Seventy-Two Arrested for a Violation of the Maryland Sunday Law
By K. C. R.
Hundreds of Dollars in Fines
WHOLESALE arrests for the violation of the Sunday law of Maryland took place at Glen Echo, July 24. Glen Echo is located just beyond the boundary of Washington, D. C. From the published accounts of the affair, it appears that on Sunday, July 23, the mayor of Glen Echo thought that the meager and fast-diminishing water-supply must be conserved; so he attempted to shut off the water-supply from the amusement park. This enraged the amusement park people, two or three of whom were councilmen, and they demanded that the mayor resign because of his alleged disorderly conduct in attempting to shut off the water-supply, and threatened to have him indicted if he did not comply with their demand. The mayor refused to resign, but instead proceeded to have the people connected with the amusement park arrested for violating the Maryland Sunday law. It is reported that upward of seventy persons were arrested, and that fines have been received amounting to hundreds of dollars. There is one fact we wish to note in connection with this incident. Wherever Sunday laws are in force, trouble, discord, and strife among the citizens are always in evidence. They are the certain fruit of the enactment of these wicked and un-American laws. The Pittsburg Dispatch of Aug. 31, 1904, gives the following account of the enforcement of the Sunday laws in that city, which points the same moral:— “Following the hearing before Alderman Walter Wadsworth, of Allegheny, in which Harry W. Starkey, and his brother, Nelson C. Starkey, detectives of the Allegheny County Sabbath Observance Association, were held for court on charges of perjury and conspiracy to indict, the former shot and killed one man, and injured another. The shooting took place [Aug. 30, 1904] while a hooting, howling mob of nearly one thousand people was following Power Torrence Gamble, chief detective for the association, and his two detectives from the alderman’s office, along East Ohio Street, near Middle Street.”
From the reports concerning the Glen Echo affair, it seems evident that the mayor was more concerned in wreaking vengeance on his alleged enemies than in the enforcement of the Sunday law. No one will believe for a moment that the mayor was seriously burdened over the desecration (?) of the day. This conclusion is borne out by the fact that for years Glen Echo has been a “wide open” resort. But the Sunday law was a convenient weapon to employ to personal advantage against those who had threatened him with an indictment. This is precisely the use which has been made of Sunday laws in the past in various States of this Union. They have been used in communities against citizens who observe the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath, contrary to the custom of the majority, because they performed labor on Sunday, although done quietly so as not to interfere with any one’s observance of Sunday. This iniquitous tool, the Sunday law, may be used thus by any person having a real or a fancied grievance against a seventh-day observer, even though he himself cares nothing for religion or Sunday-keeping. He would, thus, flee to the Sunday law as a sure weapon against his neighbor who observed another day. This Glen Echo incident will teach the citizens of the District of Columbia what they may expect should Congress provide them with a Sunday law. Do such laws produce “domestic tranquillity,” which the preamble to the Constitution of the United States declares to be one of the ends to be secured by the establishment of the Constitution? It is rumored that this Glen Echo event may grow into a State-wide campaign on the Sunday-closing issue. The liberty-loving citizens of Maryland should take warning from the incident.