The Duluth rip-saw. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1917-19??, 1918-11-16
CHILD LABOR DECISION
CRITICALLY ANALYZED
Isaac Mcbride, in Pearson's Magazine, Outlines
Provisions of Progressive Law and Discusses
Personnel of the Majority Judges.

rights OF any State or otates, anu
Congress was clearly justified in
using all its efforts along that
line"
Here we have a wonderful cx-
ample of our glorious system OF
jurisprudence. The Congress OF
the United States passed, almost
unanimously, a bill to protect the
lives of children in Industry, the
President of the United States
signed the Bill, making it law, and
of the nine men who make up the
Supreme Court, five voted that it
is unconstitutional against four
who defended it and as a result
it is no longer law. One Judge,
that is, is more powerful than
three hundred Congressman back
ed by forty Senators, supported by
the President. Was there ever such
a farce?
While everyone admits that
Child Labor is national evil and
should be legislated out of exist
ence, if it cannot be stopped in
any other way, we learn that it.
is Unconstitutional for the
Federal Government to stop it;
therefore the exploitation of chill
dren in Industry must be toler-
ated as a necessary evil. In
other words we may outrage the
child and humanity but the Con-
stitution is sacro-sanct!
In February, 1916, while the
Child Labor Bill was under discus
sion before the Senate Committee
on Interstate Commerce, one Sen
ator said that when he listened to
number of well-fed, prosperous
manufacturers contending for the
right to employ children he
thought of the words of Ernest
Crosby, that "bard militant, - who
spoke for certain Of our cap
tains Of Industry" He made them
say:
$50 we draw up the Armies of
trade,
And invade.
With the children in front to fall
first, as is meet
Children of mill and of sweatshop
and NINE"
Finer still at any rate from the
point of view of poetry, is Mrs.
Browning's plea for the little chill
dren which forced the English
government further to protect
them. [ remember a couplet that
gives the feeling:
"Little blots about the city,
Take them sisters, to your pity
While the Bill was being de-
bated on the floor of the Senate
August s, 1916, and the constitu-
tionality of such a law was raised,
the late Senator Harry Lane OF
Oregon said: 81 have no venera-
tion for any constitution that pre-
vents free government from do
ing what is right by it's people
The general health and
well-being of the community at
large are of greater Importance
than any Constitution
The action of the Supreme Court
in declaring the Child Labor Law
unconstitutional excites deep re-
sentiment.
Senator Owen of Oklahoma is
incensed at the invalidity decision
and on June 6, reintroduced the
law with an amendment that
would automatically throw out of
office any judge who declared the
law against the Constitution. The
amendment reads: "The constitu-
tionality of this act having been
declared by the competent author
ity of Congress and of the Presi-
dent Of the United States at the
time Of it's passage, shall only be
questioned thereafter by Congress
itself, and by the people Of the
United States in their sovereign
capacity as voters. Any executive
or judicial officer who, in his Of
fetal capacity, denies the consti-
tutionality Of this act shall ipso
facto vacate his office. No
Judge of an inferior court shall
permit the question of the con-
stitutionality of this act to be
raised in the court over which he
presides, and the United States
Supreme Court shall have no ap-
pellate power to pass upon the
question"
This looks as though we may
at last get somewhere with child
labor legislation.
We cannot but hope that Sen
ator Owens amendment may be
made effective; even then we are