Ward Hunt

“ First, It does not establish the price to be paid for a day's work. Skilled labor necessarily commands a higher price than mere manual labor, and whether wages are high or low depends chiefly upon the inquiry whether those having labor to bestow are more numerous than those who desire the service of the laborer. The English statute-books are full of assizes of bread and ale, commencing as early as the reign of Henry II., and regulations of labor, and many such are to be found in the statutes of the serveral States. ”

“ Second, The statute does not provide that the employer and the laborer may not agree with each other as to what time shall constitute a day's work. There are some branches of labor, connected with furnaces, foundries, steam or gas works, where the labor and the exposure of eight hours a day would soon exhaust the strength of a laborer, and render him permanently an invalid. ”

“ At that time ordinary laborers under the same government received but $1.75 per day at the same place, and those engaged in the same department with the claimant in a private establishment, at the same place, received but $2 for a day's work of twelve hours, and the finding adds, 'they had more work to do than the claimant had while similarly employed.' The claimant's contract was a voluntary and a reasonable one, by which he must now be bound. ”