Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-09-21

ton" because they come from bhe zen
commandments any more than the laws
against adultery, which are as distinctly a
part of Biblical morality, in distinction
from heather morality, as Sunday laws.
In other countries, where church ana
state are mixed, and in our own country
in other DAYS, the ground OF Sunday laws
has been not always clearly perceived; but
in recent wears legislation on this subject
has been based, not on God will but on
sthe general welfare A homely illustra-
ton 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 Sunday dissipation because God sees
and will punish; but the state forblds
them only because they are unhealthy TO
the body polite, as well as to the lnol-
vidual, physically and morally
Prof A T. Jones, the leader OF the seven
Day Adventists, in his address at the sun
day rest hearing in Washington, after
denying the right of government TO legis-
late about ANYTHING in the first Jour COM
mandments, admitted the very principle
on which we build the civil Sabbath. He
said: "If in the exercise of his religious
convictions. under the first four command
ments he invades the rights of his neigh
Dor then the civil government says that is
unlawful Whv9 Because il is lrreliglous
or because it is immoral? Not at ali; but
because it is uncivil, and for that reason
only"
SUNDAY LAWS ARE CONSTITUTIONAL.
The supreme courts of twenty-five states
in which the matter has been tested have
so declared. This is one of the rare in
stances in which the final decisions IN first
all the highest courts and all on one side.
When twenty-five supreme courts are on
one side, on purely legal matter namely,
the harmony of one legal document called
A.. L., h fnsAy. Ifnh hA
constitution, he who has only his ipsedixit
on the other side certainly has very weak
case But the lawyers chief labor, IN
most cases, is TO prove that the ten decls-
ions on his clients side weigh mole than
the dozen decisions on the other side.
1t Is well to recall the grounds upon
which these decisions have been based.
The directors always quote the amend
ment OF the United States constitution
that prohibits congress to make a law re-
garding IAN establishment of religion"
The word establishment" is a historic
word of no doubtful Interpretation.
When it was written into the
constitution there was in the
old world as there is today, the custom OF
selecting a single religion or a single sect,
and supporting it by the state, which also
appoints its officers. \ Sunday law in
order to come under this prohibition would
need to require the support of ministers
of religion and their political appoint
ment which no advocate of Sunday legis-
lation proposes or desires. The theory
that the present Sunday rest movement
is only scheme to unite church and state
encounters the difficulty that the Brother
hood of Locomotive Engineers and the
knights of Labor in their international
conventions of 1888 approved il, but this
difficulty is summariY disposed of by our
opponents with the hysterical statement
that these bodies only endorsed our peti-
tion because | pleaded with them.
When it was asserted that the movement
TO secure a law of congress against Sunday
work in government service is really an eff
tort of ecclesistics to unite church and
state am accustomed to hold up some of
the petitions that have been smutted by
the hands of the toilers rs they have
signed them while at their work, as you
see in this one from the Car shops at Rich
mond. In old England, the barons, as you
remember, thought it beneath them to do
such hard work as is required in education,
and so had servants to do both their read
ing and writing. When a servant had
written a deed the baron. in place of Sign
ing his name, laid the inside of his hand
in plate of smut and then stamped the
picture on the document, and then, turn
ing his hand. stamped his seal ring into
the wax. So originated the term, Witness
my hand SEAL SO labor replies to those
who call the effort TO secure the day OF
resi- 10 UDe UOIleES, Il CuuTCl anu Slstlt
movement uplifting the smutted petition.
1t is genuine labor reform, this siX-day
law-the lines of every mans hand being
as different from every other mans as his
handwriting would have been-witness
my hand seal.
But the best answer to the objection
that Sunday laws are unconstitutional is
the United States constitution itself,
which already contains Sunday-rest law.
The only objection to it is that an un-
American monopoly, a law made for the
benefit of one man, In the seventh section
it is provided that the president shall have
ten days Sunday excepted) In which to
consider bill sent to him by congress be-
fore il can become a law without his sig
nature. Here is distinct provision for
the protection of the president in his right
to the day of rest and in his rights of con-
science. That parenthesis Sunday except
ed is an acorn which millions of petition
ers desire should be allowed to grow into
the wide-spreading oak of a congressional
Sunday-reSt law, under whose shadow, |
with the president the lowest servants of
the government in the mail and military !
service may also enjoy the day of rest,
SUNDAY LAWS ARE CONSISTENT WITH LIB
ERTY."
"Wnen Camhyses inbaded Egypt, |
knowing that they worshiped cats, he |
had each soldier in the front rank of |
his army take in his left hand. In the |
place of a shield, Il sacred eat. The |
Egyptians dared not strike lest they |
hould kill god, and so the invaders con- !
quered them without a blow. The first /
part of that history is repeating itself in /
our land. We are being invaded lay an .
army of continentals who desire to break (
down our institutions in the interests of /
their lusts, and who march in upon us /
with our sacred word Liberty" as their /
sb ield.
1t is a picture worthy of comic al
manac these unwashed refugees from des-
potism, who never saw liberty and |
wouldn't know it if they saw il, Offering
themselves as teachers of liberty to Amer
leans. AS usual, in such cases, we ask
these professors of liberty "N here did you
graduate? Who WAS your teacher They !
answer Bismarck Now we understand .
what they mean Icy personal liberty the
liberty OF Bismarck, the liberty of one to
do what he likes. regardless of the rights
of all below him. The reversed BIS
marcks' who come TO this country believe
in personal liberty; that Is, liberty of one
person to do what he likes, regardless of
the rights of all above him. We do not
believe in any such personal liberty but
in popular liberty. the liberty of the whole
people, and the liberty only so far as il |
is consistent with the liberties of others.
The circle is symbol. not of eternity
only, but also of liberty. Personal liberty