IT IS BAD IN SWITZERLAND.
By W. N. G.
THE imprisonment of a Seventh-day Adventist minister in Basel, Switzerland, for allowing Sunday labor in his publishing house, when all other classes of people do about as they please on that day, has received quite extended notice by the American press. With few exceptions the comments are adverse to the action of the little republic which poses as a beacon of liberty among the monarchies and semi-monarchies of Europe. The principle is quite generally conceded to be bad for Switzerland. But when the same thing is done in our own country, most of these same journals are reticent, having nothing to say. One leading daily which editorially held up the Switzerland case as an illustration of the "absurdity of Sunday laws," squarely declines any reference to like action in the United States. While in Switzerland there is one case of partisan tyranny, it is a fact that during the past six or seven years there have been a number of even worse cases—worse in partisan bitterness—in five different States of our own much-lauded American republic. At the present time men who observe the seventh-day Sabbath are in prison for Sunday labor in the States of Maryland and Tennessee, and others are awaiting trial. The fact that these men are singled out for prosecution by their enemies in communities where men of all other classes, church members as well as others, do as they please on Sunday, is illustrative, not only of the absurdity, but of the injustice, of Sunday laws. Their principal use so far is to give opportunity to religious zealots to annoy and persecute, under cover of law, those whose religious opinions and influence they desire to squelch, but cannot otherwise accomplish their vindictive purpose. Not only are the Sunday laws being enforced upon this special class of orderly citizens in a few States, but in nearly every State such laws are upon the statute books, ready for use whenever the despised sect becomes sufficiently influential in any locality to incur the jealousy or displeasure of rival religionists. About twelve years ago California was haply relieved of its tyrannical Sunday law by repeal. Since that time the advocates of such intolerant measures have been zealously laboring for its reënactment. Failing to secure a State law, they have for several years been endeavoring to accomplish their purpose by piecemeal—that is, by county and municipal Sunday-closing ordinances. Of course these are aimed ostensibly at saloons, and are sought under the specious plea of temperance. Where no more than the Sunday closing of saloons can be secured, that modicum is accepted as a partial victory. But the closing of all business is urged where it is thought possible to secure so much. The ultimate end in view is to cover the State with these local ordinances, and with this prestige to carry a stringent State law. Congress having opened its doors to unconstitutional religious legislation, and the popular churches and religious societies having shown a disposition to enter the field of politics as a body, many of the secular papers and many of the politicians are becoming rather fearful of running counter to the demands of the religious element, however intolerant such demands may be. So with this prospect before us, the outlook for freedom of conscience in the United States is little if any better than in the most priest-ridden countries of Europe. What is coming upon us in this respect is the more apparent when we reflect that the Sunday-law forces all over the land are boasting that soon they will see the fulfillment of their purpose to secure a National Sunday law, and then will come the strengthening of all State Sunday laws and their rigid enforcement. And they are counting upon the pliability of the average politician and the power of the church vote to bring about the desired result.