Troy weekly news. (Troy, Idaho) 1897-1933, 1907-03-22
CORRESPONDENCE.

opposition TO the measure is based solely :
on the prejudice against the day chosen
for public rest.
To put all such surmises at rest seven $
days In the week, l will here state that
the act, which hardly deserves the name
OF law, is mischievous infringement of
natural and constitutional rights of man
and Will be as firmly opposed, as fairly
criticised and as justly condemned by
me as well as by every liberty loving cit
lien of our state and nation whether the
day chosen be Friday, Saturday, Sunday
or Monday, which are all used more or
less generally by considerable mum Der
of people as days of rest, or any of the
remaining days that one may feel in
cllned so to use.
| hold without fear of serious doubt,
much less successful contradiction, that |
in order to enjoy life, liberty and the |
pursuit OF happiness, - man being free |
moral agent, must be left free to choose
for himself when and how he shall rest, |
as no one can possibly know that as we'll
as he does himself; and needing rest no
sensible man will grieve because every
body will not rest when he does, or in
other words, snore with him.
If anyone should be so unfortunate as
to not know enough to follow this ele-
mentary natural law, an enforced rest
cure at Orofno, or Blackfoot if more
convenient, may be needed and if any
one should so far forget the natural
rights of man as to willfully and know
ingly interfere and prescribe time or
amount of rest, public or private, he
ought to try some six for IS blood purl-
tier or a mess OF calves brains, as the
state has as yet no institution for case
quite as hopeless of cure.
Youth, full of spirit and hope and
vitalized by love and ambition, does not
need the same amount of rest as child
hood with it's powers yet undeveloped,
or old age, with strength declining so
that any attempt to regulate these
things can only tend to confusion.
If thing is right, lawful and laudable
any part OF the time it must be right
lawful and laudable all the time, and
if thing is wrong, unlawful and con-
demnable part Of the time it is GER
tainly wrong, unlawful and condemnabe
all the time. If not, why not?
If it is right and lawful to traffic in
the necessities or the luxuries of life one
day, by what manner of reasoning or
logic can it be held wrong and unlawful
to do so the next? l confess am unable
to answer.
Instead of this act engendering a spirit
of rest and tranquility and raising the
moral tone of the state, or making it
fellowmen with open countenance and
glad hand and transact such business as
NAV be of mutual benefit to both, it has
a tendency to make moral towards and
hypocrites out of some and criminals,
under this act, out OF others; and the
officers Of the law must needs insinuate
themselves everywhere, especially where
not wanted, and become lurking knaves
particularly upon the rest day, in order
that they may catch some unwary den
.izen of the woods who has succeeded il
bartering for four bits worth of sugar t
make the gooseberry sauce more palat
able and season his own opinion abou
some of the acts Of the last legislature
or by some means get hold of "a hunk o
boglogna and crackers to still his hunge
because the deacon did not invite hin
home after church as he expected, anC
hale the worthy before the tribunal o
the law as dangerous criminal c4ugh
with the goods or lose his precious Jol
with all the honor and emolument
ehereto belonging or in any way apper
tanning.
As have never delegated to other
the right to prescribe on what hours o
days | shall work or rest, or II shall z
in when it rains or not, nor do | bellev
that any other right-minded person has
| cannot consider the act in any othe
light than as an unWarranted usurpatlO
of not only my own las that would b
small thing but the right OF every eli
izen of our land to regulate his own pr
vate and personal affairs in harmon
with such natural and reserved rights
any way that may suit him best, and tn
sooner the act is declared unconstitr
tional and unlawful by the courts, or b
the people if necessary, the better &c
all as | cannot conceive OF single md
vidual in this broad land that can in an
way be benefited by it. | have woi
dered some what moved the legisl itiN
body to such action. The brain storm
is perhaps the latest excuse for variot
alterations, but for obvious reasons tn
theory must be abandoned.
After an unusually merry Christm;
carousal or other protracted debauc
there follows repnorse-New Years res
lutions, vows to high heaven OF GOO
deeds in the future, but be 1t lar tro
us that we should seek solution in Thu
theory. as we do not believe our legi
latOrs would do such thing or that eve
they themselves consider the act as
anv way meritOrious. | am rather u
clined to the belief, which think is Il
most charitable one, that some cuck'
smuggled a bastard egg under Il
"honorable body and they though
lessly if not innocently Matched out
yiper which, if not crushed, is destln'
90 become the progenitor OF blue law
5nquisition and persecution as sure
human nature remains unchanged al
the history of the past points out Il
possibilities of the future.
| am as ever, yours for liberty,
S. A. ANDERSON.