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Show 0, a.-- 3. Published Every Saturday BY GOODWIN8 WEEKLY PUBLISHING CO., INC. F. P. GALLAGHER, Editor. JAMES P. CASEYBusiness Manager 8UB8CRIPTION PRICE: United 8tates, Canada and Mexico $2.50 per year, in the Including postage j$1.50 for six months. Subscriptions to all foreign countries, within the Postal Union, $4.50 per year. j 8lngie copies, 10 cents. Payment should bs made by Cheek, Money Order or Registered Letter, pay able to The Citizen. Address all communications to The Citizen. Entered ae second-clas- s matter, June 21, 1019, at the Postoffice at Salt Laka City, Utah, under the Act of March 3, 1870. 8alt Lake City, Utah. Ness Bldg. Phone Wasatch 5400. 311-12-- 13 RESTLESS REFORMERS PLAN BL UE SUNDA YS We know that the days of peace are here because the reformer is restless in the land. When the country was at war we were absorbed by a single idea the achievement of victory; we did not even note the predatory presence of the profiteer. The reformer forgot to reform, and we brushed aside the pacifist as we went over the top. But now that shells no longer rend and ruin, now that the intensities of war have been lifted from our spirits, now that we are caught in the current of the great unrest and idly seek for something that will be, as Professor James might have expressed it, the moral equivalent of war, we are ready, if not quite willing, to take issue with those who arm themselves with blue, laws and make terrifying demonstrations against the unregenerate. When Senator Smoot returned to Washington he discovered that the blue law legionaries were encamped, so to speak, on the steps of the capitol. They were of many types. Although apparently representing a minority they took heart of hope from the example of the minority which has been trying for three years to make Russia Red. If Reds could incarnadine Russia, why could not the Blues make America all blue? Of course, America is by tradition and tendency red, white and blue, with a lesser mixture of ether colors and hues. What is it that prompts the Blues to believe that they can confor 105,000,-oo- o quer the land and prescribe multiform straight-jacket- s people? Undoubtedly they derive their inspiration and confidence from the movement which led to national prohibition. If the constitution can be amended to make the whole country subservient to dry laws, why cannot it be amended to prevent trains from running on Sunday, to close theatres and baseball parks, to immobilize street cars and tubber neck wagons, stamp out the flaming weed, silence the typesetting machines and printing presses and close every place of busi-neand stop every form of amusement on the Christians holy day? We detect two points of view in these reforms. Some of them are designed to improve our health and morals. Others are designed to make us observe the Sunday of the Christians in a more puritanical tanner. Most of us are Christians and believe in keeping the Sunday hly, but the Blues take little note of the fact that there are among as those who do not believe in the Christian Sunday and those who not believe in any holy day of any kind and look upon Sunday as simply a day of rest. The Jews, of course, know, that Sunday b not their Sabbath ; in fact, that it is not the Sabbath at all. It is aday substituted for the Sabbath by those who thought they did well. ss S-5- In point of fact, most of the Blues are Christians. They believe in the tradition of Sunday. They want to do all they can to Christianize the Sunday. And they have a sort of American spirit in their One zealotry. They want what they call an American Sabbath. is tempted to think that an American Sabbath, if such a day of rest and holiness is desirable, should recognize the beliefs and inclinations, at least in some measure, of those of our population who The constitution of theUnited States recognizes are in a most notable way the existence of religious differences and pronon-Christia- n. -- vides for freedom of religion. Some of the framers of the constitution were Franklin was almost an atheist; Jefferson derived his religious beliefs largely from the prevalent French philosophy that looked to Voltaire and Rousseau as its protagonists. The constitution provides for separation of church and state; blue laws seek to weld church and state. Of course a Blue, having the courage of his convictions, and eager to give everybody else his convictions, if not his courage, will rise tempestuously at this point to say that Sunday laws have nothing to do with the union of state and church ; that Sunday laws of great severity existed in the New England states after the adoption of our federal constitution. The provisions of the federal constitution are limitations on the powers of congress only. Neither the original constitution nor any of the early amendments, as Cooley tells us. undertook to protect the religious liberty of the people of the states against the action of their respective state governments. And he adds: The fourteenth amendment is perhaps broad enough to give some securities if thev should be needful. The states were laggards,in providing for freedom of religion. Eventually all of them adopted into their constitutions the guarantees of the federal constitution relating to religion liberty. In the early days of the union the state legislatures were not debarred from passing laws that linked the functions of church and state. An appeal to early legislation is not conclusive. We are not arguing that Sunday laws, if passed bv congress, would be unconstitutional, but to be constitutional thev must con- form to all the guarantees regarding religious liberty. State laws must not offend against that wonderfully comprehensive fourteenth amendment which says that No state shall make or enforce am law which shall abridge the privileges and immunities of the citize; of the United States; nor shall any' state deprive any person of liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. The fifth amendment places a like limitation on congressy non-Christia- dyed-in-the-wo- ol m 9 n. |
