AN AMERICAN MOVE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 17009, 16 April 1926, Page 9

AN AMERICAN MOVE.

j NO WORK: NO AMUSEMENTS. WASHINGTON, Feb. 23. An extraordinary campaign, with widespread ramifications, backed 1 by powerful Church organisations, is now under way in America for the enactment of .Sunday "Blue Laws” by the United States Congress and State Legislatures. Tiie aim of the proposed legislation is to prohibit the operation of railway trains, the printing and distribution of newspapers, telegraphing and telephoning, theatres, and other amusements, and the performance of any boor on .Sunday. The leaders in the campaign are the Lord's Day Alliance and the Methodist Sablwth C'rusade. Under the direction of these organisations, strict Sunday Observance Bills are being pressed in the Statu Legislatures now in session, while Congress is being urged to pass similar I la ws applying to the District of Columbia and inter-State transportation. The Methodist Sabbath Crusade has already been given a. hearing by the Senate Committee, at which the crusaders [submitted pleas for legislation prohibiting all forms of labor on Sunday in the i national, capital. They propose not only to enforce Sunday observance by ! statute in Washington, but to furnish an example of enforced piety to other communities and a model of legislation neces--1 sarv to attain the desired' end. ‘ The Bili introduced into the House of Representatives already prohibits dancing, moving picture and other theatres, howling, and' commercialised 1 sports on ■ Sunday, offender? to be punished by fines iup to £IOO and imprisonment up to six months. Another bill calls for the closing of barbers’ shops on Sunday in Washington. ■'COUNTRY GOING TO THE DOGS.” According to a memorial presented to the Senate by Mr Noah W. Cooper, chairman of the Methodist Sabbath. .Crusade, America is rapidly going to the dogs morally as a result of the decay of ! Sunday observance. The memorial says-: We insist that our national Sabbath is being fast destroyed Nearly 10,000,000 people are working on Sunday in America, in the railways, express companies, telegraphs, shipping, newspapers, ! stores, and factories. Our inter-State ■ commerce, the biggest in the world, has ,no Sabbath. Congress is its civic guardian. About 20,000,000 Sunday newspapers are printed, shipped, sold, j patronised, and read every Sunday through inter-State commerce. This traffic goes through every State, a Sabbath-polluting, nation-destroying [stream of evil. ! Our capital city, once a Sabbathkeeper, now is an evil example of Sab-bath-breaking that is polluting our nation. Every one of these 20,000,000 ; Sunday papers is like a wicked pied piper of Hamelin seducing our children, j churchmen, and citizens to ruin through Sabbath-breaking. Every one of these j 2500 Sunday, trains is looting America’s I downfall,, sending America, to ruin. ! These Sunday trains and' papers combine much of the brains and money of America. and they are tearing down America's navtnership with God. They are caus’"g 10.000.000 to work on Sunday. The Church must awake and) lead, or perish. Opposing the Blue Law Crusade of these church organisations is another church organisation. the Religious Liberty Assochitiqu of Seventh Day Adventists, whose Sabbath is Saturday. The ■\dventists have been the principal vic--1 ims of the enforcement of Sunday Blue Laws in various parts of the country, and have been compelled to organise to defend themselves from persecution. The Religious Liberty Association is fighting the Sunday Observance Legislation pending in Congress and the State Legislafctwes.