e scope of the absorption
into the Fourteenth Amendment of the procedural protection afforded by
the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments are included in the
material hereinafter presented under the subtitle, Criminal Proceedings.

Liberty of Contract (Labor Relations)

In General.--Liberty of contract, a concept originally advanced
by Justices Bradley and Field in the Slaughter-House Cases,[123] was
elevated to the status of accepted doctrine in 1897 in Allgeyer _v._
Louisiana.[124] Applied repeatedly in subsequent cases as a restraint on
State power, freedom of contract has also been alluded to as a property
right, as is evident in the language of the Court in Coppage _v._
Kansas:[125] "Included in the right of personal liberty and the right of
private property--partaking of the nature of each--is the right to make
contracts for the acquisition of property. Chief among such contracts is
that of personal employment, by which labor and other services are
exchanged for money or other forms of property. If this right be struck
down or arbitrarily interfered with, there is a substantial impairment
of liberty in the long-established constitutional sense."

However, by a process of reasoning that was almost completely discarded
during the depression, the Court was nevertheless able, prior thereto,
to sustain State ameliorative legislation by acknowledging that freedom
of contract was "a qualified and not an absolute right. * * * Liberty
implies the absence of arbitrary restraint, not immunity from reasonable
regulations and prohibitions imposed in the interests of the community.
* * * In dealing with the relation of the employer and employed, the
legislature has necessarily a wide field of discretion in order that
there may be suitable protection of health and safety, and that peace
and good order may be promoted through regulations designed to insure
wholesome conditions of work and freedom from oppression."[126] Through
observance of such qualifying statement the Court was induced to uphold
the following types of labor legislation.

Laws Regulating Hours of Labor.--The due process clause has
been construed as permitting enactment by the States of laws: (1)
limiting the hours of labor in mines and smelters to eight hours per
day;[127] (2) prescribing eight hours a day or a maximum of 48 hours per
week as a limitation of the hours at which women may labor;[128] and (3)
providing that no person shall work in any m