Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/461

Rh Among the many judges who have ruled in defense of personal liberty none have given more well-considered and vigorous decision than Justice Snyder, of West Virginia. In the year 1887 the Legislature of West Virginia passed an act (chap. 63) to prevent the payment of wages by the issue of what are known as shop orders, or for certain values of goods drawn upon their own shops. This act was held to be unconstitutional (State vs. Goodwill, 10 S. E. Report, 285 (W. Va., 1889)). Justice Snyder held as follows (p. 287):

"The property which every man has in his own labor, as it is the original foundation of all other property, so it is the most sacred and inviolable. The patrimony of the poor man lies in the strength and dexterity of his own hands; and to hinder him from employing these in what manner he may think proper without injury to his neighbor is a plain violation of his most sacred property. It is equally an encroachment both upon the just liberty and rights of the workman and his employer, or those who might be disposed to employ him, for the Legislature to interfere with the freedom of contract between them; as such interference hinders the one from working at what he thinks proper, and at the same time prevents the other from employing whom he chooses. A person living under the protection of this Government has the right to adopt and follow any industrial pursuit, not injurious to the community, which he may see fit. And, as incident to this, is the right to labor or employ labor; make contracts in respect thereto upon such terms as may be agreed upon by the parties; to enforce all lawful contracts; to sue and give evidence; and to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, and convey property of every kind. The enjoyment or deprivation of these rights and privileges constitutes the essential distinction between freedom and slavery; between liberty and oppression."

In dealing with the specific act. Judge Snyder (p. 288) declared it to be "a species of sumptuary legislation which has been universally condemned as an attempt to degrade the intelligence, virtue, and manhood of the American laborer, and foist upon the people a paternal government of the most objectionable character, because it assumes that the employer is a tyrant and the laborer is an imbecile."

In the research which the writer has been enabled through the assistance of his coadjutor, Mr. E. T. Cabot, to make in the preparation of this treatise, he has been unable to find any direct adjudication upon the subject of the free use of time.

That no statute may stand which discriminates by classes or by persons in the free use of time, has been well established by a decision in the highest court of California.

A statute of 1880 (p. 80) provided that "it shall be unlawful