Prospective Sunday Legislation
By L. A. S.
An agitation is in progress for the cessation of Sunday work in the District of Columbia. Foremost among those who call for its prohibition are members of the Women’s Home and Foreign Missionary Society of a suburban Presbyterian church who, in a communication to the District Commissioners say:— We learn with sorrow and deep concern that the Sabbath is broken each week in the building of the new union depot, also the new reservoir, and most respectfully submit to the Board of Commissioners that this violation of God’s command is wicked and dangerous to the community and all its citizens. A number of local clergymen have joined in the agitation, and the opinion is expressed that “if Sunday labor is permitted at the capital of the nation, it will spread throughout the land. We can not afford to desecrate the Sabbath.” The objection to Sunday work expressed by these individuals rests upon an assumption. It is assumed that Sunday is the Christian sabbath, and that Sunday work is a “violation of God’s command.” No revelation from God has informed us that Sunday work is “wicked.” Nowhere is any divine command to be found prohibiting such work. The foundation of the Sunday sabbath is one of tradition and popular custom only. A protest which is based on an assumption is of no moral force. It is no part of the business of the District commissioners to decide whether Sunday work is or is not wicked and in violation of God’s command. Any rightful action on their part in the matter must be based strictly on known facts. Religious controversies must be settled in the sphere of religious, and not of civil, affairs. This protest, coming from religious6sources and based on religious grounds, is not entitled to consideration by a secular tribunal. Much is being said about the demoralizing effect of Sunday labor in the District, but such talk rests likewise upon a basis of assumption. Idleness is far more demoralizing to a community than honest labor can be. A day of idleness for mankind has no part in the purposes of an all-wise Creator. The Sabbath he gave to men was not a day for idleness, but a day for religious uses,—a day for religious, instead of secular occupations. This religious use of the day designed by its Author depends entirely on the conscience and will of the individual, and as the state can not control conscience nor regulate individual preferences, proper Sabbath observance is a matter wholly outside the sphere of state legislation. The state can enforce idleness, but this, as before stated, is a source of demoralization in a community, rather than honest work. The Washington Post does not think the demoralization of the city is threatened by the existing Sunday work. It says:— “We think that every fair-minded person will agree that there is no city in the United States where Sunday is so carefully and strictly observed as in Washington. The streets are as quiet as a graveyard. The churches are well attended, and a religiously educated sentiment forbids public amusements of any character. There is no reason, therefore, to believe that the community is on the high road to perdition because public work is prosecuted on Sunday.” This statement by the Post is in harmony with the facts, as any resident of the national capital knows. And there is a point in it deserving the attention of those interested in the movement for Sunday legislation. Places of business here are not required by law to be closed on Sunday, nor is secular work forbidden; yet there is a better observance of Sunday here than in any other large city in the country. All places of business are regularly closed, and during the summer months there is not even the customary opening of grocery stores on Sunday morning,—a fact which shows how little real ground there was for the effort made at the last session of Congress to secure a law forbidding Sunday opening of grocery and meat stores in this city. There is nothing that we know of to interfere with the Sunday closing of grocery and other stores at any time by voluntary agreement, as is now the case. The present agitation, however, which is based on Sunday work on the new railway station, the Pennsylvania tunnel, and the filtration plant—projects which will require a long time for their completion—is quite certain to lend force to a new effort for Sunday legislation at the next session of Congress.