Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-09-17

| OF the ten commandments, there are
several which forbid the same things8S
are forbidden i'll the laws of our lanStk
murder, theft, adultery. false witness
Sunday workout, while the reIi@fph
| forblds these things as sins against Cod.
the state fOrbid5 them only as crimes
against man. In other countrieS
where church and state are mixed
! and in our own country in other days
! the ground Of Sunday laws was not
| always clearly perceived; but
| in recent yeats legislation on this subject
! has been based, not on Gods will, but
on 'the general welfare. a homely
! illustration or two will make this point
| clear. A shrewd Iowa farmer put up in
his melon patch this sign: "Boys, do
not touch these melons, for they are
green, and God sees you. The church
forbids Sunday work and dissipation be-
cause God sees and will punish, hut the
state forbids them only because they are
unhealthy to the body polite as well as
to the individual, physically and NOR
ally.
THE WORK BEING DONE.
We are pushing petition against Sun
day mails, against Sunday work in the
military service of the government, in
interstate commerce and in the District
of Columbia and the territoTies-in Short :,
a petition which asks congress to supple
ment the laws of the states in this matter
by giving Sunday rest to all who are un-
der the jurisdiction of the general gov
eminent. This petition is the largest
ever presented to any government, rep
resenting an army of 10 900 ZOO of petit
TONERS, besides the cardinal of the Cath
Ollie church, whose name weighs much in
legislative halls, whatever it counts.
Labor organizations with a total mem
bership of 500 ZOO have taken distinct
action indorsing the petition. The
petition is therefore not only the largest
ever gathered, but unique also in being
the only one III which labor organizations
and churches of all creeds have generally
united. 1 hold IN my hand saw which
[ brought from Nazareth, with other
tools, such as Christ used when he there
toiled as q workingman at his trade. In
presenting this petition to the Knights OF
Labor held up this saw as an ancient
badge of knighthood in labor, reminding
them that no one who appreciated the
story of Christ could despise honest toll
in himself or in any other man. And 1
say to you what l did not say to them,
that the church that was founded by
carpenter ought never TO be out of SYM
pathy with the true interests of working
men.
LONDON AND TORONTO
are the two witnesses that swiftly an
sWer all the objections. In both of these
cities those who handle the wealth of the
community in the mails, have long been
given their Sunday rest with no embar-
rassment, either in cases of sickness or in
emergencies of business-the Saturday
and Monday kilograms taking the place
Of Sunday mail.
Equally conclusive is testimony as to
the larger question of stopping Sunday
trains by which 500 900 are deprived of
their Sunday rest. The engineers are
surely competent witnesses as to the
practicability of stopping Sunday trains.
The picked men of the Brotherhood of
Engineers at their last international con-
vention at Richmond, after giving the
matter full consideration, declared, by
votinGto indorse the petition that the
stopping of Sunday trains completely is
both desirable and practicable. Thirty
one railroad officials, in response to ques-
'tiOns recently sent them, declared that
every wheel might be stopped on Sunday
without financial loss to the companies or
to the public to Offset the great gain in
Twenty four more of the railway man
.agers declared that every Sunday train
might be discontinued except one or two
for perishable freight or livestock or
mails. The reduction of Sunday work
on a dozen of the most prominent rail-
roads IN the country brings us still more
emphatic testimony of the practica bility
ana necessity of legislative action, for it
Is general testimony Of railway officers
that the only obstacle to general suspen-
sion of Sunday trains is competition,
which legislation alone can remove by
requiring all to rest together.
SUNDAY LAW IS CONSTITUTIONAL.
The supreme courts of all the states in
which the matter has been tested have
declared Sunday laws constitutional. But
as the objection is raised anew it Is well
to recall the grounds upon which these
decisions have been based. The directors
always quote the article of the constitu-
ton that prohibits congress Ito make a
law regarding an establishment of re-
Iigion. - The word establishment is
a historic word of no doubtful interpre-
tation. When it was written into the
constitution, there was in Europe, as
there is to-day, the custom of selecting a
single sect and supporting it by the state,
W LIlCl1 dlSO al pOlllCI It's O1IlCOLS a 0uu-
day law IN order to come under this pro-
hibition would need to require the
support of ministers of religion and their
political appointment, which no advocate
of Sunday legislation proposes or desires.
But the latter part of this provision,
which requires that congress shall make
no laws interfering with the free exer-
else of religion, does have bearing upon
Sunday laws. When congress ordered
Sunday work in the mail service, con-
gress itself broke this constitutional pro-
vision, for it made it forever after i'm
possible, by this irreligious test, for men |
devoted to the church and unwilling to
give mp its services, and conscientious !
about doing needless Sunday work, to |
hold positions in this largest department |
of the public service.
But the best answer TO the objection |
that The proposed Sunday law is uneon- |
stltutional is IN the constitution itself, |
which already contains Sunday rest |
law. The only objection to it is that it |
is an un-Ameriean monopoly, a law |
made for the benefit of one man In |