San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-04-16
Social Workers Fear Whole
sale Reductions Of Sal
aries Will Result in States
Affected by Court Opin-
ion.
By CAROLYN VANCE.

Copyright, by The San Antonio Light.
Washington, ID. c., April 16.-The
age-long controversy whether a girl
can maintain herself on less than
$3.50 a week has been fiercely re-
newed in the capital as a result of
the Supreme court invalidating the
minimum wage law. The decision, So
cial workers fear will result in the
wholesale reduction of wages of more
than a million and half women in the
fourteen states that have minimum
wage laws.
1.-The relations between earnings
and morals is not capable of stand
ardization."' said the learned Justice
Sutherland in handing down the opin-
ion of the majority. 1T cannot be
shown that well paid women safe
guard their morals any more care
fully than those who are poorly paid.
Morality rests upon other conditions
than wages. and there is certainly no
such prevalent connection between the
two to justify broad attempt to adj
just the latter with reference to the
former. As a means of safeguarding
morals, the attempted classification,
in our opinion is without reasonable
basis. No distinction can be made be
( tween women who work for others and
those who do not, nor is there ans
ground for distinction between men
and women, for certainly if women
require minimum wage to preserve
their morals, men require it to pre-
serve their honesty"
because men do not have their
protection, is there any reason why Il
should be taken away from women!"
ii Af.-a IaI Sr,,th nf tho
National Women's Trade Union
League, foremost in the fight to find
some means of making the minimum
wage laws constitutional.
Employers Drive Hard Bargains.
"a living wage is necessary to keep
people honest. 1t is a well-known
fact that the low wages of bank
clerks has a great deal to do with
the great proportion who embezzle
funds. Women are the lowest paid
workers in the economic scale. Think
of what it must mean to them when
they have not only themselves to look
after, but a great proportion of them
have mothers and children to support
and their employers drive hard bar
gains. She must accept his wages,
his terms, or go hungry. And hunger
is the greatest driving force in the
world"
( Stuff and nonsense is the comeback
BY the lawyer who argued the case
in the high court, Wade III. Ellis.
High wages" he said, "and re-
sultant extravagant living may be as
detrimental to morals as low wages.
"Never have wages been so high as
since the outbreak of the late war and
never in the history of the republicI
has crime been so universal"
( "How can a girl be immoral on
$16.50 a week." flippantly asks one
of the members of the National Wom-
ems party who are opposed to all spe-
cial legislation for the protection OF
women alone. "She spends most of
her energy on her job and has little
to spend Haunting herself about In
pretty clothes"
3 The National .Women's party are
prone to regard the invalidation of
the minimum wage law as step in
advance for women.
Fight Her Own Battles.
"Women defeat their own ends by
prolonging a system which treats
them as wards of the state rather
than as adult human beings" said
Miss Anita Politzer. "The National
Woman's party's attitude is that any
law which protects women alone. as
sumes her to be incapable of fighting
her own battles"
:. Alice Paul is elated because Of the
stand taken by Justice Sutherland in
rendering the decision.
The opinion by the Supreme court
This week reflects wildly the>increas-
ing tendency to regard women as adult
human beings standing on an equal.
ity with men rather than as minors
she said.
"How different" said Miss Paul,
s.and more advanced is this opinion
by Justice Sutherland and the one
rendered only few years ago, in
1908, when the ten-hour law for wom-
en- was sustained by the Supreme
court and the court held: History
discloses the fact that woman has al
ways been dependent upon man. He
established his control at the outset
.by superior strength and this control
In various forms with diminishing in
tensity has continued to the pres
emit"
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