There shall be no fee or compensation charged or received, directly or indirectly, from persons applying for employment, or from those desiring to employ labor through said bureau.

There shall be appointed by the commissioner of labor, for such bureau, one superintendent, who may be removed by the commissioner for good and sufficient cause, such appointment to be made immediately after this act becomes a law, and thereafter at the commencement of the biennial session of the legislature; the salary of such superintendents shall not exceed ($1,200) twelve hundred dollars per annum.

SEC. 2. The superintendent of such bureau shall receive and record in a book to be kept for that purpose, the names of all persons applying for employment, as well as the name and address of all persons, firms or corporations applying to employ labor, designating opposite the name and address of each applicant the character of employment desired or offered.

Such superintendent shall also perform such other duties in the collection of labor statistics, and in the keeping of books and accounts of his bureau as the commissioner may direct or require, and shall report monthly all business transacted by his bureau, to the office of the commissioner of labor, at the State capitol.

SEC. 3. Every application for employment by employer or employee which is made to the free employment bureau shall be void after thirty days from its receipt, unless the same be renewed by the applicant. When an applicant for labor has secured the same, he shall within ten days thereafter, notify the superintendent of the bureau upon a notification card provided for that purpose.

If any such applicant neglects to notify such superintendent, he or they shall be debarred from all future rights and privileges of such employment bureau at the discretion of the commissioner of labor, to whom the superintendent shall report such neglect.

SEC. 4. There is hereby annually appropriated out of any money in the State treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of seventeen hundred fifty ($1,750) dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to carry out the provisions of this act. Approved April 19, 1905.

MISSOURI

REVISED STATUTES OF 1899.

SECTION 10085. The commissioner of labor statistics shall organize and establish in all cities in Missouri containing one hundred thousand inhabitants or more, a free public employment bureau, for the purpose of receiving applications of persons seeking employment and applications of persons seeking to employ labor. No compensation or fee shall be charged or received directly or indirectly, from persons applying for employment or help through any such bureau. Such commissioner shall appoint for each bureau one superintendent, and may appoint for cach one clerk, and may remove the same for good and sufficient cause. The salary of the superintendents shall not exceed one hundred dollars per month, and the salary of the clerks shall not exceed seventy-five dollars per month. Such salaries and the expenses of such bureaus shall be paid in the same manner as other expenses of the bureau of labor statistics.

SEC. 10086. The superintendent of each free public employment bureau shall receive and record, in a book to be kept for that purpose, the names of all persons applying for employment or for help, designating opposite the name and address of each applicant the character of employment or help desired. Such superintendent shall also perform such other duties in the collection of labor statistics and in keeping of books and accounts of his bureau as the commissioner may require, and shall report monthly to the commissioner of labor statistics the expenses of maintaining his bureau. SEC. 10087. Every application for employment or help made to a free employment bureau shall be void after thirty days from its receipt, unless renewed by the applicant. If an applicant for help has secured the same, he shall, within ten days thereafter, notify the superintendent of the bureau to which application was therefor made. Such notice shall contain the name and last preceding address of the employees received through such bureau. If any such applicant neglects to notify such superintendent he shall be barred from all future rights and privileges of such employment bureau, at the discretion of the commissioner of labor statistics, to whom the superintendent shall report such neglect.

SECTION 7. *

ΜΟΝΤΑΝΑ.

ACTS OF 1897, page 111.

* It shall be lawful for the common counsel (council?) of any incorporated city within this State to provide for the establishment of a free pub

lic employment office to be conducted on the most approved plans, and to provide for the expenses thereof out of the revenues of the city in which the same is established. The annual report of the commissioner of agriculture, labor and industry shall contain a detailed account of the transactions of all free employment offices within the State, showing the number of applicants for help, the number of applicants for employment, male and female, the number securing employment through said officers [offices] and the expenses thereof.

Approved March 4, 1897.

NEBRASKA.

COMPILED STATUTES OF 1881-TENTH EDITION, 1901.

SECTION 3318a. The commissioner of labor is hereby authorized and directed, within thirty days after the passage of this amendment, to establish and maintain in the office of the bureau of labor and industrial statistics and in connection therewith, a free public employment office. The deputy commissioner shall receive all applications for help made to him by any person, company or firm, and all applications made to him for employment by any person or persons and record their names in a book kept for that purpose, designating the kind and character of help wanted or the kind and character of employment desired, and the post-office address of the applicant. It shall be the duty of said deputy to send by mail to all applicants for help, the name and postoffice address of such applications for employment as in his judgment will meet their respective requirements and such other information as he may possess that will bring to their notice the names and post-office addresses of such unemployed laborers, mechanics, artisans or teachers as they may require. No compensation or fee whatsoever shall directly or indirectly be charged or received from any person or persons applying for help, or any person or persons applying for employment through the bureau of labor. Said deputy or any clerk connected with the bureau, who shall accept any compensation or fee from any applicant for help or any applicant for employment, for services as provided in this act, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined in a sum not less than twenty-five dollars nor more than one hundred dollars for each offense, or imprisoned not to exceed thirty days. Any application for help or any application for employment made to said office shall be null and void after thirty days from its receipt by said deputy, unless renewed by the applicant. Every applicant for help shall notify said deputy commissioner by mail immediately after the required help designated in his or her application has been secured, and every applicant for employment shall notify said deputy immediately after securing the same. Such notice shall contain the name and last preceding postoffice address of each employer or employee secured through such employment office, and any failure or refusal to thus notify said deputy commissioner shall bar such applicant from all future rights and privileges of said employment office at the discretion of said deputy. Applicants for help shall be construed to mean employers wanting employees, and applicants for employment shall be construed to mean persons wanting work to do. *

WEST VIRGINIA.

