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Tllie Commoner.
VOLUME 5, NUMBER 15
CU RR6NT TOPICS
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THE United States supremo court rendered an
important decision April 17 with respect to
the eight-hour law. The court had under the con
sideration the Now York stato law limiting the
hours of labor, making ton hours a day's work and
slxly hours a week's work in bakeries. , The
court's opinion was written by .Justice Peckham. a
Justices Harlan, White, Day and Holmes dissented,
Justice Harlan declaring that no more important
decision had boon rendered during the past cen
tury. It Is interesting, if not significant, that this
decision was rendered by a vote of flvo to four, a
thing that has, in recent years, become quite no-'
ticeablo in supreme court proceedings.
THE caso uudor cbnsideratlon was entitled
Lockner vs. the Stato of New York. Tho
Now York stato court had upheld the law affirming
tho judgment of tho trial court and holding Locfc
nor guilty of tho charge that he had violated tho
law,. Judge Alton B. Parker wrote tho opinion of
the" Now York court, In which opinion the law
was uphold, tho state court dividing by a vote of
four to three. Lockner is a Utica baker and
wns charged with permitting one of his employes
to work in his bakery more than sixty hours in
ono week. Tho lower court fined him $50 and
tho judgment was affirmed by tho New York ap
pelate court. Tho caso was then appealed to thQ
United States supremo court.
IN DELIVERING tho opinion for the United
States supreme court, Justico Peckham said
that tho law not only fixes tho numbor of hours
which shall constitute a legal day's work, but
absolutely prohibited tho employer from permit
ting undor any circumstances more than ten hours'
work to bo done in his establishment. Justice
Feckham said: "Tho employe may desire to earn
the extra money which would arise from his work
up? more than tho prescribed time, but this statute
CovblQB- tho employer from permitting tho employe
to earn it. It necessarily interferes with the right
of contract between the employer and" employes
concerning the numbor of hours in which tho latter
may labor In tho bakery of the employer. The
general right to mako a contract in relation to his
business is part of the liberty of tho individual pro
tected by tho fourteenth amendment to the federal
constitution. Under that provision no state can
deprive any person of lifo, liberty or property with
out duo process of law. Tho right to purchase or
to sell labor is part of, the liberty protected by
this amendment, unless there are circumstances
which exclude tho right."
REFERRING to tho exceptions coming under
tho head of police powers of a stato, Justice
Peckham declared that tho case in point did not
fall within that power. He added: "Tho question
whether this act is valid as a labor law pure and
simple may bo dismissed in a few words. There
Is no Reasonable ground for interfering with tho
liberty of persons or tho right of free contract by
determining the hours of labor in tho occupation
of a baker. Bakers are in no sense wards of tho
stato. Viewed in the light of a purely labor law
with no reference whatever to tho question of
health, we think that a law like tho one before
us involves neither tho safety, the morals nor
the welfare of the public, and that the interest
of the public is not in the slightest degree affected
by such an act. It is a question of which of two
powers or rights shall prevail the power of the
stato to legislate or the right of the individual to
liberty of person and froedom of contract. Tho
taere assertion that the subject relates to the pub
lic, health does not necessarily render the enact
ment valid. Tho act must have a more direct
relation as a means to an end and tho end itself
must be appropriate and legitimate before an act
can bo hold to bo valid which interferes with the
general right of an individual to be free in his
person and in his power to contract in relation to
his own labor. We think the limit of the police
power has been reached and passed in this qase."
TUSTICE PECKHAM quoted statistics to show
I that the trade of a baker is not an unhealth
ful one. He said that men could not be prevented
from oarning a living for their families, and iio
concluded: "It seems.. 1p us that the real object
'and purpose wa's simply to regulate the hours of
labor between tho master and his employes, all
being men sui generis, in l private business not
dangerous in any degreo to morals or in any real
and substantial degreo to tho health of the em
ployes. Under such circumstances the freedom of
master and employe to contract with each other
in relation to their employment and in defining
the same can not be prohibited or interfered with
without violating the federal constitution."
DISSENTING opinions were delivered by Jus
tices Holmes and Harlan, Justice White and -Justice
Day concurring in Justice Harlan's opin
ion. Justico Harlan said: "I do not stop to con
sider whether any particular view of this eco
nomic question presents the sounder theory. The
question is one about which there is room for
debate and for an honest difference of opinion. No
oue can doubt that there are many reasons, based
upon the experience of mankind, in support of tho
theory that, all things considered, more than ten
hours steady work each day, from week to week, -in
a bakery or confectionery establishment, may
.endanger the health, impair the usefulness and -shorten
the lives of the workmen."
JUSTICE HARLAN contended that if such rea
sons existed that ought to be the end of the
ease under consideration, explaining: "For tho
state is not amenable to the judiciary with re
spect to its legislative enactments unless such
enactments are plainly, palpably, beyond all ques
tmen inconsistent with the constitution of the
United States." Justice Harlan further said: "We
ao not to presume that the state of New York
has acted in bad faith. Nor can we assume that
its legislature acted without due deliberation or
that it did not determine this question upon the
fullest attainable information and for the com
mon good. We can not say that the state has
acted without reason or that its action is a mere
sham. Our duty, then, is to sustain the statute
at? not being in conflict with the federal constitu
tion for the reason- and such is an all sufficient
reason it is not shown to be plainly and palpably
inconsistent with that instrument. Let tho state
alone in the management of its purely domestic
affairs, so long as it does not appear beyond all
question that it has violated the federal consti
tution. This view necessarily results from the
principle that the health and safety of the people
of a state are primarily for tho state to guard
and protect, and is not a matter ordinarily of
concern to the national government."
