Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1873-08-30
iWoRKrNts SEVER DAYS IN THE
= l--7y -ofs=s saV WEEK.

The casual aud lawless New Eng
lander, who, some hundred years ago,
was accustomed to spend Sunday in dig
ging the garden, or chopping wood, or
picking up stones-for which he was
often made to suffer the prescribed pains
in this world mot to speak of his fate in
the other-would now find his faverite
method of protesting against the conven-
tionalitieS of society in such common
use as to be no longer pleasant or desif-
able in his eyes. In onew8y or another
Sunday. has lost great deal of its dis
tinctive character as = day of rest, The
compact and artiiicialglife of large towns
and cities absolutely demands, id cer-
tain parts of its complicated machinery,
| Iceaseless labor, but. even, in rural dis
tricts businesses have sprung up, or are
| SO managed as, to require men to work
on Sunday The management of
lcheese-faetories, of smeltipg-furnaces,
of steam and, horse railroad cars, of
steamboat travel, and of those newspa-
per Offices which publish Sunday edi-
| tions, Indicates in an an,alarming way the
| tendency of modern custom, both in
| town and country, to disregard the wise
provision which declares that in six
days we snail do all our labor and on
| the seventh rest. .eis{45...t. .-.. g..
| The evils of this innovation are fell
| previously by those whose. time for rest
| is thus consumed. A striking example
of this is furnished in paper which we
find in the report for 1928 of the New
York Sabbath Committee, an organiza-
tion always earnest in its efforts to per-
petuate the first day of the week, not on
~ as a day of rest, but as the Sabbath.
The paper referred to is in the form of a
| petition, In which four hundred and
fifty locomotive engineers recently
asked Mr.. Vanderbilt to put an end tc
the, Sunday traffic on the New York
Central and Hudson River railroads.
Some of the evils of working seven days
in the week are therein reco.lnted. Al
| first but one train was run on Mr.. Van
derbilt's railroads on a Sunday; now
there are thirty trains run each way, in
volving not only the labor of, the engin-
eers, but of many brakemen, station
masters, freight agents, telegraph oper.
ators and other subordinates. -Four
reasons are urged against this Sunday
toll destroys the health; second, thai
| those who thus work seven days in tile
week are deprived of call church, fami.
ly and social privileges that other citi-
zens cnjoy;'' third, that children OBJ
i serve and instinctively initiate the eX
ample of their fathers, thereby tending
to make this special evil 4 general one
| and fourth, because it destroys the self
| respect of those who were thus de.
Drived> of the weekly rest which is>com
monty given ever to cattle. The peti
| TONERS further declare that they be.
lievc they can do as much work in six
days as they now do continuously il
seven-which is undoubtedly true-anC
i tb nrafay.a NJ al for soma resli4.f
4 This question, looked at solely as
matter of dollars and cents, is very i'm
lportant one, and in our opinion ought
to be decided i'll fayor of the Inainte
nance of one day in seven as day o.
1 rest 1t is true that the conditions oi
modern society are such as to requir.
service of some Kinds to be rendered OF
Sunday; but there is no reason why
any working man-whether he writes
for the public Journals or drives a pal
Of horses in front of a horse-car-shoult
be deprived of all time tor rest.
there is anything to which man has !
right, it is to his time, and those wh,
hire out their services to others ouglf
to insist that one-seventl of that time i
!, their own, TO be used as they see fit. In
!, difference to or submission on thi
point will lead to degradation and help
; lessness of labor, as compared with capi
tai, more than any other one thing, ant
so will unnecessarily and disastrousl,
complicate relation which is alread,
sufficiently delicate and sensitive. Sucl
businesses as the public convenience re
quires to be done ON Sunday are in thei
nature special, and they should be Car
ried on by speciat workmen. The pro
fits derived from them are extraordina
ry, and it is only fair that the cost 0
maintaining them should also be owe
and above the ordinary expenses. 9th
, erwise the workmen will be less eff
cient, will wear out sooner, and labor il
self will become weaker and less re
, spectacle as population and capital in
crease.