No Apparent Need for District Sunday Law by S. B. Horton

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Jun 18, 1914

No Apparent Need for District Sunday Law

By S. B. Horton

As an aftermath of the stir created by an injunction issued by Judge Gould to prohibit the District Commissioners from interfering with a certain baseball game which had been advertised and took place on Sunday, May 17, the following article from the Washington Times will indicate that the people may be trusted with their own conduct without the aid of Congressional legislation:—

“The open Sunday agitation in Washington has suddenly become unusually sane for that form of agitation.

“Into what promised to be a heated discussion with partisans sharply aligned for or against, there has been injected a note of calm deliberation that has taken the excitement from the situation. The majority of the theatrical managers of the city have coolly declined to put on Sunday shows. The fight that was being developed, the heat that was displayed, was not directed against the theatrical people of Washington, in the first place. It was directed largely against the idea of a Sunday such as is pictured in the towns given over to industrial enterprises, where the Sabbath is the only day of recreation of the majority of the citizens. In such places the men work hard, terribly hard, during the week. And when Sunday comes, they take their play hard—just as hard as they worked.

“Washington could never have a Sunday like that under the most liberal laws. There is no population to make it possible. The people of the District are mostly of a calm, deliberate type, who take their pleasure quietly and sedately. Under no stretch of the imagination could a Sunday such as would be observed in a mining or manufacturing town with the lid off be possible here. But that is the idea that most Sabbatarians have of an ‘open’ Sunday. And it would have been the idea that would have been fought had the thing not happened that has happened.

“It is probable there is no sentiment in the District against the production of grand opera Sunday evenings. If laws were drafted by the people, it is highly probable an entertainment of this sort would be exempted. Therefore, the fact that grand opera will be produced under the protection of the decision of Justice Gould hardly enters into the consideration of the subject.

“And in announcing their decision that they would not depart from their regular policy in spite of the new conditions, the theatrical managers were not compelled to give the matter very much consideration. It is a well-known fact in the show business that more than three fourths of the better class of productions—the kinds that come to the theaters in this city—do not give shows on Sunday even when they are booked in cities where Sunday shows are permitted. The managers of companies that are made up of actors and actresses of the first rank, understand that their employees are only human, and demand at least one day of rest during the week. And they get that day of rest. Exactly the same theory works out in the matter of stock companies. A stock company cannot give an adequate interpretation of a play if it is kept at it seven nights a week. No manager would ask a company to do such a thing—no self-respecting manager.”

“Therefore, the facts are that in all probability there would not be an average of one theatrical performance a month on Sunday at a regular theater in Washington, even if there wasn’t a word of law on the statute books relating to the subject of Sunday observances.”

“There is no business so sensitive to public sentiment as the theatrical business. There is no business so quickly and vitally affected by popular whim and fancy. It is a very dangerous thing, therefore, for a manager to do anything that will in any degree alienate the good will of any part of the public. And it is very much to the manager’s credit to have the support of the entire population, especially of that portion of it which is usually rated as supporting conservative regulation of all forms of amusement.”

“Therefore, the announcement of the managers that they do not intend to take advantage of the permission Justice Gould has given them to open their houses if they desire, is a perfectly natural thing for them to do. And it is the kind of thing that was to be expected of them—after the situation here is carefully analyzed.

“To have a so-called ‘Continental’ Sunday, it is necessary to have a ‘Continental’ population. And the population of Washington consists of—Washingtonians.”

We commend this to the attention of our national lawmaking body as evidence that there is no real need, even if there were no principle involved, of Sunday laws for the District of Columbia.

S. B. HORTON.