MAYOR DUNNE of Chicago ha's already re
ceived offers of financial assistance in his
efforts to establish municipal ownership, so far
as concerns tho traction companies. The first
offer came in a letter written by Bird S. Coler,
formerly comptroller of the city of New York, and
now of the firm of W. N. Coler and Company,
hrokers. In this letter Mr. Coler congratulated
Mayor Dunne on his election and offering to invest
in the certificates, said: "Several years ago I
advocated practically the same proposition for the
acquirement of the dock properties in the city of
New York, and it will give me sincere pleasure
to make a personal investigation in the city of
Chicago and to aid, if necessary, in the organi
zation of a syndicate to buy securities which I be
lieve to be the safest that can be devised."" The
Coler letter has staggered some of those gentlemen
who have contended that the municipality would
find it difficult, to obtain money with which to
handle the municipal ownership enterprise.
ACCOMPANYING Mr. Dalrymplo's letter to
Mayor Dunne is a statement from a Glasgow
justice of the peaco giving the cost of the Glosgow
systemxand other data, as follows:
Constructing track 75 miles at 16,l000. 1,200,000
Engines and buildings for electric power 500000
Building and machinery for building, and '
repair cars 200,000
Night sheds for cars 200 000
Seven hundred and fifty cars 450,000
Seventy-three miles cost 2,600000
Written off in ten years 800000
Stands in the books at 1,800000
First cost per mile ' 35000
Stands in the books at ....;.. 26000
.Last Year's Working , - . '.
Wages and traffic expenses 270 000
Renewals and depreciation 200,000
Repairs 7o',ooo
Interest on capital invested . 60,000
Sinking fund - 45,000
Paid to common good .-v. .... . 35,000
Cost of electric power ,.";...;. 20,000
Parliamentary expense '....;..... 10,000
Rent of branch line . . . rr ?......- 6,000
Carried to next year . .V 2p,000
Total cost 725,000
Total receipts ; . . . 725,000
Charitable and entertaining fund
" Per cent
Half-penny fares ...,... 16.70
Penny fares "....". 66.60
Above : .".... 16.70
Total . .100.00
Passengers carried, 2t)0,000,000. Receipts per
car mile, 10.60 pence. Average fare, .93; cost
.80.
THE, senate committee on interstate commerce
is in session at Washington for the purpose
of "investigating" the railroad rate question.
Walter Wellman, Washington correspondent for
the Chicago Record-Herald, says that members of
tho committee express the opinion that when
congress meets next fall "a bill of some sort will
be ready to be reported by the committee," but
that "it will not be a drastic bill." Mr. Wellman
says that this measure will probably be disappoint
ing to the western people who have wanted con
gress to enact a real and effective measure of
railway reform. He adds: "Members of the com
mittee and outsiders who have been carefully fol
lowing the course of the agitation do not hesi
tate to say that the demand for more radical ac
tion has to a large extent abated and that tho
present outlook is f 01 exceedingly moderate legis
lation, if any. No one cares to predict what form
this legislation will take, but there is a strong
feeling that it will not go nearly as far as tho
bill which passed the house last winter by a well
nigh unanimous vote."
THE senate committee has decided to meet
daily at 11 o'clock in the morning. Mr. Well
man says: "The plan of the committee is to hear
the railway side of the case first and afterward
those in favor of more drastic action. Although
members of the committee have little idea how
long their hearings are to continue, the general
expectation is that they will run on five or six
weeks. During May a large number of railway
men are to be in Washington from all over the
world to attend the International Railway con
gress, and it is desired to secure the testimony
of a number of foreign railroad men of distinction
as to methods pursued in their countries and on
their lines. American railroads have made ar
rangements to have a complete report of the
hearings on their side of the case made for the
use of the press this work being in charge of J.
S. Maddy, formerly of the Baltimore and Ohio,
nc w of the Erie, and well known for his energetic
and skillful agitation against- rate legislation."
A NEWSPAPER dispatch announces that Russel
Sage has decided to quit the battle of busi
ness life and that he will formally retire from
Wairstreet. A New York correspondent, referring
to this report, says: "That a man should reach
the age of eighty-eight with faculties unimpaired
in spite of the wear and tear of Wall street life
is little short of marvelous. A man is old at
thirty, stale at forty and dead at fifty,' runs the
Wall street adage. This is not the case with Mr.
Sage for from sixty to seventy he was the master
of the 'street.' His life was so ingrained in the
affairs of the 'street' that in his retirement it
feels that it has lost part of Itself a most impor
tant and historic part. There is pathos in the
passing of this master of finance from the arena.
He always fought fairly, never asking for quarter,
but often giving it without the asking. ;Mr. Sage
is now in his eighty-ninth year. Up to a year ago
he was most active. He managed his affairs him
self, and he has amassed many millions more
than a hundred. It is peculiar of the man that he
has always thought, in hundreds. He says-that'he
will live to be 100." - - ...",-
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