Declines to Prosecute by K. C. R.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 7, 1910

Declines to Prosecute

By K. C. R.

THE following, from the Kansas City Journal of March 25, illustrates how Sunday-law crusaders can carry their evil work to such an extreme that it becomes obnoxious to prosecutors of the law:—

“A committee representing the local barbers’ union, and another the grocers of the city, recently called upon Henry Jost, assistant county prosecutor, and demanded of him the Sunday closing of barber shops and grocery stores. Mr. Jost has refused on the grounds that with the thousands of dollars spent to close such places during the last crusade, there were only five convictions of breaking law, and the total amount of fines paid did not exceed five dollars.”

Death of Justice Brewer

THE death of Justice Brewer occurred at 10:35 P. M., March 28, 1910.

The name of Justice Brewer is one that is familiar in nearly every Seventh-day Adventist home as the distinguished jurist who rendered the famous Supreme Court decision of Feb. 29, 1892, declaring this “a Christian nation.”

There has doubtless been no one act that has given greater prestige to the champions of religious legislation than this one. This decision is frequently cited by the advocates of Sunday laws as a proof that religious elements can properly be incorporated into the laws of the land. The Washington Post of March 28, 1910, in referring to some of the decisions rendered by Justice Brewer, makes mention of his “Christian nation” decision in the following unique manner:—

“Another and somewhat amusing decision was rendered in the Holy Trinity Church case, in which he ruled that the statute which forbids the importation of foreign contract laborers did not apply to ministers of the gospel. In this decision Justice Brewer for the first time set forth that the United States was a ‘Christian nation,’ thus for once and all establishing our status in the matter of creed.”

It is to be deeply lamented that men who occupy positions of such great influence in the country as did this eminent jurist, should be so blinded to the true principles of religious liberty that a decision so contrary to the true American idea of civil government should be rendered.

K. C. R.