Source: http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/231/231mass99.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 14:59:44+00:00

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ARTHUR N. HOLCOMBE & another vs. WILLIAM P. CREAMER & others.
The provisions of the statute creating the minimum wage commission, contained in St. 1912, c. 706, as amended, which are not mandatory as to rates of wages, contain no words of compulsion either upon employer or employee and do not restrain freedom of action by either employer or employee as to the wages to be paid or received, are not in violation of any of the articles of the Declaration of Rights nor in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
The provisions of the statute creating the minimum wage commission in no way exceed the limits of the right of the public to inquire into private affairs.
Nor are the provisions of that statute open to objection as an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power.
The facts which the minimum wage commission is authorized to ascertain and the evidence which it is empowered to seek from employers cannot form the basis of a criminal proceeding, because no crime is created and no prosecution is provided for.
It here was unnecessary to consider the provisions relating to newspapers contained in St. 1912, c. 706, s.s. 15, 16, of the statute creating the minimum wage commission, because those provisions were not before the court, but it was pointed out, that, even if those provisions should be found to transcend in any way the power of the Legislature under the Constitution, they are quite separable from the rest of the statute.
law would violate the provisions of our Constitution or the rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
PETITION, filed in the Supreme Judicial Court on January 7, 1916, by the members of the minimum wage commission established under St. 1912, c. 706, amended by St. 1913, cc. 330, 673, and St. 1914, c. 368, for an order of the court compelling certain witnesses to testify before the commission.
precedent to the establishment of the laundry wage decree by the minimum wage commission be reserved without prejudice for determination in any other proceeding. " The single justice granted this request. The counsel for the respondents then asked the single justice to rule that the minimum wage commission statutes St. 1912, c. 706, and acts in amendment thereof, were unconstitutional. The justice refused so to rule, and ordered process to issue as prayed for. At the request of the respondents he reported all questions of law involved for determination by the full court.
E. M. Sullivan, for the respondents.
A. D. Hill, (J. G. Palfrey & H. W. Brown with him,) for the petitioners.
business at a reasonable profit, shall be entitled to a review of such recommendations by the Supreme Judicial Court or the Superior Court according to equity procedure. If the court finds that the averments of the declaration are sustained, it may restrain the publication of the complainant's name, but not otherwise affect the determination of the commission. Section 8 provides for reinvestigation after a minimum wage has been established, with the same procedure as in an original inquiry. Section 9 authorizes the commission to issue special certificates for employment in certain instances to women physically defective. Section 10 confers upon the commission similar powers respecting wages paid to minors in any occupation in which the majority of employees are minors. Section 11 enjoins employers to keep registers of the names, addresses, occupation and weekly wages of women and minor employees and to submit them to the commission or director of the bureau of statistics on request. Section 12 relates to the gathering of statistics. Section 13 prohibits employers from discrimination against employees because of testifying or serving on a wage board or giving information concerning conditions of employment. Section 15 imposes a penalty upon "any newspaper refusing or neglecting to publish the findings, decrees or notices of the commission at its regular rates for the space taken," and s. 16 exonerates the members of the commission and publishers of newspapers from actions for damages for publishing the names of employers in accordance with the act unless such publication contains some wilful misrepresentation."
The facts in the case at bar are that proceedings were had in accordance with the terms of the act respecting wages paid female employees in laundries. A determination finally was made by the commission fixing a minimum weekly wage schedule varying according to experience in the work from $6 to $8. No review of this determination appears to have been sought in the courts. Publication thereof was made as provided in the act. Thereafter the commission proceeded to investigate wages actually paid to such employees in order to ascertain what employers were complying with its recommendations. The respondents, who are owners or officers of corporate owners of laundries, refused to furnish the required information. This proceeding is brought to compel them to do so.
invoking the power of the State to that end, so far as necessary. The whole act shows that "decree" used in this statute was not intended to have any such meaning.
