The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-09-10
SUNDAY LAWS AND
ONE-DAY MORALITY. !"

The difficulty which New York il
having in securing adequate sunda.
laws convinces. an outside observer
that she is attacking the matter from
the wrong end. Tt is seen, thinks The
Rev. E. P. Powell CUnitarian), in tht
absurdity of her trying ito establish
one kind of morality for six days in
a week and another kind of morality
for the seventh This view, of course
+ ignores the question of expedfency
which, so far, has had to be the guide
of lawmakers for a population such as
| tfatsof Manhattan Island, one-third OF
whom belong to a people who have
! never been taught to observe Sunday
as the Sabbath, while another large
| fraction have known only the stConti-
mental Sunday in their home lands.
Mr.. Powell characterizes the Sunday
| laws enacted by the aldermen and leg
| islature as only the results of old
| superstitions." Such laws, he saws.
ARE held on to after the superstitions
are dead, because the religious public
is not ready TO face the question Of
| natural morality and live by it," SO
far as these laws affect the hauor
traffic, there is, he ayers in The Jewish
Tribune portland, Ore.), "a deter
mination to let saloons drive their I'M
wholesome trade six days, but the
seventh is a sop to the Lord The
saloon party he sees as more con-
sistent." Thus:
IF, they say, you base the crime of
selling on the sacredness of the day,
sacred day you shall have. The bar
ber-shops shall be shut 1t shall not
be possible to hire carriages or to buy
loaf of bread. If it is a quiet day
you want, you shall have it, and we
will see who will first cry, Enough! The
first reaction comes when the Door
bootblacks and newsboys are robbed
of one-seventh of their income. The
apple-woman, with three or four chill
dren in a tenement-room must econo-
mize more closely or starve. The rich
citizen, with a retinue of servants.
VIII dine as sumptuously as ever. No
possible Sunday enforcement said
Dean Stanley, but bears heavier on the
poor laborer than on the bishops. So
in New York the cheap excursions and
even the airings in the parks are under
the ban. 1t simply is impossible to
create a one-day morality. What is
right on Saturday is right on Sunday.
When religious people give up this
whole inlpossibility and insist that a
wicked thing shall not be done on any
day, and right thing shall be done
every day, they have "a basis for law
and order that can be enforced. If
is a crime on, Sunday,
shaving are right on Monday, they are
on Sunday. A few weeks ago we dis
cussed the true idea of the Jewish Sab
bath, showing that enforced rest was
not originally the heaviest part of the
law, but enforced work: Six days shalt
thou labor, but the one day thou shalt
rest. Now, let the burden of legisla-
ton be to see that the whole popula-
ton work six days; every one contrib.
uting his share to production; then the
seventh day can take care of itself. As
q matter of fact, the evils of our metro
politan Sundays-the dissipation-come |
from the determination of the relig- |
lous people to enforce a Sabbath rest,
while a large part ofsthe population
does not work six days"
Sunday laws, to the present writer, |
express but the waste of moral force
trying to keep up the semblance of a |
sacred twenty-four hours" The whole |
'Sunday-enf business he
declares, should be given up Fur
Their:
The aim of law and of religion |
should be to enlarge the opportunities !
Of national rest. Spend all our moral !
force on "reminiscences and help. Our
churches should have Fairgrounds and |
gymnasiums as well as sermons. When |
Agassiz first came to America he /
complained that the worst feature of |
society was Sunday restrictiveness.
He had been accustomed to hear his /
preacher discourse in the morning and |
play bail with him in the afternoon. |
Even John Calvin sometimes adjourn
ed his evening service and went with |
all his congregation to the theater. /
Better theaters than ours?' To be
sure, and we would have better the |
aters if we gave up our Puritanic /
struggle to give 1t41e devil the best
chances at pleasure and rest. I write |
as one who rarely goes to a theater, |
JuI CldlIl lIG SIGcA ICluS Oil
lay. 1 insist on my right to take my |
rest with games that discharge the |
blood from my brain. We are an
0verworked nation. Insomnia and in
sanity are multiplying. Our time for
'est we must have, whether in the |
middle of the week or at the begin
ming or the close. The church must
earn to give us something besides the |
harder work of listening to illogical
sentiment. The subject opens out very /
widely, because we are infusing our
whole social life and our legal code +
With the mischief of two kinds of
The key to the whole diff
Guilty is: Do unto others as You
would that others should do unto you
On every day in the week alike. Give /
up your seventh-day restrictive code.
your religious privileges to
cover all that is helpful. Make your
church mean everything that is whole |
some and saving. Think of the whole
governmental force of New York clap |
ping their hands over a dry Sunday |
no matter how wet or whisky-soaked |
or Saturday is. Nor does |
any one believe a single soul saved |
from evil desire. They have simply |