Untitled article by C. P. B.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · September 15, 1892

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 7, No. 36

CIVIL LAW NOT NECESSARY.

By C. P. B.

“Holloway” has stated the facts just as we know them to exist in California. Truth, he says, compels him to say that “San Francisco is a Sabbath-keeping city.” Sunday work and Sunday business instead of being on the increase in that State are on the decrease even in the cities. The drift is in the direction of more general rest upon that day. We do not say that this is due to a growing regard for the day; indeed we incline to the opinion that it is right in line with the general tendency of the times, which is toward shorter hours and more holidays; but that does not alter the case.

The facts show that civil law is not necessary to secure to the working people a weekly rest day. And that this conclusion is correct even the Examiner inadvertently admitted something over two years ago, when of the Saturday half holiday in this city it said:—

For several years, by a concerted action, some few large firms in the same lines of business adopted a system of early closing during the summer, but the practice was by no means general, and it had no sure basis until a statute made Saturday afternoon a legal holiday. When all banks and public offices closed at noon on Saturday, it was found not only practicable to close private offices and shops, but of little use to keep them open, and so the half-holiday became assured as a summer institution, and is more and more generally observed with every year.

This was said in an effort to show that Sunday laws are necessary; but instead of proving the necessity of Sunday laws, it proves conclusively that no such laws are required further than to make Sunday a legal holiday. There is no law forbidding work upon Saturday afternoon; the law simply makes Saturday afternoon a legal holiday, and banks, courts, etc., must of necessity suspend business, because business done at that time would not be legal. But to make Sunday dies non would not satisfy Sunday-law advocates. This is exactly the case with Sunday in California. It is a legal holiday, no public business is done and would not be legal if it were done, and yet, Sunday advocates say that California has no Sunday law, and they are demanding that a Sunday law be enacted in that State. The truth is, that that which they want is a statutory recognition of Sunday as a sacred day. And that, they say, would not be religious legislation! C. P. B.