The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-12-07
saturday, December 7, 1907.
THE SUNDAY DEB4TABLE.

THE SUNDAY DEBAT1BLE.
 The general movement to jig up the | morals of commerce which has been going on since the disclosures of tur- pttude in the business world appears to have exerted an influence on near ly all if not quite all associations of 1 human effort. We should not be sur prised to learn, if competent inves- tigator set himself to work to find out, that the temperance movement and the movement to more stringently en- force the Sunday observance laws could be directly traced to this jigging up process. Tn some such way as that the suddenness of the undertakings to improve things generally must be ex- plained. It is not normal any more than the original recklessness on the part of the insurance and railroad manipulators was normal nor will things settle as they should settle un- til the mean has been found between the two extremes in conduct.
 We have called attention before to the Sunday observance movement in this State, especially as 1t has dis closed itself in the cities of Middle town and New Britain, We have had occasion to print the news of Chief Cowles' determination to see that the laws are enforced in the city of New Haven. These are, however, simple problems of government as compared with that which at once presents it. self in a city the size of the city of New York. There is not a single Con- necticut center of population in which 1t is not comparatively easy to dis cover an intelligent way to adjust the Sunday which modern conditions have fashioned to thatsEhich the fathers created out of their religious fervor. Even in the city of New Haven, where we have a population which is more or less cosmopolitan in character, it is yet possible to appeal to it and through reason control it's conduct to a degree that considers old-fashioned ideas It is not possible in our judg- ment to carry it back to the viewpoint of hundred years ago any more than 1t is possible to carry the church of the founders back to the severe sim plicity and control which then char acterized it. The determination of New England bred people to let go of old traditions only after a struggle may be explained on the ground that the Anglo-Saxon surrenders reluctantly, but even the Anglo-Saxon has learned from impressive experience that it is practically impossible to resist the mass play which society has learned how to turn to good effect at the crit tcal moment in it's own behalf.
 The rigid Sunday closing movement
 
 New York tomorrow and acquiesced in by the theatre homogeneous at least will in our judgment sooner or later encounter this mass play in re- sistance and will be fin a degree any way overthrown. The courts have de- cided that the Sunday laws are consti- tutional and that they apply without discrimination to all classes of peo- pie This leaves the prosecuting of- ficials and the guardians of the peace without discretion. Police Commis- Eioner Bingham at once notified every theatre in that city that doors must not be opened Sunday TOT any kind of entertainment and then proceeded to notify the homogeneous of the Y M c. A. branches that they too mus desist from Illustrated lectures. IT other words the ban is far-reaching end any attempt to bend the law tC suit purposes which are obviously re Hpectnble in themselves will fail a quickly as would be the case were questionable practices undertaken. II ether words the lid must be clappet on and kept on Sunday in the grea oity of New York Whether it can bt kept in place everywhere in that grea metropolis is doubtful, but it is req sonably sure that 1t will be kept il place where the entertainment caterer are moved only by desire to provid e means of recreation which is moral Iy defensible even though it offend against the strict interpretation of tn observance laws. Of all the attempt which have been made there to en force the law the hunted have con sisted of the disorderly classes. Thi attempt knows no discrimination a between a person engaged in trad which leads to disorder and one inno