p. 19 | To Urge the Passage of the Johnston District Sunday Bill

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 11, 1909

To Urge the Passage of the Johnston District Sunday Bill

By W. A. C.

UNDER the heading, “Would Stop Sunday Work,” the following appeared in the Washington Post of October 30:—

“The executive council of the Laymen’s Federation, at a special meeting last night, appointed a committee to wait on the District commissioners and ask them to prevent, as far as possible, all District work on Sundays. It was generally agreed among the committeemen that the sweeping of streets might be dispensed with on the sabbath day. The committee consists of Rear-Admiral M. T. Endicott, Washington Topham, E. I. Booream, J. S. Barker, Charles S. Bradley, W. Everett, and C. D. Holland.

“Dr. Wallace Radcliffe told what had been done by the Interdenominational Rest-day Committee toward pressing the enactment of the Johnston bill, which provided for Sunday observance laws. It has been twice passed by the Senate, and then defeated in the House, and has been introduced in the Senate for the third time. The laymen appointed a committee to co-operate in urging its passage.”

From this it is evident that the church people in Washington, both ecclesiastics and laymen, are working actively for the passage of the Johnston District Sunday bill. Though defeated thus far, they have by no means given up the battle, but intend to press the matter if possible to a successful issue.

This measure was first introduced into the Senate by Senator Johnston, as Senate Bill No. 3940, Jan. 14, 1908; opposed and defended, together with another District Sunday bill also introduced by Senator Johnston “for the proper observance of Sunday as a day of rest” (Senate Bill No. 6535), at a hearing before a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia, April 15, 1908; reintroduced under the first number, No. 3940, in the same Congress and in the same session of Congress, but in an amended form, May 1, 1908; passed the Senate May 15; was introduced into the House of Representatives May 16; weakly defended and strongly opposed in a hearing before the House District Committee, held Feb. 15, 1909; and died with the Sixtieth Congress, March 3, 1909. It was reintroduced in the Senate by Mr. Johnston, March 22, 1909, during the early part of the special session of the Sixty-first Congress, convened by President Taft. It is therefore a live measure, and will remain such during the Sixty-first Congress, which will end March 3, 1911, unless passed or otherwise disposed of.

The statement in the Post that the bill has twice been passed by the Senate we think is a mistake. So far as we are informed, it has passed the Senate but once; but in its different forms it has been introduced there three times.

Against the passage of this measure by Congress every loyal citizen in the United States and every lover of liberty should protest. Its passage would mean the first compulsory Sunday law ever enacted by Congress, and the beginning of that order of things which has brought sorrow, persecution, and ruin in ages gone by. Let the people be enlightened regarding this measure, and the petitions and protests sent in against its passage.

W. A. C.