The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1906-08-09
LABOR LAW BIFFED
New York ChiId-Woman
Statute Declared illegal.
AN INVASION OF RIGHTS
SO Declares Judge OImstead in Court
DecisIon--The Right to Hire and
Work is Termed a Property
Right.

The state law of New York restrict.
ing the labor of women and children
to ten hours day and sixty hours
a week in factory, was declared Fri
day by Justice Olmstead in a dects-
ion handed down in the court of spe-
cial sessions in New York city to be
"an unwarranted invasion of consti-
tutional rights"
The ruling was concurred in by
Jstice Mexican and Justice Deuel.
Judge Olmstead declared that the law
was class legislation,
Justice Olmstead said in his decis.
ion:
ITO labor and employ labor arl
inherent and tnalienable rights of om
citizens, and cannot be taken away
in whole or in part unless upon tho
broad ground of public good, which
must be apparent, and cannot be pred.
icated upon legislative dictum.
1t may be stated as well settled
legal proposition that the. right to
labor and contract tor that labor is
both a liberty and a property right;
when therefore the legislature enacts
statute such as that under consid-
Grafton it must be admitted that it
has infringed in the enactment the
rights which are very clearly accord
ed by the constitution to the individ-
ua1 citizen.
"The people, therefore, are called
upon to justify this invasion, and
there is but one plea in justification;
that the statute was enacted to pro-
tect the comfort, welfare and safety
of the whole people, and the individ-
ual must suffer this curtailment Of his
granted rights in the interest Of the
common good.
In the case under consideration
the right of the employed and the
right Of the employer are equally in
volved. Nothing to the contrary ap-
pearing it must be assumed that the
woman was a willing worker for
willing employer and that the result
was mutually satisfactory and profit
able.
'The present constitution Of the
state of New York was adopted in
1894, and became effective January 1,
1895. All of the rights which adult
women possessed at that time were
confirmed by that document. One OF
those rights certainly was the right
to contract for her labor and to work
when and where she pleased without
reference to the position of the hands
of the dial Of the clock.
1T was not until four years after
that the lawmaklng power sought to
place the limitation under considera-
ton upo nthem. What was the leg
islative intent in doing this? The at
torney general finds ard urges NO
other reason than that the general
welfare Of the state demands that
tie progeny of women Of the factories
have mothers with healthy bodiees
to the end that the state may have
sturdy citizens. Does the state look
merely to the children OF the factory
women for it's future good citizens?
Why should not the housewife, the
woman who tolls at home, in mercan-
tile houses, in Offices, or she who
tolls not at all-the society woman
be exempt from legislative interfer-
ence, injunctive or mandatory, for the
same reason? Some of them may be
mothers of future citizens, and 1t
should be of great interest to tho
state that their progeny should have
birth and breeding to conserve It's
x,oIforoD