What was the purpose of the Adamson Act?

The Adamson Act takes "liberty" and "property." Is the taking justified? Is it "due process"? The test of "due process" is whether the act has a "substantial and rational" or "reasonable" relation to the welfare of the public or any part of the public. Clearly it has some rational relation to the public welfare. The question then is, whether that is "substantial" or "reasonable." This is determined by balancing all the interests of society involved and determining whether the preponderant effect of the act is such that any generalization resulting from sustaining it will open an unobstructed way for attack by the legislature upon a fundamental condition of the existence of the social order. The performance of this balancing process is a technique as well as the application of a legalistic formula. It clearly involves some conception of the fundamentals of the social structure.

Act Within Sustaining Principle.

Against the validity of the act is the fundamental principle of the social order that industry and commerce shall be run by managers competitively selected and wielding the power which comes from the control of privately owned property rather than by the flats of legislators politically influenced and selected. The fact that the act fixes wages instead of leaving it to the free contract of the parties violates this principle. On the other hand, it is equally a fundamental principle of the social order that information shall be obtainable for use by the government, the parties in interest, and the public for guidance in action. If the government desires information as a guide to determine whether it shall take steps looking toward the government ownership of railways, it should be permitted to get it. If the railroads and the employees need information for the purpose of collective bargaining, it is of fundamental importance to society that they should be able to secure it. So if the public which is affected by a strike or a labor dispute between railway employees and managers want information in order that they may throw the weight of their support on one side or the other, it is fundamental that they should be able to obtain it. The fact that the Adamson Act directs an eight-months' experiment to be made, in order to provide information as to a wage dispute (1) for the benefit of the government in guiding it on a matter of ultimate government ownership, or on any other matter upon which it has power to legislate; (2) for the benefit of the parties in advising them as to the basis of their collective bargaining; and (3) for the benefit of the public, to enable them to determine their attitude toward each disputant, brings the Act within a principle which tends to sustain it.

When the conflicting aspects of the act are balanced, the predominant effect of the legislation is plainly to secure information by requiring an experiment to be made. In laying down an eight-hour day as the measure of a day's pay and requiring that wages be not reduced, the Act merely fixes the necessary outlines of the experiment. The commission is appointed so that the information obtained by the experiment may be intelligently presented. The fact that the operation of the Act is strictly limited to not more than eight months, is the strongest single fact which gives the Act its predominant effect as an effort to secure information by experiment. The predominant effect of the Act, therefore, is such that sustaining it will not open any unobstructed way for attack by the legislature upon any fundamental condition of the existence of the social order. The decision does not in the least tend to establish that wage fixing acts are "due processes of law." The dissenting judges in performing the process of balancing the interests must have regarded the predominant effect of the Act as one which substituted the legislative flat for the freedom of the railroad managers to contract with employees as to wages.

When there were some stiff conditions for the laborers, in the absence of laws to protect them from the oppression of employers, several laws were passed at different times in history. One such is the Adamson Act of 1916. Historyplex decodes this Act for your better understanding.

To this day…

The headquarters of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) still retains the hard-copy of the Adamson Act which was passed by President Wilson. The pen used to sign the Act is also a prized possession of BLET.

With Woodrow Wilson embarking the power as President, there came the phase of New Freedom, which called for several reforms. One of these was the enactment of an eight-hour working day for the railroad employees, which was instituted and enacted in 1916. With this deduction in the working hours, there was no deduction in the pay of these employees. This meant that the workers were expected to complete a 40-hour working term each week, and any overtime would be rewarded and compensated for. This came to be known as the Adamson Act. The Adamson Act of 1916 is also known as the Eight-hour Standard Workday Act.

Let’s check out some important aspects related to this landmark Act.

ADAMSON ACT-1916: Summary and Significance

► There are loads of state and federal laws which protect the rights of workers and assign certain guidelines for employers. On such law is the Adamson Act, which was passed in the year 1916.

► It was one amongst the many railway laws that were passed before the Railway Labor Act was passed in 1926.

► In the wake of industrialization and modernization, business enterprises flourished like never before. There was this ruthless tendency to amass wealth in the shortest time-frame possible.

► This triggered continuous labor on the part of the workers. One such industry which progressed at the cost of the interest of its workers was the railways.

► The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) established in 1863, was one of the organizations which propelled the government to bring significant changes in the course of labor in the railways.

► In collaboration with other pro-rail labor organizations, BLET began the cause to render the 24-hour work pattern illegal.

► The cause was successful with the Hours of Service Act coming into place in 1907, which set the maximum time span to 16 hours each day. Then the Adamson Act was passed in 1916, the first ever law to grant excess pay for overtime.

ADAMSON ACT: What Did it Do?

► One of the most significant, direct, and immediate results of the Act was the ceasing of labor strikes which occurred and impacted the US efforts during the First World War.

► The Act was passed fearing the breakout of a strike by rail workers, which would have wreaked major problems upon America, prior to and during World War I.

► It is worth noting that any person who violated any provision of the Act would be inviting a punishment of a fine of $100 – $1,000, or would undergo an imprisonment of up to one year, or would be slapped with both these punishments, depending on the severity of the crime.

Although there is no concrete evidence, it can be stated that when Ford Motor Company reduced its working hours from nine to eight, many other competitors trod the same line, because of the company’s rapid increase in quality and productivity. The employers had initially suggested a pay hike instead of the reduction of working hours. However, sooner than later, Wilson facilitated the enactment of this Act anyway.

What did the Adamson Act established in the United States?

What was Adamson Act 1916?