The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-03-11
SWEAT SHOPS.

Our dispatches yesterday gave an ac-
count of a mass meeting in the city of
Chicago, the object of which was to
protest against the hardships of the
sweat shops" connected with some
manufacturing industries, and ask for
| the passage of a federal law to abolish
this system, since state laws had prov
ed a failure in dealing with the evil.
Sweat shops, allow us to explain, are
| usually run in connection with facto-
ries Of one kind or another where the
labor is done on contract and at such
low wages that the workers can barely
live at the starvation rates. Women
and children are often employed by the
swea tiers, and do work at their homes,
under such circumstances as are at
times heart-rending. but the whole
saler," heartlessly taking advantage of
the necessities of the unfortunate
sweater" thrives and even grows rich
on his work.
Such laws, it seems, as have been
passed in Illinois on this subject have
been decided by the state courts to be
unconstitutional. 1t is proposed now
by this Chicago mass meeting to try
and obtain a federal enactment that
shall uproot the evil, and to effect this
passed a resolution asking for the pas
sage Of bill now pending in congress
having for its object the adjustment
of the sweat shop system.
The question in the case is, if the
state legislature of Illinois has not been
able to formulate a constitutional law
that viii abolish the system, what hope
is there that congress can do so? We
doubt very much whether the national
congress may rightfully pass legisla-
ton of this character, which is so es-
sentially of local nature. And even
if congress does legislate on the sub
ject, what assurance have the people
that the federal law will be sustained
by the courts any more than the state
laws were? It is a mistake to suppose
that the national legislature would act
more sympathetieally with the people
on such a question as this than the
state legislatures, or that the supreme
court of the nation would be any more
likely to sustain such laws than the
courts of the state. There is too much
of this running to the national legis-
lature with the evils which ought to
be corrected by the legislatures of the
states. 1t is vain for the people to
suppose that the national government
can better correct these evils than the
state governments, which they more
Immediately control. Then, moreover,
there are some things which cannot be
cured by legislation. Moral influence
must do the work. As pointed out by
Judge NJ. E. Tuley at this very meet
ing
eff all men and women were what
they ought to be, if they could treat
each other as human beings, there
would be no need of legislation to get
rid of the sweat shop. 1 recommend to
our preachers that they make mission
aries Of themselves, go to the manu-
facturers and sweat bosses and con-
vert them to a Christian life"
AS remarked by the judge, the mis-
sionaries might have a hard time of it, |
and it is possible that curing the evil |
in this way might be a slow process,
but there are some things in this world |
which can only be affected by such in
fuences, and some evils there are which |
neither this influence nor raw, state or
national, can destroy.
What law cam do in such a case as
abolishing sweat shops we believe can
be done better under state laws than
under national laws, and certainly
with less violence to our theory of gov
eminent.