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Protest Against Sunday Closing
By Harold fturelius Heltberg
IN spite of the aggressive manner in which advocates of obsolete bine laws are agitating the question of Sunday closing, it is not probable that such legislation will ever meet with the approval of the very ones that the originators and advocates of the plan say they are seeking to benefit. In an endeavor to arouse sentiment in the matter, some of the advocates go so far as to urge the complete elimination of even legitimate Sunday work in connection with public and social service.
Nearly all the enthusiasts in favor of the proposed bill are devotees of the old Puritanic Sabbath, with all its gloom, stillness, and melancholy dearth of smiles and recreation. The majority have never worked, themselves, all day long in dingy factories, machine shops, steam laundries and stores. They have not lived month after month, year after year, in gloomy, congested tenements; but, seeing others so live and labor, their hearts have been filled with pity, and they have undertaken to aid the toilers by a mistaken kindness.
With a Pharisaical observance of the Sabbath exteriorally, the very poor may stay in sordid homes, breathe the stifling atmosphere and spend the day in housework, sewing or carousing. All this, and more, they may do but they may not have any recreation nor rest from their cares and heartaches. They may not have their dull lives enlivened by laughter nor their thoughts diverted by going to a place of entertainment. They may not have one day in the whole week in which to improve their minds, to be in a cheerful atmosphere and to forget the sorrows of life.
If the present trend of the times is
to create conditions in which human life may be developed to its highest perfection, then, as a social service and a public benefactor, the Moving Picture show should be considered an important factor. A Sunday closing law that would take from the laborer the opportunity which the Motion Pictures now give him to enjoy rest, recreation and mental stimulus, at a price always within his reach, would be a blow — it would be kicking a man when he is down.
It is essentially true that a man cannot work seven days a week, fiftytwo weeks in a year, and do his best. He is bound to deteriorate, and so is his work. The old adage that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy is certain to be fulfilled. A law restricting the employment of any person for a longer period than six days without an interval of forty-eight hours continuous rest, would be far more apt to meet the economic demands, than a Sunday closing law, which might bring great religious satisfaction to a few, but which would, in actuality, be a deprivation of the laboring man's rights and a literal interpretation of the Scriptural words that to him who hath shall be given and from him that hath not shall be taken awa}'.
The same Scriptures make reference to the ox or ass which, having fallen into a pit, would naturally be rescued on the Sabbath day. Of more value than ox or ass should they consider the many millions of wage earners who have fallen into the slough of despond, into fix1 pit of drudgery, of low wages and high prices for the necessities of life. For one day in the week should not these pretended philanthropists,
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