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PROTEST AGAINST BLUE LAWS Seen in Attendance of Over 5,000 at Horse Show Held on a Sunday. NEW YORK, N. Y., October 23. The sentiment which has for some time been manifest in favor of a more liberal Sunday in the United States and which has hitherto shown itself in golf and baseball principally received fresh impetus through the open air horse show at the farm of Samuel Willets, near Roslyn, L. I., last Sunday. It was the first affair of its kind given on Sunday in the memory of those conversant with such gatherings in this country. Among the participant were men and women who are active in church matters in the fashionable region in which the show was held. It was the nearest approach to a Continental Sunday that this country has ever known. That it was a popular innovation was attested by the presence of more than 5,000 persons who came from all over the territory about Wheatley Hills and from Greater New York to pay their tribute to the horse. One of those most conspicuous in the promotion of the show was that good sportsman Major Thomas Hitchcock, who was prominent in the aviation arm of the service during the recent war, and whose son and namesake achieved distinction by his exploits in the French and American Aviation Corps. "There were those in the throng," said Major Hitchcock yesterday, "who saw in the quality and numbers of the gathering a protest against the constant encroachment by the reform element upon the liberties of the people. By many It was interpreted as a challenge to those who seek the passage of state and federatflaws so restrictive in their application that every vestige of pleasure would be taken out of the Sabbath instead of having it assume somewhat the same quality as on the continent, where enjoyment in the open follows upon the fulfillment of the obligations imposed by religion. "The attitude of the reform organization which is endeavoring to enact a federal law prohibting the passage through the mails of any newspaper carrying betting information as expressed in a recent interview in the Philadelphia Public Ledger is proof that determined efforts are under way to re--strict the freedom of the press as well as the liberties of the people. No other interpretation can be placed upon the announcement in which the following language is employed. " We are well financed. Our lobby at Washington will be an effective and experienced one. We shall work in every congressional district in every state. We shall agitate and spread propaganda and cause voters to write unceasingly to their representatives in Congress until no congressman who cares to stay in Congress will dare to vote against our measures. These are the methods used by the Anti-Saloon League, and they were effective. " We propose to pass no blue laws. There are no such things as blue laws never were. And we dont propose to legislate people into church. In other words, we shall try to close the baseball parks, the golf links, motion pictures and other theaters, the concert halls, amusement parks, batjj-ing beaches, and so on. We shall figjft all amusements where an admission fee is charged. rVs shall oppose golf, tennis, baseball, football and oljier sports, even if purely amateur and void of financial cost to those watching or taking part, because they set bad examples for children who might otherwise be content to go to Sunday school. We shall seek to restrict the sale of gasoline for pleasure automobiles and urge other measures that will stop Sunday automobiling and joy riding. This will not bring back the old-fashioned horse and buggy, because we believe that the Lords Day should be a day of rest for man and beast. Excursion steamer rides on Sunday will be opposed by us on the ground that they are unnecessary to the moral welfare of Christian American. "
