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OHIO NISI PRIUS REPORTS

NEW SERIES-VOLUME XII.

CAUSES ARGUED AND DETERMINED IN THE SUPERIOR, COMMON PLEAS, PROBATE AND INSOLVENCY

COURTS OF OHIO.

LABOR CONDITIONS FOR WOMEN.

Common Pleas Court of Franklin County.

EX PARTE ANNA HAWLEY.

Decided, October 7, 1911.

Constitutional Law-Validity of Act Relating to Female OperativesSale and Purchase of Labor-Freedom of Contract-Private Right and Public Welfare-Contrariety of Decision, Owing in Part to Changing Commercial and Industrial Conditions, Financial Cupidity and the Blunting of High Purpose—102 O. L., 488.

The act of May 31, 1911, relating to preservation of the health of females employed in manufacturing, mechanical, mercantile and other establishments, is not in derogation of the constitutional right of freedom of contract, nor is the classification arbitrary or the exemption unreasonable which is therein established, but the act is justified on the ground of public health, morals and the general welfare, and is valid and enforcible.

Sheets, West & Game and J. L. Hampton, for Anna Hawley. T. S. Hogan and C. D. Laylin, contra.

DILLON, J.

By writ of habeas corpus the applicant seeks release from arrest, charged with violating the act of May 31, 1911 (102 O. L., 488). This act provides for a number of conveniences such as

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chairs, suitable and separate toilet and dressing rooms, waterclosets, ventilation, etc., for female employes. Among other things provided for in this act is the following:

"Females over eighteen years of age shall not be employed or permitted or suffered to work in or in connection with any factory, workshop, telephone or telegraph office, millinery, or dressmaking establishment, restaurant, or in the distributing or transmission of messages more than ten hours in any one day, or more than fifty-four hours in any one week, but meal time shall not be included as a part of the work hours of the week or day, provided, however, that no restriction as to the hours of labor shall apply to canneries or establishments engaged in preparing for use perishable goods.'

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Violation of this provision by any employer is punishable by a fine of not less than twenty-five dollars nor more than two hundred dollars. The applicant through her counsel claims that the foregoing provision of said act is void and unconstitutional and bases this contention upon three propositions:

First, that the freedom of the right to contract both on the part of an employer and on the part of an employe, as well as the right to enforce such contracts, are guaranteed to all the people by Sections 1 and 19 of the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of Ohio and also by Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and that any legislative act which limits this freedom of contract must fail, unless it shall appear to the court that such limitation is necessary for the public welfare, that is to say, for the protection of public health or safety or morals.

Second, that freedom of contract with reference to the sale and purchase of labor is as much protected as freedom of contract with reference to any subject or in any other respect.

Third, that the Legislature can not constitutionally make any arbitrary, artificial, fictitious or capricious classification so as to make an act apply to a certain person or persons engaged in some particular line of enterprise, while others coming within the same general class are exempt.

It is well settled law not only of this state but of all the states of the United States, that it becomes the duty of a court to de

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