be labeled, as in Pennsylvania, Montana, and other states, or that dealers in such goods shall have a license, as in New York. The most effective kind of law is probably the provision that all goods manufactured in prisons shall be for the use of the state (the "state use" system). There seems to be no good reason why the state should make money out of its convicts, and on the other hand work on the roads, reclaiming land, or manufacturing for state use provides work that is both productive and non-competitive.

Federal legislation has been attempted for the last thirty years, but nothing has as yet been accomplished. In the last (63d) Congress, the proposal was made to subject to the law of a state convict-made goods imported into it,' which, it was hoped, would check interstate commerce in these goods. The opinion has often been expressed that, if such a law were enacted, the competition of convict labor with free labor would cease. Up to the present, however, the attempts to get such legislation enacted have met with no success.

5. Legal Aid aND INDUSTRIAL Courts

2

We have seen how modern legislation has attempted to give to the individual wage-earner increasing privileges and to place him more nearly on an equality with his employer. Yet these privileges are available to him only so far as the state actually enforces them. We shall see that, in the case of factory legislation, the early statutes assumed that the employee would initiate proceedings in court, with the aid of the ordinary officers of law, to enforce the safety and health laws. Not until many years had passed did the state provide special police, the factory inspectors, to relieve the laborer of this impossible obligation. So in these more fundamental rights growing out of the labor contract the state leaves to the laborer the duty of realizing upon them through the ordinary means of prosecution in court.

But poverty, ignorance, and the technicalities of law often combine to set the remedies beyond his reach. "From birth

163d Congress, 2d Session, H. R. 5601. 2 See Chapter IX, "Administration."

to death," says a report of the New York Legal Aid Society,1 "the poor man is the prey of a host of petty swindlers. He is educated to believe that justice is free, and he finds that, to get it, he must pay a lawyer a price he cannot afford." To realize justice he must appeal to charity. Attorneys, in countless individual cases, have given their aid without price, but it cannot be expected that they can meet the need without neglecting their regular clients. Yet without their aid the chance of the laborer's success in the legal battle is negligible.

The reports of legal aid societies are filled with cases of injustice that call for an attorney. Wages are withheld. Pawnbrokers and "loan sharks” command usurious rates of interest on small loans, and compel their victims to sign papers, such as chattel mortgages and wage assignments, of whose contents they are ignorant. Wage exemption laws are nullified by garnishment proceedings brought against the employer to attach wages not yet paid. The laborer must then have an attorney to secure the release of his wages, and he may lose his position, for employers often make it a rule to discharge employees whose wages are garnisheed. Thus, even the threat of garnishment may serve, not only to nullify his exemptions, but to force him to pay unjust claims out of wages not exempt. Foreigners are a class especially exposed to fraud. The abuses of peonage, vagrancy laws, and the padrone system have already been mentioned.2

Against these invasions of their legal rights wage-earners are for the most part helpless to defend themselves. The majority of their grievances involve small amounts which do not justify the employment of a lawyer. Besides, there are the initial court costs, such as fees for filing, fees for serving summonses and subpoenas and for attaching property, and fees to clerks of court in contested cases. To the man with a small claim the remedy may cost more than the result.

(1) Private and Public Legal Aid

To remedy these abuses, private charity has found a large field. Legal aid societies have been organized in some forty

1 Thirty-eighth Annual Report, 1913, p. 23.

* See "Peonage," p. 37; "Padrone System," p. 46.

American cities. Their object is "to render legal aid and assistance gratuitously to all who may appear worthy thereof, and who from poverty are unable to procure it." The first was started by certain German merchants in New York in 1876 to help poor German immigrants, and was called the German Law Protection Society, but soon extended its aid to others. In 1890 Arthur von Briesen, called the "father of the legal aid society movement," became president and the name was changed to the Legal Aid Society of New York. The society has confined its work to wage-earners, but without regard to nationality, race, or religion. The applicant must be one whose claim is too small or who is too poor to hire an attorney, a poor man being defined as one whose income may be just sufficient to maintain him but not sufficient for extraordinary demands. It is the aim of the society to cooperate with and not to compete with other lawyers. Its attorneys are under agreement to have no other legal business and they are not permitted to recommend any particular attorney to applicants whom the society may reject. A case to be accepted must be unquestionably meritorious, and this is ascertained by investigation and an impartial hearing of both sides. Finally, the society makes every effort to settle cases out of court, and, up to the moment of trial, if a reasonable offer of settlement is made, advises its client to accept. The policy is to discourage litigation in such a way as to protect the rights of all. In 1914, only 2,296 cases were taken into court, out of a total of 40,430 handled by the society."

