p. 15 | THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER by Editor

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

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

THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER.

By Editor

THE "Colonist" of February 20, a paper of British Columbia, thus criticizes the Dominion Sunday law:

"A question in which a great many people are interested is whether or not Sunday morning papers will be printed in British Columbia after March 1st. There never was a more absurd piece of legislation than that which prevents the publication of a Sunday morning paper while permitting the publishers of a Monday morning paper to work on Sunday. A Sunday morning paper calls for a minimum of interference with Sunday. A Monday morning paper makes the greater part of Sunday a secular day as far as newspaper offices and people having anything to do with newspapers are concerned. The act passed by the Dominion Parliament contemplates that the provincial legislatures may desire to regulate Sunday observance to suit the wishes of the people of the several provinces. . . . What we do most strenuously protest against is that the newspaper people of British Columbia, who have arranged their business so as not to interfere with Sunday at all after an early hour in the morning, shall be compelled to adopt a system of publication which will compel them to make a secular day of Sunday. If the Legislature can change this state of things, it ought to. It is said that there was no one in Parliament to speak for the Sunday newspapers, which is due to the fact that there are no Sunday papers in the East, and our western members never seem to feel called upon to do anything to shape legislation. But here in British Columbia the people know the operation of the system by which Sunday newspapers are printed, and they know perfectly well that it does not interfere nearly as much with the observance of the day as a Monday paper would."

Has our contemporary thought of another reason why the Sunday newspaper is not wanted by Sunday-law advocates? They do not wish the reading of the Sunday newspaper to come into competition with the Sunday sermon. They prefer that the few should labor Sunday in the newspaper offices to the many reading the Sunday paper. Of course that is not the right way nor the effectual way to win people to Christ or the church, but it is one of the desperate ways of a State religion, or State-fostered religious dogmas.

This editor feels cramped and hindered in his rights by the law, and rightly does he so feel; but what about his fellow citizens—Jews and Christians—who observe the same day Christ did? Should not the law—British law—regard their rights also?