The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1922-03-16
A RELIGIOUS LOBBY SEEKING
TO CONTROL CONGRESS
A Drastic Sunday Bill introduced for
the DistEiet of Columbia

the OIStEct or Columbia
Thus far, Congress has refused on
Constitutional grounds to obey the
behests of religious organizations TO
enact religious laws. VIII the Sixty
seventh Congress be true and loyal
to the American ideals and principles
of civil government, and continue to
refuse, as its predecessors have done,
to enact compulsory Sunday legisla-
ton? Just now a strong religious
lobby is making an onslaught upon
Congress, and is endeavOring to in
duce that body to violate the safe
and wise precedents Of the past, in
the enactment of moral and religious
laws which will restrict the free eXer-
else of conscience, and turn back the
wheels of true progress and civiliza-
ton toward the Dark Ages.
There is not today a Sunday law
on the Federal statute books for the
territory over which the national
government holds jurisdiction, and
this is a great aggravation to the
religious and professional reform
ers'' at Washington. This situation
must be changed, they say, and &C
cordingly they have, during the last
thirty-five years, caused to be intro
duced into Congress more than one
hundred fifty compulsory Sunday-ob-
servance measures for the District
of Columbia; but Congress has per
sistently refused to enact laws for
the enforcement of Christian Gus
toms and observances, on the ground
that they are religious and sectarian
in character, and that consequently
an act enforcing these, or any one OF
them. would be unconstitutional.
It is true that Congress passed
laws that various national fairs and
exhibitions, held in different States,
should be closed on Sunday. This
was done to be in harmony with the
local laws, and in recognition of the
prerogatives of state sovereignty,
and not because the Federal Govern
ment had a legal right to enforce
Sunday observance. When the ex-
position was held in San Francisco,
Calf, a few years ago, no such Sun
day-closing provision was attached'I
because California had no Sunday
law. Sunday is excepted as a legis-
lative day, but Congress did not, in
tend by this to make Sunday observ-
ance mandatory under penalty.
There is a vast difference between
claiming a privilege to yourself or
conceding it to another and issuing
a command to others with penalties
attached for disobedience.
There is no law preventing our leg
islatures and courts from being IN
session on Sunday, and sometimes
they are, but no one is penalized for
it. It is simply voluntary custom
to regard Sunday as an unofficial day
or a day known in law as dies non
no day at all. But this is far from
what the professional Sunday-law ad
vocates are seeking to impose upon
the people of the United States.
They want to compel everybody to-
observe Sunday after the maner of
the strictest sect of the Pharisees, by
force of civil law, and attach the
most drastic penalties for its nOn-ob-
servance. Sunday observance is al
religious act, and consequently
should be a voluntary service, en-
tireIy free from civil exactions.
The last Sunday bill introduced is
the long-Iooked-fOr church measure
which the Lords Day Alliance and
the National Reform Association are
promoting, and in their campaign
they have incidentally allied them
selves with the Methodist Board of
Temperance, Prohibition, and Public
Morals and with the Pastors Fedora !
ton of Washington. The bill isl
known as H. R. 9753, the text of
which is as follows:
ga BILL
''To secure Sunday as day of rest
in the District of Columbia
''Be it enacted by the Senate and !
House of Representatives of the |
United States of America in Con-
gress assembled, That from and
after the passage of this Act it shall
be unlawful in the District of COlum- |
bia for any person to labor or en-
ploy any person to labor or to pursue |
any trade or secular business on the |
Lords Day, commonly called Sunday, !
works of necessity and charity all
ways excepted.
'tSec. 2. That from and after the !
passage of this Act it shall be unlaw-
full in the District of Columbia to