Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1923-04-09
D. c. MINIMUM WAGE
LAW HELD ILLEGAL
BY SUPREME COURT
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Constitution of the United States.
We are asked upon the one hand
TO consider the fact that several
states have adopted similar statutes
and we are informed upon the other
hand that three times as many states
presumably "a Well informed, and as
anxious to promote the health and
morals of their people. have refrained
from enacting such Legislation. We
have also been furnished with d large
number of printed opinions approving
the policy of the minimum wage. and
our own reading has disclosed d large
number to the contrary
These are all proper enough for
the consideration of the law making
bodies, since their tendency is to es-
tablish the desirability or undesira-
btlity of the legislation. but they re-
fleet no Legitimate light upon the
question Of its validity. and that is
what We are called upon TO decide
The calculation of-that question can
not be aided by counting heads.
Convincing Evidence Lacking.
ut is said that great benefits have
resulted from the operation of such
statutes not alone in the District Of
Columbia, but in the several states
where they have been enforced. A
mass of reports, opinions of special
observers and students of the subject
and the like has been brought before
us in support of this statement all
of which We have found intercStin
but only mildly persuasive: that the
earnings OF women now are greater
than they We're formerly and that
conditions affecting women have be-
come better in every respect may
be conceded, but convincing lndica-
tions Of the logical relation of these
desirable changes to the law in ques-
ton are significantly lacking.
They may be, and quite probably
are, due to other causes. We cannot
close our eyes to the notorious fact
that earnings everywhere in all occu-
pationS have readily increased not
alone in states where the minimum
wage law obtains. but in the country
generally. quite as much or more
among men as among women, and in
occupations outside the reach of the
law as in those governed by it.
NO real test of the economic value
OF the law can be had during periods
OF maximum employment, when gen
eral causes keep wages up to or above
the minimum that would come in pc
employment, when the efficient will
be employed at the minimum rate
while the less competent and less
capable may not be employed at all.
Maximum and Minimum Alike.
Finally it may be said that if in the
interest of the public welfare the
police power may be invoked to JUS
G,
II may. when the public welfare is
sought to require it, be invoked to
Justify a maximum. The power TO
nix high wages cUnnotes by like
course of reasoning the power to fix
low wages"
The opinion closes with this SEN
tence: To sustain the individual free
dom of action contemplated by the
Constitution is not to strike down
the common good. but to exalt 1t; for
surely the good of society as a whole
cannot be better served than by the
preservation against arbitrary re-
straint of the liberties of its con-
stituent"
The dissenting opinions took direct
Issue with the majority on the differ
entfation which the court had drawn
between the regulation of working
conditions and of minimum wages
Both Chief Justice Taft, who also
spoke for Justice Sanford, and Jus
tice Holmes declared it had been
well established by decision to which
they referred that the right of private
contracts could be abridged or reg
ulated by law. They did not agree
that there was any difference in law
between the regulation of working
conditions and wages. insisting that
tnasmuch as 1t was we'll established
that the former could be regulated
by law, it followed. in their opinion.
that the latter also could be.