Denver labor bulletin. [volume] (Denver, Colo.) 1915-19??, 1918-06-15
MOTHERS OF NATION IN
DIGNANT; WILL HOLD
PROTEST DAY.
Congressman Keating and Sena-
tor Owen Prepare to Have
Measure Pass Again in
Congress; May Limit
Power of Courts.
BY LAURENCE TODD
Especial Representative The Denver Labor
BulletfnD


WASHINGTON. June s.-Five
members of the United States supreme
court have held that the child labor
act is unconstitutional. These five
are Chief Justice White. who comes
from louisiana; Justice Day of Ohio,
Justice Vandevanter of Wyoming, Jus
tice Pitney of New Jersey and Jus
tice McReynolds of Tennessee.
Four members of the court have
held, in minority opinion delivered
by Justice Holmes of Massachusetts,,
that the child labor act is constitu-
tional- Supporting Holmes were Jus
tice McKenna of California, Justice
tice Clarke of Ohio
The effect of the to decision is
to send thousands of young children
back into the cotton mills of the
South and into the glass factories, the
coal breakers and the potteries of
Pennsylvania and New Jersey Three
days after the decision was given,
agents of the children's bureau of the
department of labor found that the
children were being sent back to work,
and the factory managers were hastily
discarding all of the plans for inn
provement of factory conditions which
had been made necessary by the
emancipation of the child slaves"
Reversal of Policy.
All of the hopes for humane federal
legislation in the United States that
have been built up upon the action
of the supreme court in the case of
the Adamson eight-hour law and the
Webb-Kenyon law, the Mann act and
the lottery act are destroyed by this
reversal of policy by the five justices
who voted against the children. The
issue was so clear-either the nation
had right to protect the health and
the mental and physical growth of its
children, or it had no such right-that
against the law believed that their po-
sition would be upheld. Yet states
rights have bson held more sacred
than children's rights.
When the news came Representa-
tive Keating OF Colorado and Sena.
tors Robinson of Arkansas and Owen
OF Oklahoma, who had been chiefly
responsible for the bill while it was
on the floor of the House and Senate.
issued statements showing the keen
est disappointment. DR.. A. j. Nc
kelway, national legislative agent of
the child labor committee, who had
spent ten years in lobbying the mea-
sure thru Congress, was no longer
here. He died on the day that the
of the law was ar
gued in the supreme court.
Whole Country Indignant.
Conferences thus far held Indicate
that the whole country will soon be
aroused to undo the wrong. Repre-
sentative keating and Senator Owen
have re-introduced the same measure
that has just been declared to be in
valid. To the end of the bill Senator
Owen has attached a special clause
which forbids the federal courts to
review the constitutionality of the
measure, and which declares that Con-
gress has determined the bill to be
fully constitutional 1t is not ex-
pected that this method of blocking
the supreme courts assumed right to
nullify acts of Congress will be passed
by either the Senate or. House.
representative Nolan of San Fran
Continued on Page Four)