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found in the exacting service of the restaurant, with its long and irregular hours; or at the flower- and book-stands of railway stations the country over. There are also large numbers of older women, employed at coarser work for unlimited hours, such as those who scrub and clean offices and public buildings.
The Supreme Court on labor legislation, For all these workers, those partly protected and those unprotected, any future legislation must be broad and inclusive, to afford real relief. Labor legislation prohibiting certain employments or restricting the hours of labor has in some instances been wrecked upon the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which assures to every man liberty of contract. This liberty of the individual, however, to contract for such purposes and under such conditions as he pleases, must yield to superior considera- tions of life, health, and safety. Under the police powers of the state, specific measures can be enacted from time to time against clearly proved abuses. When laws restricting the hours of labor have been declared unconstitutional by the federal Supreme Court, the state legislatures have been held to infringe upon the indi- vidual right of contract without good cause; or, in other words, the evil against which legislation was aimed was held not evil enough to justify the interference with individual rights. On the other hand, the labor laws which have been upheld as constitu- tional by the Supreme Court have been regarded as legitimate measures, conspicuously necessary for health or safety, and there- fore not in conflict with the Fourteenth Amendment.
In a noble decision of the Supreme Court on the constitution- ality of the eight-hour law of Utah (Holden vs. Hardy), the court held that the hours of labor of men might constitutionally be restricted when the employment was a hazardous one, like mining, liable to injure the health of the men engaged in it. The court took the high ground that the health of workers should be protected as their lives are protected; that the health of the workers is of concern, not only to themselves, but, as members of a community, to the society of which they are an integral part. The court said :
If it be within the power of a legislature to adopt such means for the
