§ 5. Child-labor legislation. The limitation of hours was first applied to children working in English factories early in the nineteenth century, and thence has extended throughout the world, tardily following the spread of the factory sys tem. The first American law of the kind was in Massachu setts, in 1842, limiting to ten hours the labor of children under twelve years of age in manufacturing establishments. Fol lowing this, all the earlier state laws fixed the minimum age low and the maximum of hours high, and the laws were poorly enforced for lack of adequate administrative machinery and of public interest. In all these respects many states gradually improved their child-labor laws in the latter part of the last century, and much more rapidly since 1903. Now the maximum working-day for children in about one half of the states is eight hours, in one quarter is nine hours, and in one quarter is ten hours (and in a few southern states eleven hours). Night work by children is very generally for bidden (in about forty states). During the same time the minimum age has been pretty generally raised to fourteen years for factory work, with higher ages (sixteen, eighteen, or even twenty-one) in some states for certain occupations dangerous to health or morals. In addition to these general limitations, special provision is made for individual examina tions, to determine whether the child is mentally and physi cally fit to work and has met the requirements of the com pulsory education laws of the state.
The culmination of years of effort in and out of Congress was the enactment, September 1, 1916, of a child-labor law that prohibited the interstate shipment of goods produced in factories wherein any child had, within thirty days, been employed under unfavorable conditions as to hours of work as specified in the act. This act was soon, however, declared unconstitutional. Another way of attacking the problem through the use of the federal taxing power was then found. In the so-called "Revenue Act of 1918" (enacted February 24, 1919) a child-labor employment tax was imposed on the entire net profits of persons or of corporations employing children at specified times and under specified ages (sixteen in mines, fourteen in mills, canneries, workshops, or factories). The constitutionality of this act has been questioned in a district court, but, up to this writing, not in any higher federal juris diction.
In the labor section of the treaty of Versailles of 1919, among the nine points, or general principles, held to be of special and urgent importance, the sixth reads: "The aboli tion of child-labor and the imposition of such limitations on the labor of young persons as shall permit the continuation of their education and assure their proper development." Child-labor legislation, viewed as a merely negative policy, is not of great moment. Its real significance is to be judged only in connection with the broader social policy of protect ing and developing all of the children of the nation to be healthy, intelligent, moral, and efficient citizens. Children growing into blighted and ignorant manhood and womanhood are threats to society.
§ 6 Limitation of the working-day for women. Legisla
tion to limit the hours and conditions of employment of women usually comes later than the limitation of child-labor. The grounds of special laws to protect workingwomen are that women are less able than men to protect themselves in the labor contract, that they are physically weak and are pe culiarly exposed to certain dangers to health, that as future mothers they need protection for their own and the public welfare, and that in the period of maternity the dangers are especially great. The work of women in factories oper ates in some ways to depress the wages of men, and it is harm ful in its effects upon the home and family life. At present five states limit the hours of women to eight a day, twelve to nine a day, fifteen to ten a day, four to eleven or less a day. A number of states forbid the work of women in designated places of work, such as saloons, mines, or where constant standing is required. Only as late as 1911, in America, has legislation, now in four states, given maternity protection, as is now more fully provided in European coun tries in connection with systems of health insurance.
In all of the great industrial countries of Europe night work by women is restricted (prohibited between 10 P. la., and 5 A. 31., or yet more narrowly limited) ; but legislation along this line is found in only eight American states.
§ 7. Limitation of the working-day for men. The gen eral assumption made in law has been that the adult male worker is competent to judge of the working conditions, hours of labor, and wages, and is capable of protecting his own in terests sufficiently by his power of refusal to accept employ ment. The legislatures have, much more tardily than in their legislation for children and for women, acted contrary to this assumption ; but, when this has been done, the courts in America have vigorously asserted the general doctrine and denied the constitutionality of the laws. However, some ex ceptions were made in legislation, and, after much apparent hesitation and vacillation, were allowed by the courts to stand, and these have now grown in number until they form an impressive total.
These exceptions have come in various ways. There is, first, the eight-hour limitation in public employment, required in federal employment in 1868, really effective since 1892, and now in force likewise in about two thirds of the states. In almost the same jurisdictions—national, state, and munici pal—eight hours is the legal day for work done by private con tractors for the government. Work on railroads and street railways, particularly in the direct operation of trains, such as the work of dispatchers, signalmen, and trainmen, is sub jetted to a large variety of regulative measures, hours being limited in some cases to eight, in others to nine, ten, twelve, or sixteen, and in a number of cases a specified minimum num ber of hours of rest is required after the maximum hours of labor. These laws are primarily for the protection of the public, but they afford a protection to the employee much needed, as many well authenticated cases of excessive and ex hausting hours demonstrate.