History of the Jews in America: From the Period of the Discovery of the New World to the Present TimeWiernik, Peter
History
History of the Jews in America: From the Period of the Discovery of the New World to the Present Time
Wiernik, Peter
Jews -- America -- History; Jews -- United States -- History
There is no Federal Sunday Law, although the distillation of spirituous
liquors on the first day of the week is prohibited. California only
prohibits labor by any employee on more than six days out of every
seven, but not specifying any compulsory day of rest. In Colorado only
trafficking in liquors and barbering are prohibited on Sunday and in
Montana there is a law against barbering only.
In most of the other States, as well as in the Territories and in the
District of Columbia (which is also counted as a Territory), there are
more or less stringent laws, most of them forbidding not only manual
labor but also the carrying on of trade or business. There are eleven
States――Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska,
New Jersey, New York, South Dakota, Texas and Virginia――where servile
or manual labor is permitted on Sunday to those who observe Saturday
as their day of rest. In thirteen more――Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa,
Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma,
Rhode Island, West Virginia and Wisconsin――the exceptions in favor
of Seventh-Day Sabbatarians affect both manual labor and trade or
business. But the statute is not always a criterion of the observance
or enforcement of Sunday laws in a certain locality. Some of the laws,
like that of New York, decree that “it is a sufficient defense to a
prosecution for work on the first day of the week, that the defendant
uniformly keeps another day of the week as holy time, and does not
labor on that day, and that the labor complained of was done in such
manner as not to interrupt or disturb other persons in observing the
first day of the week as holy time.” In many localities, especially
in large cities, the Sunday laws are simply obsolete, and are usually
revived in the name of Reform after the success of a Reform Party
at the polls, only to become obsolete again when that party is voted
out of office at the succeeding election. The defeat usually comes
for no other reason than the dissatisfaction of a large number of
citizens with the strict enforcement of the Sunday laws. Jews are by
no means the only element of the population which resents stringency
in these matters. It may be said that the coupling together of strict
enforcement of the Sunday laws with the good government movements in
the large cities has been a greater drawback to municipal reform in the
United States than any other single cause.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account