Cheraw chronicle. [volume] (Cheraw, S.C.) 1896-2005, 1922-01-12

tutional amendment upon welfare legislation al
ready secured through action Of state legislatures
The amendment Is indorsed among others by
George Gordon Battle of New York Shipper Lew
Is Of Philadelphia, secretary of the legal educa-
tion committee of the American Bar association; ;
Charles w. Needham solicitor for the Interstate
commerce commission and former president OF
George Washington university. Robert T. Scott
former assistant to the attorney general; Frank
Z. Walsh Matthew Hale, and Miss Gail Laughlln.
Frank P Walsh, former chairman OF the lndus-
trial Relations commission, appointed by former
President Wilson, and former joint chairman with
Chief Justice Taft of the National War Labor
board, gives it as his unqualified opinion that
the passage of the amendment will "in no way
affect welfare legislation for women, either that
which Is upon the statute books at the present
time, or which may be enacted in future he
warns that there is no anticipating the action OF
court in the face of many differing opinions COW
erng points which appear quite obvious He, now
ever, shows that a long line of judicial preredehts
have protected the validity Of and consitutionai
ty of wOmens welfare legislation. Mr. Walsh con-
cludes:
81 can see no way of approXimatng justice, as
affecting the sexes except by the passage OF such
an amendment your organization has proposed
Indeed without such an amendment in my opn-
ion the late amendment guaranteeing women the
right OF suffrage would become mere abstrac
tion."
Mr. Walsh admits" says Mrs Edward P. Cos
tigan of Chicago vice president of the National
Consumers league, that the problems in their
final settlement will have to go before court
the result of whose decision is clearly In doubt
It would be terrible to deprive poor working wom
en- of safeguards that have been attained by and
for them with long struggles. and in return give
them privileges they can never use. The thtlg
tRn1 nhnnn In thn
state legislatures"
In support of this view Prof. Felix Frankfurter
of Harvard Law school. counsel for the Minimum
Wage board of the District of Columbia, says in
part:
The various measures dealing with women In
Observation-Disclosures of hours of employment, pro-
hbition or regulation Of night wOfk regulation OF
employment of women before and after cOnfine
ments minimum wage egislation-have all been
sustained by the courts upon physical, social and
economic factors peculiar to women. All such
legislation necessarily circumscribes the freedom
of action of the individual affected. For instance
wherever legislation limits the periods when 4
woman may work before or after confinement
she may not work within the prohibited periods
even If she wants to-
"For reasons of policy, society's welfare Is
deemed more important than the desire of the
rare Individual who would insist on working un-
der such circumstances in other words she is
under a disability account of sex, which does
not hamper man engaged in similar employment; ;
she cannot contract freely; the man In the
same way. minimum wage legislation. and the
other types Of law which have enumerated are
in one aspect disabilities and treated such by
the courts At the very best the proposed amend
ment writes into the Constitution of the United
States a dangerous lawsuit, jeopardizing the ef-
forts of the nation and the sates TO deal justly
with its women workers. Undoubtedly ii will
largely retard, if not render impossible every
effort OF legislation protective Of women work
ers for all such efforts will encounter the oppoSi
ton of alleged unconstitutionality."