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The Green Bag
that time the range of legislation with respect to the subject of governmental control in the exercise of the police power has been much extended. The reasons for this extension are obvious. Modern social life has called into being many agencies not before existing, and it is only natural that there should be a continuous and progressive develop ment of governmental functions with the increased application of science to the business of life. The changing conditions of society, the evolution of employment, and the expansion of trade and business along all lines make a change in the application of principles absolutely necessary. Many people now hold the view that, all things considered, the general wel fare of employees, mechanics and workingmen upon whom rests a portion of government will be best subserved if the hours of labor are restricted. This is shown by the many laws upon this subject passed within recent years, such, for instance, as the law of Congress limiting the hours of labor upon public works, regardless of whether there are any special circumstances calling for such a law. But, however that may be, we shall not discuss fundamental theories, such as the quotation above suggests. At least we shall not join with Prof. Tiedeman in his opposition to the evi dent tendency of the law. To do so would avail us nothing. To take a stand opposed to governmental inter ference, except in this restricted sense, would be to differ with the overwhelm ing authority of both state and federal statutes and cases. Our only purpose, therefore, shall be to review and classify the cases which have con sidered laws relating to hours of labor, to the end that we may know just where we stand upon this im
portant subject in its present state of development. If we were to classify the police power with regard to the instances in which it has been exercised within recent years, one of the main divisions would be that as to the regulation and limitation of hours of labor. Indeed, so important have become the statutes and decisions upon this subject that the Digests and Encyclopaedias have incorporated a distinct head under which to treat them, which, no matter what the number of hours to which labor is limited may be, is entitled, for the sake of brevity and uniformity, "Eight Hour Law." While laws providing that a certain number of hours shall constitute a day's work have become quite general within recent years, the adjudications upon this subject are as yet comparatively few. The terms of the statutes vary in the different states. In some the only purpose seems to be to define a working day, while in others provisions are made for recovering compensation for working over hours, or penalties are enacted for their violation. The principal ground upon which such statutes have been attacked is that they restrict the constitutional rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States which reads as follows :— "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property with out due process of law; nor deny to any person the equal protection of the law." The police power, which is inherent in the states, relates to the health, safety, morals and general welfare of the public. It is hardly necessary, there fore, to say that any law limiting hours
