LAWS. LAW CREATING THE BUREAU. An act to establish and support a Bureau of Labor Statistics. [Approved March 3, 1883, Stats. 1883, p. 27.] The people of the State of California, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: sioner. SECTION 1. As soon as possible after the passage of this act, Commisand every four years thereafter, the Governor of the State shall appoint a suitable person to act as Commissioner of a Bureau of Labor Statistics. The headquarters of said Bureau shall be located in the City and County of San Francisco; said Commissioner to serve for four (4) years, and until his successor is appointed and qualified. bond. SEC. 2. The Commissioner of the Bureau, before entering official upon the duties of his office, must execute an official bond in the sum of five thousand (5,000) dollars, and take the oath of office, all as prescribed by the Political Code for State officers in general. SEC. 3. The duties of the Commissioner shall be to collect, Duties. assort, systematize, and present, in biennial reports to the Legislature, statistical details, relating to all departments of labor in the State, such as the hours and wages of labor, cost of living, amount of labor required, estimated number of persons depending on daily labor for their support, the probable chances of all being employed, the operation of labor-saving machinery in its relation to hand labor, etc. Said statistics may be classified as follows: First-In agriculture. Second-In mechanical and manufacturing industries. Fourth-In transportation on land and water. Fifth-In clerical and all other skilled and unskilled labor not above enumerated. Sixth-The amount of cash capital invested in lands, buildings, machinery, material, and means of production and distribution generally. Seventh-The number, age, sex, and condition of persons employed; the nature of their employment; the extent to which the apprentice system prevails in the various skilled indus Classes of statistics. Statistics. Classes of tries; the number of hours of labor per day; the average length of time employed per annum, and the net wages received in each of the industries and employments enumerated. Duties of State officers. Hindering Eighth-The number and condition of the unemployed, their age, sex, and nationality, together with the cause of their idleness. Ninth The sanitary condition of lands, workshops, dwellings; the number and size of rooms occupied by the poor, etc.; the cost of rent, fuel, food, clothing, and water in each locality of the State; also the extent to which labor-saving processes are employed to the displacement of hand labor. Tenth-The number and condition of the Chinese in the State; their social and sanitary habits; number of married and of single; the number employed, and the nature of their employment; the average wages per day at each employment, and the gross amount yearly; the amounts expended by them in rent, food, and clothing, and in what proportion such amounts are expended for foreign and home productions, respectively; to what extent their employment comes in competition with the white industrial classes of the State. Eleventh-The number, condition, and nature of the employment of the inmates of the State prisons, county jails, and reformatory institutions, and to what extent their employment comes in competition with the labor of mechanics, artisans and laborers outside of these institutions. Twelfth-All such other information in relation to labor as the Commissioner may deem essential to further the object sought to be obtained by this statute, together with such strictures on the condition of labor and the probable future of the same as he may deem good and salutary to insert in his biennial reports. SEC. 4. It shall be the duty of all officers of State departments, and the assessors of the various counties of the State, to furnish, upon the written request of the Commissioner, all the information in their power necessary to assist in carrying out the objects of this act; and all printing required by the Bureau in the discharge of its duty shall be performed by the State Printing Department, and at least three thousand (3,000) copies of the printed report shall be furnished the Commissioner for free distribution to the public. SEC. 5. Any person who willfully impedes or prevents the missioner. Commissioner, or his deputy, in the full and free performance of his or their duty, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction of the same shall be fined not less than ten (10) nor more than fifty (50) dollars, or imprisoned not less than seven (7) nor more than thirty (30) days in the county jail, or both. Information to be SEC. 6. The office of the Bureau shall be open for business furnished. from nine (9) o'clock a. m. until five (5) o'clock p. m. every day except non-judicial days, and the officers thereof shall give to all persons requesting it all needed information which they may possess. factories. SEC. 7. (As amended, Stats. 1889, p. 6.) The Commis- Witnesses. sioner shall have power to send for persons and papers whenever in his opinion it is necessary, and he may examine witnesses under oath, being hereby qualified to administer the same in the performance of his duty, and the testimony so taken must be filed and preserved in the office of said Commissioner. He shall have free access to all places and works Access to of labor, and any principal, owner, operator, manager, or lessee of any mine, factory, workshop, warehouse, manufacturing or mercantile establishment, or any agent or employé of such principal, owner, operator, manager, or lessee who shall refuse to said Commissioner, or his duly authorized representative, admission therein, or who shall, when requested by him, willfully neglect or refuse to furnish to him any statistics or information, pertaining to his lawful duties, which may be in the possession or under the control of said principal, owner, operator, lessee, manager or agent thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty nor more than two hundred dollars. tion confi SEC. 8. (As amended, Stats. 