SUNDAY LAW NOTES by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Apr 3, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 14.

SUNDAY LAW NOTES.

By Editor

SUNDAY-LAW men are rejoicing that Idaho has the best Sunday-law west of the Mississippi. Idaho had a Sunday law formerly, but it was declared unconstitutional two years ago. If the judges who may be called upon to pass on this are true Americans, this will suffer the same fate. By the way, it says nothing as to labor performed on that day, nor does it prohibit playing baseball.

SUNDAY laws are many times put forth as a temperance measure, but the Tacoma (Wash.) Herald of March 9, states that so far as closing of saloons and the stopping of the sale of liquor is concerned, it is claimed that the majority of the liquor dealers themselves are satisfied with the new order of things, and are prepared to obey it. The people are generally agreed as to this, and presumably among the greatest allies of the Sunday-law people in the future will be the saloon-keepers themselves. One of the great matters of contention, however, is that of fruit and candy stores.

RIGHT general laws for the protection of humanity ought to be of uniform operation. The simple fact that there must be exemptions, and special clauses, and special classes, considered in the law is one of the best evidences of its inherent unconstitutionality and injustice. For instance, Oregon has a Sunday law, but somehow or other the officers can not prosecute the push-cart pedler. The law provides for the closing of places of business on the Sunday, but seemingly they have no regular place of business, and as the Portland Tradesman declares, the push-cart pedler requires a special set of laws and ordinances for his regulation.

LOCAL effort is being put forth to close the various attractions at Ocean Beach, near Los Angeles. Women are generally counted as favoring Sunday-closing. The Los Angeles Express, however, declares that the women favor Sunday dancing, even to the extent of seven days in the week.

AN instance of Sunday prosecution is given as by the Tacoma (Wash.) Ledger of March 10. There is a certain confectioner in that place that keeps open on Sunday contrary to the State law. Mr. Knox, the keeper of it, has been twice prosecuted, but the juries have failed to agree. He claims that it comes under the hotel regulation, which the law permits to be kept open, inasmuch as he furnishes light refreshments. But tho juries disagree, the district attorney claims that he will keep up the prosecution if he has to prosecute for fifty-two Sundays in the year. This shows the utter inconsistency of the Sunday-law government. It is pretty hard to find a jury of men all of whom will agree that an act that is legal six days becomes criminal on the seventh.

THEY have a Sunday law up in British Columbia, but there is anything but united consent in its enforcement. The Board of Trade held its meeting on March 4, according to the Rossland Miner, and expressed themselves as not being in favor of the drastic Sunday law. The very government itself, thru Attorney Fulton, has also voiced its opposition to some of the provisions of the law.

IT was stated during the Sunday-law campaign in California over and over again that the law was in the interests of the workingman, and in one or two counties there was special effort put forth to enlist working organizations in behalf of the law. That was expressly repudiated by labor representatives of San Francisco, and now Vancouver, B. C., Province of March 8 declares that the laboring men on British soil oppose the enforcement of the Sunday law act, and the Attorney General is asked to withhold his assent to prosecutions.

TWO OTHER items reach us from Washington which will be of interest; one is that the Washington Sunday law is almost universally ignored or evaded by lax popular sentiment or shallow devices. There was one bill presented to repeal it, and another to confine it to Sunday forenoon. Both were indefinitely postponed, and the dead-letter law remains on the statute book. Efforts have been put forth in Tacoma against a place of amusement called "Dreamland," but it was impossible for them to find a case against the proprietor, as the neighbors on every side said it was not noisy and did not disturb them.

IT would be impossible to find in any just law the utter inconsistency and inequity which are constantly presented by the various phases and forms of Sunday laws.

The Socialistic wave in London seems to have greatly subsided. In a recent election, the candidates of the Moderates were chosen with overwhelming majority. London has no municipal government such as is found in the cities of America. It is what has been truly called a "hodge-podge of local authorities." The ancient City Corporation, over which the lord mayor presides, the London County Council, with jurisdiction extending over 119 square miles, the twenty-seven Borough Councils, Metropolitan Police, whose jurisdiction extends over 693 square miles, and thirty boards of Poor-Law guardians, and other local authorities too numerous to mention, make up the government. There is a governmental policy in this; if great London had one central government it is feared that it would have altogether too strong a hold upon the general government in Parliament. Yet during the time when it had so much of the radical local government it was still sending almost wholly conservative men to Parliament. The elections there are indicative of the political conditions in most parts of the world. They are in a state of flux, and we may look for them to be more and more so as the last days progress. Men are moved by political expediences more than they are by religious principles, and popular governments will show more and more of the constant change, and swing from one extreme to another.

Stockton, Napa, Sacramento, and other cities of California, and many other western cities suffered from the heavy rains of the latter part of March. The storm, which began March 16, extended from Puget Sound to Los Angeles, over the State of Nevada, thru the Colorado Valley of northern Arizona. Twenty Chinese were reported drowned at Oroville, Cal., many bridges were washed out, and much damage resulted. The fruit crop was injured also, many of the trees being in blossom. Damages will run into the millions. From Ogden and Salt Lake City comes news of extensive washouts from melting snows. The Ohio Valley people have suffered greatly from floods.