CHAPTER 15, ACTS OF 1901.

SECTION 1. The commissioner of labor is hereby authorized to organize and establish, in connection with the bureau of labor, a free public employment bureau, for the purpose of receiving applications from persons seeking employment and applications from persons seeking to employ labor.

SEC. 2. No compensation or fee shall be charged or received directly or indirectly from persons applying for work, information or help through said department. The commissioner of labor is hereby authorized to employ such assistance, and incur such expense as may be necessary to carry into effect the purpose of this act. But such assistance and expense shall not exceed five hundred dollars per annum.

SEC. 3. The expenses of the employment bureau shall be paid in the same manner and way as other expenses of the bureau of labor, and there is hereby appropriated five hundred dollars to carry out the provisions of this act.

Approved February 15, 1901.

WISCONSIN.

CHAPTER 434, ACTS OF 1903.

SECTION 1. There is hereby created not more than four free employment offices in the State, to be located in such cities or places as may be selected or named by a

commission consisting of the governor, secretary of state and the attorney-general, for the purpose of receiving applications of persons seeking employment, and applications of persons seeking to employ labor. Each such office shall be designated and known as Wisconsin Free Employment Office. The said offices shall be so located in such parts of the State by said commission as may best serve the inests [interests] of the people of the State.

SEC. 2. The commissioner of labor and industrial statistics shall recommend immediately after the passage of this act, and the governor shall appoint a superintendent for each of the offices created by section 1 of this act and who shall devote his time to the duties of his office. The tenure of such appointment shall be for two years, unless sooner removed for cause. The salary of each superintendent shall be fixed by said commission, not, however, to exceed twelve hundred dollars per annum, which sum, together with proper amounts for defraying the necessary costs of the equipping, running and maintaining the respective offices, rent for such offices not to exceed five hundred dollars per annum, shall be paid out of any funds in the State treasury not otherwise appropriated.

SEC. 3. The superintendent of each such free employment office shall open an office in such city as shall have been determined by the above commission, and in such locality of said city as both the commissioner of labor and superintendent of said employment office may select, as being most appropriate for the purpose intended: Provided, That said employment office shall be occupied in conjunction with the bureau of labor and industrial statistics when such bureau has an office in any of said cities, and in case said bureau has no office in any of said cities, then in that case the city council wherein said free employment office is established shall furnish and equip an office for said employment bureau, either in conjunction with a department of said city or separately without cost to the State, such office to be provided with a sufficient number of rooms or apartments to enable him to provide, and he shall so provide, a separate room or apartment for the use of women registering for situations or help. Upon the outside of each such office, in position and manner to secure the fullest public attention, shall be placed a sign which shall read in the English language, Wisconsin Free Employment Office," and the same shall appear either upon the outside windows or upon signs in such other languages as the location of such office shall render advisable. The superintendent of each such free employment office shall receive and record in books kept for that purpose names of all persons applying for employment or help, designating opposite the name and address of each applicant, the character of employment or help desired. Separate registers for applicants for employment shall be kept, showing the age, sex, nativity, trade or occupation of each applicant, the cause and duration of nonemployment, whether married or single, the number of dependent children, together with such other facts as may be required by the bureau of labor and industrial statistics to be used by said bureau: Provided. That no such special registers shall be open to public inspection at any time, and that such statistical and sociological data as the bureau of labor may require shall be held in confidence by said bureau, and so published as not to reveal the identity of any applicant: And provided, further, That any applicant who shall decline to answer the questions contained in special register shall not thereby forfeit any right to any employment the office might secure.

SEC. 4. Each superintendent shall report on Thursday of each week to the State bureau of labor and industrial statistics the number of applications for positions and for help received during the preceding week, also those unfilled applications remaining on the books at the beginning of the week. Such lists shall not contain the names or addresses of any applicant, but shall show the number of situations desired and the number of persons wanted at each specified trade or occupation. It shall also show the number and character of the positions secured during the preceding week. Upon receipt of these lists and not later than Saturday of each week, the commissioner of the said bureau of labor and industrial statistics shall cause to be printed a sheet showing separately and in combination the lists received from all such free employment offices; and he shall cause a sufficient number of such sheets to be printed to enable him to mail, and he shall so mail, on Saturday of each week, two of said sheets to each superintendent of a free employment office, one to be filed by said superintendent and one to be conspicuously posted in each such office. A copy of such sheet shall also be mailed on each Saturday by the commissioner of the State bureau of labor and industrial statistics to the State inspector of factories. It is hereby made the duty of said factory inspector to do all he reasonably can to assist in securing situations for such applicants for work, to secure for the free employment offices the cooperation of the employers of labor in factories, to immediately notify the superintendent of free employment offices of any and all vacancies or opportunities of employment that shall come to his notice.

