The People to Vote on a Sunday Law
By Editor
California to Vote on Such a Measure
A New Use of the Initiative
CALIFORNIA is one of the states that has the "initiative, referendum, and recall"; and under this provision, a Sunday law has been "initiated," and the people will vote on it at the election this fall. Knowing that many of our readers will be interested in this matter, and that they will desire to see the proposed law, we present it herewith as follows: AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR ONE DAY IN SEVEN AS A DAY OF REST
The people of the state of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1.—DEFINITION AND CONSTRUCTION.—In this act, unless the context otherwise requires: a. The word "day" means twenty-four consecutive hours, the word "Sunday" means the period of time which begins at 12 o'clock P. M. on Saturday night and ends at 12 o'clock P. M. on the following night, and other words and terms used have the same meaning as defined in the codes of California. b. A contract to perform a lawful act, though made on Sunday, is valid, but a contract rendered void by unlawful action on Sunday can not be made valid by subsequent action. SECTION 2.—It is unlawful for any person, firm, association, or corporation in this state, or for any officer or employee of the state of California, or of any political subdivision thereof, to violate any of the following provisions: 1. To hire, employ, or require any employee, apprentice, servant, or other person or persons to work at or engage in any trade, business, profession, or occupation for more than six days in any calendar week of seven days. 2. To work at or to engage in any said trade, business, profession, or occupation for wages for more than six days in any calendar week of seven days. 3. To keep open on Sunday for the purpose of transacting any business or labor, any store, office, shop, building, or place of business where goods, wares, merchandise, or property is sold or offered for sale; or to sell or offer for sale any goods, wares, merchandise, or property on said day. 4. To keep open or operate on Sunday for profit any mill, mine, factory, bakehouse, barber shop, workshop, studio, or any such or similar place of business or occupation which is managed by or employs either skilled or unskilled labor, or both; provided, however, that the above provisions of this section do not apply to unavoidable work in caring for live animals, or to cases of urgent emergency. Immediate danger to life, property, public safety, or public health only shall be considered cases of urgent emergency within the meaning of this act. And, provided, that the above subsections numbered 1 and 2 do not apply to any person whose total hours of labor during seven consecutive days do not exceed forty-eight hours; and, provided further, that the above subsections numbered 3 and 4 do not apply to works of daily necessity. It is hereby declared that said works of necessity within the meaning of this act include the following, but not so as to restrict the ordinary meaning of the expression "works of necessity": a. Work essential to the relief of sickness and suffering, including the sale of drugs, medicines, or surgical appliances by retail for strictly medicinal purposes; b. Furnishing lodging or meals at hotels, boarding-houses, restaurants, lunch stands, cafes, and work incidental thereto; d. Parks, bath houses, libraries, museums, or art galleries; e. Sports, theaters, and amusements; f. Setting sponges in bakeries; g. The sale and delivery of daily newspapers and magazines, or the necessary work in the preparation of the Sunday or Monday morning edition of a daily newspaper; h. The sale and delivery of milk or cream, and unavoidable work in making cheese or butter, and in any manufacturing plant or industry, or industrial process of such a continuous nature that it can not be stopped without serious injury to said plant, industry, or its product or property used in such process; i. Unavoidable work essential to the protection of mines, property, or perishable products in imminent danger of destruction or serious injury, and to utilizing water-power necessary to prevent serious injury or loss in hydraulic mining or other industries where the water supply is not continuous throughout the year; j. Any work which is necessary to the continuous supply of electric current, light, heat, air, water, gas, or motive power; to operating vessels, vehicles, livery stables, garages, railroads, or any other transportation lines in this state; to telegraph and telephone service; and to any such public utility which the public welfare requires should be kept in daily operation; k. Any work which the railroad commission of this state, having due regard to the object of this act, to provide one day of rest in seven, deems necessary to permit in connection with the traffic or conduct of any railroad or of any other public utility within the jurisdiction of said railroad commission, including the permitting of two days of rest to fall at any time within a period of fourteen consecutive days; provided, however, that said employee, apprentice, servant, or other person engaged in works of necessity as above provided for in subsections lettered a to k inclusive, shall not be hired, employed, or required to work more than six days in seven, except as provided for in this act, but the day of rest may fall upon parts of two calendar days. And provided, further, that the above subsections numbered 3 and 4 do not apply to any person who is a member of a religious society which observes some other day than Sunday as its day of worship, and who actually keeps his place of business or occupation closed and does not work for gain or wages upon said day of worship. SECTION 3.—Any person, firm, association, or corporation, or any officer or employee of the state of California, or of any political subdivision thereof, that violates any provision of this act, is guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, said offender shall be fined not less than ten dollars nor more than two hundred dollars, or be imprisoned in the county jail not to exceed thirty days, and upon each subsequent conviction, both said fine and imprisonment shall be imposed; except, however, in case of corporations, the imprisonment, when imposed, shall be imposed upon all officers or agents thereof in this state committing such offense or causing the same to be committed. SECTION 4.—The commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and his deputies are hereby authorized, empowered, and directed to enforce the provisions of this act. And it is also hereby declared to be the special duty of each magistrate, district attorney, and peace officer in this state to inform against and diligently prosecute any and all persons guilty of the violation of any provision of this act, either upon credible information as to any such violation, or upon reasonable cause to believe that there has been any such violation. SECTION 5.—Nothing in this act shall be construed to repeal or limit an act entitled "An Act Limiting the Hours of Labor of Females," etc., approved March 22, 1911; or to limit the powers of municipal or county governments, not in conflict herewith. This is a new use to be made of the initiative. Heretofore the enactment of Sunday laws has been confined to legislatures, but in this instance the issue is before the people themselves. The people as a whole in the great state of California will have to consider this subject and act upon it. A leading writer has said: "God means that testing truth shall be brought to the front, and become a subject of examination and discussion, even if it is through the contempt placed upon it. The minds of the people must be agitated. Every controversy, every reproach, every slander, will be God's means of provoking inquiry, and awakening minds that otherwise would slumber." This measure in California means that the people themselves, and not merely their legislators, must study this Sabbath question. And what is now under way here will soon be an issue all over the world; for does not the prophecy to which we have been pointing for more than fifty years, plainly state that this nation will say "to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live"? Rev. 13:14. The people themselves, they "that dwell on the earth," are to decide this matter, and to speak. They "that dwell on the earth" are to be brought face to face with the Sabbath question that is involved in this Sunday law issue. Each one must face the fact that Sunday is purely a human institution, resting on no higher authority than man-made laws of the church. And this rest day of human origin is set up as a rival to supplant the Sabbath of Jehovah, which is so plainly enjoined in the Bible. The question is much broader than the mere making of a law that the people must rest on Sunday. The issue is that of loyalty to God, and obedience to His plainly revealed word, on the one hand, or bowing552before the church institution of a Sunday sabbath on the other. Each one in the great state of California must now decide for himself where he will stand in this crisis. In the language of an apostle, "Whether it be right in the sight of God to harken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we can not but speak the things which we have seen and heard." Acts 4:19, 20.