fact does not make matters one whit better. If the city council had come to the conclusion that it was not proper to prohibit on Sunday any business permitted on other days, there would have been hope that they would in time come to see that the “business” of making drunkards ought not to be permitted on any day. But as “the change signifies nothing but business enterprise” there is no correct principle in it. It is a significant fact that when Sunday laws interfere seriously with business, they generally “go to the wall,” but where they only interfere with the rights of conscience they are enforced and sustained.