STUDIES IN HISTORY, ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC LAW EDITED BY THE FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE Volume XLII] [Whole Number 108 ATTITUDE OF AMERICAN COURTS A Study in Social Legislation BY GEORGE GORHAM GROAT, Ph.D. The Constitution of the United States was made for an undefined and expanding future, and for a people gathered and to be gathered from many nations and of many tongues. . . . We shall expect that the new and various experiences of our own situation and system will mold and shape it into new and not less useful forms. JUDGE PARKER. It must be remembered that even the constitutions we call rigid must take their choice between being bent and being broken. The Americans have more than once bent their Constitution in order that they might not be forced to break it. . . . And it has stood because it has submitted to a process of constant though sometimes scarcely perceptible change which has adapted it to the conditions of the new age. JAMES BRYCE. The true grounds of decision are considerations of policy and of social advantage, and it is vain to suppose that solutions can be attained merely by logic and general propositions of law which nobody disputes. Propositions as to public policy rarely are unanimously accepted, and still more rarely, if ever, are capable of unanswerable proof. They require a special training to enable any one even to form an intelligent opinion about them. JUSTICE HOLMES. PREFACE THE purpose of this volume is to present the various views expressed by judges in their decisions in labor cases. They are stated as nearly as possible in the words of the judges themselves by means of liberal quotations from opinions. Intended for the student of social questions who is interested in the relations of capital and labor, it aims to show the political, economic and social principles that guide the courts in the solution of the problems that come before them. While it is true that courts always deal with particular cases and decide only specific questions, yet principles of necessity enter into their opinions and guide them to their conclusions. These principles this volume seeks to reveal by presenting in compact form the several lines of argument which support the decisions. It is believed that only by reading the views of the courts as expressed in their own words can they be clearly understood. The discussion has been purposely restricted to those principles and problems that are still unsettled. The wide field in which principles are well established and where questions only of technical or minor significance are raised has not been entered. Since the purpose is to set forth the various conflicting views that obtain, the reader must be warned not to consult these pages for information as to the exact status of the law in any particular jurisdiction. Further it should be said that while in the discussion views may be expressed that are contrary to those advanced by judges in determining the law, it must be understood that no effort is made to urge that the law is not what it is. |