644 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



THE WAGE-CONTRACT AND PERSONAL LIBERTY.* 



By CONRAD RENO. 



IN this reply to that part of Mr. Atkinson's interesting article 

 which affirms that any State regulation of wages or of the 

 hours of work is necessarily an abridgment of personal liberty, 

 and therefore vicious and unjustifiable, the writer intends to con- 

 fine his attention to two propositions : (1) That the settlement of 

 labor disputes by the State does not necessarily involve an abridg- 

 ment of personal liberty ; (2) that compulsory arbitration through 

 a State tribunal is the remedy for labor disputes, strikes, and 

 lockouts. 



The virtues of the " age of contract " are extolled by all dis- 

 ciples of the individualist school of thought, from Mr. Herbert 

 Spencer to Mr. Edward Atkinson. Its superiority over the " age 

 of status " i. e., the age of slavery no one will deny. Its adop- 

 tion marks an upward step in the march of progress and civili- 

 zation. As a means of attaining justice the contract has many 

 advantages over the sword or brute force, by which human slav- 

 ery was established and maintained. The right of contract is not, 

 however, an end in itself (as this school seems to think), but 

 merely a means to an end ; and that end is justice. In the admin- 

 istration of justice experience has proved it to be necessary to 

 impose many restrictions upon the right of free contract. Judge 

 Ray has recently published a large legal work upon the subject 

 of Contractual Limitations, and most persons will be surprised at 

 the great number of restrictions that the law places upon this 

 right. A full list of such cases would be tiresome, and only the 

 more important ones will be mentioned. From time immemorial 

 it has been customary for the State to fix a maximum rate of in- 

 terest for the use of money, a maximum charge for the use of 

 ferries, hacks, etc., for the services of millers in grinding corn, 

 and a maximum charge of innkeepers and wharfingers for the use 

 of their premises. In recent years the State has also fixed a 

 maximum charge for the use of railroads and grain elevators. 

 The constitutionality of State statutes fixing grain-elevator charges 

 has been twice affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United 

 States within twenty years, and the highest courts of the great 

 States of New York and Illinois have also reached the same con- 

 clusion, f In the extensive class of insurance contracts the State 



* A reply to Mr. Edward Atkinson's paper on Personal Liberty, in The Popular Science 

 Monthly for February, 1892. 



f Munn vs. Illinois, 94 U. S., 113 ; Budd vs. New York, 143 D S., 317 ; People vs. Budd, 

 117 X. Y., 1 ; Munn vs. People, 69 111., so 