Doubtless one aim of the act is to bring to bear the force of public opinion in support of the acceptance of the recommendations of the commission. This may be a kind of coercion. But it can go no further than ascertained and published facts induce members of the public as individuals to the action of giving or withholding custom or patronage. The public money could not be expended for the support of the commission unless its functions related to a public as distinguished from a private matter. It hardly can be pronounced a matter utterly devoid of common interest to ascertain whether and to what extent substantial numbers of working women are receiving wages "inadequate to supply the necessary cost of living and to maintain the worker in health." Restraint upon freedom of contract by women and children has been recognized as an appropriate exercise of the police power in numerous cases. See, for example, Berdos v. Tremont & Suffolk Mills, 209 Mass. 489; Commonwealth v. Riley, 210 Mass. 387; Desmond v. Young, 173 Mass. 90. The kind of constraint, which may arise from making public facts and conclusions at the expense of the Commonwealth, would involve other considerations if directed to affairs in which there could be no legitimate general interest directed to the rational promotion of the public health, order, morals and in a restricted sense the common welfare.
Merely for the purpose of illustrating the extent of the public interest in matters involving primarily and chiefly private concerns, numerous decisions are pertinent.
increasing the risk of loss, shall avoid the policy, Nugent v. Greenfield Life Association, 172 Mass. 278; and parties may be prohibited in casualty insurance from contracting that the insured must pay his loss before being permitted to recover from the insurer, Lorando v. Gethro, 228 Mass. 181.
Amendment to the Federal Constitution. McLean v. Arkansas, 211 U. S. 539. An act of Congress prohibiting the payment in advance of seamen's wages to be earned in interstate or foreign commerce does not violate constitutional freedom of contract. Patterson v. Bark Eudora, 190 U. S. 169. The validity of legislation penalizing the sale of cigarettes without license, Gundling v. Chicago, 177 U. S. 183, prohibiting contracts for options to sell or buy grain or other commodity at a future time, Booth v. Illinois, 184 U. S. 425, barring the employment of women more than a limited number of hours per day or week in manufacturing or mechanical establishments, Riley v. Massachusetts, 232 U. S. 671, Miller v. Wilson, 236 U. S. 373, forbidding contracts between employer and employee limiting the right of the latter to recover damages at common law, Chicago, Burlington & Quiney Railroad v. McGuire, 219 U. S. 549, and prescribing the particular method of compensation to be paid by employers to miners for the production of coal, Rail & River Coal Co. v. Ohio Industrial Commission, 236 U. S. 338, 349, has been sustained against attacks founded on interference with the freedom of contract secured by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. A statute imposing an absolute duty upon the owner to provide safeguards for machinery in manufacturing establishments has been held to prohibit a contract against liability arising from a failure to comply with the statute even with one expressly employed to furnish and install such safeguards. Bowersock v. Smith, 243 U. S. 29. In most if not all of these cases it also was held that the statutes did not deprive anybody of property without due process of law, or of the equal protection of the law.
Reference is made to these authorities solely to indicate the range of the public interest respecting matters of private relations, and not to intimate whether they afford any foundation for a compulsory minimum wage law. These decisions rest at bottom on the proposition that the public welfare in respect to health, morals and safety bears so close a relation to the subjects dealt with in the several statutes as to justify legislative regulation.
