Citations
- 214 N.Y. 121
Full opinion text
Hiscock, J.
This appeal presents as its underlying question the important one whether the legislature may require that in certain occupations employees shall have twenty-four consecutive hours of rest in every seven days. The statute which requires this has popularly come to be known as the “ One day of rest in seven ” law, and with certain exceptions and subject to certain qualifications it provides with appropriate penalties that every employer “carrying on any factory or mercantile establishment * * * shall allow every person * * * employed in such factory or mercantile establishment at least twenty-four consecutive hours of rest in every seven consecutive days.”
It is undisputed that this defendant was conducting a factory within the meaning of this law and that it caused or permitted some of its employees to labor without the prescribed rest in violation of the terms of the statute. Its defense is based solely and squarely on the contention that the law is unconstitutional and invalid. Its broad claim is that in attempting to limit the right of a male adult to contract for his labor in the pursuits named, the legislature violated the provisions of the Constitution both of the State and the United States which in substantially similar language provide that no person shall be deprived “ of life, liberty or property without due process of law,” and also the provisions of said Constitutions which respectively provide that “No member of this State shall be * * * deprived of any of the rights or privileges secured to any citizen thereof, unless by the law of the land, or the judgment of his peers,” and “No state shall * * * deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
We agree with the appellant that the statute cannot be sustained as one enforcing the religious observance of any day, but that it must be sustained, if at all, as a valid exercise of the police power of the state for the promotion and protection of the public health and welfare.
It is of course very familiar law that the legislature under its so-called police power may by enactments which really tend to accomplish such beneficial public purposes interfere in many and substantial ways with individual rights without being considered as in conflict with the constitutional safeguards which surround such individual. The doctrine that personal liberty must yield to what is supposed to be the public welfare has not waned any during recent years, and if the statute now before us comes within the principles which sanction and regulate such legislation it is not subject to the attack made upon its constitutionality. For the purpose of determining whether it is thus immune we shall first briefly consider its important features and purposes and the effects which it can be seen will naturally flow from its operation.
“ The purpose of (such) a statute must be determined from the natural and legal effect of the language employed; and whether it is or is not repugnant to the Constitution of the United States must he determined from the natural effect of such statutes when put into operation and not from their proclaimed purpose.” (Lochner v. New York, 198 U. S. 45, 64.)
We see at the outset that it is applicable only to certain classes of employees. But these are they who work in factories and mercantile establishments. We know as a matter of common observation that such labor is generally indoors and imposes that greater burden on health which comes from confinement many times accompanied by crowded conditions and impure air. Thus special conditions are presented which become a reasonable basis for special consideration.
Can we say that the provision for a full day of rest in seven for such employees is so extravagant and unreasonable, so disconnected with the probable promotion of health and welfare that its enactment is beyond the jurisdiction of the legislature ? Or does the very reverse seem to be its character ? We have no power of decision of the question whether it is the wisest and best way to offset these conditions and give to employees the protection which they need even if we had any doubt on that subject. ' That question, as we have many times said in other similar cases, is for the legislature. Our only inquiry must be whether the provision on its face seems reasonable, fair and appropriate, and whether it can fairly be believed that its natural consequences will be in the direction of betterment of public health and welfare, and, therefore, that it is one which the state for its protection and advantage may enact and enforce. It seems to me very clear that we may answer that it is such an one.
The thought of one day of' rest m seven has come down to us fortified by centuries of recognition.. It is true that often it has been coupled with and perhaps: subordinate to the desire for religious observance. But the idea of rest and relaxation from the pursuits of other days has .also been present and whether we like it or not we are compelled to see that in more recent times the feature