p. 15 | Maryland by S. W. Van Trump

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 7, 1911

Maryland

By S. W. Van Trump

GLEN ECHO.— Just over the line separating the District of Columbia from the State of Maryland is the little town of Glen Echo. The major portion of the town is occupied by the grounds of an amusement park. The State of Maryland permits such places to operate on Sunday, though a law still remains on her statute-books which could be enforced to close them. The general attitude toward this law is to ignore it as a relic of the colonial period in which its provisions were framed.

However, there has recently sprung up a dispute over the subject of the town's water-supply. On a certain Sunday the mayor of the place decided to shut off the mains. This precipitated trouble, in which the employees of the park used physical violence upon the mayor's person. Subsequently the Sunday-law breakers were haled before the court at the county-seat. Should Montgomery County enforce a law the other counties do not enforce? The State's attorney decided that it should, and the sheriff enforced it the following Sunday. But the Sunday thereafter the park opened as usual, introducing religious features, and suppressing other things under the ban of the law.

While we were not in sympathy with the amusement-park people, and are not antagonizing her opponents, yet the influence of the Sunday-law enforcement upon the State led us to place in each home in Glen Echo a copy of Liberty and the tract “Why Sunday Laws Are Wrong.” Other towns near by will be visited; for the Sunday-closing movement seems to be spreading in this section. S. W. VAN TRUMP.