Petitions For and Against Sunday Legislation
THE following paragraph appeared in the Washington Post of February 15:— A petition, signed by five thousand persons, protesting against the enactment of the bill to further protect the observance of the Sabbath in the District of Columbia, was presented to the House District Committee yesterday by the Religious Liberty Bureau of Washington. The petition was signed by citizens of every State in the Union. The petition opposes the bill because “it is not only subversive of one of the fundamental principles of our government, that of religious freedom, but it would be taken as a precedent for further legislation of the same character, and in the end lead to religious intolerance and persecution.” There also appeared in the Post of February 17 this additional paragraph:— A resolution signed by nearly two hundred business men and residents of Georgetown, favoring the Allen bill, which provides for a stricter observance of Sunday in the District, was sent to the commissioners yesterday morning. Since the commissioners gave a public hearing on the bill about a week ago, their mail has been flooded with letters of protest against its enactment. Among the several hundred letters received in the last five days, not more than five or six contained any favorable mention of the “Sunday closing.”