than enough to provide them support in healthful surroundings as to food, clothing and home and under conditions suitable for the normal activity of the moral faculty. In its broad aspects this general subject is one having some relation to the welfare of the community. The ascertainment of the facts respecting this subject at a given time and the making of recommendations for the remedy of evil conditions, if found to exist, by a temporary commission acting under the sanction of public authority, would be a lawful expenditure of public moneys. It does not seem to us unreasonable to contend that wages insufficient for the bare essentials of the cost of support and the nourishment of the health of women laborers have such relation to the public morals, good order and health that the dissemination of information upon the subject of such wages from time to time by a permanent commission is within the power of a Legislature clothed, as is our General Court, with full power and authority to make "all manner of wholesome and reasonable" statutes not repugnant to the Constitution. The circumstance that the commission further is directed to make recommendations as to wages to be paid, does not add an element of compulsion in law in connection with all the other factors. The recommendation in the nature of things must correspond more or less closely to the facts found. The members of the public are free to decide from the facts stated and their own experience whether the conclusions of the commission are just and wise or oppressive and vain, and to act according to their own conceptions of their private advantage and the public welfare. It is not for us to pass upon the question whether such legislation is wise. Unless it can be said to bear no relation whatever to legitimate public interests or to be a palpable invasion of private right, liberty and property without constitutional warrant, the decision of the General Court as embodied in the statute must stand.
United States, said Mr. Justice Harlan, "embraces the right to be free in the enjoyment of one's faculties; 'to be free to use them in all lawful ways; to live and work where be will; to earn his livelihood by any lawful calling; to pursue any livelihood or avocation, and for that purpose to enter into all contracts that may be proper.' Allgeyer v. Louisiana, 165 U. S. 578, 589." Lottery Case, 188 U. S. 321, 357. Booth v. Illinois, 184 U. S. 425, 428, 429. Adair v. United States, 208 U. S. 161, 173. Coppage v. Kansas, 236 U. S. 1, 14, Hitchman Coal & Coke Co. v. Mitchell, 245 U. S. 229, 251. "Liberty" wherever it occurs in the Declaration of Rights of the Constitution of this Commonwealth has at least as comprehensive a meaning. Wyeth v. Cambridge Board of Health, 200 Mass. 474, 478. O'Keeffe v. Somerville, 190 Mass. 110. Gleason v. McKay, 134 Mass. 419. Opinion of the Justices, 208 Mass. 619, 622. Bogni v. Perotti, 224 Mass. 152. But these guarantees are subject to the police power. Without undertaking to define that power, it comprehends rational action by the legislative department for the protection of the public health, morals and good order. These guarantees do not go to the extent of protection against publicity respecting contracts with women and minors, which the consensus of opinion of the Commonwealth, as formulated in a statute requiring impartial investigation by a public board, declares wanting in affording to them necessary support. Assuming that these and other constitutional safeguards protect the individual in the enjoyment of privacy, they do not afford immunity against police regulations requiring knowledge touching subjects which may within reason be thought to promote the health, safety and morals of the community.
pensation act, which abolished the defences of assumption of risk, contributory negligence, and the fellow servant doctrine as to employers who do not become subscribers, but left those rules of law in force without the benefit of the employers' liability act as to employees who elect to rely upon their common law rights. Yet that act has been held valid as not depriving the employer or employee of property without due process of law, limiting unduly freedom of contract, or interfering with other constitutional rights. Young v. Duncan, 218 Mass. 346. Opinion of the Justices, 209 Mass. 607.
As has been pointed out, the present statute does not impair liberty of contract. Absolute freedom to make any contract respecting wages is left untouched. Notwithstanding its terms, still "An employer has a right to engage all persons who are willing to work for him, at such prices as may be mutually agreed upon; and persons employed or seeking employment have a corresponding right to enter into or remain in the employment of any person or corporation willing to employ them." Vegelahn v. Guntner, 167 Mass. 92, 97. The right of every man is undisturbed "to determine what branch of business be will pursue, and to make his own contracts with whom be pleases and on the best terms be can." Carew v. Rutherford, 106 Mass. 1, 14. Opinion of the Justices, 163 Mass. 589, 595. Commonwealth v. Perry, 155 Mass. 117.
There is no undue invasion of the right of privacy assuming that that is an element of the constitutional right to seek and obtain "safety and happiness."
