Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-09
THE SUNDAY PAPER
They Who Would Forbid It Are Enemies
of Virtue and Religion.

| They Who Would Forbid It Are Enemies
of Virtue and Religion.
Salem, (O.) News.r
Sunday papers were sold in Pittsburg as
| usual yesterday and the customary action of
the Law and Order Society is looked for.
The decision of Judge Porter alarms the
news agents and carriers OF Sunday papers
| but little. -.
During the past week there was q heating
before committee of the Massachusetts,
Legislature on the question of Sunday news
papers. measure having been introduced
looking to their forcible suppression. Mr..
Joseph Cook appeared as leader Of the
CRUSADE, in company with several clergy
men who, with one or two laymen, trained
under the redoubtable Joseph's banner.
There were no Representatives of the other
side. similar fact has been observed in
former years, and it is sometimes attributed
to contempt on the part OF the friends Of
Sunday newspapers for their opponents ana
sometimes to fear OF being overmatched in
argument. Neither explanation is the true
one. The real reason is that. as a rule, the
worthy people who attend such hearings
and make speeches against Sunday papers
DO not grappIe with the question at issue.
We do not wish to offend by an appearance
OF: discourtesy, but the plain truth is that
they generally talk as if they did not know
what they were talking about. Their ''argu-
ments'' consist for the most part of
assertions that Sunday newspapers are
harmful to the community and Of e1hor-
tatfons on the need of preserving "the
American Sabbath" Now assertion is not
argument though often mistaken for it, and
If anybody can be found who wants to do
away with the American Sabbath he is quite
as likely to be found almost any where else
rs on the staff of a Sunday newspaper.
"What is there in the Sunday newspaper
that cannot watt until Monday?" was asked.
The answer is in one word: Opportunity.
There are countless thousands OF people
who. from the rising of the sun on Monday
to the going down of the sum on Saturday,
have absolutely no opportunity for in
tellectual cultivation OR recreation. The
best Sunday papers furnish both, and both
are wholesome. Both are necessary. For
those who cannot have them at any other
time 1t is blessing to have them on Sunday.
Take the reputable Sunday newspapers that
come to Salem, for instance. They contain
an amount of good literature that would
suffice, If carefully read and remembered,
to make workingman ana his family we'll
informed not only upon the chief events of
the passing time, but upon a comprehensive
range of history. biography, travel books
and authors, political economy, everyday
science and religious progress, as we'll as
much that is in q lighter vein-stories,
sketches, sparkles of fancy: matter entirely
pure and well fitted to cheer and fnvigorate
the tired toiler. They who would forbid
this in the homes of wage earners doubtless
intend to be friends of virtue and religion,
but they are practical enemies of both.
Finally. the Sunday newspaper hiss come to
stay. 1t is as much q necessity and q part of
modern civilization as are the railway and
the telephone. Neither Massachusetts nor
Ohio, nor any other great State will ever
sanction any demand for its legal suppress
sion.