134. Establishment of free employment offices. There shall be established and maintained, under the care and direction of the director of the bureau of statistics, in such cities as may be selected after proper investigation by said director, and with the approval of the governor and council, employment offices for the purpose of bringing together those who seek employment and those who desire to employ. [Acts, 1909, c. 514, § 1.]

135. Superintendent, assistants and clerks. The director of said bureau shall appoint for each of the [employment] offices provided for in the preceding section a superintendent who shall, under the direction of said director, perform the duties hereinafter set forth or such as he may require. The director may also appoint an assistant superintendent and such clerks as he may deem necessary for the proper conduct of the business of said employment offices. . . . The location of each office established under the provisions of this act shall be plainly indicated by a proper sign or signs. [Acts, 1909, c. 514, § 2.]

136. Duties of superintendents of employment offices, etc. - The superintendents of said employment offices shall receive applications from those seeking employment and from those desiring to employ, and shall register them in such manner as may be prescribed by the director of said bureau, and shall take such other action as the director may deem best to promote the purposes of said offices. Said superintendents shall also receive applications from alien immigrants seeking employment in agricultural labor and from those desiring to employ immigrants in agricultural labor, and shall take such other action as the director may deem best to promote a more general distribution of alien immigrants throughout the agricultural sections of the commonwealth. [Acts, 1909, c. 514, § 3, as am. by Acts, 1911, c. 158, § 3.]

-

137. Reports by superintendents, distribution and publication of. — Each superintendent shall make to the director of said bureau such reports of applications for labor or employment and of other details of the work of his office as the director may require. The director shall cause reports showing the business of the several offices to be prepared at regular intervals and to be exchanged among the said offices, and shall supply them to the newspapers and to citizens upon request; and the several superintendents shall cause such reports to be posted in a conspicuous place in their offices so that they may be open to public inspection. [Acts, 1909, c. 514, § 6.]

138. Taking of fees, etc., forbidden. No fees, direct or indirect, shall in any case be taken from those seeking the benefits of said employment offices. Any superintendent or clerk who directly or indirectly charges or receives any fee in the per

formance of his duties shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars or by imprisonment in jail for a term not exceeding thirty days, and shall be disqualified from holding further connection with said office. [Acts, 1909, c. 514, § 4.]

139. Preference in registering to be given to citizens. In registering applications for employment and for employees wanted, preference shall be given to residents of the commonwealth. [Acts, 1909, c. 514, § 5.]

140. Salaries and contingent expenses. There shall be allowed and paid out of the treasury of the commonwealth, upon the approval of the director of the bureau, for salaries and for contingent expenses in connection with the establishment and maintenance of free employment offices as herein provided for, such sum as the general court may annually appropriate therefor. The annual salary of the superintendents and of such clerk as may be appointed in each office to act as chief clerk or assistant superintendent shall be fixed by the director of said bureau subject to the approval of the governor and council. [Acts, 1909, c. 514, § 7.]

141. Clerks of cities and towns to be furnished bulletins showing demand for employment. - The director of the bureau of statistics is hereby authorized to furnish weekly to the clerks of all cities and towns in the commonwealth printed bulletins showing the demand for employment, classified by occupations to such extent as may be practicable and indicating the city or town in which the employees are wanted. Such information shall be based upon the applications for employees made at the free employment offices under the jurisdiction of said bureau. [Acts, 1909, c. 514, § 8.]

142. Posting of bulletins by city and town clerks. Every city and town clerk shall post the lists received as aforesaid in one or more conspicuous places in the city or town. A city or town clerk who fails to comply with the provisions of this section shall be punished by a fine not exceeding ten dollars. [Acts, 1909, c. 514, § 9.]

REGULATION OF INTELLIGENCE OFFICES.

143. Licenses for intelligence offices. The mayor and aldermen of any city except Boston, and in Boston [the licensing board], and the selectmen of any town, may, for the [purposes mentioned in the following paragraphs], grant licenses to suitable persons, subject to the provisions of [R. L., c. 102], §§ 186-189 inclusive, and may revoke them at pleasure. [R. L., c. 102, § 24.]

144. Terms of such licenses. Such licenses may be granted in April to take effect on the first day of May, following. [R. L., c. 102, § 187.]

145. Licenses applicable only to places specified. A license issued as aforesaid shall not protect the holder thereof in a building or place other than that designated in the license unless consent to removal is granted by the licensing board. [R. L., c. 102, § 188.]

