THE ONLY SOLUTION by G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, Cal. · Jan 24, 1906

THE ONLY SOLUTION.

By G.

A PROMINENT Sunday-school superintendent of Washington, D. C., after spending a vacation season on the Massachusetts coast, tells the Post, of the capital city, of his impressions. Here is one prominent feature of his story:

What impressed me most of all that I saw on my trip was the lamentable disregard shown for the Sabbath by the young people of Boston. Every Sunday at least 150,000 of them flock and swarm out to the so-called popular suburban resorts that lie along the coast. I am not opposed to a rational use of Sabbath leisure; indeed were the influences at these places other than evil, I think I should commend an outing whose purpose was the healthful recreation of sea-bathing and the honest enjoyment of those God-given pleasures, clear skies and fresh sea air, to be indulged in, of course, only after the duties to the Lord’s day have been fulfilled. But the attractions of the resorts in question are all of an evil and demoralizing tendency. . . . I confess, however, when I saw the dark, narrow streets of Boston and considered how these young men had to spend their working days within the darker buildings that line them, I realize how almost irresistible was their temptation to fly to the sea and the air when Sunday released them. It is a great problem, and the blessing of millions await the mind that can solve it. It is a matter that is now occupying my thoughts to a great extent, altho solely as a national question. The city of Washington has no such problem; we are all one great, open-air park here.

But a legitimate solution of this “great problem,” and really the only one, would be for the state to refuse license to those demoralizing places. But so long as even the religious people can see evil in them only on Sunday, they will probably be allowed to run. True reformation must necessarily make slow progress as long as it is sought in a way that recognizes evil as legitimate six days in the week. A seventh-part-of-time morality never will reach the hearts of the people.

It is the business of civil government to repress incivility, and to prohibit all such occupations as tend only to beget and to foster incivility. But the moral or civil welfare of the people never can be conserved by making certain acts or callings legitimate on one day and criminal on another day. The only consistent thing to do, is to prohibit at all times and in all places that which inculcates incivility or the disregard of the rights of any individual.

It is a great mistake to license dens of vice on the refreshing scenes of nature’s loveliness, where people are wont to go for a day’s outing and recuperation.

But such is the short-sightedness of most public men that they deem it public policy to adopt any measure that will bring a little money into the treasury—regardless of the ultimate cost in demoralized communities. And such is the influence of the liquor traffic that comparatively few officials can resist all of their wiles in quest of advantageous positions.