The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-07-30
L. s co.
ALL LAW BREAKERS
IN PARISH PAPERS RECTOR
REFERS TO BLUE LAWS.
None Can Truthfully Say They Are Per-
manently Law-Abiding Men, Believes
the Rev. WATSON.

rs There a ~Law-Abiding Citizen II
Newark asks the Rev. e. A. Was
son, rector of st. Stephens Protestant
Episcopal Church., in The Crown, {
monthly published by the church anc
edited by the rector. In an article un.
der III caption asking the question
quoted above the rector says:
1 would go pretty far in the praise OF
Sheriff Frank III. Sommer as a con-
scientious and efficient public officer
Yet | must object to a statement in a
political pamphlet that Sheriff Som
mer's honest performance of the
duties of his responsible office has re-
suited in the discontinue of the law
f bretabkie AXE Of em Essex he conntyit !. n oPIeet
Sheriff Sommer's activity has not re-
breakers of Essex County, Far from it.
1t has resulted In the discontinue of
only certain classes of law-breakers.
There are other and larger classes
that he has not attempted to interfere
with, and that he has no wish to interiors
with. And there are two classes any
way that he would interfere with II he
could, but he can't. These are the high
placed business individuals that corrupt
politics for private gain, and the boss
politicians who serve as their plant
tools. 1t is hard to catch these fellows
in y W TO P{9y e,1 II on fhd eh sbsriff t 5acb s no5a-
faction as to a~pprehend these high
toned crooks In the act. But in truth
he has been able to do nothing at all
to discomft these two GLASSES of law
breakers.
And there is another class of law
breakers, a vast one, which the Sheriff
would be easier than to convict them.
I mean the class of practically all
good honest citizens like myself, who
scarcely let a week pass without break
ing the law. / refer to the Blue Laws.
Probably the Sheriff is as bad a law
breaker In this respect as any OF us;
many acts forbidden by these laws to
be done on Sunday, one or another of
which we. all do. For instance. bar
bers and BARRIERS Sunday patrons VIC;
authority has informed me that the
druggists as a class, he BARRIERS, the
confectioners, the keepers of cigar
prosecuted under the Blue Laws, as
keepers of d~isorderly houses. since they
maintain places where people habitually
And the men who conduct anc
patronize the trolley cars and steam
boats on Sunday are law-breakeri
whom Sheriff Sommer has made nj
effort to "discom1t'; and likewise those
who drive or ride in automobiles or
that day for pleasure, and persons who
play secular music, and other kind:
Of persons too numerous to mention
They are all law-breakers. In fact,
would seriously ask whether there il
a single law-abiding man in the cit!
of Newark who is not bed-ridden? T,
make 1t definite, I mean a man who hai
not broken the law in the last twelve
month, and who. IL he live, and stay II
the State. will not break 1t in the mex
twelve-month?
Please don't omit. either. the automo
bilists who exceed the speed limit
some of the best fellows I know ar,
automobiles; but I don't believe Their
IS one OF, them who is not a law
} breaker; though 1 am not mentioninJ
this class In relation to Sheriff Sommer
But Is there a single man in Newark
not in involuntary confinement of som
sort, who Is not a law-breaker? /
there a single free man in Newark VIII
can truthfu!ly say, 81 rave been a law
No, indeed! Sheriff Sommer has no
discounted the ,law-breakers of Esse,
County; but only an extremely small
though pestilent, fraction of the sam