PALMER, ALASKA EOROTHY 14. 3*L ,Editor
jublished every Friday at Palmer, Alaska, for the Matarmska Valley
Farm’ r's Cooperating Association for the purpose of giving nev/s of the
Aissociations »w?rk, problems, and accomplishments.
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JUST BOW FREE ARE WE?
We in America are very proud, and justly so, of our Freedom and tv e
privileges which we enjoy as free American citizens. Just what does
that freedom give us? Often the meaning of this freedom is misunder
ste'd or- stretched too far. It does not give us the privilege of
infringing on the rights of others for our own selfish interestc I*
does not give us the right to do just as we please,for the ether fellow
ha1' rights too. It does give us the right to make yur own laws en’ o
decide what is right for the majority. It does give us the right t
cu” own opinions, political and religious. Yet we find even today
in' '’ingments upon rights guaranteed to us by the Constitution of the
United States, Can you believe that today such incidents as cited in
this following Editorial from Jesson’s Weekly exist? Well—they do.
".How many of us realize that early religious laws in the Colonial
period of this land of the- free ma^e it a death penalty to not attend
the established church, also for blasphemy. Travel or work on Sunder
wss forbidden, children had to be baptized. Heavy fines and whippir s c
on the bare back were inflicted for the slightest deviation from th
path of orthodox worship by those who themselves had fled from Euro
to escape religious persecution.
The principles of religious liberty as set up by the feeler; + ion of
Independence and the Bill of Rights of the Constitution follow-5’ lo^g
years of agitation for a complete separation of church and state, a
separation that is still incomplete. Various state laws have infringed
upon religion, particularly through Sunday lows.
Turing 1895-6 there were 76 Seventh lay Adventists persecuted for
working on Sunday in violation of state laws. In more recent yea”S
there have been many prosecutions in the states for violations of re
ligious laws. In 1929 the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Symphony Society vas .
arrester'1 for furnishing music to the public on Sunday. In North O. -
plina In 1926 a druggist was arrester1 for selling, a'healing 1 tion.on
Sunday to a person suffering from a severe sunburn. In 1935 a man 'in
Ohio was jailer’ for ertasing his truck at home on Sunday. In New York
in 1937, 25 storekeepers were fined $'§ each and . costs for selling n- ..c-ss*
i+ies on Sunday. In 1924 in New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Mintu-n
ruL'd that, playing a phonograph or listening to the radio on Sunday
was illegal. In Nebraska in 1921 eight boys were fined for pitchir
horseshoes on Sunday, In Minnesota in 1931 a city council map' it
crime for one man to shave another on Sunday. . In 1938 in Massachu?-'tts
a - torekeeper was fined for selling fresh eggs on Sunday*. In Maryland
in 1926 a man was fined for pressing his trousers in "bis own b. me <o
Sunday. In 1932 a farmer in Indiana .was f In.ed. $12,95 for sowing wh at
on Sunday. In 1932 in Virginia a crippled woman- who walks cn crutches
wps arrested for washing clothes on her own premises on Sunday,
We are haipy to note that Alaska has 'been particularly free from
religious persecution. In Fairbanks 11 different. religi ous r n~minr~i *
tions carry announcements in Jessen’s Weekly,of.their- service~, Th- 'e
arc smaller sects which hol^ meetings, *iebpje;.arb welcome at r ny o." *.
these places of worship, or they are free to. stay away,
.There is a particularly happy spirit of‘.epo^ejjat.ion between the •
churches, with one denomination "of ten lending its ..building-t o that f
another faith for the holding of servicesT""*
. It is as if this pioneer country has .known all along what s me states
are slow to learn--thst religious•legislotion bv civil authorities has
always faile d of its objectives, .''
Most of us would be In jail under such law's -as. some of our states ■
still insist on having* • '