The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-08-10
Refusal To Amend
 The Sunday Law
SoncIusionS Reached by Noted
 Connecticut Journalist
CALLS IT COWARO|CE

| nectlcut general assembly to amend
 the Sunday observance law must be
 attributed to cowardice. In no other
 way can a satisfactory explanation be l given, If the term satisfactory may be | said to be a happy expression in that
 connection. The legislators stand in
 awe of something they cannot see,
 dark. which would at the proper mo- l ment bite their political heads off. l There are without doubt some mem | bers of the general assembly who | believe deVoutly in strictly observed l Sunday. They want the Puritan Sun
 day of their fathers preserved and
 they have no doubt whatever of their | ability to preserve it if they stick | fast to their guns. They have heard 1 a great deal about the continental
 their imaginations any less severel
 view of Sunday than the old tradi- | tional view means a lowering of the | haTs of restraint and the introduc-
 titn of every kind of recreative folly,
 ending finally in the use of the day
 as regular day of labor On the | other hand, there are a lot of men | in the legislature who realize the | changed conditions and the pressing | need there is for a more liberal Sun 1 day. They offer no sound argum ent against substituting the kind of day | referred to, but stolidly vote against 1 it. These men are afraid of the New England conscience and it's vot- ing power.
 The members of the legislature who stand in the way of intelligent legis- lation are to be classified with those whom Senator Hooker of Hartford exposed when they opposed the bill permitting reputable hotels to sell re- treatments of liquid character to
 their guests on Sunday at meals. It
 will be recalled that they predicted
 every sort of evil if such legislation were enacted. and called for a rigid conservation of home morals. It was at this moment that Senator Hooker,
 who is a man of impulse arose in his seat and remarked that the very | men who were most active in opposi- ton to the bill on moral grounds
 were the men who made it practi- cally impossible for the Hartford ho- tels to obey the liquor laws during the
 session of the general assem bly,; they
 were the men who expected the ho- tel proprietors to violate the laws
 ing done was spoken of by their legislative guests. We suspect Sena- tor Hooker of dealing here in exag- geration, but at the same time there was a substantial basis for what he charged.
 In the meantime the feeling throughout Connecticut grows more ;; and more resentful at the obstinate refusal of the legislature to either repeal or amend the obsolete Sun day law. I have heard the matter discussed more and more as the ses- sion has been prolonged by men, and by women, too, who personally have no use for a liberalized Sunday. They l have at last got hold of the neral phase of the question, which is a 1 very serious phase as any one knows who has given the subject careful study. It is in their judgment one l thing to desire Sunday framed af | ter the. Sunday of former genera 1 tion, with it's rigid recognition of re- ligious proprieties, and another thing l to undertake to get it without the full | assent of the public. So long o0 the 1 former thing cannot be achieved they have come to see the actual immoral ] lty of attempting to achieve it.
 A Lawless Community.
 The view that one time Governor | Weeks took when he vetoed the Sun day observance law two years ago l was exactly that of the class that | believes that the Puritan Sunday | can be kept alive by legislation. He l attitude he took. It has been a | lifelong conviction with him, and per hapS 1t was too much to expect of | him different view.
 AS I recall that bin fTs great vir- tue consisted in it's unexpressed lib- erality. It was not the intent of its | creator to give full and free sway to ! the recreative passions of mankind. His purpose was rather to make poS- sible at all times for the prosecuting | observances on the one hand and to permit on the other hand public opin- ion to assert itself so long as the rights of one class were not trampled un- der foot by another class. It was my conviction then, and it is my con- Vlcf1On hon | made law, a discussion would have been saved which necessarily makes for confusion in some directions and possible promotes more reckless course of conduct than would other wise have been thought of and sit uation averted which, to say the least is not desirable.
 It is desira ble to see just what the provisions are of this much discus sed Sunday law. Here it is:-"Sec- be present at any concert of music, dancing or otheT public diversion on Sunday or so of the evening thereof shall be fined not more than four dol lars" There it is in all its glory, and all men and women in the state will do well and have considera ble amusement in measuring their con- duct on Sunday by it. The Hart ford Courant, in a scathing comment on the law and it's non-enforceable qualities, asks pertinently what good purpose it serves: It tells of the crowded condition of the trolley cars Sunday afternoons headed toward a widely advertised free open air con- cert in evident violation of the stat ute. It never occurs to any prose- cutting officer to enforce the law, and 1t never occurs to anybody to obey 1t. Through the sheer force of pub lie opinion, and in defiance of the constituted authorities, it is deliber- ately set aside.
 It is less than twenty-five years ago that proposal to introduce Sunday afternoon concerts. labeled sacred" for convenience, was upset by a Sun day observance committee, acting vol untarily at the city of New Haven and headed by no less a person than Noah Porter, of Yale college. To-day the scene which the Courant describes as being a regular thing in Hartford on Sunday is of like regularity in New Haven. Thousands go to the various shore resorts and attentively listen during the afternoon and evening 10 the very kind of musical concerts that the law forbids. Professional base ball is played every Sunday in two or three towns of the state without in- reference. For reasons best known to themselves the prosecuting agents refuse to prosecute. take it that they do not prosecute because they do not purpose to bump up again