SEC. 5. It shall be the duty of each such superintendent of a free employment office to immediately put himself in communication with the principal manufacturers, merchants and other employers of labor, and to use all diligence in securing the cooperation of the said employers of labor, with the purposes and objects of such employment offices.

SEC. 6. It shall be the duty of each such superintendent to make a report to the State bureau of labor and industrial statistics annually, not later than December first of each year, concerning the work of his office for the year ending October first of the same year, together with a statement of the expenses of the same, and such reports shall be published by the said bureau of labor and industrial statistics annually. Each such superintendent shall also perform such other duties in the collection of statistics of labor, as the commissioners of the bureau of labor and industrial statistics may require.

SEC. 7. No fee or compensation shall be charged or received, directly or indirectly, from any person or corporation applying for employment or help through said free employment offices; and any superintendent or clerk who shall accept, directly or indirectly, any fee or compensation from any applicant, or from his or her representative, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be fined not less than twenty-five dollars nor more than fifty dollars and imprisoned in the county jail not more than thirty days.

SEC. 8. The term "applicant for employment" as used in this act shall be construed to mean any person seeking work of any lawful character, and "applicant for help" shall mean any person or persons seeking help in any legitimate enterprise. Nothing in this act shall be construed to limit the meaning of the term " "work to manual occupation, but it shall include professional service, and any and all other legitimate services.

SEC. 9. No person, firm or corporation where a free employment office is located shall open, operate or maintain a private employment agency for hire or where a fee is charged to either applicants for employment or for help, without first having obtained a license from the secretary of state, for which license he shall pay one hundred dollars per annum; and no such private agent shall print, publish, or cause to be printed or published, or paint on any sign, window or newspaper publication, a name similar to that of the Wisconsin free employment offices. And any person, firm or corporation violating the provisions of this act, or any part thereof, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction such person, firm or, if a corporation, all the officers thereof, shall be fined not less than fifty dollars.

SEC. 10. Whenever, in the opinion of the commissioner of the bureau of labor and industrial statistics, the superintendent of any free employment office is not duly diligent in the performance of his duties he may summon such superintendent to appear before him to show cause why he should not be recommended to the governor for removal, and unless such cause is clearly shown the said commissioner may so recommend. In considering such a case, a low percentage of positions secured to applicants for situations and help registered, lack of intelligent interest in the work, or a general inaptitude or inefficiency may be deemed by said commissioner sufficient to recommend a removal. And if, in the opinion of the governor, such lack of efficiency can not be remedied by reproval and discipline, he shall remove such person from office as recommended by said commissioner: Provided, That the governor may at any time remove any superintendent or clerk for cause.

SEC. 12. Chapter 420 of the laws of Wisconsin for the year 1901 is hereby repealed. Approved May 22, 1903.

LAWS OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES RELATING TO EMPLOYEES ON

RAILROADS.

BY LINDLEY D. CLARK, A. M., LL. M.

The general subject of foreign labor laws was presented in a series of articles published in the bulletins of this office, Nos. 25 to 33, from which, however, the subject of railway labor was excluded. Railway employments have been discussed in several special articles which have appeared from time to time, but as these confined themselves mainly to the economic phases of the subject, legislation was but lightly touched upon. It is the purpose ci this review to present the laws and decrees in force in commercial countries other than the United States, which have for their object the fixing of the conditions of labor employed in the operation of railways, including provisions as to the conditions of employment and discharge, the employment of women, the regulation of the hours of labor and of holidays, the determination of wages, the right of organization, penalties for the abandonment of service, etc.

No special compilation of either railway laws or of labor laws was available in the case of most of the countries, while those in existence had generally to be supplemented by examinations of the more recent enactments. It was necessary, therefore, to search through a considerable body of general legislation in order to find the desired material. Besides special treatises on the railway laws of Austria-Hungary and Germany, general compilations examined were the Annuaire de la Législation du Travail, nine volumes, published by the Belgian labor office; the French Annuaire de Législation Étrangère, thirtytwo volumes, and the Zeitschrift des Zentralamtes für den internationalen Eisenbahntransport, twelve volumes, published at Berne. Some data were also obtained from the gazettes or bulletins of the labor offices of Canada, France, Italy, and of the British Board of Trade, and from the Archiv für Eisenbahnwesen, the organ of the Prussian State railways office. The official annual publications of the laws and decrees of Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, and Spain were examined for a number of years, usually ending with the year 1905.

The arrangement of material is by topics rather than by countries, and the form is that of a summary statement or digest, without any attempt to reproduce in full the language of the original law.