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California's Sunday Law

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 10, 1912

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 41.

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California's Sunday Law

By F. M. W.

The Lutheran Observer says this of the non-existent California Sunday law:—
California has been the only State in the Union that had no Sunday law. There is at present pending a bill prohibiting unnecessary Sunday labor, and the pastors of the State have been busy circulating petitions for its passage. A criticism of the bill as not worth while, coming from “an eminently respectable source,” has drawn forth a reply from Dr. G. L. Tufts, of Berkeley, superintendent of the Weekly Rest Day League, which is quoted by the Continent, and which puts the proposition in a way that will appeal to many who urge against such legislation the fact that “men can not be made moral by law.” . . . An initiative petition bearing over 59,000 names has been filed with the secretary of state, calling for a vote on this question at the coming November election.
The Observer is mistaken as to the number of signatures obtained to the petition to submit this to popular vote of the people. As given in the REVIEW of last week, according to the statement of the secretary of state of California, only 8,714 signatures were appended to the petition, instead of the 59,000 as indicated by the Observer. This fell far short of the number required to submit it to a referendum vote. Surely there is no great anxiety on the part of the citizens of the Golden State for a State Sunday law.
We surmise that the criticism of the bill, which was not considered “worth while, coming from ‘an eminently respectable source,’” may have been the opposition offered to this measure by the friends of religious liberty in California, as represented by the Signs of the Times, published at Mountain View, Cal., notwithstanding that excellent journal in a recent issue modestly disclaimed credit for the commendable result it helped to achieve.
Suffice to say that from whatever “eminently respectable source” the opposition emanated, it was evidently sufficient, under the blessing of the Lord, to defeat the aims of those who were seeking to engraft a Sunday law upon the people of that State. We hope that this new advantage that has been gained will be followed up by the friends of religious liberty on the Pacific Coast, and that such a campaign of education as California has never known will be carried forward, making the people acquainted with the principles of religious liberty and the demoralizing results always attending religious legislation. F. M. W.