The principles on which the boycott and blacklist are held unlawful, as set forth in Pickett v. Walsh, 192 Mass. 572, Burnham v. Dowd, 217 Mass. 351, Cornellier v. Haverhill Shoe Manufacturers' Association, 221 Mass. 554, and other decisions, have no application to the official publications authorized by this statute.
The statute does not take property of the employer for the reasons already stated.
declared in Opinion of the Justices, 220 Mass. 627, 631, Cotting v. Kansas City Stock Yards Co. 183 U. S. 79, 111, and Barrett v. Indiana, 229 U. S. 26, 30, are not applicable.
The analysis of the act already made demonstrates that it is not open to objection as an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power. In this respect the statute is well within the authority of numerous decisions. Brodbine v. Revere, 182 Mass. 598. Commonwealth v. Kingsbury, 199 Mass. 542. Commonwealth v. Sisson, 189 Mass. 247. Commonwealth v. Hyde, 230 Mass. 6. Boston, petitioner, 221 Mass. 468. It is plain also that it does not confer judicial powers upon the commission. Nelson v. State Board of Health, 186 Mass. 330. Dinan v. Swig, 223 Mass. 516, 520. It follows that the statute does not violate art. 30 of the Declaration of Rights. Boston v. Chelsea, 212 Mass. 127.
There is no criminal element about the act so far as it concerns the employer. The facts which the commission is authorized to ascertain and the evidence which it is empowered to seek from employers cannot form the basis of a criminal proceeding, because no crime is created and no prosecution is provided for. Revealing the information or answering the questions required by the statute cannot subject the employer to penalty or forfeiture, and does not expose him to imputation of crime. Therefore the constitutional prohibition against a subject being " compelled to accuse, or furnish evidence against himself " is not violated. Art. 12 of the Declaration of Rights. Commonwealth v. Willard, 22 Pick. 476, 477. It follows that there is no foundation for the contention of the respondents that they are subjected to punishment without proper notice, or complaint, or hearing, or trial by jury.
Legislature under the Constitution, they are quite separable from the rest of the act. It cannot be thought that the rest of the statute would not have been enacted without them, and therefore the constitutionality of the sections here assailed would not be affected. Ashley v. Three Justices of the Superior Court, 228 Mass. 63, 81, and cases there collected. Brazee v. Michigan, 241 U. S. 340.
The act as it has been interpreted does not seem to us to violate any provision of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The reasons upon which this decision rests, as already stated, appear to us to make this conclusion clear. Holding ourselves strictly bound by the decisions of the United States Supreme Court upon which the respondents rely, such as Coppage v. Kansas, 236 U. S. 1, 17, 18, Adair v. United States, 208 U. S. 161, Smith v. Texas, 233 U. S. 630, Lochner v. New York, 198 U. S. 45, (see Bunting v. Oregon, 243 U. S. 426,) Japanese Immigrant Case, 189 U. S. 86, 100, Loewe v. Lawlor, 208 U. S. 274, Gompers v. Bucks Stove & Range Co. 221 U. S. 418, 437, 438, 439, Hawkins v. Bleakly, 243 U. S. 210, Cummings v. Missouri, 4 Wall. 277, 320, 327, Louisville & Nashville Railroad v. Garrett, 231 U. S. 298, 307, and Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U. S. 356, none of them in our opinion are at variance with the result here reached.
The grounds upon which this decision is put make wholly unnecessary consideration of the question whether a mandatory minimum wage law would violate the provisions of our Constitution. They also render superfluous a prophecy whether such an act will be held by the United States Supreme Court to be contrary to the rights and liberties guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. See, in this connection, Stettler v. O'Hara, 69 Ore. 519, affirmed by an equally divided court, Mr. Justice Brandeis taking no part in the consideration and decision, in Stettler v. O'Hara, 243 U. S. 629, State v. Crowe, 130 Ark. 272, Williams v. Evans, 139 Minn. 32, and Larsen v. Rice, 171 Pac. Rep. 1037.

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