New-York tribune., 1906-08-05
NIGHT WORK FOR WOMEN.


II Is rare thing for the judges OF an in
ferior court TO assume the high duty of de-
claring n statute unconstitutional The Court
or anneals and even the United States Su-
preme Court give such decisions with the great
est reluctance, and approach every leglslatVe
enactment with the presumption that 1t Is vahd
and that their power 10 set aside the will OF
the people may be rightfully exercised only
when their conviction is overwhelming that the
Constitution has been violated. Even Supreme
Court justices. in doubtful cases, are in the
habit of sustaining the law and leaving all
positive declarations as 70 its consutuuonanty
TO the court Of last resort.
Justice Olmsted and his colleagues Of tho
Court of Special Sessions-a still lower court
have taken a different view of their duty and
have declared that the section Of the labor law
which forbids the employment of women IN
factories between 8 O'Clock at night and q
o'clock in the morning, and limits their work
10 sixty hours weekly, is unconstitutional. They
have taken this grave responsibility with a
criminal statute, thus paralyzing while the
question is in dispute the states administrative
work for the protection Of the women wage
earners 1t happens that the people have the
right of appeal in this state from decision
involving the construction of the criminal law,
so we shall ultimately get an authoritative de-
cisiOn on the subject. But meanwhile the ad-
vantage is given TO those who wish 10 disobey
the law.
This. we think is unfortunate. There is
doubtless a fair question for the courts as to
the validity OF this law. but the higher courts
have gone far enough in the direction or sus-
tanning laws OF the same general character TO
forbid this one from being lightly set aside
In Illinois. il is true as late as 1895 law
limiting the hours of labor for women was de-
ola issnff0 IN 0P RifPlip
agt the People. AS early as .-S76, however, in
the Commonwealth agt. We namiltOn Manu-
featuring Company, the Masssc schl-stts Supreme
Court sustained law limiting the employment
Of women in any manufacturing establishment
TO sixty hours a week. The United States Su-
preme Court, in Holden agt. Hardy, sustained
a Utah statute restricting the labor of men in
the mines 20 eight hours a day, and, while 1t
recently, by a divided court, declared uncOn-
stitutional a law forbdding a man to work
more than ten hours in a bakery ire Lochner
agt. New York;, even the majority held that
the police power Of the state was competent
for the public welfare TO protect a labOrer from
himself when it appeared that morals and
health, not merely social theories were to be
promoted.
1t is said that this law is class legislation in
that IL forbids a woman to work in a fac
tory late at night, while she may work even
harder in her own home. 1t is said that she is
as likely 10 undermine her own health and that
of her possible offspring by overwOrk in the
fat as in the factory. Such a possibility, how
ever, raises question for legislative discretion
rather than judicial dogmatism. If the Legs-
lature finds that some actual harm comes from
factory work for women at night, it would seem
70 be competent TO prohibit II, and we think il
might we'll come TO that conclusion. The great
body of the women in factories are young A
large proportion Of them are under age In
many industries there are as many between
the ages of sixteen and twenty as there are
over twenty-One. We believe the state may
properly, for the sake OF the public health and
public morals, say that these young women
shall not be kept in factories after o'clock
at night and then turned loose in the streets
The fact that some women whom the law does
not cover may in other ways injure themselves
and their posterity ought not TO prevent the
state from dealing with a real and menacing
industrial evil, nor should the fact that many
of these women willingly work in factories
The state should protect them against their
own ignorance and against their own necessi-
ties, which make the explOiters Of labor able to
command night work