The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-01-21
SUNDAY. A DAY OF REST.

Some wise man has suggested that 1t
would be a good thing if each state leg
islature would set each seventh session
apart exclusively for the repeal of exist
ing laws which had been found of no
avail or were unsuited to the existing
conditions. The idea is really an excel
lent one, and If 1t could be put into eff
feet the world would be all the better
governed.
No effort has yet been made to find out
just what proportion of existing laws are
of the dead letter variety. Doubtless, If
the test is ever applied, the result will
be very instructive as well as interest
ing. Making people good and moral by
legislation is an old-tirne industry. It
has fallen into disuse to some extent in
recent years, but the reformatory spirit
runs to legislation today as surely as it
ever did since legislatures were invented.
The blue laws of old still flourish, at
least on book shelves; and he is rarity
In craftsmanship who even today serious
ly inquiries of himself whether the exist
Ing condition of public sentiment war;
rants trial of his pet nostrum.
Sunday legislation has always been re-
garded by reformers as offering great
opportunities for moral advancement In
all directions. Perhaps in no other de-
partment of legislative activity is there
more impressive record of misguided
craftsmanship than in the direction of
Sunday legislation. The best men in
every community have struggled strenu-
ously for the enforcement of Sunday
legislation when they showed no concern
whatever for the miles Of punitive and
reformatory legislation which remain I'M
enforced and even unnoticed They have
not been successful in their efforts, SIM
ply because there was no public opinion
to warrant the enactment of most of the
existing Sunday legislation when 1t was
adopted, and not one whit more to de-
mand its later enforcement.
Lately this subject of Sunday legisla-
ton has taken on an altogether new
phase. The Puritan view of Sunday reg
ulation is no more acceptable to ordi-
nary men today than 1t ever was in the
past fifty years or SO, outside New Eng
land communities. But the conviction
is growing among all classes of men, and
among none so BEAUTIFULLY as among the
working people, that there must be alb
stinence on Sunday from all forms of
business transactions, and that the day
shall be devoted to rest. The movement
which is now in progress in certain
cities to enforce the closing of grocery
stores and butchers shops is a mere ex>
preston of this conviction. The BARRIERS
have made the pursuit of their calling
on Sunday something of a rarity. All
large business establishments are closed
tight on Sunday, no matter what may be
the eXigencies of business at a given
time. The railroad time table attests
the general extent of Sunday observance
among the travelling public. The domi-
nant idea now Is that Sunday is day of
rest and that King Mammon shall be
obliged to forego his hold on mems heart
strings at least for one day in each
week
From present indications 1t will not be
long before the demand Is enforced for
the closing of all business places on
that day. Already the hardship imposed
on drug clerks, for instance, in being
compelled to give Sundays to the dis
charge of their duties is crying out for a
remedy. The masses are insistent. They
care more for the rights Of their fellows
who before had been, or are now, obliged
to work on Sunday than they are over
any religious view whatever Of the Sab
bath. Some day it is not impossible that
the world will wake up to the fact that
the bartenders have formed labor unions
in wicked cities like Minneapolis and Chi
cago, and thereupon it is not unlikely
that the Sunday saloon closing movement
will receive an impetus greater than it
discourses that have ever been delivered
on the subject from the beginning of the
world to the present day.
Whenever 1t comes to pass that men
shall refuse to concern themselves with
the cares of shop under any circum-
stances on Sunday the world will be in
fnitefy the better for the change. and IT
will moreover be saved in some con-