courts tend to react into conservatism, and as the Western legislatures try many more startling experiments than are usually attempted in Massachusetts or New Jersey, the more intelligent public opinion has to depend on the courts to apply the curb.  All this, of course, is a great mistake; for it forces undue responsibility on the courts, at least tends to control in an improper way the appointment of judges, and at best forces the most upright judge into a position where he should not be put—­that of being a kind of king or lord chamberlain, with power to set aside improper or wrong legislation.

With these preliminary remarks we are now prepared to examine the legislation as it exists to-day (1910); cautioning our readers that this subject, as indeed all others concerning labor legislation, is so often tinkered in all our States as to make our statements of little permanent value, except that restrictions once imposed are rarely repealed.  We may assume, therefore, that the law is at least as radical as it is herein presented.

The hours of labor of adults, males, in ordinary industries remain as yet unrestricted by law in any State of the Union; but several States have laws making a certain number of hours a day’s work in the absence of contract;[1] and New York and a few other States have an eight-hour day in “public” work—­that is to say, work directly for the State or any municipality or for a contractor undertaking such work.[2]

[Footnote 1:  Thus eight hours (California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin); ten hours (Florida, Maine, Michigan—­with pay for overtime—­Minnesota, Montana, Maryland—­for manufacturing corporations—­Nebraska, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, South Carolina—­in cotton and woollen mills—­in New Jersey), fifty-five hours a week in factories; in Georgia eleven hours in manufacturing establishments, or from sunrise to sunset by all persons under twenty-one, mealtimes excluded (see below).  But these laws do not usually apply to agricultural or domestic employment or to persons hired by the month.]

[Footnote 2:  In public work, that is, work done for the State, or any county or municipality or for contractors therefor, the eight-hour day is prescribed (California, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Porto Rico, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and the United States).  But the provisions for overtime and compensation for overtime differ considerably.]