One Day of Rest in Seven

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 24, 1913

One Day of Rest in Seven

IN its issue of March 22, the Standard declares, “The rush of modern conditions has made continuous seven-day toiling a necessity.” It quotes John Fitch as follows:—

Sunday laws do not and can not deal adequately with the situation. Stop all trains, all street-cars, all heating and lighting plants, all delivery of milk, and all garbage removal, on Sundays, and the great cities will suffer as under a pestilence. Stop the blast-furnaces, smelters, and other industries which for technical reasons require continuous operation, and those industries will be paralyzed.

From this the Standard argues:—

A new type of law is needed, based on a new principle,—a law that will forbid an employer to work his men seven days a week, and yet permit an industry necessarily or desirably continuous to operate seven days a week.

We believe, however, that a one-day-rest-in-seven law construed upon this liberal basis would be used in the end for the promotion and protection of the Sunday institution. The means for accomplishing religious legislation are many and varied, and are based many times upon apparently the most plausible reasons. It is well to regard with suspicion any law which takes from an individual the inherent right bestowed upon him by his Maker to use every hour of his time fully and freely as he shall elect.