The Elk Mountain pilot., 1922-08-17
Vicious Usurpatiion

ASAO ~~S - - 49, ~ S4SAA
con June 15 1922 Senator La Toilette addressed the
cnna the decision of the Supreme Court multiplying
the child labor law This courageous address provoked
onay Senators Z that toilette took the
s the On that he
for amendment forever protecting
he liberties of the people against the encroachmens of
By SENATOR ROBERT M. LA TOILETTE
Continued from last week)
This does not medde with anything belonging to the
states They may regulate their internal affairs and
their domestic they like. But when they
their products the line they
longer within their rights If there Constitu-
ton and no Congress- their power to cross the
depend upon their neighbors Under the Constitution,
such belongs not to the states but to Congress
regulate 1t out its views of public policy
whatever indirect effect they have upon the activities
of the states"
want you to get that into your minds: CONGRESS
ENACTS. LAW, AND CONGRESS DECLARES THE PUB
Lie POLICY OF GOVERNMENT UNDER THE coNsTI-
TUITION AS THIS GOVERNMENT WAS BUILDED BY
caRTs Tn kSNsrEp c HE GnER THE LAWS
AS WRITTEN, AND THEY HAVE ABSOLUTELY MOI
BUSINESS TO NEEDLE WITH OR ATTEMPT TO Die
TATE THE PUBLIC POLICIES OF THIS GOVERNMENT. |
The majority opinion held that the products of child
labor though stained with the and blood of its vic
Tins untanted and that the of the United
States is poweress to declare otherwise.
Effect of Courts Veto
The seventh annual report of the Chief Of the Chill,
labor law by the Supreme court in its decision of the
Dagenhart follows:
in where the state chdabor standards were
lower than those imposed by the Federal law the
prompt restoration of the longer working day for children
In addition in number of these states there an
appreciabe increase in the violation of the state laws
For example, of the SO factories visited in by
inspectors of the bureau shortly after the Federal law
declared unconstitutional AZ found violating the
state law by employing 43o children under IL years of
while in the 40 factories inspect in this state while
the Federal law in operation only 95 children under
IA had been found work The tendency illegal
poyment of children was especially marked in the
In yUhe he min
employment in canneries IA years. the that
established by the Federal law, children
found employed in 205 visited by inspectors
the bureau in the of 1918. (Afer the Supreme
| court had nulied the child labor law.)
Congress at the next session passed the act of Febru
"a 199 which sought obviate the objection
ployers of child labor who transported their products
interstate commerce and who employed children within
the prohibited and in of prescribed hours
This statute in opinion, though amply supported by
authority to be found in previous of the Supreme
court doomed unless the should the
cision in the Dagenhart
:! Inferior Federal Court Sets Aside VIII Of People
When the decision handed down the 14th of
last month Bailey against the Drexel Furn
ure Co., setting aside and multiplying this statute
Mr.. Justice Clarke dssented. assume that the Judges
dissenting in the Dagenhart which have already
thought that the decision in the
elusive and that dissent useless The Bailey case
like the Dagenhart also up western
districts of North Carolina and in both
ferior Federal judge assumed nufy statute passed
by the Congress after the greatest consideration
by the President 1T is worthy of note also that
the Dagenhart which settled the principle fixed
the position Of the majority of the court should almost
wholly escape public notice and condemnation while the
Bailey decided last month"; does little more
than to cite the Dagenhart authority has pro-
voked hostile comment from country to the
other and is made the subject of consideration this
ference The explanation is of course the Supreme
Court decided the Dagenhart June 19lS we
were all too busy making the world democracy to
pay any attention to what happening chill
dren and to our own country.
i have briefly sketched the which the Fed
courts have hwared the will the Congress and of
the people to protect children against exploitation by our
industrial system simply because it is typical
duct of the Federal Judiciary and particularly
preme Court whenever Congress has sought to
gressive and humane legislation which offensive to
great financial interests enterprises The point that
am making is thGt we dealing with a fixed purpose
and predposition the of the Supreme Court and
the Federal judiciary generally.
i Recent Reactonary Decisions Of Supreme Court
| This decision is. however merely the last of a long
l *ss-s-:ssssss's'