Frank Murphy

“ No doubt there are philosophers who would argue, what is implicit in the decision now rendered, that in a complex modern society there is such interdependence of its members that the activities of most of them are necessary to the activities of most others. But I think that Congress did not make that philosophy the basis of the coverage of the Fair Labor Standards Act. It did not, by a 'house-that-Jack-built' chain of causation bring within the sweep of the statute the ultimate causa causarum which result in the production of goods for commerce. ”

“ The fact that it is convenient or even necessary for the president of the company to ride in an elevator does not seem to me to meet the requirement of the statute that the occupation must be one necessary to the physical process of production. ”

“ But nothing then decided or said seems to me to justify our saying that the elevator men and other maintenance employees in an office building, in which no manufacturing is done, either participate in or are necessary to the manufacturing process, because tenants of its building are executive or administrative officers of a company which does manufact ring elsewhere. ”