are on the way to the German system of
having time cards or certificates furnished by State machinery for all
industrial workers, and such a system will, of course, be absolutely
necessary should the State ever engage in old-age insurance, as has
been done in Germany and England; though the practical difficulty of
such a scheme would have been thought by our fathers insuperable
on account of our Federal and State system of government, and the
necessary free immigration of American workmen from one State into
another.

[Footnote 1: Thus, night labor in factories to minors under fourteen
(Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia),
twelve (South Carolina), eighteen (New Jersey), or sixteen (Alabama,
California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Idaho,
Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota,
Mississippi, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin) is prohibited in
factories or mercantile establishments (Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas,
Michigan, New York), or any gainful occupation (Delaware, District
of Columbia, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, North
Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode
Island, Texas, Vermont, Wisconsin). In South Carolina the law
only protects children under twelve from night labor in mines and
factories. So in some as to all females only (Indiana), females
under eighteen (Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania),
twenty-one (New York), and to any minor between 10 P.M. and 6 A.M.
(Massachusetts).]

These laws will be found summarized in full in _Legislative Review_,
No. 5, of the American Association for Labor Legislation, by Laura
Scott ("Child Labor"), and in No. 4, by Maud Swett ("Woman's Work").

It will be seen that in all respects practicable with our necessary
system of individual liberty, doubly guaranteed by the constitutions,
State and Federal, we are quite abreast of the more intelligent
legislation of European countries as to hours of labor, women's and
children's, except in a few States. But it should be remembered that
these are largely agricultural or mining States, and doubtless when
the abuse of child and woman labor presents itself it will be met as
frankly and fairly there as in others.

On the constitutionality, if not the economic wisdom of laws
regulating the hours of labor of women, at least of adult years, there