The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-02-10

To The Salt Lake Herald:
The so-called Sunday law recently
passed by the house of representatives
is not what It is claimed TO be. APP
parently drawn in the interest of mo-
raiity and good order it is manifestly
framed i'm the interest of Saltair
beach and other resorts. The Deseret
News holds up to public scorn the three
men who had the good sense TO vote
against it. and good, Christian people,
believing that the law is what it pur-
ports TO be. stand by and applaud.
The proposed law reads as follows:
Every person who on Sunday gets
up, exhib Is OF maintains, OF aids IL
getting up, exhibiting, opening OF main
tanning any bull, bear, cock, dog OF
prize fight, horse race. ball game, cir
Gus, gambling house or saloon, OF any
barbarous OF noisy amusement, OF who
keeps. conducts or exhibits any theatre,
vaudeville. farce, dramatic or eques-
TRAN performance. skating rink, dance
hall, operatic performance or picture
show, or who purchases any ticket of
admission, or directly or indirectly pays
any admission fee to or for the purpose
of witnessing or attending any such
place. amusement spectacle or repre-
sentation, is guilty of a misdemeanor-
It is a well-known rule of statutory
construction that a statute that emu
merates the things or acts which 1t
denounces thereby implicitly excludes
all others from its effect. The mischief
at which a statute is leveled and the
fact that other acts which it does not
denounce are within the mischief, and
Of equal atrocity with those which #
fOrbids, do not raise the presumption
that the legislative body which enacted
it had the intention which the Law does
not express to prohibit the performance
Of the acts which IL does not forbid.
Therefore the proposed Law only forbids
those acts and things which it specific
ally enumerates-
Under the provisions of this proposed
Law. while baseball is prohibited on sun
day and theatres must close. the var
ious resorts can run at full blast with
catchpenny devices 1t should be en-
titled: "A bill for a law to force people
to go to Saltar for recreation on sun
day" IF it affected all places of amuse-
ment and summer resorts it would not
be open to the objections which can
now be urged, although then It would
not be productive Of the good that its
advocates claim for il.
At the request of people interested. !
have given the. proposed law a careful
examination I find that If IL be en-
acted, man viii be a criminal il
he buys a ticket of admission to ball
game at Walkers field, but that he can
go across the road to the Salt Palace
and ride the merry-go-round and re-
main pure and law-abiding man. He
VIII be a criminal if he buys ticket to
the Colonial theatre for a Sunday per-
torrance, but he will be & Sunday OBJ
server If he goes with his family to
Saitair and spends the evening watch
ing the bicycle races at the $500 BIZ
cycle track He WIFI be criminal If he
hunts rabbits on Sunday. because that
Is noisy amusement" but he can fish
for trout all day and remain in good
standing. He will become a criminal if
he buys ticket to picture show, but
he can go to a resort and spend the
afternoon viewing the freaks in the
sideshows and know that he has done
no wrong He viii be a criminal If he
INDUCES IN horse race. but he can buy
ticket and attend a boxing match so
long as 1t be not brutal and is not q
prize fight he viii be a criminal If
be attends an operate rendition. no
matter IL it De of the most elevatinE