PENDING PROBLEMS FOR WAGE-EARNERS. 69 



The eiglit-hour party has succeeded through political influence in mak- 

 ing eight hours a legal working day in governmental employment, and 

 largely also in municipal contracts, and violators of the law have been 

 rigorously prosecuted. A remarkable case occurred in Buffalo,* which 

 worked great hardship upon a citizen, and led to the decision of Justice 

 White, of the Superior Court at Buffalo, declaring the eight-hour law un- 

 constitutional, based upon the clause of the Constitution which provides 

 that no person "shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due 

 process of the law." That provision of the Constitution has been construed 

 to mean that the rights and privileges of a citizen to make contracts relat- 



wherever large operations are in progress, crowding out American labor by accepting lower 

 wages. In Texas and other border States invasions of Mexicans occur at regular intervals, 

 especially at sheep-shearing time ; these people contribute nothing to the wealth of the 

 country, and patronize the railways by walking home on the ties ! 



An investigation made by the Senate Committee on Immigration in 1893 (Senator Hill 

 chairman) developed the startling fact that Italian bankers remitted to Italy from New 

 York city alone twenty-five to thirty millions of dollars a year, largely savings of " Dago " 

 laborers, and a marked increase in wealth in certain sections of Italy has been traced 

 directly to money earned in the United States by these " birds of passage." Italians who 

 have become domiciled here for a few years are beginning to make incursions into skilled 

 labor fields where they were unknown formerly, and where even such a suggestion would 

 have been ridiculed. In the shoe trade, for example, it is said that large numbers of 

 Italians have been substituted for American workmen who went out on strike some 

 time ago. 



The facts stated in these various footnotes have been gathered at different times during 

 several years by the writer from a variety of independent sources, and it is only when 

 placed in juxtaposition that their true significance becomes apparent. These illustrations 

 are but a few samples of facts at hand that are too numerous to mention, and they present 

 practical problems for legislators and workers of far more importance than any theoretical 

 discussions. 



* " Henry J. Warren, Superintendent of the Barber Asphalt Company, was convicted by 

 a police court in Buffalo of a misdemeanor for a violation of this (eight-hour) section of the 

 Buffalo charter, and punished by imprisonment. From his conviction he appealed to the 

 Court of Sessions and to the General Term of the Supreme Court, where the conviction was 

 affirmed, the courts holding the act constitutional and the conviction valid. As Warren 

 could not by law appeal to the Court of Appeals in that case, he sued out a writ of habeas 

 corpus in the Supreme Court, to test the questions affecting the validity of the conviction, 

 and to inquire by what authority he was restrained of his liberty. This proceeding is a 

 good illustration of the efficacy of the ancient writ of habeas corpus, for, although the Special 

 and General Terms of the Supreme Court dismissed the writ, and again declared the pro- 

 hibitory statute constitutional and the accused properly convicted ; yet upon an appeal to the 

 Court of Appeals the decisions of the lower courts were reversed, and the arrest, trial, and 

 conviction declared without jurisdiction and void. 



" After this long and tedious fight Warren was released, only to be arrested again for a 

 violation of the eight-hour law, this time for employing an alien Italian laborer. He was 

 indicted by the grand jury, and convicted in the Superior Court at Buffalo. His counsel 

 contended that the act in question, so far as it seemed to prohibit the employment of alien 

 laborers upon public works, was repugnant to the Federal and State Constitutions and to 

 the treaty between the United States and Italy. Upon an appeal to the General Term of 

 the Superior Court, the act, so far as relates to the employment of aliens, was declared un- 

 constitutional, and Warren was discharged." (People vs. Warren, 77 Hun., 120; People 

 ex ret. Warren vs. Sheriff, 144 N. Y., 225.) 



