Pacific Grove’s Discriminating Sunday Ordinance
A new Sunday ordinance has been passed by the trustees of the city of Pacific Grove, in this State. It provides for the closing on Sunday of “any store, workshop, restaurant, banking house, or other place of business.” Exception is made of “stores which are kept open for the sale of drugs for medical purposes only, or to transfer, railroad, telephone, telegraph, or express offices, or to livery stables, barber shops, newspaper agencies, or to bona-fide hotels and lodging houses, which are kept open for the legitimate business of each.” It also provides that “bona-fide restaurants may be kept open for the transaction of the business of serving meals therein, on any Sunday, between the hours of 7 A. M. and 9:30 A. M., and between 12 M. and 2:30 P. M., and between 5:30 P. M. and 7:30 P. M.” The penalty for violation of the ordinance is “a fine of not less than twenty-five dollars, nor more than three hundred dollars, or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, or by both such fine and imprisonment.” Even if it were sinful to keep open a legitimate place of business on Sunday, by what logic would it be more sinful to do a dry goods or grocery business or work at any mechanical trade on that day than to conduct any of the lines of business excepted in the ordinance? The numerous exceptions are supposed to make the ordinance appear very liberal, but in fact they make it decidedly discriminating, and place the law in the category of class legislation. There cannot be a liberal Sunday law, for all religious legislation is tyranny, and there never would be a Sunday law but for the doctrine that Sunday is a sacred day.