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that one of the worst features of our industrial system is the condition of child and female labor, which was very much aggravated by the industrial revolution. After the Civil War the evils soon became of such magnitude that the public began to demand remedial legislation. The evil was common everywhere, but perhaps greatest in the South during the 80's and 90's, when that section was enjoying a period of great industrial development. But lately the Southern people have become aroused and now practically all the States have some sort of child labor laws.*

These laws, the first of which was passed by Massachusetts in 1866, and the latest in 1912, the 54-hour law applying to women and children in New York City, relate in general to the age limit below which children shall not be employed, to hours of labor, sanitation and education. The age limit varies from 10 to 14 in different States, farm laborers and domestic servants being excepted. The constitutionality of these laws was long uncontested, but they were sustained when the test was finally made. Unfortunately, however, the laws have not been thoroughly enforced anywhere and in many States not at all. Compulsory education, if enforced, would be an effective means; but this is the exception, not the rule,

* Adams and Sumner, pp. 45-47, 59-61, 61, 63-64, 126-127; Bolen, p. 526.

Political Science Quarterly, March, 1909, p. 89; Labor Bulletin, no. 91, pp. 932-933.

in the South. Grasping employers connive at false certificates of age and honest ones are imposed on by them. Where thorough and competent inspection is not provided, as often happens, evasions are frequent and easy. The comparative failure of these laws led to a vigorous effort on the part of Senator Albert J. Beveridge, of Indiana, to secure a National law on the ground that the power to regulate interstate commerce gave Congress the power to regulate the manufacture of goods which enter into interstate trade.

It was in October of 1910 that the Los Angeles Times building was blown up with the loss of 21 lives. This outrage being only one of a series which was finally laid at the door of John J. McNamara, secretary of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers, his brother, James B. McNamara, and Ortie McManigal, who afterwards confessed and gave full details. The McNamara brothers were sentenced to prison, and organized labor in general made haste to repudiate complicity in warfare by dynamite.

The evils of female labor are old, but did not become very acute in this country until the Civil War, when thousands of women were thrown upon their own resources. Large numbers may be found in agricultural pursuits and in the professions, as well as crowding into the factories and sweat shops. Since 1870 the number of female workers has in

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creased in a greater ratio than either male or child workers.* By far the larger part of such workers is found in the New England and Middle States, most of them being employed in textile industries, especially cotton and silk. Legislation on this subject began with the Massachusetts tenhour law of 1874. It now deals with hours (the usual limitation being eight), conditions of comfort and sanitation, and restrictions of kinds of work. These laws were vigorously assailed as unconstitutional, as class legislation, and as depriving women of the freedom of contract. When this contention was upheld by the supreme court of Illinois, it for a time produced consternation in the ranks of reformers, but other courts (notably in Nebraska and Washington) soon took the opposite view,† which was ultimately sustained by the Supreme Court of the United States on the ground that the law was a valid exercise of the power of police and wardship.‡

There is also a great mass of important legislation intended to protect male as well as female laborers. The factory acts, which have grown through many years by accretion, make up a sort of code in themselves. For the most part they relate to conditions of safety and health. Workingmen's compensation acts,

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Political Science Quarterly, March, 1909, p.

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ployers' liability, and workingmen's insurance, are all in the formative stage, and even the minimum wage is yet being introduced in this country. The prohibition of Sunday work has been enacted in many States on grounds of morality and hygiene, and such laws are being better enforced.

To secure more uniform workmen's compensation legislation, a conference was held in New York City in November of 1912, at which government, capital and labor were well represented, from which fruitful results are expected. There is a growing endeavor on the part of all concerned to find a basis of compensation which shall be definite and equitable. There are now two classes of laws-one imposing liabilities on the individual employer, and the other on mutual insurance. Workmen's compensation has lately been voluntarily assumed by The United States Steel Corporation and the International Harvester Company.

The eight-hour movement began before the Civil War, but here again nothing of consequence was accomplished until after that event. To limit by law the hours of labor seemed to violate the principle of freedom of contract; to reduce the hours to eight, or even ten, seemed contrary to the interests of both employer and employé. Nobody could deny the former contention; to convince the world of its error on the latter was a great task, but it was taken up in 1863 by Ira Steward, a Boston ma

chinist, and to him is mainly due the credit of putting the argument in a form which has ultimately convinced most unbiased people. The first response came from distant Illinois, which enacted, March 5, 1867, that, in the absence of a special contract and except in farm employments, eight hours should constitute a legal day's work. Missouri, New York and Wisconsin followed with similar statutes the same year (though the last applied only to women), and the following year Congress did likewise. These laws have generally been evaded even in public works; but they have not been valueless, for they have furnished a sort of moral backing to the labor unions in their fight for shorter hours.

Utah in 1896 seems to have been the first State to attempt to prohibit adult males from working more than eight hours in private industries - in this case in mines and smelters. The law was soon attacked as unconstitutional on the ground that it deprived persons of freedom of contract and of property without due process of law, but was upheld by the Supreme Court.

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uncertain terms.* Great, therefore, was the dismay of the reformers when the eight-hour bakeshop law of New York, which had been sustained by the courts of that State, was overturned by the United States Supreme Court. But the labor leaders have not given up the fight and contests over similar laws are now pending elsewhere.

These facts indicate that legislation and judicial decisions are still somewhat chaotic, though some progress has been made in both directions. But, though it is now generally recognized that women and children need protective laws to put them on an equality with "the more powerful party," this principle is almost overlooked as a basis for legislation as between man and man. Laws which may have this tendency are defended from considerations of public policy and hygiene, and are based on the police power. Who shall decide what is for the public welfare and what is a reasonable interference with freedom of contract? On numerous occasions the courts have held that this authority belongs, not to the legislature, but to themselves. Yet they cannot initiate laws; they must wait for the legislature to pass a law and then the legislature must wait to see if the courts decide the law to be reasonable. Judges claiming for themselves such

* Atkins vs. Kansas, 191 U. S. 207. Lochner vs. People.

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extensive veto power ought to be reasonable in exercising it.

A new trend of labor development is seen in the organization in 1905 of the Industrial Workers of the World. This was an outgrowth of the freespeech campaigns on the Pacific Coast and the methods of the Western Federation of Miners, in which William D. Haywood and Charles H. Moyer were leading spirits. It was under Haywood that the Lawrence textile strikes were organized in 1911, and the Paterson and Passaic strikes in 1912. The Lawrence strikes were marked by great bitterness and much rioting. Messrs. Ettor, Giovannitti

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and Caruso were arrested on a charge of inciting riot, but were acquitted in November of 1912.*

* For further reading see, in addition to the works cited in the footnotes: John Mitchell, Organized Labor (Philadelphia, 1903); Samuel Gompers, Labor in Europe and America (New York, 1910); the report in American Federationist (Dec. 1911-Jan. 1912); Scott Nearing, Wages in the United States 1908-1910 (New York, 1911); Frank T. Stockton, The Closed Shop in American Trade Unions (Baltimore, 1911); Washington Gladden, The Labor Question (Boston, 1911); F. T. Carlton, The History and Problems of Organized Labor (Boston, 1911); reports of State and National bureaus of labor and of special commissions; The Journal of Political Economy (Chicago), and The American Economic Review (Boston). Each number of the latter contains lists of articles and books on the subject.

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