Sunday Closing Again Unmasked.
By Editor
The position that we have maintained that Sunday saloon closing is not a temperance movement, nor a sanitary measure, nor a civil policy of any kind, but is solely a step in the line of enforced Sunday observance, has received additional affirmation. In a recent address advocating a state Sunday law, Rev. Dr. Dille, of San Francisco, said: “By way of parenthesis I will here say that we will never close up the Sunday saloon except by a state Sunday law. We do not admit the principle of local option, for local option does not work.” The Sunday closing of saloons has been put forward by local societies on various “civil” pretexts, while the State Sabbath Association has urged it as a stepping-stone to general Sunday closing. But Dr. Dille’s position would reverse the program, and place the Sunday saloon closing as the highest point to be gained in the exaltation of the Sunday institution. But in all these propositions there is no suggestion to close the saloon (bad as it is from every point of view) on any day but Sunday. The Sunday closing of saloons, in and of itself, seems to be sadly entangled in a labyrinth of confused ideas suggested by its advocates. But a movement so full of false pretenses must necessarily be fraught with a jumble of inconsistencies.