Enforcing the Blue-Laws at Topeka, Kan.
By W. A. C.
THE following is taken from an editorial in the Washington Herald of April 22:— “Mayor Billard, of Topeka, has views of his own regarding Sunday observance. Elected three weeks ago under the commission plan of government, he has begun the enforcement of the Sunday laws to such an extent as to insist that no paid preacher work on Sunday, no salaried choir sing, no papers be printed or sold, no street-cars run, and no service at the hotels be paid for. Idiotic as such things may sound, there nevertheless are found on the statute-books such stringent laws as to bar every vocation in which money is earned. “It is Mayor Billard’s intention primarily to have a liberal interpretation of the law, and he hopes soon to make his meaning clear. During the campaign he was attacked as a candidate for the ‘wide-open’ element, but immediately upon taking office he suspended all the ‘blind tigers’ in the city. “He is now seeking a more liberal interpretation for the benefit of the working man. . . . By making the blue-laws so obnoxious as quickly to result in their repeal, the mayor hopes to attain his point.” This is simply an illustration of some of the inconsistencies couched in the State Sunday laws. A strict and impartial enforcement of many of them would not suit even their most ardent advocates.