45. Let the working man and the employer make free
agreements, and in particular let them agree freely as to the wages;
nevertheless, there underlies a dictate of natural justice more imperious and
ancient than any bargain between man and man, namely, that wages ought not to
be insufficient to support a frugal and well-behaved wage-earner. If through
necessity or fear of a worse evil the workman accept harder conditions because
an employer or contractor will afford him no better, he is made the victim of
force and injustice. In these and similar questions, however-such as, for
example, the hours of labor in different trades, the sanitary precautions to be
observed in factories and workshops, etc. - in order to supersede undue
interference on the part of the State, especially as circumstances, times, and
localities differ so widely, it is advisable that recourse be had to societies
or boards such as We shall mention presently, or to some other mode of
safeguarding the interests of the wage-earners; the State being appealed to,
should circumstances require, for its sanction and protection.
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