The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1894-07-11
LAwLBssNBss AND ANARCHY
Rev. william Powick Writes of sunday
Base Ball and Chicago Riots.

EDITOR HERALD:-The nation stands
aghast at the dreadful spectacle that
centres in the city Of Chicago-poor Sab
bathless Chicago. The cries Of Oppressed
labor pierces the heart OF humanity, but
still louder cry sAlutes our ears and
stirs our fears it is the cry Of lawlessness
and incipient anarchy 1t looks as though
great multitudes feel that anarchy is. the
only remedy for cruelty. But If they are
right the remedy is worse than the disease
However much we may deplore the
wrongs which may have been heaped
upon labor by iron-hearted and cold
blooded tyranny we must remember that
wrongs which may be righted by other
wrongs still survive and will appear again
in other and more dangerous forms. The
spirit of lawlesSneas which scores point
for you to-day will not scruple to score a
dozen points for you tomorrow If occasion
should serve. essness-whereve
fouud-is a universal enemy.
But what has this to do with Sunday
ball Much, every way. Chiefly, because
Sunday ball Is an expression of the same
spirit of lawlessness that is to-day tramp
ling under foot in Chicago the rights of
all classes and defying the authority of
"the powers that be" and threatening the
land with civil war. Man has no more
right to violate one law than another.
The same authority that makes murder a
crime makes Sunday ball crime. And
really good citizen will no more violate
one than the other. "He that offends in
one point is guilty Of all" When man
loses his respect for one law he is likely
soon to lose his respect for any other that
may not happen to fit his own selfish ends.
Chicago 'scontempt to-day for those tunda-
mental laws upon which trade and
commerce depend are the legitimate out
growth Of a contempt for Other-and what
may seem TO some minor-laws in the past.
The thief begins by stealing pennies, then
dollars and then fortunes. The drunkard
begins by taking a drink to-day and an
other tomorrow and then Jumps to two
or three and then. So the lawless man
| begins by picking this and that law out
| and stigmatizing and violating it because
| he does not like it and nearly always goes
| from bad to worse until he becomes at
length a thorn in the flesh of the moral
and well disposed part of society.
If, as our Borough Council says, play
ing base ball on Sunday is a disgrace to
the town and should be condemned by all
good and law abiding citizens" it seems
clear that those who wink at this evil are
| likely to wink at other evils when It suits
| their purpose. The only guarantee any
citizen has OF liberty depends wholly upon
the cultivation of a spirit of submission
to the law as we find it, whether it suits
uB or not. And he who rebels at this
A community that tolerates lawlessness
in any form is inviting lawlsssness in
other and perhaps very unexpected forms
as Chicago realizes now.
In view of all this, the question of
Sunday base ball resolves itself at last
| into a question, not merely Of morals or
Of religious opinion, but of good citizen
| ship. And | am persuaded that the rea-
son Sunday ball obtained such a foothold
in Shenandoah in the past is because per
sons who, in other respects were good and
| law-abiding citizens, failed to consider its
| bearing upon the vital questions here
suggested To advertise ones contempt
| for law and deliberately plan for its vio-
| lation and then to invite others to share
the crime, is to threaten the foundation
of society and to invite the opposition of
every good citizen on the ground of self
defence. Ii society does not throttle the
spirit Of lawlessness that threatens it,
the spirit Of lawlessness will eventually
! throttle society.
Very truly yours,
WIN. POwICK.
Shenandoah, Pa, July 10, 1894