The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-12-15
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, d. c.
THE BLUE LAW DEBATE.

removing from it every imaginable
temptation, such as drink, gambling,
smoking, dancing, short skirts, Sunday
baseball, and moving pictures of thrill
ing love rcenes.
This subject for debate has been
hurled into the arena by the announce
ment that various religious and reform
organizations intend to have the OBJ
I servance of the Sabbath made COM
pulsory in the United States Some
propose to do this by federal Law, and
some by city and state law. At the
same time there is more or less talk of
| legislation against cigarets and gam
bling. In a word, it is evident that the
forces of moral reform plan to follow
UP the prohibition amendment with a
campaign for a variety of other 1egisla-
ton designed to improve our morals
| by force rather than suasion.
At the same time, n howl Of protest
has gone up against the proposed Sab
| bath law and all the other moral legis-
lation. 1t is made very plain that there
is a powerful and aggressive negative
to the above. proposition, as well as a
powerful and organized affirmative.
The reformers of course, say that the
negative is backed by promoters of
amusements, dealers in tobacco and
other interested parties, just as the OPP
| ponents of reform say that the REFORM
| ers are all in the pay of a few narrow
minded millionaires who are ambitious
to make us feel their power by regu-
lating our personal conduct.
AS n matter of fact there are sincere
persons enough on both sides. You
have only to talk to a few of the re-
formers to realize that most of them
are burning with sincerity, that they
firmly believe the world can be i'm
proved, If we can only get laws enough
ana po1cemen enough to enforce them.
! The Libertarians.
! Nor do you have to go far to find
a man who has not cent invested in
any amusement proposition, whatever
and never expects to have, but who
almost foams at the mouth as he tells
you that in this alleged land of the
Tree, there will soon be somewhat less
personal liberty than there was in Rus
sla OF the Gar, unless these reformers
can IN some way be prevented from
executing their benighted designs. I
Yes, there is a genuine and even
heated difference of opinion. And it
is one which has existed in this coIin-
try for long time. The reform ers
undoubtedly take their intellectual if
not their physical descent from the
Colonial Puritans of New England, the
! inventors of the blue law, who put
men in stocks for drinking smoking.
kissing, and the like In fact, what
the reformers really aim at is nothing
less than Il revival of the blue laws on
a national scale.
The opposing school of thought is
descended from Colonial Virginia and
especially from such men as Patrick
Henry and George Washington. Ac-
cording to the theory of this school,
personal liberty is a necessary condi-
ton of happiness and of development
Personality cannot be developed with
out 1t, and personality is the essence
of civilization. Morality is dependent
upon character, and must therefore be
1nculcated by education and example,
not by force 1t holds, therefore, that
morals are not a proper sphere for
legislation, and that moral restraint
should be applied only to those who
are 1rresponsible-the very young the
criminal and the weakminded. This
school of thought has faith in human
nature and believes that the produce
ton of superior individuals is the main
purpose of civilization. The moralists
have faith in the state, in law and in
force. and aim at the production of an
orderly whole even tho individuality
suffer in the process.
a Typical Reformer.
A typical representative of the ideal
OF uplift-by-force is DR. Wilbur F..
Crafts, superintendent of the Inter-
national Reform bureau, with whom
we had a talk recently about the sta te
-
and his organization have been blamed
for the project to pass a federal Sun
day blue law. He denies that this is
the case. He says that the proposition
for a federal law came from a couple
of state conferences of the Methodist
church in the south, that no such law
has been introduced in congress, and
that the movement for such law is
5 not to be taken seriously. He is try
, ing merely to have a Sunday blue law
mo sod L. -
He says that California and the Dis
/ trict are the only parts of the United
2 States where adequate Sunday laws dc
not already exist. What he favors
chiefly is campaign for the enforce
ment of laws already on the books.
Doctor Crafts has long been engaged
, in trying to induce congress to pass
: laws affecting the public morals. He
l knows to a nicely what is constitu-
l tional and what is not, and how t.
= claim the support of American tradi-
ton for his projects. He does not take
any positions from which you car
easily rott him. Thus he is vel
t aware that to make the observance OF
s the Sabbath as religious day compul
sorry is legislation respecting religion
= and that is forbidden by the constitu
8 ton and by tradition, too. This i.
e theoretically land of religious free
j dom. Jews, MohammedanS, Buddhists
r followers of Pythagoras, Nietszche ant
4 Confucius, free-thinkers, atheists ant
|. Pantheists, have theoretically Just a.
4 much right to live and worship or no
n worship in this country as the mos
s orthodox Christian. To all of then
n and many others the Sabbath means
nothing. 1t is therefore not constitu
y tonal to enforce the observance of tn,
e Sabbath by federal law, and it is no
!, in accordance with American tradi
: tions of liberty to enforce it by an.
n other kind of law.
d Two Kinds of Sunday.
Doctor Crafts therefore takes thu
, position that there are two Sabbath
Ia religious and a civil Sabbath. H
: says that the civil Sabbath is a neces
2 sary day of complete rest, and that a
9 such it is a part of American tradition
e He says there Is no more wrong il
n legislating for a six-day week thai
e there Is in lpSiSlatiue for an eight