p. 280 | THE LOGIC OF FACTS by M. C. Wilcox

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 13, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 18.

THE LOGIC OF FACTS.

By M. C. Wilcox

NATIONAL REFORMERS profess to be working for a Sunday law to favor the poor, worn laboring man, the fathers of families, etc. But the facts are that the laboring man has not been consulted in the matter. Their object is to promote the religious observance of the day by whatever penalties are necessary. The majority of laboring men prefer to spend Sunday as they wish. As an instance of this we refer to the agitation for a Sunday holiday in the celebrated Comstock Mine, Nevada. "The middle-aged miners, and those with families," says the Daily Examiner of April 19, "who are not church-members, are opposed to having a holiday one day in every seven, as it will curtail their pay from $16 to $20 per month; but the young miners are unanimously in favor of losing a shift on Sundays. The superintendents and managers are indifferent as to whether the mines decide for or against losing a shift every week."

The strange feature, says the Examiner, is that the preachers and saloonists are both in favor of closing the mines on Sunday, the former having inaugurated the movement. A strange medley,—sport-loving young men, saloonists, and preachers,—and all genuine National Reformers! And why not? Is not the motive the same in all? The young men want pleasure, the saloonists want gain, the preachers want patronage. The churches are preferable places to saloons, it is true; but the methods employed by the Sunday-law movement, in which many ministers are engaged, are as iniquitous as the schemes and work of the saloonists. Many of these men may not realize the logical outcome of their work, but sincerity in evil does not make evil good. The married men have the human right to work on Sunday if they wish; all above human lies between them and God alone. M. C. W.