Untitled article

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · March 3, 1892

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 7, No. 9

IN Pittsburgh, where the Law and Order League is very active in trying to put down the Sunday paper as well as all forms of Sunday work, the Printers’ Assembly, a branch of the Knights of Labor, has passed the following resolutions:—

Whereas, There are many laws on the statute books of Pennsylvania, notably the conspiracy and Blue Laws, which militate against the rights and liberties of the laboring class, and

Whereas, An association styled the Law and Order League, mainly composed of disreputable persons, not citizens of the United States, has taken it on itself to enforce the obnoxious Blue Laws of 1794 to the detriment of workingmen and their families, in an attempt to deprive them of their Sunday papers, thus denying them the only means they have to educate themselves; therefore, be it

Resolved, That Printers’ Assembly 1630, Knights of Labor, hereby emphatically denounces the conspiracy and Blue Laws as blots upon the statute books of the State, and insists upon the repeal of laws which permit foreigners to levy blackmail upon American citizens and allow capital to grind down workingmen through the medium of the courts; and further, be it

Resolved, That we call upon all citizens who have the interest of labor at heart, and also on all workingmen, to cast their ballots for only those candidates for the Legislature who will pledge themselves to vote for the repeal of the conspiracy and Blue Laws and all other acts on the statute books of Pennsylvania which are to the detriment of labor and the benefit of capital.

It may be an extravagance to style the members of the Law and Order League “disreputable characters,” yet at the same time all such leagues are a menace to civil freedom. However, one can but see, from these resolutions, that the laboring men are not as anxious for Sunday-laws as the American Sabbath Union and other Sunday-law advocates would have it thought.