The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-11-15

crowd. Did the Pastors union, as a body, or any individual member thereof utter a single word of protest? Not so -oud that anyone could hear it.
 Has the playing of golf on Sunday at Birminghams fashionable clubs caused
 these reverend gentlemen any anxiety or
 impelled any of them 70 utter single
 protest? Not to my personal knowl-
 edge. Perhaps because golf is not played
 by the common people, but by aris-
 tocrats. Dr. Whitten and his reverend
 associates could not see that golf playing
 on Sunday tended to make a holiday
 Sunday" which could Corrupt the com
 mon people and poison the nation"
 Why was East Lake park permitted
 for months to run wide open without
 protest, and why was not Sunday golf
 condemned? Does not ile present atti-
 tude of these reverend gentlemen savour
 Of inconsistency when their previous si-
 lence against Sunday dissertation is taken
 into consideration? Is it true that two
 wrongs do not make one right, but why
 this present hue and cry against moving
 picture shows downtown? Why not some
 protest even now at ,nis late hour
 against "aristocratic" golf playing on Sunday?
 In his last letter to The Age Herald Dr. Whitten says: another reason is: There is a law of Alabama forbdding
 the carrying on of any business for gain which Is not mercy or neces- sity''
 The learned doctor is mistaken or was misinformed when he made that state ment.
 Section 7S14 of the code of 1907 is as fol- lows.
 Any person who compels his child, ap- prentice or servant to perform any labor on Sunday, except the customary domes- tic duties of daily necessity or comfort or works of charity: or who engages in shooting, hunting, gaming, card playing, domino playing, or racing on that day; or who, being a merchant or shopkeeper, druggist excepted, keeps open store on that day. must for the first offense be fined not less than S10 nor more than $20, and for the second or any subsequent offense, must be fined not less than $20
 nor more than s100 and may also be inn prisoned in the county Jan or sentenced to hard labor for the county for not more than three months: but the provisions of this section do not apply to the run ming of railroads. stages or steamboats or other vessels navigating the waters of this state. or any manufacturing estab- 1 lishment which requires to be kept in | constant operation.
 The gist of the offense first set out 1 in the foregoing section of the code is ! the compelling of the servant to perform l any work on Sunday, and it would be l hard to convict the proprietors of mov- l ing picture shows who might operate on Sunday because it is extremely doubtful | if satisfactory proof could be adduced on the trial that any empioye servant was compelled to work instead of doing l his work voluntarily. Furthermore, an | operator of a moving picture show Is not a merchant or shopkeeper, and his place of business is not a store l As was said in Conner vs Jackson, 5e | Ala. 3S4, Our statute only forbids acts | mentioned, to be performed on that day, l it cannot be said that those not men, tioned are included" This decision was rendered upon the well-known axiom l that penal statutes must be strictly con
 strued and nothing can be read into l them
 Where is there anything in the above