The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1915-09-21
Vermont's Sunday Law.

law has been occaSioned by the act. !
ion of Bellows Falls authorities in !
stopping Sunday baseball in that |
town and the net result has been to
fasten attention On a law that appar-
emily is for observance but not Tor en-
forcement except i'll occasional IN
stances which are followed by a |
storm of more or less pertinent pro
test The interest in the question
bids fair to be kept alive as Governor
Gates has been called upon by Bel
lows Falls citizen to have the law en-
forced all over the state if 1t is to be
applied in his town, and he asserts
that violations are common in other
communities. -
Possibly most Vermonters do not
know exactly what this Sunday law is
that is causing so much discussion.
II reads, "A person who, between IL
O'Clock SATURDAY night and II O'clock
the following Sunday night, exercises
any business or employment, except
works of necessity and charity, or
holds or resorts to a ball or dance, or
uses or exercises a game, sport, or
play, or resorts to house OF enter
tainment for amusement or recrea-
ton. shall be fined not more than 81.
The reading of it is ample proof
that this is what might be called a
tight Sunday law. The loop holes In
it are not many, and those which can
be found possibly have to be made by
resort to casuistry and sophistry. But
one is wrong if one imagines that this
is the same law under which Yer
monters have always lived. The orig
inal law has been modified in some
| degree.
In 1894 the legislature passed the
following: gThat the first day OF the
week shall be kept ond abserved, by
the good people of this state, as a
Sabbath, holy day, or day OF rest
i from secular .labors and employ
ments; nor shall any person or per
sons, between Il o'clock OF the night
| preceding and the setting of the sun
on the same day, exercise any secular
labor. business, or employment; eX-
cept such as necessity and the acts Of
! charity shall require. Nor shall they
use or exercise any games, sports, or
plays; or hold or resort to any public
assembly except as shall be holden
for the purposes of social and religi-
Gus worship, and moral instruction,
nor shall any person or persons visit
1 fyN-s
purposes of religious or moral CONVEX
sation, instruction., or eiifcatin, or
from motives of humanity or charity,
And any person offending.son convie-
ton thereof, shall forfeity and apay to
the treasury of the town. in Which the
offense is committed, sum not eX-
eeeding 80"
II is plain that the Sunday law
breakers in Vermont must l5numbel'
thousands, and among them some
good pious pastors probably must be
included Certainly any mar who
plays any game, whether tsbesa quiet
round OF golf after church services
are over or whether u q be for gthe
amusement OF his child, has made a
serious dent in the statute and ought
by the law in the case, to be punish,
ed His child would be left out le-
cause no one under seven years old
can commit a crime In fact, nearly
every form OF. recreation is viola
ton OF the spirit, and, in most in
stances, of the actual wording OF the
law.
What places of business can be
kept open depend on the definition
of the word necessity. But of course
in practically every Vermont con-
munity more places of business are
7 kept open than necessity requires,
even though they minister in their
brief open period to the comfort aal
convenience of Vermonters.
The point is, these places are East
open because they do contribute TO
convenience and comfort and their
owners are supported in their viola
ton of the law by popular opinion.
Popular opinion would not counter
ance a wide-open Sunday, such as OBJ
L luliS III 81 SIcdL q part vi Western
! America, but the acts of everyday
citizens are controlled by the knowl-
Icdgc that certain stores win be open
for certain brief periods on Sunday.
And so it is all the way down the
, line The demand for a rigid Puri-
tanical Sunday has passed even in
said old Vermont. This may be for
the worst, Or it may be for the best.
but the fact remains that such is the
case. Obviously, then, it would be a
physical impossibility to enforce this
law rigidly When its infraction is
such as to cause considerable part
of the community to feel outraged.
then the law may be invoked with
profit but an attempt at a general
duplication of it seems doomed to
failure.
Which means that such an attempt
, probably will not be made. And this
being true, is it not right to say that
the trouble is not with the people but
with the law? Why keep an impossi-
Bile law on the statute books 1t is
mighty poor policy; it breeds further
law breaking And the one way to
bring about reasonable amendments
to it is to enforce it to such extent