Sunday Closing Is a Religious Question
The Chicago "Record-Herald" accredits the pastor of Millard Avenue Baptist church with the statement that "it is a humane, and not a religious, sabbath that is covered by the civil law which provides that saloons shall be closed on Sunday." But why is it more "humane" to close saloons on Sunday than on any other day? That these Sunday-closing agitators have no suggestion of the humanity of shutting up the vile demon any other one day in the week, shows that there must be some pretext for this strange discrimination. What is this pretext?—Clearly it is because of the assumed religious character of the day. Then it is just as clear to assume that operating a saloon on Sunday is more inhuman than the same act would be on Monday, is solely a religious, and not a humane, question. When we consider the closing of saloons from the standpoint of humanity, we can not legitimately make any discrimination between days. To do so, is to give the saloon the credit of being legitimate on all other days of the week. Surely there is nothing "humane" about that. Despite all disclaimers, the Sunday-closing issue is a decidedly-religious question.