The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-08-04

CASE WILL BE APPEALED
INTERESTING OPINION OF NEW
YORK COURT.

New York, Aug S.-The state law of
New York restricting the labor Of women
and children to ten hours a day and sixty
hours a week in a factory was declared
today by Justice Olmsted in a decision
handed down in the court of special ses-
siOns to be an unwarranted invasion OF
constitutional rights. The ruling was con-
CURED in by Justices Mexican and Deuel.
Judge Olmsted declared that the law was
class legislation.
Justice Oimstead said in his decision:
TO labor and employ labor are inner
ent and inalienable rights of our citizens
and cannot be taken away In whole or in
part unless upon the broad ground of
public good, which must be apparent and
cannot be predicted upon legislative die
tum.
Rights Are lnfrineed.
1T may be stated as a we'll settled legal
proposition that the right TO labor and
contract for that labor is both q liberty
and property right; when, therefore, the
legislature enacts statute such as that
under consideration, it must be admitted
that 1t has infringed, in the enactment,
the rights which are very clearly accord
ed by the constitution to the individual
citizen. The people, therefore, are called
upon to justify this invasion and there
Is but one plea in justification; that the
statute was enacted 70 protect the COM
people, and the Individual must suffer this
curtailment of his granted rights in the
interest OF the common good.
Intent of the Legislators.
'''rhe present constitution of the state of
New York was adopted in 1884 and be-
came effective Jan. !, 1895. All of the
rights which the female adult possessed
at that time were confirmed by that doc
ument One of those rights certainly was
he lob 10 rsn4 E...- - FI1ax
to work when and where she pleased
without reference to the position Of the
hands upon the dial of the clock 1t was
not until four years after that the law
making power sought to place the linita-
ton under consideration upon them. WHIT
was the legislative intention in doing
this The attorney general finds and
urges no other reason than that the gem
erai welfare of the state demands that
the progeny of women of the factories
shall have mothers with healthy bodies,
to the end that the state may have sturdy
citizens. -,
Court Asks Questions,
Does the state look merely to the chill
dren of the factory women for its future
good citizens Why should the housewife,
the woman who tolls at home, in mer-
camille houses, in offices, or she who tolls
not at all-the society woman-be exempt
from legislative interference, injunctiYe or
mandatory, for the same reason? Some
of them may be mothers of future citi-
zens, and it should be of as great inter
est to the state that their progeny should
have proper birth and breeding TO con-
serve its welfare. If this question of fu-
ture citizenship is the only excuse for the
assumption of police power, what becomes
of the rights of the non-child bearing Wo-
man, considerable CLASP
Attorney General Mayer announced to-
night that he would appeal from the de-
cision of the court. rsf-.a.t
pa ha
said, Ito the supreme court of the United
States, long as the question of the
constitutionality of the statute has been
raised