146. Revocation of licenses. Upon the revocation of such a license, such clerk shall note the revocation upon the face of the record thereof, and shall give written notice to the licensee by delivering it to him in person or by leaving it at the place of business designated in the license. [R. L., c. 102, § 189.]

147. Penalty for keeping unlicensed intelligence office. - Whoever, without a license therefor, establishes or keeps an intelligence office for the purpose of obtaining or giving information concerning places of employment for domestics, servants or other Jaborers, except seamen, or for procuring or giving information concerning such persons

for or to employers, or for procuring or giving information concerning employment in business, shall be punished by a fine of ten dollars for each day such office is so kept. [R. L., c. 102, § 23.]

148. Keeper not to receive money, when. The keeper of an intelligence office shall not receive or accept any money from a person seeking employment through the agency of such office, unless employment of the kind demanded is furnished. [R. L., c. 102, § 25.]

149. Money to be refunded, when. If a person who receives employment through the agency of an intelligence office is discharged by his employer within ten days after the time of entering upon such employment, and such discharge is not caused by his inability, incompetence, refusal to perform the work required or other fault, the keeper of such intelligence office shall on demand refund to him five-sixths of the amount paid to such keeper by the employer on account of such employment. [R. L., c. 102, § 26.]

150. Statutes to be printed on licenses. - City and town officers who are charged with the duty of granting licenses to keepers of intelligence offices shall cause sections twenty-five to twenty-eight, inclusive, [of R. L., c. 102] to be printed on every such license. They shall also cause to be prepared and shall furnish to each keeper of a licensed intelligence office copies of said sections, printed upon cardboard in type of a size not smaller than pica, and each licensee shall conspicuously post three of said printed copies in each room occupied by him for the purpose of such intelligence office. [R. L., c. 102, § 27.]

151. Penalty. — If a keeper of an intelligence office violates the provisions of the three preceding sections, his license shall be revoked and he shall be punished by a fine of not less than twenty-five nor more than fifty dollars for each offense. [R. L., c. 102, § 28.]

INTELLIGENCE OFFICES IN BOSTON.

LICENSING BOARD FOR THE CITY OF BOSTON.

152. Appointment of the board. The governor, with the advice and consent of the council, shall appoint from the two principal political parties three citizens of Boston, who shall have resided therein for at least two years immediately preceding the date of their appointment, who shall constitute a licensing board for said city and who shall be sworn to the faithful performance of the duties of their office before entering on the same. . . . [Acts, 1906, c. 291, § 1.]

...

-

They shall not be in

153. Not to engage in certain employments. the employ of any person or corporation engaged in the manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors, or in any way, directly or indirectly, pecuniarily interested in the manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors, or in any business which requires a license. to be issued by them. . . . [Acts, 1906, c. 291, § 1, as am. by Acts, 1907, c. 214.] 154. Empowered to license intelligence offices. . . . Said board shall exercise... all the powers and perform all the duties. . . relative to the licensing of . . . intelligence offices. . . . [Acts, 1906, c. 291, § 4.]

...

155. Annual report.

...

Said licensing board shall annually in the month of December make a report to the governor. . . [Acts, 1906, c. 291, § 5.]

156. Records, etc.

...

All records of said board shall at all times be open

to the inspection of the governor, the mayor of said city, and of such persons as may

be designated by either of them. [Acts, 1906, c. 291, § 5.]

157. Applicants for license. Said board shall certify to the police commissioner [of the city of Boston] the name of each applicant for a license, the name of each person to whom a license is issued, the date when each license goes into effect, the kind or class of the license, every change of location or place of business for the exercise of such license, and every transfer of a license ordered by it. [Acts, 1906, c. 291, § 6.] 158. Fitness of licensee. It shall be the duty of the police commissioner and his subordinates to obtain and to furnish to the licensing board such information as may be required by the said board from them or from any of them relative to the character or fitness of a licensee of said board or of an applicant for any license which said board is empowered to issue, relative to the place at which the business authorized by any license is or is proposed to be conducted, and also relative to the manner in which any business authorized by any license is at any time being conducted. Such information may be given in writing or orally as said licensing board may require. [Acts, 1906, c. 291, § 17.]

RULES OF THE LICENSING BOARD OF THE CITY OF BOSTON RELATING TO INTELLIGENCE OFFICES. 1

Class 1.

