compensation laws, but is not limited to hazardous employments. Thus in Ohio for the purpose of providing compensation to workmen and their dependents, for death, injuries or occupational diseases, occasioned in the course of such workmen's employment, laws may be passed establishing a state fund to be created by compulsory contribution thereto by employers, and administered by the state, determining the terms and conditions upon which payment shall be made therefrom, and taking away any or all rights of action or defenses from employes and employers; but no right of action shall be taken away from any employe when the injury, disease or death arises from failure of the employer to comply with any lawful requirement for the protection of the lives, health and safety of employes. Laws may be passed establishing a board which may be empowered to classify all occupations, according to their degree of hazard, to fix rates of contribution to such fund according to such classification and to collect, administer and distribute such fund, and to determine all rights of claimants thereto. A simple, but very inclusive, model provision has been proposed by Mr. T. I. Parkinson of the Legislative Drafting Department of Columbia University, as follows: Model Nothing contained in this constitution shall be construed to limit the 247. power of the legislature to enact laws for the payment either by em- Clause. ployers or by employers and employes, or otherwise, either directly or through a state or other system of insurance, or otherwise, of compensation for injuries to or occupational diseases of employes or for death of employes resulting from such injuries or diseases, without regard to fault as a cause thereof, or for the adjustment, determination and settlement with or without trial by jury of issues which may arise under such legislation.* Aside from the legal obstacles-including, of course, the possibility that workmen's compensation may be declared void under the due process clause of the federal fourteenth amendment -there is not a little objection to workmen's compensation laws on the ground that they will encourage carelessness and enable employes to extort support from industry under the masque of pretended or inexcusable injury. The rapidity with which such Quoted and criticized by Mr. J. Hampden Dougherty, V Proceedings of Academy of Political Science, 389 (1914). This volume of the Proceedings contains a number of papers discussing the subject of workmen's compensation in great detail, -pp. 355, seq. Mr. Dougherty also quotes the model clause of the New York Bar Association. 248. Maximum Hours of Employment and a Minimum Wage. 249. legislation is becoming universal would indicate, however, that the force of these objections is no longer widely admitted. "To create a minimum standard of life below which no human being can fall," says the American Association for Labor Legislation, "is the most elementary duty of the democratic state." The intimate connection between hours of labor-especially in the case of women and children—and the health and efficiency of the worker has long been recognized. For the development of some degree of culture and interest in public affairs a certain amount of leisure is necessary. At present three-fourths of the states have eight-hour laws; but usually they are strictly limited as to the kinds of work, for example, to labor on the highways, public work in general and especially stressful occupations like mining or operating railway trains. Nine of the states have constitutional provisions for a working day of not more than eight hours for laborers upon public tional Eight Works. Six states have clauses relating to hours of privately Constitu Hour Day. employed persons. Thus in Ohio1 hours for all employes and in Michigan' the hours of women and children may be fixed and regulated by law. In Arizona3 no child under sixteen is allowed to be employed for more than eight hours a day. In Colorado1 the General Assembly shall provide by law, and shall prescribe suitable penalties for the violation thereof, for a period of employment not to exceed eight (8) hours within any twenty-four (24) hours (except in cases of emergency where life or property is in imminent danger), for persons employed in underground mines or other underground workings, blast furnaces, smelters; and any ore reduction works or other branch of industry or labor that the General Assembly may consider injurious or dangerous to health, life or limb. All except Ala., Fla., Ga., La., Me., Mich., N. H., N. D., R. I., S. C., Vt., Va. 8-hour laws in Alaska, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Philippine Islands, Porto Rico, United States--government work. See Atkin v. Kansas, 191 U. S., 207 (1903), upholding the law; contra, Lochner v. New York, 198 U. S., 45. See 8 L. R. A. (N. S.), 131-134, collection of cases on both sides. Ariz., XVIII, 1; Cal., XX, 17; Ida., XIII, 2; Mon., XVIII, 4; N. M., XX, 19; Okla., XXIII, 1; 0., II, 37; Utah, XVI, 6; Wyo., XIX, Concerning Labor 1. 1II, 34. 2V, 29. 3XVIII, 2. 4V, 25a. In Oklahoma unless in the event of an emergency, eight hours constitutes a day's work underground in mines; in Wyoming in all mines; in Montana' in mills and smelters for the treatment of ores and in underground mines. Health, a Living The demands of health furnish the basis of the validity of 250. eight-hour day legislation. As in the case of workmen's com- Leisure and pensation and other kinds of social legislation the fact that an Wage. employment is a dangerous one brings its regulation more surely within the state's police power.8 Health and leisure can be of little worth unless the means of sustaining life are maintained and so, not unnaturally, the demand for reasonable hours of work has been followed by the demand that wages must in no event be allowed to fall below a fixed minimum. The idea of requiring by law, as a minimum remuneration for laborers, irrespective of the wages fixed by competition in the open market, a sum sufficient to maintain life and normal efficiency touches the very heart of the most serious of modern industrial problems. It concerns the exist ence of whole classes of people who are unable to obtain a living in return for their labor and must, consequently, depend in part upon friends, charity, crime or other anti-social practices, or else gradually die by slow starvation. 