Sunday Laws and Tobacco Necessity
A recent decision by the Minnesota Supreme Court touching the Sunday law in that State, holds that tobacco is a necessity, and hence that the sale of tobacco on Sunday can not be interfered with by the statute. This is in line with decisions that have been given in other States. We do not know of any Sunday law which cuts off the sale of tobacco. It is all right, from the Sunday-law standpoint, to prohibit honest work; that is not a “necessity.” It is not, from this same standpoint, a necessity for a poor man, who perchance may observe the seventh-day Sabbath, to work on Sunday to support his family. It is not a necessity that the rights of conscience should be respected; it is not a necessity itself, that the principles of free government, separating between the civil power and religion, should be upheld. But that men should indulge in the use of a noxious, poisonous weed, conducive only to unclean and unhealthful habits—that is a necessity! The law must not forbid that! What a commentary on the divine (?) wisdom which such legislation embodies!