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Subject Area: Law
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

§ 103.: Regulations of factories, mines and workshops—Sweatshops. 1 — - Christopher G. Tiedeman, A Treatise on State and Federal Control of Persons and Property in the United States considered from both a Civil and Criminal Standpoint, vol. 1 [1900]

Edition used:

A Treatise on State and Federal Control of Persons and Property in the United States considered from both a Civil and Criminal Standpoint (St. Louis: The F.H. Thomas Law Book Co., 1900). Vol. 1.

Part of: A Treatise on State and Federal Control of Persons and Property in the United States considered from both a Civil and Criminal Standpoint, 2 vols.

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§ 103.

Regulations of factories, mines and workshops—Sweatshops.1 —

The safety and health of a large body of workmen, gathered together in one place, a mine, factory or workshop, are peculiarly endangered, if proper precautions are not taken by the employer against the sources of danger. And, everywhere, we find statutes, both varied and numerous, which require employers and the owners of buildings which are used as workshops, and the owners of mines, to do certain things, which are declared by statute to be necessary for the protection of the workman. Inspectors are generally appointed to see that the statutory regulations are observed. These regulations in the main are all reasonable safeguards, and their constitutionality has been rarely questioned.2 An enumeration and explanation of them is for that reason not necessary in this place. Some of these regulations are, however, in direct opposition to the old common law theory of the nonliability of the employer for injuries sustained by the employee, either through accident or the carelessness or negligence of the fellow-servant. And, so far as a regulation does have the effect of changing these rules of law, an opportunity for questioning its constitutionality might arise. Thus, the constitution of Mississippi provides that “knowledge by an employee injured of the defective or unsafe character or condition of any machinery, ways, or appliances shall be no defense to an action for injury caused thereby.”3 A Pennsylvania statute required owners of coal mines to employ a foreman, who shall be certified by a State official to be competent, whose duty shall be, on every alternate day, to examine every working place in the mine and direct it to be properly secured, and to permit no one to work in an unsafe place except to put it into a safe condition. The act was held to be unconstitutional in that it made the employer liable for injuries which had been caused by the wrongful act of a fellow-servant.1

[1]See post, § 147, for a further discussion of sanitary and other regulations of premises which are devoted to purposes of trade and work.

[2]In New York, it was held that a law, prohibiting the manufacture of cigars in a tenement house, was an unconstitutional interference with personal liberty. In the matter of Jacobs, 98 N. Y. 98. See post, § 147, for a full presentation of this case.

[3]This provision was held to be self-executing, and needed no statute to put into operation. Illinois Central Ry. Co. v. Ihlenberg, 75 Fed. 873.

[1]Durkin v. Kingston Coal Co., 171 Pa. St. 193. But see People v. Smith, 108 Mich. 527, where it was held that the State may, in the exercise of the police power, make all regulations for the protection of those who are engaged in dangerous employments.