Religious Liberty Notes
By F. Frederick Bliss
THE religious liberty cause in California is being aided by an anti-blue-law organization called the Religio-Civic Liberty League. This body did some heroic work in the last legislature, rolling up a petition of forty thousand names in opposition to the Sunday-law efforts then. TENNESSEE has a State-wide prohibition law; but notwithstanding this, seven hundred saloons have been operating in Memphis ever since the law went into effect. Last Sunday, however, they were closed all day; and this is said to have come about through the representations of real-estate dealers and property owners that these crime-breeding places were depreciating the value of adjacent property.18 THE president of the Chesapeake Conference, Elder R. T. Baer, writes that they are planning to have the religious liberty secretary visit the churches of that conference in the interests of the literature campaign for which the general department has arranged. Liberty, the Protestant, and other religious liberty literature will in this way be placed in the hands of the people. GENERAL SECRETARY SHAW, of the United States Christian Endeavor societies, struck a hard blow to religious-by-law in the following sentence, which occurs in a reply to the accusation of some none-too-friendly observer of the workings of the Endeavor societies, that Endeavorers do not seem to get “the man on the street” to become a church attendant. He said: “In free America we can not compel people to go to church services or to love the church, any more than we can compel people to love each other.” RELIGION in the public schools is to the front just a little, as is indicated by the following clipping from the Chicago Israelite of October 8: “Jewish teachers in the public schools are to receive no pay for the two religious holidays of October 4 and 13, according to action by the board of education yesterday, in refusing a petition for such pay. Frank Hamlin, attorney for the board, ruled that the payment would be illegal. Rabbi Joseph Stolz, a former member of the board, saw injustice in the decision, provided Christian teachers are allowed pay for their holidays, such as Good Friday.”