HUMBUG LEGISLATION by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 20, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 40.

HUMBUG LEGISLATION.

By Editor

THE Saturday half-holiday created by the New York Legislature last winter, has proved a failure. Several of the leading papers have referred to it as such. The Independent calls it outright, "a legislative humbug," and a "silly law," which is all that it is. The Observer says:—

"The indications are that the observance of the Saturday half-holiday as a regular institution will have to be abandoned for the present, or postponed until the world has more leisure than it has now. Business men and trades-people generally are revolting against the custom and refusing to observe it any longer. The fact that Saturday afternoon was constituted a legal holiday by the last Legislature makes no difference in the aspects of the case except in banks and exchanges. The enactment of the law

was plainly a piece of folly and was done simply as a bid for the favor of the so-called 'laboring class,' and not from any humane or philanthropic motives."

The same Legislature, and for the same reason, also made September 5 a State holiday under the title of "Labor-Day," that is, a day for doing no labor. Of its celebration the reports all show about one way, of which the following account by the Congregationalist will give an idea of what Labor-day amounts to:—

"Labor-day, so called because so many people quit labor to parade and drink beer and stronger fluids, didn't seem practically to amount to much here. Most of the real workers were at work. A large number of men and boys (some estimated them as high as 25,000) proceeded, in a go-as-you-please fashion, to the sound of music, carrying banners and various devices; but people generally showed little interest. A good many employers, pressed for time to fulfill their contracts, were irritated over the loss, and very few of the paraders seemed very joyful. They had the air of men doing an uncomfortable duty. There was no violence, and little work for the police; but the lager beer and whisky dealers had all they could do to keep the procession up to the proper marching point, and their arms ached for some time after the show was over."

Of both these laws the Independent says:—

"The motive prompting the enactment of the Labor-day Law, like that prompting the enactment of the Saturday Half-holiday Law, was purely political. Governor Hill and the Republican Legislature were fishing for labor votes. This is the whole of it. The next Legislature of this State would do a sensible thing if it were to repeal both of these laws."

Of course it would, but it is safe to say that the New York Legislature will do no such sensible thing. It will be much more apt to do more of just such like "fishing for votes." Nor is the New York Legislature the exception.