Law and Order Leagues Cause Disorder
A RECENT occurrence at Nebraska City, Neb., affords an instructive comment on the question of the necessity and utility of the “law and order” leagues which exist in many cities for the purpose, mainly, of securing the enforcement of the Sunday laws. A baseball game had been announced to be played in Nebraska City on Sunday, July 20. Members of the “law and order” league swore out a warrant for the arrest of the two ball teams. All was orderly until the sheriff, armed with this warrant, came on the grounds, and in the presence of an angry crowd which had gathered to see the game, arrested several of the players, and took them to a justice’s office, where a number of clergymen were on hand awaiting developments. A part of the angry crowd at the ball grounds followed, and when some of the clergymen left the justice’s office, they became the center of an incipient riot. A companion of one of them was knocked down by a stone, and another was chased home, and later applied to the mayor for a police guard for himself and his church property. The day previous the citizens had, by “practically a unanimous vote,” declared in favor of Sunday ball. Note the point: a state of orderliness was turned into a state of general disorder and incipient riot, by this league, which existed ostensibly to maintain order! What could more plainly show that the desire of such organizations for order, in itself, is a mere pretense? The only order about which they care is that which comes secondary to the enforcement of Sunday observance. Disorder is preferable to order with them if only it can serve the cause of Sunday legislation—the enforcement of an obsolete, un-American, unjust, religious enactment. It is almost unnecessary to add that the cause of religion has been deeply hurt in Nebraska City by this appeal of the clergy to the civil power.