Sunday Theaters and Common Law.
AT a mass meeting in New York City, January 18, attended by 400 clergymen, there was strong attack upon the Sunday theatricals of all kinds, and indecent theatricals on secular days. Neither Catholics nor Jews were represented in the gathering, and the principal attack was against Jews who have much to do in the management of theaters. The meeting also declared by resolution "that Christianity is a part of the common law of this country; that the Constitution of the United States and of New York State recognized Sunday as a day of rest existing by a common law without need of legislative action;" "that the state Legislature has the right to regulate its observance as a civil and political institution." And yet they declare that "the enforcement of laws enacted by the Legislature for this end have been nullified of late through the activity of skilled lawyers and political manipulators." They think the Jew is ungrateful and that he is not ethically justified in distorting the legal permission to labor on Sunday which is "a generous concession to his interpretation of the fourth commandment, into permission to conduct any amusement or other business on that day." "Even now," they declare, "Hebrew business men are compelling Christians to work on Sunday." In the matter of human rights, how can it be said that one class is generous in permitting another its rights? This is one of the wicked things which religious classes have always arrogated to themselves. The simple fact of the matter is, human rights are not a matter of concession or of tolerance. They belong to every individual, and the rights of the one individual are as sacred as those of the mass. For if the individual is deprived of his rights, there is no ground for hoping that the mass will long preserve theirs. It might be well pointed out that the interpretation which the Jew gives of the fourth commandment is not an interpretation nor construction at all; it is taking the command just as God gave it, the very way in which the Author of Christianity Himself understood it and observed the day in harmony therewith. Then, too, the matter of compulsion. The Constitution declares that there shall be no involuntary slavery. The idea of continually telling free-born Americans, or men who are living under American freedom, that they are slaves; that they are compelled to do this or that! Why not teach them rather to assert their God-given manhood and refuse to do anything that is wrong? The simple fact of the case is that many of these men who work Sunday are glad to get work, and do not consider Sunday in any wise a sacred day. And we submit to every soul, whatever his belief is, that reputable employment on Sunday is far better than enforced idleness.