Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-08-04
CALLS IT CLASS LEGISLATION
Statute Designed to Prohibit Women
and Children From Working in Fac
tories at Night Declared to Be Un-
/ constitutional by the New York
I Court.

concurred. The decision was in a test
case.
The case was brought under section
a, article 6, of the laws of 1897, and
later amended by chapter 1872, laws of
1899. The section said:
mo minor under Is years of age
and no female shall be permitted or
suffered to work in any factory before
8 o'clock in the morning or after 8
O'clock at night, or more than ten
hours in any one day, except to make
a shorter work day on the last day If
the week, or more than sixty
hours in any one week, than will make
UP an average of ten hours a day for
the whole number of days so worked
Attorney General Mayer appeared
for the people, Frederick B. House for
the defendant David L. Williams of the
Williams Printing company, which has
It's establishment at 437 Eleventh av-
enue. To test the law Williams was
arrested and charged with having en-
ployed one Katie Mead in making
books during forbidden hours. He adj
mitted his place was a factory within
the meaning of the statute. In the
magistrates court the case was made
as brief as possible, and upon his con-
viction Williams at once appealed.
Srss Violation of Constitution.
House had asked that the law be de-
clared invalid, because it violated the
constitution of the United States in
that section on the question of in
j fringement of the privileges and i'm
munities of citizens of the United
States and denied to women equal pro-
lection of the laws; that it violated the
state constitution because it deprived
q person of liberty and property with
out due process of law.
Justice Olmsted in his decision said
the single ground advanced in favor
of the law was the plea of justification
4 that it had been enacted to protect the
comfort, welfare, and safety of the
whole people that individuals must
suffer curtailment Of their rights for
the common good. He said the attor-
ney general had urged no other rea
son that the general welfare of the
9 state demands that the progeny Of
factory womb sheM have healthy
mothers to the end that the state may
have sturdy citizens.
Does the state look only to the chill
1ren Of factory women for its future
good citizens?" asks the court. why
should the housewife, who tolls at
home, the women in mercantile HOSES
!! and in offices. or she who tolls not at
all-the society woman--be exempt
from legislative interference for the
same reason? And what becomes of
the rights of nonchild bearing women,
surely considerable class? How about
the women beyond the age of child
bearing, yet physically strong and
having technical knowledge with an
opportunity to employ it only during
the prohibited hours?
Calls 1t Glass Legislation.
with no other excuse this law APP
pears to be the most palpable piece Of
special class legislation. and it is an
unwarrantable invasion of constitu-
tional rights of individual liberty.
ITO show it's special and class char
acter, see article 2, section 161, which
provides that no woman under 81 shall
>---amployed in mercantile establish
nor more than ten hours day, nor
before a. ~, and not after 10 p, m.
This section excerpts Saturday, pro-
ceeded from Dec. Is to Jan. 1. This
means nothing if it does not permit
the employment in department stores
Of minor females during the entire
twenty-four hours of Saturday from
midnight FRIDAY, and during every
hour Of the period between Dec. 10
and Jan. l.. 1t does not restrict adult
women in these stores.
Slap at Legislature.
ssWith what refinement of logic the
legislature arrives at the conclusion
that it is unhealthful to work in fac
tory between 9 p. m. and a. m. and
only unhealthful and against the pub
lie welfare in department store be-
tween 10 D. m. and a. m. Were they
considering the health of women as
class or did they merely have in view
the hours when it would be convenient
for the general public to do it's shop
ping?
.SThe legislature apparently cared
more for the comfort of Christmas
shoppers than the health of young
girls the prospective mothers of our
future citizens, for it permits their en-
ployment for the entire twenty-four
hours of at least sixty-line days out
of the 365. The dressmaker or the mil
liner has a factory within the meaning
of the law, if he or she only employs
one person. An employee may not work
within the forbidden hours, yet the
employer, even tho a woman, may
work as. long as she pleases.
ssWhy this distinction between two
rossible mothers of future citizens If
this be simply health regulation? The
relation of the subject of this statute
to the public health and common well
fare seems altogether too remote to
sustain it as a proper exercise of po-
lice power.
Interference With Rights.
"a statute which prevents Katie
Mead from working at night in fac
tory with admitted first-class sanitary
conditions, offers no prohibition against
her doing her work in the hall bedroom
Of a tenement house under conditions
detrimental to her health 1t this not
plainly and palpably an unauthorized
and unwarrantable interference with
the rights of the citizen?"
Justice Olmsted said the statute
classes women with minors as wards of
the state needing its paternal interfer-