p. 6 | Sunday Baseball in the Army

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Nov 7, 1907

Sunday Baseball in the Army

THERE is considerable agitation among certain religious bodies over the matter of Sunday baseball playing in the army and navy. The sailors from the League Island Navy-yard, Philadelphia, have been playing ball on Sunday, and the secretary of the Pennsylvania Sabbath Association entered a protest to the commandant of the navy-yard against this “desecration” of the day, and requested that it be stopped. The commandant refused to prohibit the game on Sunday, declaring that the sport was good for the men. This did not satisfy the Sabbath Association, and the protest was taken up to the secretary of the navy. The acting secretary replied, asking whether the complaint was because of the noise and disturbance, or simply because of the affront to those who held to strict sabbath observance. If the latter, the acting secretary said that he would not order the discontinuance of the Sunday sport. The question of Sunday baseball in the regular army was up for discussion at the annual convention of the Maryland Baptist Union Association at Baltimore on October 25. A resolution was introduced calling for stricter Sunday observance, and criticizing the regular army for its Sunday ball playing. Rev. Mr. Nicoll took a decided stand against the resolutions, declaring that he did not think “this matter of the soldiers’ playing ball on Sunday is any of the business of this association, and that the association should therefore keep its hands off.” Another prominent delegate took the same stand, and an attempt was made to amend the resolution. The amendment failed, and the resolution was passed as read.