take another step in the same direction. It must establish social justice.1 Justice may, then, be described as the effort to eliminate from our social conditions the effects of the inequalities of Nature upon the happiness and advancement of man, and particularly to create an artificial environment which shall serve the individual as well as the race, and tend to perpetuate noble types rather than those which are base.2 These general statements have already done much to modify the practical conception of justice. As they come to be more generally understood they will do more. They give expression to a new view. Social justice lays down. for us a new rule. That new rule must become a part of our constitution. No constitutional amendments are necessary. All that is needed is to have the new meaning read into the present phrases. The new principle must be a guide for our courts as well as for our legislatures and our administrative departments. We are fast approaching the time when our progress must cease until this idea is embodied in our constitutional law. The practical application of these new lines of development will appear in a new interpretation of our constitutional phrases. Instead of saying, as did the New York court of appeals (People v. Coler), that "a law that restricts freedom of contract on the part of both master and servant cannot, in the end, operate to the benefit of either;" it may be held that as a matter of fact as industry is at present organized a law restricting freedom of contract on the part of both employer and employee may and cften will in the end operate to the benefit of both. With this new view of the situation, legislation that forbids the employer from em 1 Ward, Applied Sociology, pp. 23, 24. 2 Kelly, Government or Human Evolution, vol. i, p. 360. ploying any one under certain prescribed conditions will no longer appear as an invasion of the freedom of the workmen but rather as an insurance to him of that freedom guaranteed to him in the constitution. Freedom of contract, to repeat, is not an end in itself. It is clearly a means to accomplishing an end. When this end is defeated by the very means that are intended to accomplish it, then it seems that the means may fairly be held to be unconstitutional. That end may be expressed as "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness,” “life, liberty and property," or "social justice." They must be the same. If legal limitation of freedom of contract furthers the ends of social justice by equalizing the conditions of bargaining it cannot be in violation of the real purpose of the constitution. If the things of fundamental importance are to remain in our present industrial state and at the same time social justice be realized, competition must be preserved as a factor in distribution between employer and employee. Strengthening the employee should be allowed if in fact it equalizes the competition. This question of fact cannot be answered in generalizations from a discarded political philosophy. Thus our view changes. Regulative laws heretofore held unconstitutional are in fact a protection to constitutional privileges and therefore they are a constitutional necessity. They are not only not positively unconstitutional; they are positively constitutional. They both modernize and vitalize these honored phrases with a new and a larger life. A new meaning is given to the constitution. The way is opened for it to do for twentieth century civilization what it has done for nineteenth century civilization. INDEX Absurd conclusions, 226, 383 et seq. Factory legislation, 15 Amendment, 393, 394 376, Bakers, 24, 312, 350, 370. (See also Barbers. (See hours of labor.) 81-85; favorable view, 96; un- Closed shop. (See Union shop.) Commissions and experts, value of, 368 General propositions, value of, 234, 244 Holmes, Mr. Justice, 31, 157, 374 374; Just wages, 343 Common law, relation to masses, Complexity of problems, 13 Justice, social, 396 Legal theory not modern, 360 (See hours Money, payment of wages, 264 Precedent, court attitude toward, 16; binding force of, 20, 346, 240, 244 Private property, right to, 349 Referee, 371, 372 Require or permit" clause, 344 solute and relative, 215, 243 Strike, 57; definition of, 57-62; de- fense of, 63; purpose of sum- 112 Taft, Judge W. H., 74, 84, 90, 104, Tenements, 334 et seq., 349, 369 Unionism, 136 et seq.; legislation, 144 Wages, payment of, 261 et seq.; just, 343; money payment, fav- Ward, Professor 396 Studies in History, Economics and Public Law Edited by the Faculty of Political Science of Columbia University VOLUME I, 1891-92. 2nd Ed., 1897. 396 pp. (Sold only in Sets.) 1. The Divorce Problem. A Study in Statistics. By WALTER A. WILLCOX, Ph.D. Price, 75 cents. 2. The History of Tariff Administration in the United States, from Colonial Times to the McKinley Administrative Bill, By JOHN DEAN Goss, Ph.D. Price, $1.00. 3. History of Municipal Land Ownership on Manhattan Island. 4. Financial History of Massachusetts. By GEORGE ASHTON BLACK, Ph.D. Price, $1.00. By CHARLES H. J. DOUGLAS, Ph.D. (Not sold separately.) VOLUME II, 1892-93. (See note on page 4.) 1. The Economics of the Russian Village. By ISAAC A. HOURWICH, Ph.D. (Out of print.) 2. Bankruptcy. A Study in Comparative Legislation. By SAMUEL W. 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