[Footnote 1:_Ibid_., p. 10.]

[Footnote 2:  Ibid., pp. 11 and 12.]

It will be seen that the more enlightened European countries arrived, under the influence of Napoleon probably, or the French Revolution, in the early part of the last century, to the point of specifically adopting the English common law of liberty of labor and trade which “organized labor” seems already desirous of departing from; but the German Civil Code goes on to say (Section 611):  “By the contract of hiring of services the person who promises service is obliged to render the promised service, and the other party is obliged to the payment of the salary or wage agreed upon.  All nature of services may be the subject of the service contract.”  It would seem, therefore, that the contract may be specifically enforced.  So, in France, by the law of 1890, “A person can only bind himself to give his services for a certain time or a special enterprise.  The hiring of services made without a fixed duration can always cease at the wish of one of the contracting parties.  Nevertheless, the cancellation of the contract at the wish of one only of the contracting parties may give rise to damages.”  It would appear, therefore, that definite contracts may be specifically enforced, Austria has somewhat similar laws, although a larger proportion of industrial employment is subject to state regulation, and here no employer can employ any workingman without a book or passbook, which serves both as identification and record.  Generally in Europe the use of a written contract in labor engagements is far more usual than with us.  This, perhaps, makes it easier to enforce such contracts specifically.  Nevertheless, I find no specific statute on the subject.  Indeed, the Code Napoleon adopts the English law and provides[1] that “every obligation to do or not to do resolves itself into damages in the case of non-performance,” while the modern English law act of 1875 provides a special and summary remedy in the county courts for labor disputes whereby when the contract is not rescinded the court may award damages or take security for the performance of the labor contract itself.  This, however, does not include domestic servants.  Both France and Belgium copy the common law as to slavery, requiring contracts to be for a certain time or a determined work.  In Russia, however, contracts may be made for five years.

[Footnote 1:  Ibid., p. 64.]

It is still true that no European country outside of Turkey has yet fixed by law the amount of wages in private employments or the minimum amount, though that result is effected by the machinery of arbitration in Great Britain and New Zealand.  Continental countries, however, universally legislate as to hours of labor even of adult women, there being no constitutional principle protecting their personal liberty in that particular, although in Belgium and Great Britain the laws do not, as a rule, apply to adult male labor.