The labor standard., 1910-01-01
Is It Unconstitutional to Limit
 Hours of T0il?
\ QUESTION OF LIBERTY.
illinois Supreme Court Soon to Decide on Legal Status of the "GirIs' Bill" Provisions of the Law-A View of Both Sides.

Both sides.
 Is it unconstitutional to limit the workday of women employed in fac tories or laundries to ten hours? Is 1t an infringement upon their "liberty" protected by the fourteenth amend ment of the federal constitution? Or
 Is 1t inhuman for any one to make a woman work more than ten hours a day? Is it mockery to say that 1t is an infringement upon womans liberty to protect her "health, safety, morals and general welfare" by limiting her working hours within reasonable bounds?
 These are the questions which the supreme court of the state of Illinois will be called upon to decide in the near future. Upon the right interpre- tation of the word liberty" in the fourteenth amendment will depend the life or death of the girls bill," as this law is known, which was passed at the closing moments of the Forty sixth session of the Illinois legislature last spring and which went into effect on July 1.
 The fight for the life of the law, the effort to steer the girls bill'' safely through the legal rocks and bubbles which it's enemies have been and will be putting in it's way, will be made by Louis D. Brandeis from Oregon, who after prolonged fight against a sim liar ten hour law by the manufacturers of Oregon succeeded in having the su- preme court of the United States de- clare the law constitutional. Attorney Brandeis goes to Chicago at the in- vitation of State Attorney John B. w. Wayman, who, with Chief Factory Inspector Edgar T. Davies, is de- fendant in the case because of his at- tempt to enforce the law.
 The fight for the life of the ten hour law for women is at present the most expressing topic in labor circles, with the Womans Trades Union league, the State Federation of Women's Clubs and social and sociological workers generally.
 The law as it was adopted by the Illinois legislature last spring provides "that no female shall be employed in any mechanical establishment or fac tory or laundry in this state more than ten hours during any one day"
 Its passage was looked upon as great victory as we'll as "wedge" for further legislation in the interest of women workers in factories and oth- CT mechanical establishments. When Chief Factory Inspector Davies began to enforce the law after July 1, w. c. Ritchie of the paper box manufactur- ing concern of the same name secured an injunction against Factor Inspector Davies and State Attorney Wayman, preventing them from enforcing the ten hour law in his factory.
 According to the opponents of the ten hour law, it's enforcement will in- terfere with business considerably. Be- sides, many of them argue that the enforcement of the law prohibiting women from working more than ten hours day will be hardship to their women employees, who are glad to have the opportunity to work twelve and fourteen hours a day, as they can earn more that way and can support their families, which they could not do if their workday was limited to ten hours only.
 It is pointed out that the enforce ment of the ten hour law would do away with overtime and night work