Evening star., 1922-11-06
LegisIating of Pay Removes
Vital Labor Safeguard,
Rules Court, 2 to l..
PRECEDENT WOULD GIVE
CONGRESS BIG LEEWAY
Could Set Maximum Salary and
Extend Provisions to Men-Chief
Justice Smythe Dissents.

The District Of Columbia minimum
wage law was declared unconstitu-
tional today by the District Court of
Appeals in an opinion by Justice van
Orsdel, concurred in by Justice Robb.
Chief Justice Smyth filed dissenting
opinion.
The chief justice assailed the right
of Justice Robb to act in the matter
of granting the rehearing after the
chief justice and Justice Stafford had
refused the request. Justice STAFFORD
then had full authority as an acting
justice of the court, he said. When
the case was decided June s. 1921. it
was decided finally" the chief justice
points out. land there is nothing be-
fore the court to decide at this time"
He incorporates the former opinion
of the court in his dissenting opinion.
The new decision reverses the
finding of the court last year. when
Justice Stafford of the District
Supreme Court. sitting in the alb
sence of Justice Robh. upheld the
validity OF the law with the con-
currence of Chief Justice Smyth.
Justice Van Orsdel then dissented.
On the return of Justice Robb a re-
hearing of the case was granted and
he now joins Justice Van Orsdel in
holding the law invalid.
Children's Hospital Appeals.
The cases involved are the appeal Of
the Children's Hospital against the
minimum wage board and that OF
Willie A. Lyons, a female elevator
operator at the Congress Hall Hotel.
The hospital claimed it cannot be
operated If it is to pay the minimum
wage and Miss Lyons asserted her
livelihood Is taken from her by the
act.
The majority opinion points out
that the act was neither passed to
meet a temporary emergency nor to
tide out a passing trouble. which
have caused the courts to uphold So
called war legislation. No situation has
appeared in the District of Columbia
in respect to woman workers which
has become so publicly notorious" as
to justify the inference of an emer-
gency. the court finds. 1t is no argyll
ment in favor of the act that a num-
Der Of state courts have upheld SINH
lar state statutes. the court says.
Calamity for Labor.
The act cannot be vindicated as a
proper exercise of the police power.
the majority opinion holds. mo great
or calamity could befall the wage
earners of this country" says Justice
Van Orsdel, than to have the legis-
lative power to fix wages upheld. 1t
sacred safeguard which the Consti-
tuition affords.
Take from the citizen the right to
freely contract and sell his labor for
the highest wage which his individual
skill and efficiency will command. and
the labOrer would be reduced to an
automation--a mere creature of the
state 1t is paternalism in the high
est degree, and the struggle of the
centuries to establish the principle
that the state exists for the citizen.
and not the citizen for the state.
would be lost.
Danger in Tendency.
"If, in the exercise of the police
power for the general welfare. power
lies III lHc lcSlSldtuIC ~ ia AiiC " as &
which the citizen must accept, or
choose idleness. or. as in the case of
Willie Lyons. be deprived of the
means of earning a living. 1t Is but
a step to a legal requirement that
the Industrious. frugal. economical
citizen must divide his earnings with
his indolent, worthless neighbor. The
modern tendency toward indiscrim-
mate legislative and judicial Jug
glery with great fundamental prin-
ciples of free government. whereby
property rights are being curtailed
and destroyed. logically will, If per-
sisted in. end in social disorder and
revolution. Let no one Imagine for
a moment that our civilization is
such that property rights can thus
be socialized without the grossest
abuse of the privileges granted. or
mai the restraint of the abuses can
be left with safety to legislative or
judicial discretion"
r. Congress may establish a MIMI
mum wage for women, 1t may estab-
iish a maximum wage, the court finds
or IT may name a fixed wage. II it
may regulate wages for women it
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