HOW SUNDAY LAWS WORK by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 8, 1899

HOW SUNDAY LAWS WORK.

By Editor

The New York World of recent date gives the following instance of Sunday-law enforcement in Mount Vernon, N. Y.:—

"Fred Windot, of North Fourth Avenue, a poor man who works hard all the week, with long hours and little pay, was chopping wood in his back yard on Sunday afternoon. Policeman Thistleton strolled along. He arrested Windot. The prisoner would have passed the night in a cell had not a friend deposited $10 to guarantee his appearance in court. Windot was arraigned before Judge Schatz in special sessions. 'My family has been sick, and I was chopping wood to kindle a fire,' he said. 'If that is a crime, I plead guilty.' 'It is,' said Judge Schatz. 'I'll find you guilty of the charge, but will suspend sentence this time. Hereafter, you must remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.' Windot promised to obey the law."

Religious tenets enforced by civil law invariably beget oppression. There is no class of men so fearful of offending influential persons as policemen, so their victims are nearly always the poor and unfortunate. It would be putting the estimate low to suppose that 500 people in some way violated the Sunday law in Mount Vernon that day, yet that poor man in his back yard, doing a work of necessity, was the only one seen by the police—and this was one too many. It was enough, however, to demonstrate what every intelligent person ought to know, that the enforcement of any religious observance is antichristian, and therefore contrary to the Golden Rule, which is the law of God.