The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-04-19
TIMELY TRUTHS ABOUT THE AMERI-
CAN SUNDAY.

The PLAIN, forcible aud thoroughly
American protests of Rev. Wilber f.
Crafts, in the Eighty sixth street and
Lexington avenue church. last evening.
against the enCTOachment of the Europe.
an Sunday, are in accord with the prin-
ciples consistently advocated by the
Mail and Express THE invasion of
our land, said Mr., Crafts, by the cor
rupting holiday Sunday of European
de-pOtsm calls for national Sabbath
reform
This is a reform IN which all classes
are interested, more than in any other
OF which We have any knowledge. for
the temperance reform would be hope.
les without the stOppage of the LIQUOR
traffic on Sunday, and without the ele-
waiting, enlightening and redeeming in
fluen es of Sunday. "Germanizng our
Sunday" said Mr.. Crafts, would mean
more Sunday work as well IA more play
as appears very clearly from the recent
Investigations of the German govern.
ment, which has asCertained that in
that country fifty one per cent. of those
engaged in manufacturing and seventy
seven per cent, of those engaged in
trades and transportation work seven
days in the week"
And we know more than one railroad
President who would gladly assist to
carry out, as an amendment to the In
terstate Commerce law, provisions for
re lucing the Sunday trains to the few.
est numbers. There is both force and
fire in the allusIon Of Mr.. Crafts TO that
fearful crisis. the railroad strikes of
1877, when he says that that legislator
, is deaf indeed who does not hear, in the
railroad riots now incre singly fir, quent,
demand, louI as the roar Of Waterloo,
for the abolition of this demoralizing
Sunday slavery of railroad men. How
| quickly train men become train wreck
ers! The railroad rioters need only
what was recently threatened-a word
of command from the railroad king,
Arthur, order NJ general strike of the
eng neers-tO plunge the whole nation
into commercial and social anarchy, of
which 1877 and the Chicago bombs and
the New York blizzard were but gentle
hints"
Ii organized labor and morgan
zed laborers want to strike the most eff
fectuai of blows to save the most beuefi-
cent of all our American institutions,
''the American Sunday with its rest,
quiet, religious worship, Sunday school
instruction and hallowed associations
and influences, let them direct their
combined strategy and assault on every
unnecessary invasion or disturbance OF
that day OF days for the poor and weary,
whether by railroad trains or other traf
tic. When the RAILROAD authorities give
to their employees an American Sun.
day, as completely as it is possible to do
50, and thus show their reverence for
the laws OF God aud their love for 1.-THE
neighbor" who surely needs the Sabbath
and all Of 1t, there will be no more
strikes of the sort that menace civil
izaticn itself. When will our rich men
learn the relations between the "Ameri
can Sunday" rs 1t was kept before the
great floods of immigration, and the
security OF life and property, especially
of railroad property? Were not the
strikes of 1877 Gods judgement on our
railroad managers tor recklessness OF
His laws and OF their obligations ~ the
au hyr of the Sabbath and Of all the good
there is at the Leart Of our civIlation!