Sunday Cars and Sunday Theaters
THE following pointed article appeared in a recent issue of the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Evening Press:— “EDITOR OF THE EVENING PRESS: Recently certain articles have appeared in the columns of your excellent paper concerning open theaters and the running of street-cars on Sunday. Permit me to say that if theatrical plays are wrong in the light of civic law, they should be entirely prohibited; but if they are wrong on Sunday more than on other days, it is for religious reasons only, and to make that a basis of prosecution at law would be a violation of the principles of religious liberty upon which our government was founded. “No one need attend a theater unless he chooses to do so, and no one has a right to forbid him if he desires to go. The writer does not approve of theaters, and never attends them; but other people have a right to think and act differently, and can not be rightfully restrained by civil law. “As to Sunday cars, no one need ride on them unless he wants to, neither need any man serve as a conductor or motor-man unless his job is worth more to him than is his religion. “Church-goers who object would better emphasize their protests by invariably walking to church on Sunday. A religion that can not stand upon its own merits, and win its way to the heart by moral suasion, but must needs be bolstered up by civil law, is not worth the paper upon which its dogmas are written. “In one article a part of the fourth commandment is quoted as applying to the first day of the week; but quite a respectable number of worthy citizens believe that God means what he says when he declares, ‘The seventh day is the Sabbath.’ Are they not entitled to equal civil rights with Sunday-keepers? Who can deny it? A. SMITH.