Sunday Laws Unjust

Alaska, 1914

Enforcement of the Sunday closing law is not being taken amiably by the people of Nome, according to the newspapers published there. Of course, the law is being obeyed, but its enforcement has occasioned much resentment on the part of the people, who have been making numerous protests, and plans even have been made for securing the removal of the officials who were responsible for the enforcement of the law.

It has often been asserted that the best way to get rid of a bad law is to enforce it, but here in Alaska where people have little power in the making of their laws, this rule will not hold good.

It would seem that the matter of closing stores and saloons on Sunday should be determined by the people of each community and there is a serious question if any such law, except where morals are involved, would be declared constitutional.

If a thing is immoral and wrong on a Sunday it would seem to be so on every other day of the week, and it does not seem that there is much justice in a law that interferes with a person's religious observance, at least the Constitution of the United States so asserts.

If any man's business or work interferes with another's religious observances, it can be seen wherein a law might be made to prevent it, but the mere closing of stores and preventing men from working on Sundays is interfering with individual freedom unnecessarily.

Taking it strictly from a religious view, Sunday closing is class legislation, for there are many classes of good people who do not observe Sunday as a day of rest, unless forced by law to do so. Among these are the Jews, the Seventh Day Adventists, the agnostics and people of many religious faiths other than that of Christianity.

The injustice of laws like the Sunday closing law, from a religious view, would be forced upon people if, for instance, the Christians should be forced to observe the Jewish sabbath. We cannot truthfully say that we are in a country of full religious liberty as long as people's liberties on Sunday are interfered with.

—The Alaska Citizen, Fairbanks, March 30, 1914.

Quits Pulpit for Wilds of Alaska

1914

Sioux Falls, S. D., Jan. 20. — Having decided to accompany his brother, "Black Beaver," a noted explorer and trapper, to Alaska, where the latter has extensive property interests, Rev. George Edward Lewis, one of the best known clergymen of the state, has tendered his resignation and retired from active church work.

"Black Beaver" has been a rover all his life, and was in Alaska years before many white men had gone to that region. He accumulated valuable property and secured skins of wild animals for which he has received many thousands of dollars. He now is the owner of a private collection of skins worth $100,000.

Rev. Mr. Lewis has been pastor of the Congregational church at Canton and before going there was at Webster and other cities of the state. He is a descendant of General Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark expedition, General Lewis having been a brother of the grandfather of Rev. Mr. Lewis. Francis Lewis, who signed the Declaration of Independence, was his great grandfather.

Mr. Lewis and his brother will spend their summers in Alaska and their winters in the United States. The engagement between the two is for a period of three years, and during this time Mr. Lewis and family will make their home at Seattle, Wash. If at the expiration of the three years he wishes to return to the ministry the pastorate at Canton will be held open for him.