The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-05-29
The Sadie Means Case.

Sadie Means case may be said 10 bring
the church into closer touch with the
( advanced customs and utilities of the
period The railroad. the telegraph, the
mail, the telephone and the press are
/ recognized as necessities, every day in
/ the week, by the great majority of people
/ in both private and business life. The IS
+ sue in the Sadie Means case was whether
( the church should permit its members to
/ recognize. employ and serve these con-
: comitants of modern life on the first day
/ Of the week. or whether il should take a
stand on the other hand, and pronounce
sinful even necessary work performed on
Sunday.
The outcome is a victory for liberalism.
II saves Sunday from being relocated TO
the past of fifty or a hundred wears ago,
in so far as that church is concerned, and
is an evidence Of Observation-Disclosures that
must commend itself TO laymen as well as
/ to the liberal churchmen.
The case, in a nutshell, was this Miss
Means was employed in the telephone ex-
change at Columbia, s. c. Her duties
required that she should do few hours
work on Sundays. She was a member Of
the Second Presbyterian church, faithful
in her religious duties and of irreproacha-
BILE character The minister and elders of
the church of which she was a member
did not think 1t compatible with her
christian professions or with the discip-
line of the church that she should work
on Sundays. They endeavored to
induce her to stop working
on that day. But as that
would have involved the giving up
of her situation, the income from which
she needed for her support, she declined
to heed them. The matter was brought
before the church session and the young
woman was expelled from membership.
Her sister and brother-inLaw, members
of the same church. appealed to the
Charleston Presbytery, the body govern
ing the churches of that denomination
in the district in which Columbia is sit
uated The Presbytery sustained the
action of the church session. The appeal
was then carried to the synod of South
Carolina. That body reversed the action
of the Presbytery and the session and
ordered Miss Means restored to member
bership. This the session failed
to do, and the Charleston Presbytery
appealed TO the general assembly. The
appeal. as told in our dispatches, was not
sustained, and the assembly ordered that
the Judgment of the synod be carried out
Miss Means case will be the means of
helping thousands. There are Presby-
terians all over the country engaged in
railroad, newspaper, street car and other
businesses requiring their attention on
Sundays. The decision in Miss Means
case establishes the precedent that PEI
son may engage in such necessary work
on that day and still be a member in good
standing in the Presbyterian church
1t is reported that the Bethlehem Steel
Company has appealed to the naval au-
thorities to make the tests of armor
plates less severe. 1t will be remembered
that a week or 80 ago a great plate fur
nished by the Bethlehem company and
tested at Indian Head was smashed by
the first shot, at a cost to the company
of something like S25,0 600 The plate
makers insist that tho tests applied by
this government are unreasonable, and
much more severe than the best European
practice, and complain that when a sin
gle plate has shown extraordinary re-
sistance power it is Immediately made
the standard and all others required to
come up to it. In this way these tests
have been growing in severity until it is
impossible for the plate-makers to realize
their expectations. The appeal is little
pointed, coming as it does upon the
alleged charges of fraud in plate-making
and the failure of other plates to stand
the tests.
Since the conviction and Imprisonment