Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/340

 324 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

We know that the number of hours which should constitute a day's labor in particular occupations involving the physical strength and safety of work- men has been the subject of enactments by Congress and by nearly all of the states. Many, if not most, of those enactments fix eight hours as the proper basis of a day's work There are many reasons of a weighty, sub- stantial character, based upon the experience of mankind, in support of the theory that, all things considered, more than ten hours' steady work each day, from week to week, in a bakery or confectionery establishment, may endanger the health and shorten the lives of the workmen, thereby diminish- ing their physical and mental capacity to serve the state and to provide for

those dependent upon them I take leave to say that the New York

statute, in the particulars here involved, cannot be held to be in conflict with the Fourteenth Amendment, without enlarging the scope of the amendment far beyond its original purpose, and without bringing under the supervision of this court matters which have been supposed to belong exclusively to the legislative departments of the several states when exerting their conceded power to guard the health and safety of their citizens by such regulations as they in their wisdom deem best.

The right of the state to restrict the hours of labor, as a police measure, is not denied by the court in this case ; the point of dis- agreement is the degree of unhealthfulness or danger in the trade at issue.

Labor legislation for women. Protection ampler and more far-reaching than exists, enacted under the police powers of the state, is now claimed for women as necessary for health and safety. All the arguments which apply in favor of the restriction of the hours of working-men apply with a hundred-fold power to the restriction of women's hours of labor. Their youth, their helplessness, their increasing numbers, the conditions under which they are employed, all call for uniform and enforceable statutes in their behalf. Eight hours were deemed by the Supreme Court a " reasonable " period for men's employment in an industry liable to injure the health. Eight hours cannot be called an unreason- able period for the young girls who constitute so large a propor- tion of the army of working-women.

To obtain this restriction will require a campaign of education. The National Consumers' League is asking co-operation for this next great step in protective legislation from the General Federa- tion of Women's Clubs, an organization whose wide influence has