THE CHURCHES ARE NOT PLEASED WHEN THE WORKMEN ARE.
SUNDAY laws are always in the interests of churches, and are really designed to compel church attendance by leaving the laborer no other place to go. The following concerning the Sunday laws in Germany illustrates this; the next thing will be that the Sunday beer garden must go:— The new Sunday laws in Germany went partly into effect July 1 and do not appear to be giving satisfaction. Their intention was to reduce the hours of Sunday labor to a minimum and to secure a larger church attendance of working people. They provide that in no case shall Sunday work be extended beyond five hours, while from 10 to 12 in the morning and after 2 o'clock in the afternoon there should be no work whatever. In actual operation the effect seems to be to keep those workingmen who used to do a half day's work Sunday in their shops until 2 o'clock instead of merely until noon, as before, while they spend the time from 10 to 12 not in church, but in beer gardens and cabarets, till the embargoed hours pass and they can finish their work and go home. The church authorities in Berlin are already admitting that the laws have not increased the number of Sunday worshipers, though they have the number of Sunday tipplers.