Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-05-15

Judiciary committee at work to formulate
a plan of campaign, and there was talk
even of applying to the president to send
United States troops to the park to pre-
vent the opening of the gates. The COM
mission had taken vacation, but it imme-
diately summond its members to come
back and present a united front against
the wicked directors.
Not that the commission is opposed to
opening the gates on the first day of the
week, but the trouble seems to be that it
thinks that the directory took snap judg-
ment and committed the grave offense of
acting regardless of the commission. The
action of the board was denounced and de-
clared in violation of law, and a big wad of
protesting kilograms from Sabbatarians all
over the country was received, read, and
recorded.
A telegram from New York says that
Rev. w. f. Crafts, chairman of the nation
al committee on Sunday closing of the fair
is arranging for big fight against open
ing the gates, and for appeals to the gov
ernment to prevent the same. At Terre
Hauts, Ind. "a hurried meeting of of Saba :
tarians was held and committee to solicit
help in the anti-Sunday opening move
ment disappointed with a further object
of holding an interstate conference at Indi-
annapolis June 13 and IA to talk about boy
cotting the fair.
From Washington comes the report that
inquiry at the department of justice as to
the decision of the board of directors to
open the Worlds Fair grounds develops
feeling favorable to it, The view of the
Chicago lawyer that Jackson park and
Midway plaisance are not the exposition
seems to be generally approved, but Attor-
ney General Olney will not say anything.
But the advocates of opening are not
idle. Charles w. Cliugman, of this city,
representing stockholders who own 100000
of the Worlds fair stock, has filed bill in
the superior court praying for an injunc-
tion restraining the directors of the eXposi-
tion and the South park commissioners
from closing the gates of the fair on sun
day Application for the order was made
today. It IS averred that Clingman
purchased his stock after the passage of the
act of congress locating the fair in Chicago
which provided that the exposition should
be open from May /, 1898, TO October, SO,
1898, and before 2 subsequent act of con-
gress providing that the fair should be
closed on Sunday.
Further ground for the suit is found
in the fact that the grounds on which the
fair is located were set aside as public land
for park purposes by the state legislature
and no one has authority TO make regula-
tions contrary to the provisions of that act.
1t is further claimed that the act of con-
week for the closing of the fair, instead of
the seventh violates that part of the
constitution of the United States, which
says that congress shall not make law
respecting the establishment of religion,
and while thousands of people worship on
Sunday there are also thousands of people
who worship on Saturday, and any law
that provides one day as against another
is violation of the constitution, not only
-. .12se Ipited States, bnt of the state OF
Illinois.
Meantime the gates were closed Sunday,
and big crowd was down at the park
looking longingly through the cracks in
the fence and patronizing the saloons and
fakirs the latter of whom turned hatful
of honest pennies.
From 10 o'clock in the morning until )
O'Clock in the evening there was almost a
continuous stream of wanderers passing
down Stoney Island avenue along the
whole western extent of the fair grounds,
Then there was a line of buggies, carriages,