state con

government. By a peculiar transmutation through judicial interpretation they have become bulwarks behind which property owners are able to strongly intrench themselves. The familiar clause declaring that no person shall “be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law," was originally inserted into our constitutional system in order to prevent confiscation of property by tyrannical officials. Another familiar prohibition incorporated into our constitutional in our Fed

eral and system for similar reasons declares that no law may be passed which interferes with the freedom of private contracts or engagements. stitutions Again, more or less defined prohibitions of special or class legislation have been

interpreted which grants special privileges are found in the constitutions of so as many states; and the fourteenth amendment to the Federal Constitution among other things declares "that no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.”

Strictly interpreted, these clauses seem to constitute a constitu- artificially tional prohibition of legislation which interferes with the so-called to strengthen

individual freedom of contract, and of class legislation. In reality, these pro- and corpohibitions artificially strengthen what are called individual and cor- rate rights. porate rights, and give those rights an almost impregnable position...

Labor legislation constitutes an interference with the original Labor legisand unmodified doctrines of liberty and of the freedom of contract.

ation and

the police Labor legislation when sustained by the courts is sustained as a legiti- power. mate exercise of the police power. The decisions are still conflicting, and the outcome in a given case involving the application of the police power, uncertain; but the philosophy underlying our judicial system is undoubtedly undergoing radical and far-reaching modifications.

The majority of the members of the Supreme Court of the United ConservaStates during the decade from 1900 to 1910 were old men. Several tive influ;

ence of the were over seventy years of age; and a recent appointee is nearly Supreme seventy years old. These men received their training and had their Court, 1900 ideals and philosophy of life definitely formulated a generation ago. But since that time the fundamentals of economic and political science have been subjected to important transformations. As younger

The recent trend of court decisions is favorable to the development of labor legislation.

men, trained in the newer school of economics and saturated with the recent teachings of our colleges and universities, come to the front in the legal profession, we may confidently expect the older laissez faire or individualistic theory of the law and of justice to be more rapidly modified.

The trend of court decisions has been away from the traditional idea of freedom and laissez faire, and toward an increase in the police power of the state in the interests of practical and tangible freedom for the individual. The pressure of industrial change has been so potent and compelling that legal precedents, social inertia, and the direct opposition of certain classes in the community have gradually, but tardily, yielded. There is reason to believe that many limitations now deemed essential by our courts will soon be seen to be non-essential and subversive of free institutions in the twentieth century. . One student of this problem has arrived at the conclusion that the constitutionality of a restrictive labor law depends upon its wisdom. “In other words, granted that a restriction is wise under the given condition, it is an easy task to prove that it is also constitutional.” This over-enthusiastic statement is borne out in a large measure by the court decisions relative to the constitutionality of laws limiting the hours of the working day. It is perhaps needless to remark that the interpretation of what is wise or unwise in a given situation will be subject to wide variation.

Questions on the foregoing Readings 1. What is an important menace to our national efficiency? 2. Discuss the loss of time in the United States which is due to

invalidity. 3. What are the effects of a shortened working day upon health? 4. Discuss the money appraisal of preventable waste in human life

in the United States. 5. Outline the age minimum for the employment of children, as

formulated by the Washington and Regional Conferences on

Child Welfare. 6. What can be said as to the educational minimum for children

entering industrial employments? 7. What physical minimum should be insisted upon for children

entering industry?

8. What limitations should be placed upon child labor with respect

to hours of employment? 9. What provision should be made for the physical examination of

employed minors? 10. What problem is closely related to the question of child labor? 11. Is it the opinion of most students of the problem that the employ

ment of women should be prohibited, or that it should merely

be safeguarded? 12. Outline the standards recommended by the Department of Labor

with respect to the hours during which women ought to be

employed. 13. What are the standards of this Department with respect to the

wages of women? 14. Outline the chief recommendations of the Department of Labor

with respect to the conditions under which women ought to

work. 15. What is the recommendation of the Department with respect to

home work? 16. When and where was the first minimum wage law enacted in this

country? 17. Summarize the opinions of employers toward the minimum wage,

as ascertained by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1919. 18. What, in general, was found to be the attitude of organized labor

