Never in the history of our Republic has there been such a dire and ghastly menace to the liberties won by the founders of this Nation and guaranteed to its citizens by the federal Constitution as is to be found today in the pernicious activities of the various organizations demanding Sunday closing of everything except the churches, restrictions and prohibitions of all forms of amusement and recreation, censorship of various sorts, and the killing of all joy in general—all of which activities may be grouped under the designation of Blue Law agitation.

To combat this menace The Libertarian League for some time has been gathering its forces, and, convinced of the imperative need of a periodical to aid in the stupendous task of checking this onrushing sweep of Puritanism, it has been decided to issue a monthly magazine, The Libertarian. Its mission is to show the danger threatened by the aggressions of the Blue Law advocates and to present the only effective means of overcoming their efforts, which is through Education—education of the people in the fundamental principles of Liberty and in the best methods for its establishment and maintenance.

The necessity for such a campaign has been generally recognized by the progressive press of the Nation, as witness the following excerpt from a recent editorial in the Hearst newspapers anent the late proposal in the New York legislature to censor books and periodicals:

Let the opponents of the bill now gather the free constructive spirits of the Nation, as well as representatives of newspaper and book publishers, authors, playwrights, producers of plays and of movies, and organize a national campaign for the effective protection of freedom of thought, speech and publication.

Furthermore, forty-two state legislatures are being approached this year by Blue Law organizations to put drastic Sunday and Blue Law legislation on the statute books. Until now no adequate nor intelligent method of meeting the issue thus created has been suggested.

The general public learns most about these Blue Laws after they have been enacted—not beforehand; and it is then too late.

Such laws interfere with your liberty to read, to enjoy, to buy, to see, to meet, to trade or to travel for fully one-seventh of your lifetime. Blue Law advocates propose to stop your Sunday paper, Sunday motion pictures in theatres, the sale or delivery of milk, ice, ice cream, soda, fruit and other foods and refreshments. You are not to be allowed to attend meetings or sports where you pay admission.

They are not going to be content with preventing you from purchasing material things, but the kind of intellectual or emotional pabulum you may consume is to be limited to what can be had free. In other words, there will be just about nothing left that you can do, except go to church.

Blue Laws not only penalize the business man, but they rob you of your liberty to buy, to see and to enjoy. Your freedom has been taken away, while you have been thinking that only the liberty of the man who does business has been destroyed.

The Blue Sunday, therefore, is no abstract problem or remote possibility. It is a newly threatened concrete reality. Protesting after the Blue Laws are on the statute books is generally too late; you then must obey them or become a law breaker. And after liberty is lost is a poor time to start a fight for it. The popular conception that when, for example, businesses are closed on Sunday the injured business interests can win the fight for freedom has proved to be a fallacy. The organized Blue Law advocates are more powerful than any single group of business interests.

Only an organized public sentiment can vanquish the insistent and ever-present long-faced Blue Law protagonist. The fight for freedom must be won on the ground of the correctness of the principle of equal liberty for all and special privileges to none. No single particular business group is ever able to arouse the public to its side. Such propaganda savors too much of self-interest. Only on the basis of public interest and on the correctness of the principle of equal liberty can the Blue Law camp be defeated.

Just how effectively the Puritans are organized, how widespread are their activities and how much they are accomplishing are graphically shown on the four following pages to which the reader's earnest attention and careful consideration are directed.

It is the purpose of The Libertarian to bring home to you and to all concerned the facts of this menace, to sound the warning and to point out the only practical methods of successfully combating it. Every lover of liberty will recognize that this fight is his fight.

(The entire contents and engravings of this magazine are Copyright 1923.)