Public health notes

Abstract

s by D. GazaNx, Mf. D., JAMs A. ToB3Y and Hoxum N. CALvI. United States Supreme Court Holds Child Labor Law UnconstitutionaL-The Federal Child Labor Tax law which provided a tax on aIl manufacturing establishments in which children under 14 years were employed or children between 14 and 16 years employed more than eight hours a day or more than 6 days a week, was held unconstitutional on May 15, 1922. The opinion of the Court was delivered by Chief Justice Taft. In it he declared that the question was whether the child labor tax law was really an excise or whether it was a regulation of the employment of child labor within the states. The Court was of the opinion that obviously the legislation was aimed at restriction and regulation of the employment of child labor and was not merely for the purpose of raising revenue. Such regulation of a state function is not within the federal jurisdiction as the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution reserves to the states all powers not especially delegated to the Federal Government nor prohibited by the Constitution to the states. Under the clause in the Constitution, the states derive their police power and their supreme jurisdiction over all matters within the borders of their own states. The Court stated that if such legislation were allowed, it would break down all constitutional limitations of the powers of Congress and completely wipe out the sovereignty of the states. The tax is called a penalty to coerce the people of a state to act as Congress wishes them to act in a matter which is strictly state business. The Court seems to recognize the evils of child labor by stating "We can not avoid our duty, even though it require us to refuse to give effect to legislation designed to promote the highest good. The good sought in unconstitutional legislation is an insidious feature because it leads citizens and legislators of good purpose to promote it without thought of the serious breach it will make in the ark of our covenant or the harm which will come from breaking down recognized standards." It will be remembered that the federal law prohibiting transportation in interstate commerce of goods made at a factory where child labor was employed was held unconstitutional several years ago. (Hammer v. Dagenhart, 247 U. S. 251.) It would seem, therefore, that the only way in which federal control of child labor can be obtained is by an a&endment to the federal Constitution. (J. A. T.) Politics and the Health Officer.-"An intelligent and enterprising young officer, a graduate of one of the foremost medical schools in the country, who devoted full time and expert knowledge to the protection of .the health of his community, has recently been forced out of office after a political turnover in an Eastern city. His place has been taken by a physician with antiquated notions and scant acquaintance with modern scientific methods of controlling disease, whose only qualification for the position seems to be the fact that he occupied it before when the same party was in power. He spends an hour or so a day at the health department and draws the same salary, $4,500 a year, which his predecessor earned. "New York can take no pharisaic attitude toward other states in this matter. As a result of upstate elections in the fall of 1921, six city health officers, most of them experienced and competent men, have been displaced, in some cases to the definite detriment of community health interests. Yet, .... New York has a statute adopted last year which makes it possible for any second or third class city to go a long way in eliminating politics from its health department. Chapter 249 of the laws of 1921 permits any such city to abolish the old-fashioned, cumbersome, and too often irresponsible board of health, and to substitute a modern, single-headed health department. The fact that so many other states have imitated New York State's public-health law and its state health administration under a single commissioner goes to prove the merits of this plan in theory and in practice. By the voluntary adoption of the 1921 statute the cities of the State should likewise set themselves in the vanguard of progress in local health administration. "Why, indeed, should any American city take chances with its public health? It is perhaps too much to expect that all technical public services will be withdrawn from politics in the near future, but if there is any department of public affairs in which an immediate effort