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Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · June 2, 1892

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 7, No. 22

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NATIONAL RELIGIOUS LIBERTY ASSOCIATION

FOUR men have been arrested for operating a merry-go-round, at the foot of West Forty-eighth St., on Sunday, May 22, and held for trial.
IN the various justice courts of New York City, twenty-eight persons were held, on Monday, May 23, for selling liquor and maintaining open billiard halls the previous day.
SOME of the prominent ladies of Cape May, N. J., went on a crusade against the saloons of that place on Sunday, May 22, and secured the arrest of a number of saloon-keepers for “breaking the Sabbath.”
THE New York Sabbath Committee, through its secretary, Rev. W. W. Atterbury, and employing the same detectives who purchased the exhibition of the city’s wickedness for Dr. Parkhurst, has undertaken a crusade against the dime museums and theatres which open on Sunday. Arrests have been made of the proprietors of Huber’s Dime Museum and the Globe Theater.
UPON the favorable report of the District Committee of the House, the Sunday ice bill for the District of Columbia (H. R. 8367), entitled “A bill prohibiting the delivery and sale of ice within the District of Columbia on the Sabbath day, commonly known as Sunday,” has been passed by the House of Representatives. The same bill has been favorably passed upon by the District Committee of the Senate, and it now remains only for the Senate to concur with the House in the passage of this bill, and Congress will have fully entered upon its course of religious legislation.
IMMEDIATELY following the passage of the Sunday ice bill by the House of Representatives, the Washington Post records the arrest of a restaurant keeper of Washington on the charge of “selling on Sunday.” A fine of thirty-five dollars was imposed. An appeal was taken. Thus almost instantly do those who desire the enforcement of religious laws take advantage of the slightest evidence that they will be upheld, to attempt to revive the colonial Church and State laws which remain on the statute books.
THE Sun, of May 25, has the following special dispatch from Norwich, Conn.:
Thirteen young men, most of whom belong in Norwich, went trout fishing in Voluntown on Sunday, May 1, twelve miles east of this city, in the wilds of eastern Connecticut, and a grand juror of that town, who takes care of the peace of the town, arrested the whole band, charging them with violating an old Blue Law of the State which forbids fishing on Sunday. He let them come home, but to-day they had to drive twelve miles to Voluntown to appear in court. They paid fines and costs amounting to thirteen dollars each.
Gradually the colonial laws in reference to religious observances are being revived. At the present rate of progress in this respect, it will be but a few years before we shall see a repetition of early colonial days in this regard.
CONGRESSMAN HOPKINS, of Illinois, has said to a reporter for the Washington Post that, “Nearly all the people who are sending in petitions to have the World’s Fair closed on Sunday, are doing so under a misapprehension. They all seem to think that those who want the Fair opened on Sunday, want the wheels of the whole Exposition to be going round. This is wrong. In the first place, it is not yet decided whether the Fair will be open or not. I am told that the subject has never been brought up by the Board of Directors. In the second place, those Directors who are in favor of keeping it open on Sunday are not in favor of allowing any machinery to be operated. Theymerely want the fine art galleries, and similar exhibition halls, open, so that people can stroll through them, just as they do through all the art galleries in the cities. As for running the heavy machinery, that has never been contemplated by anybody.”
“Then again, some people claim that if the Exposition is not shut one day, all of the employees will have to work seven days a week. The fact is, that the World’s Fair is being built on the eight-hour plan, and six days constitutes a week’s work. An additional force of employees would be kept in reserve, so that nobody would have to work seven days. As far as I can learn, the laboring element of Chicago, and the surrounding towns, is unanimously in favor of keeping the gates open on Sunday. It is proposed to inaugurate a department of public worship, at Jackson Park, and hold religious services in the buildings if the gates are opened.
“During the summer months more than 50,000 working people visit Jackson Park every Sunday to enjoy the cool breezes and the pleasant lawns. They went there before the World’s Fair was thought of.”
IN the Congressional Record, of May 25, under the head of “Petitions,” is this suggestive paragraph:—
By MR. GREENLEAF: Three petitions, as follows: One from the Presbyterian Church of Brighton, N. Y.; one from the Presbyterian Church at Parma Center, N. Y.; and one from Westminster Presbyterian Church of Rochester, N. Y.; in favor of closing the World’s Fair on Sunday, in which occur these gently persuasive words, viz.: “Resolved, That we do hereby pledge ourselves and each other that we will from this time henceforth refuse to vote for or support for any office or position of trust any member of Congress, either Senator or Representative, who shall vote for any further aid of any kind to the World’s Fair except on conditions named in these resolutions.”
This same thing was said quietly in reference to the action of some of the members of the House of Representatives, in the last Congress, on Sunday bills then before them; in this Congress the open threat is made publicly, and to their very faces.
THE Washtenaw Times, of May 21, has the following paragraph, under the title, “It Is an Infringement”:—
“Many of the churches are sending petitions to the House of Representatives, praying Congress for legislation prohibiting the opening of the World’s Fair on Sunday.
“Why is the demand made? If these churches kept Saturday or Monday as a religious day, no such demand would ever have been made by them. It is evident, therefore, that this demand is made because they regard Sunday as a religious day. This proves that this is wholly a religious question, and Congress, therefore, has no right, according to our Constitution, to legislate upon it, even if this day is regarded by the majority as a holy day. If the State is to determine religious questions by the number of its adherents, and put its stamp upon the religion of the majority, then its ground is that on which all State religions have rested, and under the color of which religious proscription and persecution have been perpetrated and justified. According to the great American principle in respect to the civil government, religious faith is no part of citizenship, and no criterion of right. Sunday observers, Saturday observers, and no-day observers, are dealt with on precisely the same terms, the State knowing them only as citizens. We forfeit no right by being one, and gain no right by being the other. It is not in the province of the State to decide which is true or which is false.”
THE Chicago News says, “The World’s Fair is open on Sunday,” and publishes the following editorial item in regard to the matter:—
It would be just as well for those persons—and there are hundreds of thousand of them in the United States—who are trying to bring about the closing of the World’s Fair on Sunday, to bear in mind that the very thing against which they protest is now in full operation. The gates of the World’s Fair are open every Sunday and hundreds of sight-seers go to it. They are readily admitted upon the payment of the established fee. The World’s Fair Directors have thus decided the matter of the Sunday opening, while the whole country, represented by Congress, by great religious gatherings and many other influential bodies, is still debating the matter.
It may well be asked: Are the World’s Fair authorities justified in forestalling the judgment of the Nation in this matter? There is little real difference between the present arrangement at Jackson Park and that which will be in force if the fully erected enterprise shall be thrown open to visitors on Sundays a year hence.
Because of this action of the Directors the question now under debate by the whole Nation is not, “Shall the World’s Fair be open on Sunday?” but, “Shall the present condition of Sunday sight-seeing at Jackson Park be changed after the formal opening of the World’s Fair?”
The World’s Fair is open on Sunday. It is a condition, not a theory, that confronts us.
The Chicago News is an humble follower of the Mail and Express, and would no doubt advocate the closing of all the parks to Sunday visitors. Ordinarily, in pleasant summer weather, Jackson Park is filled on Sunday with thousands of sight-seers. Shall the fact that a World’s Fair is to be held in the Park preclude their going there on Sunday for a year and a half?