Railway Defense of Michigan Sunday Law
The Michigan law against “working on the sabbath,” has been invoked as a defense by the Grand Trunk Railway in a suit for $10,000 damages brought on behalf of Miss Elsie Janis, the actress. The plaintiff alleges that in 1904 she purchased a ticket at Toronto for Grand Rapids, Mich., and that on reaching Vicksburg, Mich., on March 6, she was informed that Sunday trains from that point to Grand Rapids had been discontinued, and she was unable to proceed to her destination. In consequence, she was prevented from filling her contract to give a public entertainment in Grand Rapids on the evening of March 6, 1904. In its answer filed in the United States circuit court at Toledo, Ohio, on March 16, the Grand Trunk Railway “contends that if Miss Janis had a contract to entertain in a theater March 6, 1904, the instrument was void, because the Michigan State laws prohibit working on the sabbath.” And of course the railroads are very careful to observe the “sabbath” and the laws! The sort of use to which the Grand Trunk Railway seeks to put the Michigan law against “working on the sabbath” in this instance is one for which such laws are frequently employed, and this much can be said for it, that the Michigan law and all other laws against “working on the sabbath” are not capable of any better use.