The morning journal-courier., 1908-12-05

land was not passed for more than a | decade later and many more years had | elapsed before industrial conditions in | the United States made such laws ne- | cessary here, But child labor laws are | certainly in accordance with one of the purposes of the constitution
 If we now go a step further we shall see that there is a close analogy be- tween such laws and some of the spe- ciliG powers conferred upon congress by | the constitution, It is not true as seems to be held by some constitution al authorities, that the main purposes cal A large number of the powers granted to congress are strictly econ- omic in their character. Among these | are the right to establish postollces and post-roads 10 grand patents, to coin money and fix the value thereof, to establish an uniform rule of natural ization and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies. Note the parallelism between child labor laws and many of these Before the adoption of the con sttution there were many different units of coinage in the United States, It was easy for people passing from one state to another to be cheated through ignorance. There was a con stant temptation on the part of states to lower the standard. The adoption Of an uniform system of coinage and uni- form legal tender laws made such practices on the part of the state or or individuals impossible. A child labor law virtually establishes legal ten- der in labor: 1t says that children un- der certain age are no longer to be accepted as tender in the perform ance of labor just as a gold dollar of less than 25.S grains in weight Is no longer legal tender in the payment Of debt. lAn uniform rule throughout the United States makes 1t impossible for a state to profit by the debasement of it's population, just as legal tender laws make 1t impossible for a state toI profit by the debasement of it's coin age,
 It is true many of the states have of their own accord passed chil dlabor laws Many of these laws are admir- able, but, after years of agitation, there are still only thirty states, including the District of Columbia, which have adopted the age limit of fourteen years And as long as any state have lower standard they are able to enter into an unfair competition with those which try to raise the standard 1 say unfair because it is a competition pushed at the expense of future gencr- atons.
 There Is one objection to the plan proposed, so serious that it must be referred to before closing the subject. The objection is simply that 1t is i'm possible The people won't stand for ! it" said a lawyer to me the other day and as regards the present time, | 1 have no doubt that he is right. In reply to an argument of this kind it is pertinent 10 point ont that a similar uniformity has been achieved else where with perfect success under con- dtlons which seemed fully as adverse as those which We encounter in our own country. To grant the need of the measure and to deny the possibil- lty of carrying it out is to charge our people with having either less intclli- gencc or less public spirit than those of some other countries. The government of the German empire is modelled in It's general lines after ours and though for sentimental reasons thcE gave the title of emperor to the head of the empire he is virtually president IS so referred to in the constitution. The states differ among themselves in gov ernment. Some arc republics, some Kingdoms. some duchies, etc. They differ in religion. They differ in their economic interests They differ even in language more than the different states of our own country At a fam ous trial held in Berlin last spring two witnesses were summoned from the Bavarian highlands and their dia- feet was so peculiar that it was nec- essary to call an Interpreter into court in order to make it intelligible to the lawyers and the bench. The jealousy between different parts of Germany is extreme. Nevertheless, proiiting by the experience of the world, the Ger man constitution has assigned to the imperial parliament the wholc field Of what is commonly called labor legis- lation.
 Not only has labor legislation be- come national in the more advanced states; it is becoming international Beginning with the convention of 1904 between France and Italy a consider able number of treaties have been made to protect labor or to give the laborers of one country the same rights which they enjoy in their own. Among the most important of these is the treaty forbdding the use of white phosphorus In the manufacture of matches in which seven states have united and the treaty prohibiting the night work of women to which four teen have subscribed. The reasons which prompt treaties of this kind are precisely the reasons which speak for the federal regulation of child labor as against its local regulation Their purpose is to prevent states which pre- l SfTNf tue lltdllIl dlli Cll 'llElb VI Nl''ii
 laboring population for the future from the unfair competition of the less humane and more short-sighted states which still permit lower standard of life. The United States of all the great industrial countries of the world is still unable on ac- count of its constitutional limitations 4 |. tts.,, ,,,i movement for raising the quality of the population.
 By refusing to amend our consti- tuition we are violating the very spirit of its founders. The more one studies that document the more one must be imnressed with thn almost snner-