From New York, legal aid societies have spread throughout the United States and Europe. In the United States they are generally unincorporated voluntary associations, conducted, with one exception, by private individuals. In 1911 the first national conference of legal aid societies was held in Pittsburgh, thirteen of the forty organizations in the country being represented. The second was held in New York in 1912, with delegates from sixteen societies. At this time the National Association of Legal Aid Societies was established, the objects

1

1 Legal Aid Society of Philadelphia, Thirteenth Annual Report, 1906, Constitution, Art. I, Sec. 2.

2 New York Legal Aid Society, Thirty-ninth Annual Report, 1914, p. 7. Kansas City, Mo.

being to give publicity to the work, to bring about cooperation and increased efficiency, and to encourage the formation of new societies.1

The legal aid movement has flourished especially in Germany. In 1911, there were 1,016 societies2 which in 1910 had 1,546,971 cases. In 1913, they held a convention at Nuremberg, which was attended by delegates from the United States, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Austria, and Switzerland. In London, the "Poor Man's Lawyer's Association," with "centres" in settlements and missions, gives gratuitous legal advice to persons who cannot afford a solicitor, but does not furnish assistance in court. It is sometimes objected that legal aid will encourage litigation, but the record of cases settled out of court by legal aid societies does not support this view.

So far legal aid is almost entirely a private enterprise, and, excellent as has been the work, it is restricted to a few of the larger cities. Even there the work has been seriously hampered by lack of funds, a handicap repeatedly mentioned in the reports. There is, accordingly, an increasing demand that legal aid be made a function of government and thus put within the reach of all. Several attempts in this direction have been made in the United States. Kansas City, Mo., has the distinction of possessing the only municipal free legal aid bureau in the United States. It was organized as a department under the board of public welfare, in August, 1910.4 Los Angeles County, Calif., has established the office of public defender,5 the duties in civil cases being the prosecution of actions for the collection of wages and other demands of persons who cannot afford counsel, in cases where the sum involved does not exceed $100. This officer also defends such persons in civil litigation, when they are being unjustly harassed. Costs are paid from the county treasury. While the office is efficacious in obtaining justice and reducing

1 Chicago Legal Aid Society, Bulletin No. 2, 1912-1913, p. 3. W. E. Walz, "Legal Aid Societies, Their Nature, History, Scope, Methods, and Results," The Green Bag, Vol. XXVI, 1914, p. 101. Arthur Blott, "Legal Dispensaries in London," Legal Aid Review, Vol. IV, 1906, No. 3.

See Board of Public Welfare, Kansas City, Mo., Reports.

' Los Angeles County Charter, Sec. 23. Became effective July 1, 1913.

its expense for the poor man, the question of the law's delay has not been solved. The public defender does not have power to hear and determine questions involving the payment of wages. His findings might be made final on all questions of fact, and, when the findings are filed in court, judgment might be entered accordingly. The public defender would thus have the functions of an industrial court as later described.

A provision for the collection of wages in California is the payment of wages act of 1911. It provides for immediate payment of wages due to a discharged employee and for payment in five days to an employee not having a definite contract who quits or resigns.2 All other wages fall due at least once a month, and must not be withheld more than fifteen days after that time. As the legislature made no provision for the administration of the act, the bureau of labor statistics undertook to enforce it. During the fiscal year 1912, no fewer than 1,899 claims for wages were filed and investigated, and 1,292 claims were collected, amounting to $24,445.59.3 The majority of cases are settled within three days of filing the claim. A special agent is sent to the employer to investigate. If the latter refuses to pay the wages and cannot give a satisfactory explanation, he is cited to appear before the labor commissioner, who hears both sides. This is necessary in 80 per cent. of the cases. If no settlement can be reached, the employer is cited to appear before the district attorney and show cause why a warrant should not be issued for violation of the payment of wages law. Both parties and a representative of the bureau are present. If the employer still refuses to pay, a warrant is issued, as a last resort, for his arrest. Twelve arrests were the total for the year.

In November, 1914, the act was declared unconstitutional by a district court on the ground that in effect it permitted imprisonment for debt, which the state constitution prohibits except in case of fraud. Although the statute did not pro

1 Recommended by the public defender in a letter to the Milwaukee Bar Association, March, 1914.

2 California, Laws 1911, C. 92.

California Bureau of Labor Statistics, Fifth Biennial Report, 1911

1912.

Ex parte Crane, On Habeas Corpus, Crim. 560, November 23, 1914.