Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-06-07
The Child Labor Decision.

The fact that the lately enacted federal child
labor law is unconstitutional is a matter of keen
regret. we dare say. to the eminent justices who
reached and rendered this decision less than to
the rank and file of the American people. The pub
lie mind and conscience of the United States set
immovably against every form of exploiting child
life for selfish gain. Broad yisioned men of bust
ness saw long ago the unwisdom well as the in
humanity of keeping children from school and from
their divine right of play and Joy merely to turn
wheels and swell fortunes. They saw that money
thus made, far from being true fortune, was
calamity alike to the State and TO the suffering
individuals, and in the ,ong- calamity to the
cause of industrial progress as well Thus it came
about that the most effective friends of child labor
reform were in many instances the owners and
directors of industries which in less enlightened
past operated largely by the labor of children
True in this in all social upreachings there are
backward minorities and perverse individuals; but
the great body of thoughtful manufacturers wish
earnestly to see American childhood, of all the
nations resources the most precious, fully protected
and fully conserved.
But thoughtful men believe likewise that this
end can be accomplished without doing violence to
the Constitution and to those principles of Ameri-
can government for which it stands an Ark of the
Covenant. When say thoughtful" men, we do
not mean those petifogging minds that seek TO use
the Constitution cloak for reactionary and dis
loyal politics. We the true Liberals who real
ize that no substantial progress and reform can be
reached by anging away the chart of our freedom
and sailing rudderIess down the gale. 1t upon
this conviction that the majority OF the Southern
members of Congress claimed to rest their Opposi-
ton TO the federal child labor bill which barred
from interstate commerce goods made in factories
employing children. 1t not that they disbe-
ieved in the principle of this but that they
believed so intensely in principle of the Constitu-
ton which as the Supreme Court now declares. the
measure contravened Says the Court:
in our view the necessary effect of this
act is, by means of prohibition against the
movement in interstate commerce of the or
binary commercial commodities. to regulate
the hours of labor in factories and mines with
= in the States, a purely State authority
There was a dissenting opinion, it should he
noted. on the part of Justices Holmes, McKenna,
Brandeis and Clarke. their contention being that
whatever Interference with the commerce of the
States there might be- was overbalanced by the
national welfare" involved But the majority opin-
ion prevails and confirms those members of Con-
gress who while wshful to the cause of child
welfare believed that even that cause might eventu-
ally suffer if a basic principle of right were over
ridden TO accomplish particular end
This however, should not, and will not, we take
it. spell the end of federal legislation concerning
child labor Now that the Court has pointed out
lust wherein the late law repugnant to the
Constitution should be easier to frame meas
IRE proof against sincere objections. IL the indi-
viduaI States can and will deal cOnclusively with
this evil all the better. Certainly, the Supreme
Courts decision should stir to renewed energy and
EFFORT the moral consciousness of every State whose
laws against child labor are not yet all that they
should be. In any event We may be sure that soon
or late the popular will of America will see to it
that in this great human issue justice is done the