The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-09-09
THE SUNDAY F1Asco.

Montgomery has just had . fasco In the matter of Sunday closing. There was quite a sudden flourish of trumpets on satursay. but by Sunday the noise all subsided. and esverything vas q wide open" as usual.
 |, The facts seem to be about this way: On Friday a committee from the Retail Clerks Association went to Mayor Joseph and requested him. In their behalf. to see to 1t that the retail stores. which had agreed with that body to stay closed on Sunday. lived up to their agreement. The Mayor, with characteristic amiabili- ty. at once agreed to their request, and sent a communication in writing to Chief of Police Gerald. directing him to enforce Section 1lsz of the City Code strictly. That section is ss follows:
 Sec. 1lse. Any person who does any worldly business or labor on Sunday, or servant to perform any labor on Sunday, except the customary domestic duties of daily necessity CT comfort or work of charity; or who keeps open on Sunday ing in which business is transacted, or goods of any description are kept for sale, CT who sells or offers for sale on mat day. any goods, wares or merchan- disc, (drugyists, bakers and cigar deal ing allowed to keep open until F m9 must, on conviction, be fined not less than one nor more than one hundred dollars.
 Upon receipt of this Chief Gerald sent notice to practically every business house in the city not covered by the exceptions. ordering . strict closing on Sunday. The result was that on Saturday there was \ great hailabaloo raised around the Mayors ears. from this and that busi- ness which was moro or less regarded as a necessity of life on Sundays.
 This effect was just what Chief Gerald may have calculated. The aniabie Mayor begun modifying his order. until by Sunday morning there was little left of it, and various classes of business houses were again notified that they would not be disturbed for keeping open. The Mayors order became practically null and void without being withdrawn. Only one arrest was made Sunday. that of a barkeeper, who seems to have had bad luck somehow in being caught.
 Now either Mayor Joseph was wrong in the original order. or else Chief Gerald was wrong in the way he went about enforcing it. The practical result seems to warrant the suspicion that the Chief outwitted the Mayor and made the forrn- CTS undertaking ridiculous.
 Now The Advertiser is not an extremist in the matter of Sabbath observance. It realizes that many things have become necessities on Sundays. such as ice. fruits. fish. confectionery supplies; news papers. etc. But 1t Is not . necessity for any ordinary retail store to be open on Sunday. Nor is it e necessity for barrooms to open on Sunday. Yet for long time 1t has been an open secret that both classes of concerns have done as they pleased in Montgomery. There has been no serious. earnest effort to have the law obeyed as decentiy as it is done in other cities. Church goers are frequently offended by the crowds around barroom doors as they ,psss uy. This is not the situation. ws ars inform ed. in our neisheors. birmingham and Selma. Tesrs the Sunday laws are en- fc-csd with both common sense and firm ness. Why can not Montgomery be so we'll governed? Are the Mayor and Chief of Police at cross purposes. or is neither in earnest, and are both playing to the galleriesf It looks as if one or the other alternative must be chosen. The public will decide.
 It looks also as if the citizens of Mont gomery must wake up. and take a more serious hand in their city government than before in years. It is time they were hunting up their strongest and best men to serve them. and not yielding to the importunities of the usual seif-oon. stituted candidates.