Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1919 — Child Labor Laws and Decisions of the United States Supreme Court [ARTICLE]

Child Labor Laws and Decisions of the United States Supreme Court

By SENATOR W. S. KENYON,

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The Supreme court of the United States killed the law to exclude child labor products from interstate commerce. So congress passed another law to emancipate the child slaves by placing a heavy federal tax on ths products of their toil. A federal court in a notorious child-labor state has declared this second law unconstitutional. » The Supreme court cannot kill the second child-labor law without reversing its several opinions that the federal government has unquestionable power to tax “without regard to motive.” If it should annul the law, however, we have still another recourse. Congress can and will enact a law to bar from the mails all matter concerning the products of children below a given age. Child labor being deemed a menace to the national welfare, congress is clearly performing its duty when it withdraws the postal service from that sort of industry. If the Supreme court should destroy this third hope of ending child labor then we must carry the fight to the people and have them amend the Constitution so specifically that there will be no question about the will of the nation and the right of congress to abolish the evil.