One group of laws in which labor is vitally interested is laws touching the right of the workers to organize.  Many of the most important judicial decisions in labor cases have turned upon this point.  In this are involved the right to fold arms, and peacefully to suggest to others to do the same; the right to band together not to buy non-union goods, and peacefully to persuade others not to buy.

One angle from which labor views all law-making is that of administration.  A law may be beneficial.  It is in danger on two sides.  The first the risk of being declared unconstitutional, a common fate for the most advanced legislation in this country; or, safe on that side, it may be so carelessly or inefficiently administered as to be almost useless.  In both cases, strong unions have a great influence in deciding the fate and the practical usefulness of laws.

Whether in the making, the confirming, or the administering of laws, the trade unions form the most important channel through which the wishes of the workers can be expressed.  Organized labor does not speak only for trade unionists; it necessarily, in almost every case, speaks for the unorganized as well, partly because the needs of both are usually the same, and partly because there is no possible method by which the wishes of the working people can be ascertained, save through the accepted representatives of the organized portion of the workers.

An excellent illustration of how business can and does adjust itself to meet changing legal demands is seen in what happened when the Ten-Hour Law came in force in the state of Illinois in July, 1909.

The women clerks on the elevated railroads of Chicago, who had been in the habit of working twelve hours a day for seven days a week at $1.75 a day, were threatened with dismissal, and replacement by men.  But what happened?  At first they had to accept as a compromise a temporary arrangement under which they received eleven hours’ pay for ten hours’ work.  Their places were not, however, filled by men, and now, they are receiving for their ten-hour day $1.90 or 15 cents more than they had previously been paid for a twelve-hour day, and in addition they now are given every third Sunday off duty.  This showed the good results of the law, particularly when there was a strong organization behind the workers.  Mercantile establishments came in under the amended Ten-hour Law two years later.

The new law was, on the whole, wonderfully well observed in Chicago, and as far as I have been able to learn, in the smaller towns as well.  There were some violations discovered, and plenty more, doubtless, remained undiscovered.  But the defaulting employers must have been very few compared with the great majority of those who met its requirement faithfully and intelligently.  The proprietors and managers of the large Chicago department stores, for instance, worked out beforehand a plan of shifts by which they were able to handle