SUNDAY ENFORCEMENT NEWS AND COMMENT.
By John D. Bradley
[From JOHN D. BRADLEY, 60 New York Ave. N. W., Washington, D. C.] A "Better District of Columbia Sunday-law"
heads a list of things which the International Reform Bureau announces that it is "pressing" and plans to secure during the present winter. Another thing is "a bill to prohibit the issuing of money orders and registering letters on Sunday." In the leaflet making this announcement it is boasted that "Congress has passed eight laws drawn up by the Reform Bureau," one of which was "the bill to close by contract the gates of the St. Louis Exposition on Sunday." As was announced by Mr. Crafts, through the Washington Post, on the day of the convening of the present session of Congress, there are "numerous bills" emanating from the Reform Bureau that "were introduced in the last session of Congress and are still pending," and among them are the two Sunday measures named. They are given in the extract below, from a "Report of the International Reform Bureau's Legislative Committee, Rev. J. G. Butler, D. D., Chairman," that was presented in the Senate by Mr. Gallinger, on February 8 last, and ordered to be printed as a Senate document. It appeared as "Senate Document No. 150, Fifty-eighth Congress, Second Session," and was headed, "Moral Legislation in Congress, Passed and Pending." The extract quoted, which should be of interest now, in view of the fact that it has been announced in the press, by the promoter of these measures, that they "will be earnestly contested [pushed and lobbied] in the short session [the present session of Congress]," is from page 12 of the document, appearing under the heading, "Bills in Defense of the American Civil Sabbath." To prohibit Sunday banking in post-offices.—Penrose-Sibley bill (S. 3,518, H. R. 11,433): The issuing and paying of money orders, and the registering of letters, and delivery of registered mail on Sundays, is hereby prohibited in the mail service of the United States. This law might well be extended, if possible, to stop increasing Sunday work in government departments at Washington, especially in the printing office and the library, and also the use of United States soldiers for parades at catchpenny Sunday picnics. Sabbath law for the District of Columbia.—Allen-Dillingham bill (twice approved by Commissioners of the District of Columbia): It shall not be lawful for any person to keep open any place of business, or maintain a stand for the sale of any article or articles of profit during Sunday, except vendors of books and newspapers, and apothecaries for the dispensing of medicines, and undertakers for the purpose of providing for the dead, or others for the purposes of charity or necessity; nor shall any public playing of football or baseball, or any other kind of playing, sports, pastimes, or diversions, disturbing the peace and quiet of the day, be practised by any person or persons, within the District of Columbia, on Sunday; nor shall any building operations or work upon railroad construction, be lawful upon said day; and for any violation of this act the person offending shall, for each offense, be liable to a fine of not less than five dollars nor more than fifty dollars, and in the case of corporations, there shall be a like fine for every person employed, in violation of this act, laid upon the corporation offending. Sec. 2. It shall be a sufficient defense to a prosecution for labor on the first day of the week, that the defendant uniformly keeps another day of the week as a day of rest, and that the labor complained of was done in such manner as not to interrupt or disturb other persons in observing the first day of the week as a day of rest. This act shall not be construed to prevent the sale of refreshments other than malt or spirituous liquors, or to prevent the sale of malt and spirituous liquors, as now provided for by law, or tobacco, cigars, railroad and steamboat tickets, or the collection and delivery of baggage. When the national capital had a city council, it enacted a law against Sunday labor and traffic, but it was afterwards found that the mayor forgot to sign it. Efforts have been made in vain since 1889 to get7Congress to correct the clerical error and restore the law, which was in substance as above. Opposition to and the attempt to suppress governmental Sunday work in Washington, is not to be confined to the International Reform Bureau this winter. At a meeting, on December 12, of the "Association of Christian Clergy" of Washington, at which there were present seventy clergymen, "representing nearly all, if not all, the Protestant denominations having working congregations in the city," it was "decided that the first Sunday in the coming year should be devoted to the discussion of the question of Sabbath observance in the city of Washington," and it was announced that "these sermons are to be expressly aimed at the governmental practise of making certain employees work on Sunday," and that "a systematic campaign will be inaugurated to remedy this state of things." "The day mentioned was chosen as the day for the beginning of the combined attack." This meeting "was called for the purpose of promoting better fellowship and understanding among the ministers of the various Christian denominations in the city," and was addressed by Dr. Josiah Strong, of New York, whose topic was, "The Work of the Institute of Social Service." "He dwelt at considerable length on the necessity for a greater interest and fellowship among all classes of Christian workers, under whatever name they might be represented to the world, in order that all shades of belief might be brought into closer fellowship and relation." As a result of this meeting it is expected that "a permanent organization will be formed, which will have in charge further meetings of the ministers, and arrangements for the perfection of plans for the carrying on of Christian work." It is peculiar, but it is almost invariably the case, that about the first thing, and often about the only thing, that issues from an attempt of the clergy or church people of "the various Christian denominations" to get together on common ground "for the carrying on of Christian work," is a movement in behalf of Sunday observance and Sunday-law enforcement. It must be that they are more thoroughly in accord in this matter than in any other, and that they consider it of first and foremost importance in united "Christian work." A resolution "memorializing the next Kansas Legislature to pass a bill to prohibit the playing of football and baseball on Sunday," was adopted by the Kansas Presbyterian Synod at Wichita, on October 15. On November 1, the Detroit (Mich.) Free-Press reported as "among the latest campaign documents to make their appearance" in that city, a circular, issued to the members of the local Master Butchers' Protective Association, and signed by the president, secretary, and business manager of that organization, presenting and calling attention to certain resolutions which had just been adopted at a meeting of that organization. The resolutions called attention "to the fact that in the last session of the Legislature, Edwin Denby, the present Republican candidate for Congress, opposed the bill providing that meat markets shall be closed on Sunday," and it was therefore,— Resolved, That Edwin Denby is an enemy to the master butchers and their employees, and to all laboring men who desire to have one day's rest in the week, and that it is our duty, as citizens, to do all in our power to defeat the election of Edwin Denby, and that we use our best efforts with all good citizens to work and vote against him. Is the Sunday question to become a political issue, and a test by which the fitness of candidates for office is to be determined? There can be no question that there are some with whom that is already the case. Mr. Denby is either a son or nephew of the late Charles Denby, a former minister to China. On November 8, the Willmar (Minn.) Gazette published as "worthy of careful perusal and consideration," a lengthy communication from "a well-known citizen," appealing to "those people who have the interests of temperance work at heart" not to support at the approaching election the Democratic candidate for governor, Mr. John A. Johnson, because, as a state senator, he had voted in the negative on a certain Sunday enforcement measure. Fresh from the Sunday-rest Congress at St. Louis, Dr. Edward Thomson, president of one of the several organizations in the United States, devoted to Sunday observance and enforcement, entered upon "a two weeks' effort to stir up a revival in his chosen line of work" in Wheeling, W. Va., on October 20, the result of which, according to the Register of that place, was likely to be that "of creating better Sunday regulations for Wheeling." The visit of Mr. Thomson was in response to an invitation from "the ministerial association, to come to the city and speak in the various churches and public halls." An official statement issued at the Department of Justice in Washington, on December 10, announcing that the President had removed from office Judge Benjamin S. Baker, associate justice of the supreme court of New Mexico, and judge of the Albuquerque district, gave as one of the reasons for this action that in that district "the Sunday law was not enforced against gambling and saloons," and that Judge Baker "was not doing what a judge should do to remedy" this and other "evils" named.