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Making the Case for Night Work Legislation in Progressive Era New York, 1911-19151

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2010

John Thomas McGuire
John Thomas McGuire
Affiliation:
Tompkins-Corltand Community College
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Extract

In 1907 the New York Court of Appeals considered a bindery company's challenge to a night work law passed by New York's legislature in 1898 and amended in 1903. The statute stated that “no female shall be employed, permitted, or suffered to work in any factory in this state before six o'clock in the morning, or after nine o'clock in the evening of any day.” The outcome of the case was preordained, for New York's highest court was famous for advocating the legal “freedom of contract” principle, which negated state efforts to limit workers' hours. From 1878 through 1904 the Court of Appeals had held that any restriction on laborers' hours was unconstitutional. The only exception, Lochner v. New York, had been reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court on appeal.

Type
Essays
Information
The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , January 2006 , pp. 47 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 2006

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References

2 The night work case is People v. Williams, 189 N.Y. 131 (1907)Google Scholar, while the amended law can be found in Laws of the State of New York Passed at the One Hundred and Twenty-Sixth Session of the Legislature: Begun January First 1903 and Ended April Twenty-Third 1903 in the City of Albany, Vol. I. (Albany, N.Y., 1903), 437, 439Google Scholar. For the cases which established the New York Court of Appeals as a formidable advocate of the freedom of contract principle, see Bertholf v. O'Reilly, 74 N.Y. 509 (1878)Google Scholar, In re Jacobs, 98 N.Y. 98 (1885)Google Scholar, In re Marx, 99 N.Y. 377 (1885)Google Scholar, and People v. Rodgers, 166 N.Y. 1 (1901)Google Scholar.

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42 Louis Brandeis to Josephine Clara Goldmark, October 11, 1910, in The Family Letters of Louis D. Branders, 157.

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54 Beyer, Clara Mortenson, History of Labor Legislationfor Women in Three States, United States Women's Bureau, Bulletin 66, Part I (Washington, D.C., 1929), 76Google Scholar. The new hours law did pass constitutional muster in People ex. rel. Holderin v. Kane, 139 N.Y.S. 350 (S. Ct. Special Term, Kings County, N.Y. 1913). See also Mary van Kleeck to John M. Glenn, November 12, 1912 and December 16, 1912, in van Kleeck Papers, MS Group 165, Box 100, Folder 1564.

55 Mary van Kleeck to John M. Glenn, November 12, 1912 and January 15, 1913, in van Kleeck Papers, MS Group 165, Box 100, Folder 1564.

56 Van Kleeck to Glenn, January 15, 1913.

57 t I should be noted that Josephine Goldmark's book was originally published by the Russell Sage Foundation in 1912. Louis Brandeis urged the Foundation to publish Goldmark's book, particularly since Brandeis used material from his sister-in-law's manuscript in the Illinois women's ten hour law brief. Louis Brandeis to John M. Glenn, November 30, 1909, reprinted in Letters of Louis D. Brandeis: Vol. II (1907-1912); People's Attorney, ed. Urofsky, Melvin I. and Levy, David W. (Albany, N.Y, 1972), 297–98Google Scholar . For the original publication date of Fatigue and Efficiency, see Letters of Louis D. Brandeis, 298, Note 2.

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62 Martin, George, Madam Secretary: Frances Perkins (Boston, 1976), 88Google Scholar . , Stein, Triangle Fire, 208Google Scholar . For details of the FIC's initial investigations, see Preliminary Report of the Factory Investigating Commission, Vol. I (Albany, N.Y., 1912), 16Google Scholar.

63 For Charles F. Murphy and his leadership of New York's Democrati c Party during the Progressive Era, see , Schwartz, “The Triumph of Liberalism, 1914-1945,” 521Google Scholar; Wesser, Robert F., A Response to Progressivism: The Democratic Party and New York Politics, 1902-1918 (New York, 1986), 31Google Scholar; and Handlin, Oscar, Al Smith and His America (New York, 1958), 31, 41Google Scholar.

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65 Mary van Kleeck to John Glenn, May 31, 1912 and January 3, 1913, van Kleeck Papers, MS 165, Box 100, Folders 1564 and 1565.

66 Smith, Alfred R., Up to Now: An Autobiography (New York, 1929), 7-8, 93, 97, 129Google Scholar.

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68 Preliminary Report, Vol. II, 551-52. , Smith, Up to Now, 94Google Scholar . For business involvement in progressive reform, see Sklar, Martin J., The Corporate Reconstruction of Capitalism, 1890-1916: The Market, the Law and Politics (New York, 1988), 1, 4–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Wiebe, Robert, Businessmen and Reform: A Study of the Progressive Movement (Cambridge, Mass., 1962)Google Scholar.

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70 “Quarterly Report Ending December 31, 1913, Women's Work Committee,” van Kleeck Papers, MS 165, Box 100, Folder 1567. See also , Kerr, “The Factory Investigating Commission and the Minimum Wage Movement,” 376Google Scholar.

71 , Kessler-Harris, “The Paradox of Night Work Restrictions in the United States,” 345Google Scholar.

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76 See People v. Charles Scbweinler Press, reprinted in Appendix, Case Against Nighi'ork for Women, 348-51.

77 Quoted in Mason, Alpheus Thomas, Brandeis: A Free Man's Life (New York, 1946), 250Google Scholar.

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79 Quoted in Savers, Evelyn L., “Thaddeus C. Sweet” in Bicentennial Issue: The journal, 1976-77, Oswego County Historical Society, ed. Salisbury, W. Seward (Oswego, N.Y., 1977), 84Google Scholar . See also , McGuire, “A Catalyst for Reform,” 79–83Google Scholar.

80 , McGuire, “A Catalyst for Reform,” 87–156Google Scholar . See also McGuire, John Thomas, “Two Feminist Visions: Social Justice Feminism and Equal Rights, 1899-1940,” Pennsylvania History: A journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 71 (Autumn 2004): 445–78Google Scholar.

81 For Elizabeth Brandeis, see , McGuire, “A Catalyst for Reform,” 167-68, 299–300Google Scholar , as well as Gordon, Linda, Pitied But Not Entitled: Single Mothers and the History of Welfare, 1890-1935 (Cambridge, Mass., 1994), 72, 75, 202Google Scholar.

82 McGuire, “A Catalyst for Reform.”