p. 372 | Works of Necessity by B.

International Religious Liberty Association · Chicago · Jun 21, 1900

FromThe American Sentinel, The Sentinel of Liberty, Vol. 15, No. 24.

“Works of Necessity.”

By B.

What are works of “necessity” within the meaning of the Sunday statutes of the several States? for without exception they all contain the saving clause, “Works of necessity and charity excepted,” or words to the same effect.

Even a very superficial examination of the subject will convince any one that it is exceedingly hard to distinguish between convenience and necessity. In fact, what to one may seem an absolute necessity may, to another, be only a luxury, or a convenience. For instance, to the one reared in the enjoyment of even the more common luxuries of civilized life, a frequent bath is a necessity. Without it life would not be worth living, health would be impaired and bodily comfort would be impossible. And yet there are thousands of people in every country who seldom bathe, who are never clean, and who do not regard frequent bathing as at all necessary.

Take another example. Two farmers live in the same neighborhood. The one has an abundance of hay already stored in his barns or secured in the stack. He has, however, a few tons still in the field, which, if saved, would add to his profits for the year, but not at all necessary either to his own comfort or support, or to the proper care of his stock. His neighbor has not so much hay, and a larger proportion of his crop is still in the field. It is essential to the support of his family and to the proper care of his stock that this hay be saved. It is Sunday and all the indications are that the night will bring rain. They both work to save their hay. They are both prosecuted for breach of the civil law. Both make the defense of “necessity.” Is it equally good in both cases? or must the one farmer suffer the penalty while the other goes free? In the one case it is simply a question of adding a few more dollars to the profits of the year; in the other it is not a question of profit but of providing necessary food not only for cattle but indirectly for human beings.

Another case not an imaginary but a real one presents a slightly different phase of this subject; not a question of monetary profit, but of which is the more necessary, that a corporation make larger profits on its business or that the individual preserve a conscience void of offense toward God.

The Sunday law of Tennessee prohibits the “doing or exercising any of the common avocations of life, or of causing or permitting the same to be done by his children or servants, acts of real charity or necessity excepted, on Sunday.”

In that State are two classes of people who have sought to avail themselves of this saving clause, touching “acts of real necessity.” These two classes are, first, corporations operating railroads, smelting furnaces

etc.; and second, Sabbatarians, religiously observing as the Sabbath the seventh day of the week instead of the first.

With the first class the plea has been so successful that so far as the writer knows they have never even been prosecuted. At Dayton, Tenn., some years ago when several Sabbatarians were in jail for working on Sunday (some of them in retired places where they were “detected” only by being spied upon), the prosecuting attorney was asked why they were prosecuted and nothing said about a great iron furnace which was in constant operation night and day seven days in the week. The reply was, “O, that is necessary.”

But the necessity is no more real than is the necessity requiring the Sabbatarian to work on Sunday. The foreman of that same furnace told the writer that the furnace could be banked not only for twenty-four hours, but for a week if necessary, without injury to the plant. The only loss occasioned by shutting down on Sunday, therefore, would be the loss of the profits of the business done on that day. Therefore the necessity is no greater in the case of the furnace than in the case of the individual Sabbatarian. Nor is it as great, for with the furnace it is simply a question of larger aggregate profits for the year; with the individual it is often a question of ability to provide for his family if, after voluntarily giving one day to his own religion, he is compelled to surrender another day to the State or rather to his neighbor’s religion.