Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-07-01
The Farmers and the Sunday Law.

LUG EAknc1o CIV bAAO SUBWAY
II there is shy class of people interested in
the more general closing up of business
places on Sunday and thus rendering it more
difficult to obtain liquor on that day, the
farmers are that class. The practice Of labor.
ers in the hay aud harvest fields OF going to
town on Saturday night to spend Sunday in
town in gambling and drinking saloons, and
returning to their labor Monday, Tuesday or
Wednesday il condition unfit for work on
account of their debaucheries, hss teen &
great and growing inconvenience and nuisance
TO farmers for years past. This evil has
driven many farmers to reject white labor
altogether and to substitute Chinese labor in
place. The farmers believe that if the Sunday
law was enforced and the saloons closed on
that day, it would result in great good to the
laborers themselves and would bring about
great improvement in the way OF help
ing them to advance their work st
TIE most busy time of the year.
la the having and harvest fields farmers
must have reliable help or they are liable to
suffer great damage, and their experience
teaches them that large percentage of the
laborers Who go out to work through haying
and harvest would make good and reliable
help were the temptation to drink and gam
bic on Sunday removed. The saloons in the
rural districts are the constant source OF this
temptation. and are therefore justly charge
able with the largest share of the vexations
aad damage to which the farmers are exposed
by the unreliability OF labor. As matter OF
fact the aaloons cause the farmers great deal
of Inconvenience and vexation about their
help all the year through, but more particu-
larly is this the case during the haying and
harvest season, because then they are com
PEELED to employ largely temporary help ard
cannot be az careful ss they would like to be
in selecting this help. At these times
they are compelled to take such az they
can get, and TO put up with their
irregularities in the best way they can, and
they know that these Irregularities would
occur much more seldom if the principal
causes Of them were removed. The damage
to farmers caused by a single saloon in the
midst of wheat growing district kept open
on Sunday during one season cannot be esti-
mated, and when the damage isspread over the
entire State, and ia continued year after year,
it becomes widespread public nuisance,
which it is no wonder enlists the almost
unanimous antsgonism Of the class it
Injuries 80 greatly in pecuniary way.
But there are other than pecuniary reasons
why the farmers would like to do what they
can to remove temptations out of the way of
their hired help. The persons composing
this help necessarily come into their houses,
eat at their tables, and mingle more or less
with their families. To say nothing of the
disgusting presence of a drunken man just
returned from his Sunday debauch, his moral
influence in the family is thing greatly to
be regretted, and to be avoided if possible.
But the urgency Of the farmers work COM
pels him to put Up with much that at any
other time be would very unceremonieusly
get rid of. The laborer who has 80 far lost
self.control and self.respect as to become a
common drunksrd, knows the farmers oon-
dition in this respect, and is therefore COM
paratively indifferent both as to his
habits and appearance and ex-
ample before the farmers family. The
farmers are convinced that the general
low character of the farm hands in this State
comes from the saloons more than any other
source, and that Sunday, being the laborer'f
holiday and day of leisure, contributes more
to this degradation than all the other days of
the week. II the business places and saloons
In the country towns could be closed great
source of annoyance and disadvantage to the
farmers Would be removed