The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-07-29
BLUE LAW COLLAPSE
Our Local Chapman Unable
to Rega1vanize Seven
teenth Century OPP.
pression
MODERN RELIGION AND MORALS
Not a Doctrine Of Christianity
That Harmless Diversion Is
Illicit ON Sunday.

Illicit on Sunday.
The dismissal by Judge Potts of the
complaint against the members of the
Arlington Baseball Club for playing base
ball on Sunday, July 10, would seem to
indicate that the police have abandoned
any hope of securing a conviction under
the obsolete blue law, which is known as
the Vice and immortality Act. That at
least is the opinion of e. A. Ransom,
one of the lawyers for the young men.
He said. yesterday, to a News re-
porter
THAT law was placed Upon the statute
book of this State in the last century,
when the old Puritanical ideas, the Off
spring of the revulsion against the
immoralities of the English Court, were
in full bloom. But civilized man has
advanced rapidly in the past few years.
The narrow view of religion is disappear
ing. and is held only by the ignorant"
Mr.. Ransom went on to discuss the
merits of the case as follows
On the trial of these young men two
weeks ago while / was arguing against
the right of the police to arrest them
in their own clubhouse without a war
rant, one of those good and jealous
women who, perhaps co~nscientiously, be-
lieves that 1t is her duty to compel others
to think as she thinks, and act
as she acts, remarked to another good
and Jealous woman.-NHe doesn't know
there Is a Godr'
That good woman mistakenly got the
idea that in defending the right of every
50 long as he does not infringe upon the
like right of others, we were ATTACKING
Christianity" We are not attacking
eressivel ~yran Me are Ir araaealng ' an opi
and obsolete statute. which had its birth
in the ignorance, fanaticism, intolerance
n narrow egotism of men who assumed
God.
/ yield to no one-not even to the train
ness in life it is to try and interpret the
will of God, in admiration of the doctrines
voiced by the meek and lowly Jesus. I
other agency to lift mankind out of bar
barism. and to secure the freedom of the
Individual and the good order of society.
But / do not believe that it Is a doctrine
of Christianity that one maj (or 70, 000,0 900
of mem has a right to dictate to another
what he shall believe or bow, he shall
employ his leisure. If it is, then that
doctrine must and will go, because it is
contrary to the laws Of human nature
which antedate Christianity.
IL Ii u OOClIlll VA NlIIS lldllllAr lIldl II l.
unlawful or wicked for a man to engage
in a game of baseball or. any other harm
less diversion on Sunday, the Christian
Sabbath. There is no religious obligation
on man (none on a Christian) to devote
y var { aHs N SoS1heiyei Il TIE & fsi6leuI no o4aere
phrase or a word which imposes such an
obligation. The law of Sinai, it is true,
directs the keeping Of Saturday. holy"
but there is 40 definition of holy in
the Bible which would make the playing
of baseball on that day unholy. The doc
trines regarding the observance of Sum
language Of the Augsburg confession,
which is the fundamental law of the great
Lutheran sect, only regulations which
venience. And the Roman Catholic,
nod the ike view. ! an reminded Of an
used to play ball Sunday afternoons with
the working men. of his congregation
who could not find time to play on any
it is. true. of the clerical system of Chris
tlanity, but they are not the law of the
land, in New Jersey. any more than the
any other ism is the law of the land. If
a statute of this State has no other reason
for its enactment than that it prohibits
trines of Christianity, as Interpreted by
one Christian or by 10000, 900 Of Christians,
that statute is void under the State Con-
establishment of religion. But / do be-
lieve that the true guide for all legfs-
l ap,lnn,a Is 81 the he cs~0mpreh.e srsn s principle a,!e
the Lord Thy God with al hin heart
latter part Of it is put. DO unto others
you" And this. not because Christ said
it merely, but because it is true. On this
comman ground, Christian, Pagan and
the infdel can meet in friendly associa-
ton. It means that every man shall
think and speak and act as he wills so
long as in 50 doing he does not interfere
means tolerance instead Of intolerance;
freedom instead of oppression; security
instead of persecution; peace instead of
strife.
Hudson county had a population 275, 1875
in 1890. The legal voters numbered sc, 400.
The members of the various religious
the persons who insist on the purely
religious observance of Sunday-the old
Pagan sacred day of the S~un-number
less than twenty thousand, or not 1-13th
of the whole population of the county
OF these 10000 more h a two-thirds are
women and children, who mostly. let
others do their religious thinking for
them, leaving not more than six thousand
adult male members or communicates of
these various sects, and Of these I ven
ture that not one thousand hold, in the
the mistaken belief that the keeping
of Sunday is to be regarded as a neces-
Sary worship of God"
There is then. not one in Sc of the adult
males in this county who believe that the
statute prohibiting amy kim of playing,
sports, pastime or diversions, on Sunday,
ought to be literally enforced simply be-
cause it is the Christian Sabbath. Now
/ make no question that these 1.000-if
there are so many-are thoroughly con-
%scientious in their belief. They have a
right to that belief and no one has a
right to force them to. act contrary to it.
But the $4,000 adult males--who believe
that the indulging in harmless playing,
sports, pastimes or diversion on Sunday
is perfectly innocent, have an equal right
to force them to act contrary to that
belief so long as in diverting themselves
they do not injure others. They may
believe that the players are committing
mortal SIM, but that is a matter between
the players and their own conscience.
They may argue with them and pray for
them, but they hay no right to eoerse
them.
Blu these i%ntolerants say one hundred
wears ago we got a law on the statue
Book which says you shall not do what
we believe is wrong for you to do, and we
will enforce that law whether you like it
or not. If, as you say, the law is a bad
law why don't you get rid of it? But
although you outnumber US you can't
get rid of it because public officials are
afraid of antagonizing our votes and the
votes of those we can influence.
Now there are two ways of getting rid
OF "a bad law. One is through the Legis-
lature by repeating it; the other is
~.Il,+E r. ;e a difia,1If yna4for IN oo+ a