251. Minimum and Con Clauses. Nearly one-fourth of the states9 have enacted minimum wage laws applicable to women and children. An examination of Wage Laws the constitutions reveals the fact that three of them specifically stitutional authorize the enactment of minimum wage laws. Kentucky1 imposes upon the legislature the mandate to provide for a minimum wage for children employed in places dangerous to life. and health, or injurious to morals. In California2 the legislature may provide for a minimum wage for women and minors XXIII, 4. XIX, 1. XVIII, 4. Concerning present tendencies in labor legislation, and certain reactionary court decisions, see American Labor Legislation Review, VI, 1, p. 87, address by Prof. H. R. Seager. Ark., Cal., Colo., Mass., Minn., Neb., Ore., Utah, Wash., Wis. In Colo. law applies to mercantile, laundry, hotel, restaurant, telegraph and telephone establishments. The Utah law applies only to "females." In the Wash. law minors are people under eighteen. 2XX, 171⁄2 (1914). and may provide an administrative commission to enforce the law. In Ohio3 laws may be passed fixing and regulating the hours of labor, establishing a minimum wage, and providing for the comfort, health, safety and general welfare of all employes; and no other provision of the constitution shall impair or limit this power. The reason for minimum wage legislation is thus tersely summed up by Professor Seager,1 The economic interest of society requires the payment of living wages to all workers, except, possibly, children learning trades and defectives, who must be treated as wards of the state. In the United States the great majority of industries pay such wages to the great majority of their employees. Starvation wages are only found under exceptional circumstances. Typical of these are home work under the sweating system, and the employment of girls in department stores. For both of these employments the requirement of minimum wages, covering necessary living expenses, would be a distinct social gain. It would increase the health and efficiency of those employed at such wages. It would put a stop to exploitation by grasping employers, and hasten a better distribution of the labor force of the country. Finally, it would compel society to face the problem of caring for the unemployable through insurance or pensions for those who should not be expected to be selfsupporting, and through the better training and distribution of those who might be self-supporting if given some assistance. Objections to the minimum wage are, besides the usual cries of "socialistic" and "un-American," the difficulties of enforcement and the fact that the logic of the situation would probably lead to a demand for provision by the state of employment at the minimum wage for all persons desiring it. Minimum wage laws have been proven enforceable, however, and many people, apparently, would welcome the assumption of the duty by the people as a whole to guarantee to every individual the opportunity to make a living.5 Labor legislation began with laws for the protection of women and children and, when so used, is looked upon with 3II, 34. The Theory of the Minimum Wage, American Labor Legislation Review, III, 12 (1913). "The question of the minimum wage is carefully considered and a cautious attitude taken by Prof. F. W. Taussig, Minimum Wages for Women, 30 Quarterly Journal of Economics, 411. The Labor and favor by many people who oppose any interference with freedom 252. of action in regard to adult men; naturally also the courts more of Women readily embrace such regulations within the police power. Children. Opponents bring forth, among a variety of more or less frivolous reasons for allowing the employment of very young children, the argument that otherwise they would be on the streets or in worse surroundings. This suggests the necessity of compulsory school attendance-and, of course, the provision of adequate school facilities-as an accompaniment of child labor reform. As the children grow older a mixed program of work and school may prove advantageous from both points of view." Laws regulating the age at which children may be employed are maintained in all of the states and the hours of labor are limited to eight in nearly half of them." 253. Statutes stitutional In addition to the constitutional clauses pertaining to hours and wages mentioned in preceding paragraphs, there are regu- and Conlatory provisions for child workers in ten constitutions.1 In Clauses. Wyoming no girl of any age nor boy under fourteen may work in or about any coal, iron or other dangerous mine-except as clerical employes or in the mine office. New Mexico forbids employment of children under fourteen in the mines and expressly authorizes the legislature to enact suitable laws for regulating the employment of children. Michigan has a similar blanket provision and Idaho prohibits children under fourteen to work in underground mines. Utah ordains that the legislature shall make similar prohibition. Colorado prohibts the employment in mines of children under twelve, and Montana of children under sixteen. The same is true in Arizona which adds to underground mining occupations in general that are injurious to health or morals or hazardous to life or limb, together with night work of any kind, and provides that no child under fourteen shall be gainfully employed during hours in which the pub See Constitutional Aspects of Protection of Women in Industry, by Ernest Freund. Publication of Academy of Political Science, I, 1. Richie v. People, 244 Ill., 509; Muller v. Oregon, 208 U. S., 412; Ex parte Miller, 162 Cal., 687. 7See, concerning the Fitchburg plan of coöperative industrial education, U. S. Bureau of Education, Bulletin No. 50 (1913), whole No. 161. These laws vary greatly both in the age limits set and the employments to which they apply. Distinction is also made between boys and girls. Ariz., Cal., Colo., Ill., Ind., Kan., Md., Mass., Minn., Miss., Mo., Neb., Nev., N. Y., N. D., O., Okla., Wash., Wis. 1Ariz., XVIII, 2; Colo., XVI, 2; Ida., XIII, 4; Mich., V, 29; Mont., XVIII, 3; N. M., XVII, 2, 10; N. D., XVII, 209; Okla., XXIII, 3, 4; Utah, XVI, 3; Wyo., IX, 3, 4. |