The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-12-23
ON THE SEVENTH
SHALT THOU REST
Judge Wallace of Kansas City
Talks of the Campaign
for Sunday Closing.
ORDAINED BY THE CREATOR
HALLoWED BEFORE THE FALL
OF MAN.

ifN%EOW ~ bGTOhE FE FALL
OF MAN.
Kansas City, Dec. 2-Judge William H.
Wallace of the jackson county criminal
court, who has been credited with hav-
ing started the Sunday observance move
ment that now has become widespread.
has issued q significant statement to the
Associated Press on his Interpretation OF
the MISSOURI law that he is seeking to en-
force. &c also arraigns those whom he
says Violate the law for pecuniary gain.
and dWelis upon what he says is a crying
need of one day of rest out Of every
As result of Judge Wallace's cam
paign, the county grand jury has, since
Sept % last, returned 1,l01 indictments
forced hundreds Of shopzeepers to close
their places Of business on that day, and
within the past three weeks. has placed
over half thousand Sunday working act
Ors. actresses, theatrical managers and
their employees. and others, under bond
for hearing later That jury is still in
session and the judge says he will not
cease until the law is respected to the
letter.
Ordained Before the Fall.
Judge Wallace has for many years been
enc Of the foremost lawyers in the state.
and has always fought for law enforce
ment- He was appointed to his present
position by Governor Joseph w. Folk, who
has accomplished what no other Missouri
executive had ever done. namely, the
closing Of the saloons on Sunday.
Judge Wallace, in his statement, says:
1t is a mistake 10 suppose that the
Sabbath is purely religious institution
and that its enforced observance is for
the benefit of the church. The Sabbath
was ordained before man had fallen or
there was church or need for a re-
n 4
ordained it, by resting from the work OF
creation on the seventh day and he i'm
pressed forever upon it its sacred char
acter by 'halloWing it, The Sabbath
the world.
Need of Sunday Laws.
Hence, when We think logically and
historically it is easy to perceive how
it is that d desire for a day of rest is
latent intuition with the labOring man.
The tyranny of 5000 years of human
avarice hasa not eradicated it. Justice
Field. so long a member of our United
States supreme court. was right when, as
one of the supreme judges of California.
he declared that Sunday laws are enacted
primarily for the protection Of labor. We
cannot wonder. therefore. that men who
work for wages in ali the departments of
human industry are sending IN the unani-
nous endorsement of the laboreInions to
which they belong. Nor should we Won
der that avarice is turning its guns upon
the friends of Sunday observance. 1t can
on Sunday glut its ravenous NAV with
more of the wages that have been paid
the laborer. than on any other three days
of the week combined. The Sunday the
aires, as rich a harvest as the Sunday
saloon, is proof Of this fact
Divine Revelation.
But consistent as it is with the needs
and constitution of man, the idea Of one
day in seven as day of rest was not
evolved by natural religion or human phil
osOphy. It is divine revelation. 1t is the
peculiar feature of Christianity by which
is meant the system of theology taught
by the Old and New Testaments It's orr
gin is with the Bible, and not with Con-
fucianism or Brahminism or Buddhism
or the NEUROLOGICAL regions Of Greece
or Rome or of any other nation.
Upon the two doctrines briefly stated
above, namely, that the constitution OF
man requires and the word Of God COM
mands, one day in seven as a day OF
rest, are grounded the Sunday statutes
or the several states OF the Union. With
rarest exceptions our judicial decisions,
whose name is legion, rest upon precisely
the same foundation Ministers and
priests could not have pronounced the
Sabbath more sacred than have the
judges. Sunday laws have been declared
constitutional by practically every state
in the Union. The supreme court Of the
United States, Justice Brewer rendering
the opinion, has decided that we are a re-
ligiOus people and that Christianity IS a
part of our law.
origin of the Movement.
Answering your query as to the cause
of the widespread movement for Sunday
closing it seems to me that the abuse OF
the liquor habit is aiding the cause Of
prohibition; the open and defiant desc
Grafton of the Sabbath is opening the eyes
of men to the Importance of Sunday OBJ
Then, too. the truth contained
in the statement of Daniel Webster that
The Sabbath is the bulWark OF our Hb-
critics because it is the bulwark OF our
morality. is pressing itself upon the at
tentiOn of patriotic Americans and the
everywhere when his atten-
ton is turned to the subject, is quick to
appreciate the sublime truth SO aptly
expressed in the declaration of Mr. Glad
stone that the question of Sunday OBJ
is for the masses of the people
pre-eminently the greatest of all ques-
tons
Results in Kansas City.
Answering your inquiry as to the pro-
gEess OF Sunday closing, I can only state
the fact as to Kansas City. When tho
grand jury was convened here in Sep
TENDER last, over 900 retail groceries were
open Oh Sunday. Now they are closed.
Every barber shop in the city is closed.
Retail merchants have closed. except a
very few, who observe some other day as
The 1900 places where cigars and tobacco
were formerly sold are obeying the law,
excepting now and then a clandestine
sale. Only three pool halls and the the
aires defy the law and two OF the latter
nave recently closed. The credit for this
resuTis due largely to a grand jury COM
posel of fearless, magnificent men"