The weekly Alaska citizen., 1918-03-25

Y MORNING, March 25, l0 police power, is properly taken, if the nature of the employment itself does not suggest one, not only as an inference but as fact that the reason does not exist. It must all ways be borne in mind that legisla- tive bodies have only such powers as are expressly conferred upon them by the provisions of the Constitution under which they act. Mere caprice, or even an honest desizS to act in response to a popular demand, can not validate statute if the same is expressly iolbiddsn by the Consti. tuition.
 Much of the argument in this case has centered around the decision of the Supreme Court in Lochner vs. New York, supra, and Bunting vs. Oregon, S7 Sup Ct. Rep. 435. In the former case the Supreme Court held that,
 Sec. no of the labor law of the State of New York providing that no employees shall be required or permitted to work in bakeries more than sixty hours in a week, or ten hours a day, is not a legitimate exercise of the police power of the state, but an unreasonable. unne- cessary and arbitrary interference with the right and liberty of the individual to contract, in relation to labor, and as such it is in conflict with, and void under, the Federal Constitution"
 The issue was on the question of health. Five of the justices decided that it was unconstitutional; four came to the conclusion that it was proper exercise of police power by the legislature. In the majority opinion the court said:
 Tt must, of course, be con- ceded that there is limit to the valid exercise of the police power by the State. There is no dispute concerning this general proposition. Otherwise the Four teenth Amendment would have no efficacy and the legislature of the states would have unbounded pow CT. and it would be enough to say that any piece of legislation was enacted to conserve the mor- als, the health or the safety of the people; such legislation would be valid, no matter how abso- lutely without foundation the claim might be. The claim of the police power would be mere preteXt-become another and delu- sive name for the supreme sover- eighty of the State to be exercised free from constitutional restraint.
 We think the limit of the police power has been reached and pass ed in this case. There is, in our Judgment, no reasonable fOunda- tion for holding this to be neces. sary or appropriate as a health law to safeguard the public health or the health of the individuals who are following the trade of a baker.
 Tt might be safely affirmed that almost all occupations more or less affect the health. There must be more than the mere fact of the possible existence of some small amount of unhealthiness to war rant legislative Interference with liberty. It is unfortunately true that labor, even in any depart ment, may possibly carry with it seeds of unhealthiness. But, are we all, on that account. at the mercy of legislative majorities? A printer, tinsmith, locksmith, a carpenter, a cabinetmaker, a dry goods clerk, banks, a lawyers or a physicians clerk, or clerk in almost any kind of business, would all come under the power of the legislature, on this assump- tion. No trade, no occupation, no mode of earning ones living, could escape this all-pervading power and the acts of the legislature in limiting the hours of labor in all employments would be valid, al- though such limitation might seri- ously cripple the ability of the la borer to support himself and his family.
 Statutes of the nature of that under review, limiting the hours in which grown and intelligent men may labor to earn their liv- ing, are mere meddlesome interfer- ences with the rights of the indi- vidual, and they are not saved from condemnation by the claim that they are passed in the exer- else of the police power and upon the subject of the health of the individual whose rights are inter- fered with, unless there be some fair ground, reasonable in and of itself to say that there is ma terial danger to the public health or to the health of the employees, if the hours of labor are not cur tailed
 "It is impossible for us to shut our eyes to the fact that many of the laws of this character, while passed under what is claimed to be the police power for the pur- pose of protecting the public health or welfare. are, in reality, passed ~Al~