1889, p. 7.) No use shall be Informa made in the reports of the Bureau of the names of individuals, dential. firms, or corporations supplying the information called for by this act, such information being deemed confidential, and not for the purpose of disclosing any person's affairs; and any agent or employé of said Bureau violating this provision shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine not to exceed five hundred dollars or by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed six months. SEC. 9. (As amended, Stats. 1889, p. 7; 1907, pp. 306, 307.) Deputy. The Commissioner shall appoint a deputy, who shall have the same powers as the said Commissioner, and such agents or assistants, not exceeding six, as he may from time to time require, at such a rate of wages as he may prescribe, but said rate must not exceed four dollars per day and actual traveling expenses for each person while employed; he shall procure rooms necessary for offices, at a rent not to exceed one hundred dollars per month. SEC. 10. (As amended, Stats. 1889, p. 7; 1907, pp. 306. Salaries. 307.) The salary of the Commissioner shall be three thousand dollars per annum, and the salary of the Deputy Commissioner shall be eighteen hundred dollars per annum, to be audited by the Controller and paid by the State Treasurer, in the same manner as other State officers; there shall also be allowed a sum not to exceed nine thousand dollars per annum for the salaries of agents or assistants, for traveling expenses, and for other contingent expenses of the Bureau. of scaf SEC. 12. (As amended, Stats. 1901, p. 12.) Whenever com- Inspection plaint is made to the Commissioner that the scaffolding, or folding. the slings, hangers, blocks, pulleys, stays, braces, ladders, irons, or ropes of any swinging or stationary scaffolding used in the construction, alteration, repairing, painting, cleaning, or paint of scaf folding. Inspection ing of a building are unsafe or liable to prove dangerous to the life or limb of any person, such Commissioner shall immediately cause an inspection to be made of such scaffolding, or the slings, hangers, blocks, pulleys, stays, braces, ladders, iron, or other parts connected therewith. If after examination such scaffolding or any of such parts is found dangerous to life or limb, the Commissioner shall prohibit the use thereof, and require the same to be altered and reconstructed so as to avoid such danger. The Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner, or agent or assistant making the examination shall attach a certificate to the scaffolding, or the slings, hangers, irons, ropes, or other parts thereof, examined by him, stating that he has made such examination and that he found it safe or unsafe as the case may be. If he declared it unsafe, he shall at once, in writing, notify the person responsible for its erection of the fact and warn him against the use thereof. Such notice may be served personally upon the person responsible for its erection or by conspicuously affixing to the scaffolding or the part thereof declared to be unsafe. After such notice has been so served or affixed the person responsible therefor shall immediately remove such scaffolding or part thereof and alter or strengthen it in such a manner as to render it safe, in the discretion of the officer who has examined it or of his superiors. The Commissioner, his deputy, and any duly authorized representative whose duty it is to examine or test any scaffolding or part thereof as required by this section, shall have free access, at all reasonable hours, to any building or premises containing them or where they may be in use. All swinging and stationary scaffolding shall be so constructed as to bear four times the maximum weight required to be dependent therefrom and placed thereon, when in use, and not more than four men shall be allowed on any swinging scaffolding at one time. This act shall take effect immediately. CHILD LABOR LAW. An act regulating the employment and hours of labor of children-prohibiting the employment of minors under certain ages-prohibiting the employment of certain illiterate minors providing for the enforcement hereof by the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and providing penalties for the violation hereof. [Approved February 20, 1905.] The people of the State of California, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: ment years age. SECTION 1. No minor under the age of eighteen shall be Employemployed in laboring in any manufacturing, mechanical, or minors mercantile establishment, or other place of labor, more than under 18 nine hours in one day, except when it is necessary to make repairs to prevent the interruption of the ordinary running of the machinery, or when a different apportionment of the hours of labor is made for the sole purpose of making a shorter day's work for one day of the week; and in no case shall the hours of labor exceed fifty-four hours in a week. under 16. SEC. 2. (As amended, Stats. 1907, pp. 978, 979.) No minor Minors under the age of sixteen years shall be employed or permitted to work in any mercantile institution, office, laundry, manu- Hours emfacturing establishment, or workshop, between the hours of ten ployment. o'clock in the evening and six o'clock in the morning. ding em No child under fourteen years of age shall be employed in Forbidany mercantile institution, office, laundry, manufacturing estab- ployment lishment, workshop, place of amusement, restaurant, hotel, minors apartment house, or in the distribution or transmission of merchandise or messages. under 14. court. Issuance of Provided, that the judge of the juvenile court of the county, Excepor city and county, or in any county or city and county in tions. which there is no juvenile court, then any judge of the superior Juvenile court of the county or city and county in which such child resides shall have authority to issue a permit to work to any permits such child over the age of twelve years, upon a sworn state- to minors. ment being made to him by the parent of such child that such child is past the age of twelve years, that the parents or parent of such child are incapacitated for labor, through illness, and after investigation by a probation officer or truant officer of the city, or city and county, in which such child resides, or in cities and counties where there are no probation or truant |