toward this type of legislation? 19. What forms may social insurance take? Which of these forms is

well developed in the United States? 20. Summarize the provisions of the Workmen's Compensation Law

of New York with respect to the employer's liability for com

pensation. 21. What does this law say regarding the treatment and care of in

jured employees? 22. What does the law say concerning the schedule of compensation

in case of disability? 23. What are some of the factors which have obstructed the progress

of labor legislation in this country? 24. Enumerate some constitutional clauses which have artificially

strengthened individual and corporate rights. 25. What reason does Professor Carlton give for the conservative

character of the decisions of our Supreme Court between 1900

and 1910? 26. What does Professor Carlton conclude as to the recent trend of

court decisions with respect to labor legislation?

CHAPTER XX

IMMIGRATION AND ASSIMILATION

1

numerous

per

115. The nature of the immigrant labor supply 1 Of the Of the numerous problems confronting the American people,

few are more pressing and none is more complex than that of immiphases of the immi- gration. Of the many aspects which this problem presents, perhaps gration

the most fundamental is the economic. The influx into this country problem, the eco

of millions of unskilled laborers has exerted a profound effect upon nomic is

our industrial life, and, indirectly, upon our social and political instihaps the most funda- tutions. The industrial significance of the immigrant is shown by mental.

the following extract, in which the United States Immigration Commission outlines the salient characteristics of the labor supply

furnished by the “new” immigration: Recent im- (a) From a strictly industrial standpoint, one of the facts of greatmigrants

est import relative to the new arrivals has been ... that an exunfamiliar with the ceedingly small proportion have had any training or experience. occupations

for the industrial occupations in which they have found employwhich they

ment in this country. The bulk of recent immigrants has been this coun

drawn from the agricultural classes of southern and eastern try.

Europe and most of the recent immigrants were farmers or farm laborers in their native lands. In this respect they afford a striking contrast to immigrants of past years from Great Britain and northern Europe, who were frequently skilled industrial workers before coming to the United States, and who sought positions in this country similar

to those which they had occupied abroad. Illiteracy. (b) In addition to lack of industrial training and experience, the

new immigrant labor supply has been found to possess but small resources from which to develop industrial efficiency and advancement. . . . Practically none of the races of southern and eastern

enter in

.

funds upon

Europe have been able to speak English at the time of immigration to this country, and, owing to their segregation and isolation from the native American population in living and working conditions, their progress in acquiring the language has been very slow. The incoming supply of immigrant labor has also been characterized by a high degree of illiteracy. ... (c) Still another salient fact in connection with the recent immi- Effect of

lack of grant labor supply has been the necessitous condition of the newcomers. . . . Recent immigrants have usually had but a few dollars arrival. in their possession when they arrived at the ports of disembarkation. Consequently they have found it absolutely imperative to engage in work at once. They have not been in position to take exception to the wages or working conditions offered, but must needs go to work on the most advantageous terms they could secure.

(d) The standards of living of the recent industrial workers from Recent imthe south and east of Europe have been low. . . . During the earlier migrants

have a low .part, at least, of their residence in the United States, they have been standard of content with living and working conditions offered to them, and living. it has been only after the most earnest solicitation, or sometimes even coercion, upon the part of older employees, that they have been persuaded or forced into protests. . . . The life interest and activity of the average wage-earner from southern and eastern Europe have seemed to revolve principally about three points: (1) To earn the largest possible amount of immediate earnings under existing conditions of work; (2) to live upon the basis of minimum cheapness; and (3) to save as much as possible. The ordinary comforts of life as insisted upon by the average American have been subordinated to the desire to reduce the cost of living to its lowest level.

(e) [Again, recent immigrants] have constituted a mobile, migra- A transient tory, wage-earning class, constrained mainly by their economic interest, and moving readily from place to place according to changes in working conditions or fluctuations in the demand for labor. . . . In brief, the recent immigrants have no property or other restraining interests which attach them to a community. ... (f) The members of the larger number of races of recent entrance Attitude in

industrial to the mines, mills, and factories as a rule have been tractable and

disputes. easily managed. This quality seems to be a temperamental one

class.