The morning journal-courier., 1908-03-07
LOCAL OPTION IN BASEBALL.

The aldermanlc committee, headed by Mir Cunningham, which lately held public hearing on the Sunday base ball question, has reported itself in favor of the idea But 1t admits that the city board does not have the mat ter in its power by its very act of suggesting that the corporation coun. sel be sent to Hartford at the time of the next legislature to appear in behalf of bill which would allow local option in Sunday baseball ma. ters. There was some talk at one time of another hearing being held, but it Is now evident that the committee considered that, in the wrangle of words that was listened to, the low brows and the high-b -brows, the minis ters and the fans, had good and suf- flcient opportunity to present their sides of the case.
 This situation would seem to mean that the baseball enthusiasts will not be allowed to indulge in their b I V. ' and commendnble sport during the Sundays of 'h,s coming summer. rn. less it be through sufferance of the powers that be. But they will un- ta1, t,. .A knowledge that they can live in h )pe for the following season, when New Haven may legally allow itself to play ball on Sunday, just as now n allows itself to buy drinks on weelI days. Both may then be local optisn affairs There is now to be another reading of the committee report be- fore the board of aldermen; then a wrangle to see whether the ideas included in the report shall be passed; then a bigger wrangle at the Stdte capitol before the legislature; and iin- ally, if the legislature makes Sunday baseball a matter of local option, the matter will be laid before the voters of New Haven as an election day is- sue. Sunday baseball promises well tc furnish lively subject for public d.s- cussion for some time to come. Who knows but that 1t may furnish ex el- lent political capital for some ons?
 The Journal-Courier has before this put itself on record as being against the idea of compulsory morality, if indeed as some of the good people of the city would have us believe, Sunday baseball :s sn im<loral practice. s". even were it immoral, men are not made moral by legislation The pra .- tice of hoodwinking the law is male possible in Bridgeport and Waterbury and other cities in the State, where Sunday baseball is a weekly feature, only because the prosecuting officers 1 receive no complaints from the cit!- zens of those places objecting ta L But that method of procedure is ab' solutely a false one. Every unenforc- ed law on the books but detracts from the legal force of the other laws and from the dignity of law in general On that point both sides at the recently held hearing seemed perfectly in har- mony. If the only way New Haven can have Sunday baseball rightfully is by changing the State laws on the question of Sunday recreation, then truly the right start has been made toward that direction, even if the goal be not reached for another season
 The matter will not probably end
 with baseball There will be other sports to follow so that the working man of the city, who has but Sunday
 in which to fill his lungs with the pure ozone and to exercise his mus cles in a way other than he has tc at the shops. will be able to develop himself better in Gods image without ljeopardizing his own soul or interfer-
 ing with the comfort of any Of the lpeople of the city.