The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1907-07-20
SUNDAY LEGISL ATION.

The general assembly has done well
to reject the proposed liberal Sunday
observance law. The opposite view is
expressed clearly in few words in
this editorial comment of the Water
bury American: There is no question
that absurd Sunday observance laws
are In exactly the same category with
the prohibition prineiple) and that sem
sible legislators should find way to
enact some law to command public APP
prevail, law that can be enforced"
About the only thing that can
tersely be said in reply is, we wish
there were legislators wise enough to
frame a law that would do what the
American and all we'll meaning people
want done. One only has to run over
in his mind the history of the past
twenty-five years or more as it has
been written in the State of Connecti-
cut to realize that the liberalization Of
Sunday has taken place to greater
degree than is commonly realized.
Public opinion has In its characteristic
way slowly but surely eliminated the
marrow but sincere view held by form
er generations whose Sunday as we all
now regard it was a gruesome thing.
Changes have been wrought within
| five years which ten years ago would
have been Judged impossible and with
in the next five years more changes
will be wrought, not in a childish and
Imischievous determination to dispense
with the sacred character of the day
but in the growing conviction that the
| day was made for man and not man
for the day.
In other words there is no need, ex-
| cept the theoretical one that evil
comes from arbitrarily suspending a
law for additional Sunday legisla-
ton. 1t is not the enactment of law
that leads people to pursue a certain
course; it is public opinion. Public
opinion has decreed that driving on
Sunday for pleasure is no longer a sin.
The step from driving behind horse
to riding in an auto car has proved
to be a short one but the philosophy
which II unfolds Is as long as the
moral law. The moment one recrea-
ton receives a license from public
| opinion all other forms of recreation
may be well assured that they will in
| time come into like recognition pro-
vided they are reputable In them
selves. The golf player has obtained
his license though the baseball player
has yet to receive his, but only those
doubt the approach of his rights who
have failed to study the trend Of the
public mind on matters affecting the
reasonable freedom of the individual.
| 1t is true that this has all been ac-
complished without the repeal of the
blue laws but that merely proves that
the progress of the human race is not
being retarded in the slightest degree
by the retention of those laws on the
statute books for the benefit Of the
printer and book binder.
Grant, however, that the arbitrary
suspension of the Sunday observance
laws is harmful, A great deal more
harm would be done by the enactment
of liberal Sunday observance laws
which would enable employers to force
their employees to work on that day.
No law-respecting citizen can possibly
want the New England Sunday depriv-
ed of its characteristic atmosphere
and In view Of public sentiment as. II
has shaped itself with regard to popu-
lar convenience the best way to pro-
tect 1t is to let the question solve it.
self after the fashion Of q self respect
ing community.