Methodist Petitions to Senate on Labor, Divorce, Sunday
In the U. S. Senate, on the 3d inst., Mr. Sherman presented a petition of the Methodist Preachers’ Meeting of Columbus, Ohio, purporting to represent twenty-five pastors and 10,000 members, praying that an investigation of the labor problem be made with a view to industrial arbitration. Also a petition from the same body praying that the nine-day divorce law of Oklahoma Territory and the divorce law of Arizona Territory be repealed. Also a petition from the same source praying for the enactment of a Sunday-rest law, and for the enforcement of a law for compulsory education at the national capital. Congress having squarely opened the door for religious legislation in the Chicago Exposition precedent, and having given certain religious elements the idea that “the churches hold Congress in their hand,” we may look for church petitions and demands for all manner of “reforms,” which it will be expected to concede because the church says so. We have had the beginning, but the end is not yet.