159. Licenses. The licensing board, will, upon petition, license suitable persons to establish and keep intelligence offices for the purpose of obtaining and giving information concerning places of employment for employees in restaurants and hotels, for accountants, clerks, draughtsmen, stenographers, typewriters, bookkeepers, cashiers, employees in mercantile or other business houses, employees in warehouses, porters, night watchmen, railroad employees, gardeners, persons in charge of farms, dairymen, superintendents of country estates, masons, plumbers, painters, tailors, plasterers, blacksmiths, carpenters, machinists and other mechanics, truckmen, teamsters, barbers, engineers, firemen and compositors.

160. Fees. Intelligence office keepers, under Class 1, shall be entitled to contract in writing with the person applying for business employment for the payment by the employee, of an amount not exceeding one week's wages in the employment furnished; except that, if the applicant for employment is discharged within six weeks from the time of entering upon such employment, the intelligence office keeper shall not be entitled to receive from the applicant for employment more than one day's pay for each week or fraction thereof that the employee has remained in the employment furnished; and, further provided, that, if a person is given employment and leaves of his own accord within three weeks of the time the employment was furnished, the intelligence office keeper shall refund to such applicant within four days of demand, three-fifths of the fee charged.

161. Cost of license. -The fee for a license under Class 1 shall be fifty dollars ($50). (R. L., c. 102, §§ 24, 186; rule of the licensing board to be enforced by the police.)

-

162. License and copies of rules to be posted. Every licensed intelligence office keeper, under Class 1, shall post his license and two copies of this rule in conspicuous places on the premises occupied by him; and further, shall post on his out

1 The rules embodied under paragraphs 159 to 182 were formulated by the Licensing Board of the City of Boston and have the full force of law, although they are not actually legislative enactments.

side door a sign with his name and the fact that he is a licensed intelligence office keeper thereon. (Rule of the licensing board to be enforced by the police.)

163. Intelligence office keepers to keep a book of record. — Every licensed intelligence office keeper, under Class 1, shall keep a record of the names and addresses of applicants placed in positions, also a record of the names and addresses of the employers with whom applicants are placed, and also any and all sums of money which may be received of any person for such services; and such records shall at all times be open to the inspection of any one of the licensing board or any person by them authorized. (Rule of the licensing board to be enforced by the police.)

164. Fees and cost of transportation to be refunded in certain cases. Every licensed intelligence office keeper, under Class 1, who directs any applicant for employment to an employer, shall, if it shall appear that no situation of the kind applied for was vacant at the place to which such applicant was directed, or if the employment furnished was not as specified by the licensee, and the person applying for employment does not accept the employment, shall refund to such applicant within four days of demand any sums paid by him for transportation in going to and returning from said employer and all fees paid by the applicant.

165. Applications for licenses to be filed. - Applications for all licenses issued pursuant to this rule shall be filed at the office of the licensing board prior to the first day of May, and shall be examined and reported on by the officers detailed to the intelligence office service. Such licenses may be granted during the month of April, to take effect the first day of May next ensuing. Such licenses shall continue in force until May first following, unless sooner revoked. (R. L., c. 102, §§ 186, 187; rule of the licensing board to be enforced by the police.)

166. Applications to designate the building or place to be occupied. — All persons shall state in their applications the place they propose to occupy, and no such license shall protect the holder thereof in a building or place other than that designated in the license unless consent to the removal is granted by the licensing board. (R. L., c. 102, § 188; rule of the licensing board to be enforced by the police.)

167. All licenses to be recorded. All licenses granted to keepers of intelligence offices shall be signed by a majority of the licensing board, and shall be recorded by the secretary of the licensing board in a book kept for that purpose before being delivered to the licensee. Such license shall set forth the name of the person licensed, the nature of the business and the building or place in which it is to be carried on. (R. L., c. 102, § 186.)

(For rule establishing penalty for sending a female to a place of questionable repute see paragraph 409.)

168. Penalty for unlicensed intelligence offices. Whoever, without a license therefor, establishes or keeps an intelligence office for the purpose of obtaining or giving information concerning places of employment for domestic servants, or other laborers, except seamen, or for procuring or giving information concerning such persons for or to employers, or for procuring or giving information concerning employment in business shall be punished by a fine of ten dollars for each day such office is so kept. (R. L., c. 102, § 23.)

169. Licenses may be revoked.

All licenses provided for by this rule may be

revoked by the licensing board at pleasure. (R. L., c. 102, § 24.)

Such licenses will be revoked for violation of any statute or rule of the licensing