Arguments on the Breckinridge Sunday Bill

A MOST REMARKABLE COINCIDENCE

Section 10 of the, existing law imposes a fine of “two hundred pounds of tobacco,” and the Breckinridge bill imposes a fine of “one hundred dollars;” section 11 of the existing law imposes a fine of “two thousand pounds of tobacco,” and section 3 of the Blair bill allows a fine of “one thousand dollars.” Now we find by inquiry of large dealers in tobacco in New York City, that the average retail price of average tobacco is fifty cents a pound. Thus the two hundred pounds of tobacco of section to of the existing law, at fifty cents a pound make the one hundred dollars of the Breckinridge bill; and the two thousand pounds of tobacco of section II of the existing law, at fifty cents a pound make the one thousand dollars of the Blair bill! We say again that if this point in the two Sunday bills, now before Congress, was not intentional, it is certainly a most remarkable coincidence; while the other points of resemblance between the old and the new bear strongly, almost irresistibly, to the conclusion that, the old law was before the eyes and in the minds of those who originated these two Sunday bills. ABSB 73.1