Sensible Advice by J. O. C.

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 4, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 30.

Sensible Advice

By J. O. C.

It seems that California barbers feel somewhat ill used on account of Sunday patronage. But why should they? The shops in which nearly all of them work are unionized. That is, their proprietors are bound by association contract not to do anything disapproved by the state-wide union. But it is said that union members are agreed, one and all, that they should have relief from their semi-bondage, and to this end ask the state to give them what they so greatly desire. To secure the support needed, they have appealed to the churches to circulate, in their behalf, an initiative petition asking that a general Sunday law, prohibiting all labor on that day, be submitted to the vote of the people next November.

Does not this strike one as a strange proceeding, — that because they, as barbers, do not want to work on Sunday, they should seek to compel, by law, every other class of workers to refrain from Sunday labor, whether they want to do so or not? Why should the barbers assume the initiative for others besides themselves, without reference to their wishes in the matter? But further, why go to all the trouble and expense of printing petition blanks to circulate over the state, in the hope of securing a maximum 32,000 signatures, and if successful in this, assess the state in uncalculated outlay for printing the proposed law and sending it to every voter in the state, when there is a shorter and better way of closing their business?

This shorter and better way is summed up in the following terse paragraph clipped from a late Los Angeles Tribune. Under the heading, "The Poor Barber," it states the case this way:

"Barbers frequently complain that they have to work Sundays, and ask for legislative relief. It is a little difficult to understand why, if they all feel this way, they do not refrain from working Sundays. Such would seem the easy and natural course."

This must be counted as sound, sensible advice. Would that the barbers' union had wisdom enough to follow it! J. O. C.