Another Sunday-Closing Effort

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Jul 2, 1908

Another Sunday-Closing Effort

A very rigid Sunday-closing ordinance is in force in Iola, Kan., and labor of all kinds is interdicted. The Iola Daily Record places at the head of its report of the quiet Sunday, the following ditty:—

“You musn’t work Sunday, Sunday, Sunday, You musn’t work Sunday, because it is a sin. But you can work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, And all the whole week till Sunday comes again.”

The report goes on to say:— “For the first time in the history of the town, not a single store was open. The clothing, dry-goods, meat-markets, and general stores have always been closed on Sunday. But the bakeries, the soda-fountains, the cigar stores, the news stands have always been open. But yesterday they were all closed. Women who had paid little attention to the talk of Sunday closing, and didn’t believe that the law would be enforced, were surprised to find that their supply of bread was not sufficient to last the day out, and they had to borrow from a neighbor. The families accustomed to ice-cream Sunday evening were forced to forego the pleasure.”

“In only a very few places yesterday was it possible to get a match for the cigar purchased Saturday night. The cigar cases in restaurants and hotels were draped in black, and tobacco and other sinful things were cut out.”

This campaign in behalf of Sunday sacredness has attracted more than local attention. The Kansas City Journal referred to the matter in the following editorial:—

“That spirit of intolerance which seeks to make Sunday a rigidly ‘moral’ day, and assumes that to do this it is necessary to shun all material activities for twenty-four hours each week, will no doubt rejoice at the ‘lid’ that has been placed on Iola, Kan. In an effort to make Iola a good place to stay away from on Sundays, the town council has passed rigid blue-laws, that are even worse than those musty and antiquated statutes under which Judge Wallace of Kansas City seeks to make himself popular, and fails so thoroughly. The first day of the ‘lid’ at Iola saw all business suspended. Even the sale of ‘bread and meat was forbidden. Livery stables refused to hire conveyances, and the luckless traveling man who reached Iola after midnight Saturday night, was compelled to leave his baggage at the station. Telephone girls were threatened with arrest if they presumed to conduct their godless vocation on Sunday.”

“Here in Kansas City we have been experiencing the Sunday crusade for several months, and know something of its afflictions. Last Sunday a crowd of unfortunates who had been driven out of their homes because of the flood were assembled in Convention Hall. They were hungry, and an attempt was made to buy provisions for them. It was only after a long search that a few loaves of bread were found that could be bought, and these were secured and given to the suffering. But the man who sold this bread that the needy might be fed was violating the law, as Judge Wallace construes it, and he may yet have to account to that stern pillar of justice for his unrighteousness.”

“It is remarkable that in this enlightened day and generation a thriving and progressive city should be subject to a Sunday-closing program so rigid as to bring discomfort to many citizens and to nearly all of its visitors. Kansas City is suffering the annoyance of a law passed by the Missouri Legislature half a century ago, and revived by a judge who, in public spirit, is contemporaneous with the statute he enforces. There is a point of rational action when many of the activities of a community may be suspended on the sabbath; but when it is forbidden, as it is in Iola, that one should buy ‘bread and meat, call a physician by telephone, have one’s baggage transferred, or read the newspapers, then that community might well pause and inquire whether it is living in the year 1908 or 1708, and if there are not some witches around that ought to be hauled up and burned.”