Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 32.djvu/89

55 THE CHILD LABOR LAW CASE 55 "A lottery of itself is not wrong, may be fairer, having less of over- reaching in it, than many of the commercial transactions that the Con- stitution protects. . . . And at one time it was lawful. It came to be condemned by experience of its evil influence and effects. It is trite to say that practices harmless of themselves may, from circimastances, become the source of evil or may have evil tendency." In Seoen Cases of Eckman's Alterative v. United States^^ Mr. Jus- tice Hughes said: " It is said that a distinction should be taken between articles that are illicit, immoral or harmful and those which are legitimate, and that the amendment goes beyond statements dealing with identity or in- gredients. But the question remains as to what may be regarded as 'iUicit' ..." So, in dealing with the Food and Drugs Apt, it was held that Congress could outlaw food as to which misleading statements were made, although the food in itself was perfectly wholesome. In point of fact the products of child labor are not harmless, and there is a definite evil in their very transportation across state lines. The evil is involved in the movement itself, and its effects are felt both in the state of production and in the state of destina- tion. Transportation of child-made goods encourages the ruin of the lives of future citizens in the state of production. It directly aids this immorality quite as much as the transportation across state lines of girls for the purpose of prostitution. Congress sought to remove the evil caused by the use of facilities over which it alone has control. It sought to remove it no further. Only that child labor was touched which depended upon the use of interstate com- merce facilities for. consummation of the evil. Moreover, the interstate transportation of child-made goods unfairly discriminates against citizens of the state of destination. It tends to lower their standards of child-labor protection. It is the same effect sought to be avoided by the prohibition of im- portation of convict-made goods from foreign countries.*" 38 239 U. S. sio, 516 (1916). Stat. 151, 211, c. II, § 31; Act of August 5, 1909, 36 Stat. 11, 87, c. 6, § 14; Act of October 3, 1913, 38 Stat. 114, 195, c. 16; and of the "phossy-jaw" matches, a cheap match causing necrosis in the match-factory worker; Act of April 9, 1912, 37 Stat. 81, c. 75, § 10.
 * " Act of August 27, 1894, 28 Stat. 509, 552, c. 349, § 24; Act of July 24, 1897, 30