On it hangs the validity of nearly all the laws which have been passed in the United States for the protection of women workers.

If the Oregon law had been declared unconstitutional, laws in twenty States, or practically all the States where women work in factories, would have been in perpetual danger, and the United States might easily have sunk to a position occupied now by no leading country in Europe.
Great Britain has had protective legislation for women workers since 1844.

In 1847 the labor of women in English textile mills was limited to ten hours a day, the period we are now worrying about, as being possibly contrary to our Constitution.

France, within the past five years, has established a ten-hour day, broken by one hour of rest.

Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Austria, Italy, limit the hours of women's labor.