The following matter omitted by error belongs on page 143, in lieu of that Applicants must prove themselves practically skilled and reasonably versed in the laws of electricity. Masters and journeymen must be at least 21 years of age and have had three years' general experience; two years' experience is re- quired of applicants for a special license. Masters must give bond conditioned on the faithful performance of their work, in the amount of $5,000. A holder of a journeyman's license may receive a master's license on the giving of such BULLETIN OF THE U. S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS. WHOLE NO. 148. WASHINGTON. APRIL 10, 1914. LABOR LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES, WITH DECISIONS OF COURTS RELATING THERETO. INTRODUCTION. Labor laws enacted in the United States have been published from time to time in the form of special reports and in the bulletins of this Bureau. The first undertaking in the way of a compilation. of all the laws comprised the Second Special Report of the Commissioner of Labor, appearing in 1892. It included legislation in force at the close of the year 1890. Digests were made of mechanics' lien and apprenticeship laws, and a list of legal holidays was given. A somewhat more inclusive construction was given to the term "Labor Laws" than that now followed by the Bureau, but a volume of 507 pages of law text, i. e., omitting summaries, index, etc., embodied the total labor legislation of that date. A revision of this report in 1896, including legislation up to the beginning of that year, was the next compilation. In this volume mechanics' lien laws were reproduced at length, and this extension, together with new legislation, brought the number of pages of law text up to 1,178. The third compilation appeared in 1904 and included the laws in force at the beginning of that year. A number of changes were introduced at this time, notably the incorporation of side notes as a guide to the material reproduced and the placing of annotations from court decisions in connection with the laws to which they relate instead of in an appendix, as was done in the edition of 1896. The classification of labor laws was made somewhat stricter, and digests were made of convict labor laws and mechanics' lien laws. This resulted in holding the law text to 1,296 pages despite the narrowing of the text page by the use of the side notes. The growth of labor legislation in the following years led to a further economizing of space in the next revision, which included the legislation of 1907, by digesting the laws on added subjects. However, the volume grew to 1,419 pages of law text, besides 105 pages of digests and an index of 22 pages. The current report is the fifth in order and the third by the present editor in direct charge of the work. The plan of the two preceding compilations is followed, except that the list of laws digested is again lengthened by adding those requiring the examination and licensing or registration of persons as a condition to permitting their engaging in certain employments. Laws relating to workmen's compensation are omitted, for reasons set forth in a subsequent paragraph. Legislation up to the beginning of 1914 is included, together with orders of the State boards of New York and Wisconsin, which under the laws of these States have the force of laws. In view of the constant and considerable growth of legislation from year to year it may be of interest to note the lines of special activity. In 1908 and 1909 attention was given largely to the subject of employers' liability, the common-law defenses being abrogated or modified in a number of States. Fifty-four laws were enacted in 32 States affecting the employment of women and children. In 1910 the subject of workmen's compensation claimed legislative attention, a number of commissions being created, and the first act of general application enacted. Retirement and pension funds are another form of social insurance that received attention from two legislatures this year. In 1911 the question of workmen's compensation occupied a much more prominent place than before, and in a number of States occupational diseases received attention. These two subjects held places of increasing importance during the next two years, while the kindred problems of accident prevention and accident reporting were also legislated on. The employment of women and children continued to receive a large amount of attention, and in 1913 the subjects of minimum wages and of support for mothers of dependent children became prominent. The conditions affecting employees in mines and on railways have also given rise to a considerable body of laws through all the years named. The provisions of the State constitutions and the laws enacted up to December 31, 1913, on the subject of workmen's compensation have been published in Bulletin No. 126 of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and to avoid duplication and to reduce the bulk and cost of this compilation these laws have been omitted from the present Bulletin. It is believed, too, that persons desiring to study the subject of compensation legislation will prefer to use the Bulletin named on account of its discussion of such laws and the tabular and analytical matter contained therein. The annotations from court decisions are necessarily brief, and are in no respect exhaustive. Special attention has been given, however, to opinions declaring laws constitutional, though by far the greater number of the laws are enforced without their constitutionality being challenged. The citations refer chiefly to opinions by the Federal and higher State courts. All laws that have been declared uncon stitutional by a court of competent jurisdiction have been omitted from this work, but were reviewed with practical completeness up to November, 1910 (the date of the publication), in Bulletin No. 91 of this Bureau, together with the decisions holding them unconstitutional. Besides unconstitutional laws, laws apparently superseded by later enactments have been omitted as a rule, even though not expressly repealed, and in some instances appearing in the compilations of State laws used in preparing this volume. It is believed that the presentation of certain laws in a digested or summary form has in no way lessened the practical value of the compilation. The laws selected for this treatment are such as yield readily to a summarization without loss of clearness of statement, those that are of so uniform a type that a mere statement of the subject of the enactment or the reproduction of a single statute is practically a presentation of all, and those whose classification as labor laws is possible only by a somewhat liberal construction of the term. Under the first head may be mentioned laws governing apprenticeships, lien laws, and laws protecting the wages of employees of contractors engaged in the construction of public works, railroads, etc. In the second class may be placed the laws giving to married women the control of their own earnings, laws exempting mechanics, etc., from the requirement of procuring peddlers' licenses, laws making stockholders of corporations individually liable for the wage debts of such corporations, the laws protecting the trade-marks or labels adopted by trade-unions, and laws providing for the examination and licensing or registration of certain classes of workmen; while in the third class are laws granting a right of action for injuries causing death, laws governing the hours of labor on the public roads, laws requiring public printing to be done within the State, laws providing for the organizing of cooperative associations either for purposes of production or of distribution, laws authorizing the appointment of industrial police, laws declaring what are legal holidays, and convict labor laws. Some of these laws might be classed in more than one of the above groups but this classification is believed to indicate fairly the reasons that have controlled in the selections made. Besides the above classes of laws, laws relating to the labor conditions of seamen have been omitted, with the exception of the Federal laws relating thereto, because the labor contract for this class of employees differs widely from the ordinary form of the employment contract, so that the subject is of little interest to the great body of labor, and because the Federal statutes on the subject may be considered as presenting the essentials of such laws. Laws relating to shipping masters and to sailors' boarding houses are retained, owing to their analogy to laws governing employment offices generally. A number of transitory laws also receive attention in this section, particularly those providing for commissions to investigate conditions and report bills for laws, the growth of this method of procedure in connection with new legislation being especially notable within recent years. The following table shows, for each State and Territory, the date of the code, revision, or compilation of laws used, the latest session laws examined, and the frequency of the sessions, whether annual or biennial: DATE OF CODE, REVISION, OR COMPILATION OF LAWS USED AND OF LATEST SESSION LAWS EXAMINED. |