Milford chronicle., 1936-06-19
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z JAMES PRESTON


The National Capital seems To
have put on its thinking cap. Il took
It less than two weeks to catch up
with what the Supreme Court really
did when it invalidated the New
York State minimum wage law for
women. It usually takes much
longer.
When the decision was first hand
ed down, cries of horror went up-
from men called upon by Newspaper
men to comment before they had
even had a chance to read the de-
cision, much less think about it.
"Alas!" they cried. "The Supreme
Court says that neither the federal
nor state governments can function
in that field"
But now the froth is settling
down, and the thinking has begun.
It appears, to the surprise Of many,
that It was not the Supreme Court
but the Constitution which created
the mo mans land" And the Court.
it develops, was just interpreting
the Constitution.
o.
That discovery surprised some
who went to the trouble to find out |
why the Constitution established |
that mo mans land" Here is what
they found by brief study of our
nations history:
The United States was founded by
a group of pioneers who had lived
under the oppression of a regime
which controlled their every activ-
ity. That regime even tried to tell
them what they should think, as
well as what they should and should
not do.
With that in mind, the students
found, the men who established our
government and wrote our Consti- j
tuition sought to establish safe
guards against an all-poweTful re- '
gime. They thought they had put I
those Safeguards into the original
Constitution, which became effective {
on March 4, 1889 U
But in September of the same h
year, the records showed, these men S
decided the safeguards were not
strong enough. Congress proposed t
10 constitutional amendments which o
we're ratified and declared in effect e
on March 4, 1871. These protected
the rights of freedom of speech, re- 81
ligion; and the press; of trial by e,
jury, of private property; of secur
ity from unwarrantable search and is
seizure. And the last two amend e.
ments said:
1.-THE enumeration in the Consti- p
tuition, of certain rights. shall not
be construed to deny or disparage P
others RETAINED BY THE PEO- "
PIE. The powers not delegated to
the United States by the COnstitu- E
Lion, nor prohibited by it to the di
states, are reserved to the states re- 81
5pectively, OR TO THE PEOPLE" if
Thus the Supreme Court simply bI
was protecting a deliberately Great of
ed "every mans land" in which ev- pa
cry mans freedom was guaranteed. ex
a The realization ofa these facts had o.
Jeveral reactions. Representative MI
Of Indiana, and a number tn
# others, for instance, advocated w
hat the Constitution be amended to
ct the states control wages and inl
ours. Some others wanted to give Be
hat control to the federal govern nj
lent. da,
Organized labor representatives inl
ad been among those who cried
Woe is mel" and who urged Con- the
itutional amendment But upon en-,
lrther thought, they, too, were not ser
, sure In fact they went out of pa,
leir way to emphasize that they wa
anted to make haste slowly"
hey remembered, among other wa
lings, that once such thing was FL
4 the statute books, it would be Mi
ere to stay; and that while one ten
might use such law Coz
establish 30-hour-week, another
light use the same authority to fix I'm
54-hour-week.
o.
A fourth group included Senators
orah of Idaho and Steiwer of Ore =
IN. They remarked that although WY WY
e New York state law was invali- are
ted, a Constitutional amendment ~
ould not be advocated until at anu
mpts were made to present the law coo
another form. In other words, oOn N
ey said, there must be some way
legislating on the subject of rep
lges and hours without impinging proc
on the pTerOgatives preserved to proS
e people in the Constitution. not
e,-- man
cnrv