In 1918, Congress passed a law providing for the revising of minimum wages for women and children in the District of Columbia. Children’s Hospital itself had employed several adult women for wages mutually agreed upon that were satisfactory to all parties. However, the wages were less than required by federal law. Children’s Hospital brought suit in Federal District Court for the District of Columbia against Adkins, the federal official responsible for administering the minimum wage program, seeking to enjoin the program on the grounds that the minimum wage requirements interfered with the hospital’s Fifth Amendment Due Process right to contract freely. The district court denied the injunction, but the court of appeals reversed. Adkins appealed to the United States Supreme Court. So, Did the law interfere with the ability of employers and employees to enter into contracts with each other without assuring due process of law, a freedom guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment?
I think that if the government didn't interfere, America would have been stuck in the depression for much longer. If no one helped and the government just let the people suffer, there would have been an outrage from the people. In France, there was a revolution because the people weren't getting enough to eat, they were starving and the government wasn't helping them. This led to widespread anger and resentment of those in power and a strong desire to overthrow them.
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