of time to serve his employer, and who shall have left the service of his employer, in violation of his contract, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be civilly liable in damages to the party so aggrieved. This section shall apply to the following counties: Beaufort, Edgecombe, Person, Pitt, Washington, Warren, Vance, Pender, Halifax, Guilford, Granville, Hertford, Wayne, Wake and Caswell.

Protection of employees as voters.

SECTION 3387. If any person shall discharge from employment, Discharging any qualified voter of this State because of the vote such employee for voter may or may not have cast in any election, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

Contracts of employment-Defrauding minors.

vote.

Fraudul ent

SECTION 3428a. Whenever any person having a contract with any corporation, company or person for the manufacture or change employment of minors. of any raw material by the piece or pound shall hire and employ any minor to assist in said work upon the faith of and by color of said contract and with intent to cheat and defraud said minor, and shall secure the contract price and shall willfully fail to pay said minor when he shall have performed his part of said contract work, whether done by the day or by the job, the person so offending shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be fined not more than fifty dollars or imprisoned not more than thirty days.

Employment of children-Enticing out of State.

of State.

SECTION 3630. If any person shall employ and carry beyond the Engaging milimits of this State any minor, or shall induce any minor to go nor to go out beyond the limits of this State for the purpose of employment without the consent in writing, duly authenticated, of the parent, guardian or other person having authority over such minor, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be fined not less than five hundred and not more than one thousand dollars for each offense. The fact of the employment and going out of the State of a minor, or of the going out of the State by the minor, at the solicitation of the person for the purpose of employment, shall be prima facie evidence of knowledge that the person employed or solicited to go beyond the limits of the State is a minor.

Payment of wages-Use of nontransferable scrip prohibited.

SECTION 3730. If any person who employs laborers by the day, week or month shall issue in payment for such labor any ticket or tickets, certificate or other script [scrip] bearing upon their face the word " nontransferable," or shall issue tickets, certificates or script [scrip] in any form that would render them void by transfer from the person to whom issued, or shall refuse to pay to the person holding the same their face value, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not less than ten dollars nor more than fifty dollars for each offense, or imprisoned not more than thirty days.

This statute does not authorize the assignee of scrip payable in merchandise to demand and receive payment in money. 112 N. C. 164.

Evidence.

Scrip to be transferable.

Who are va

Hiring out children, etc., to support men in idleness. SECTION 3740. If any person shall come within any of the following classes, he shall be deemed a vagrant, and shall be fined grants. not exceeding fifty dollars or imprisoned not exceeding thirty days.

Intoxication.

6. All able-bodied men who have no other visible means of support who shall live in idleness upon the wages or earnings of their mother, wife or minor child or children, except male child or children over eighteen years of age.

Intoxication of railway employees.

SECTION 3758 (as amended by chapter 330, Acts of 1907). Any a misdemeanor. train dispatcher, telegraph operator, engineer, fireman, flagman, brakeman, switchman, conductor, motorman, or other employee of any steam, street, suburban or interurban railway company, who shall be intoxicated while engaged in running or operating, or assisting in running or operating any railway train, shifting engine, street or other electric car, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be fined or imprisoned, in the discretion of the court.

Penalty for

Mine regulations.

SECTION 3797. If any person shall knowingly violate any of the negligence, etc. provisions of the law relating to mines or shall do anything whereby the life or health of persons or the security of any mine and machinery is endangered, or if any miner or other person employed in any mine governed by the statutes shall intentionally or willfully neglect or refuse to securely prop the roof of any working place under his control, or neglect or refuse to obey any orders given by the superintendent of a mine in relation to the security of a mine in the part thereof where he is at work and for fifteen feet back of his working place, or if any miner, workman or other person shall knowingly injure any water-gauge, barometer, air course or brattice, or shall obstruct or throw open any air ways, or shall handle or disturb any part of the machinery of the hoisting engine or signaling apparatus or wire connected therewith, or air pipes or fittings, or open a door of the mine, and not have the same closed again, whereby danger is produced either to the mine or those that work therein, or shall enter any part of the mine against caution, or shall disobey any order given in pursuance of law, or shall do any willful act whereby the lives and health of the persons working in the mines [mine] or the security of the mine or the machinery thereof is endangered, or if the person having charge of a mine whenever loss of life occurs by accident connected with the machinery of such mine or by explosion shall neglect or refuse to give notice thereof forthwith by mail or otherwise to the inspector and to the coroner of the county in which such mine is situated, or if any such coroner shall neglect or refuse to hold an inquest upon the body of the person whose death has been thus caused, and return a copy of his findings and a copy of all the testimony to the inspector, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction fined not less than fifty dollars or imprisoned in the county jail not more than thirty days, or both.

Platforms to

Protection of employees on street railways.

SECTION 3800. If any city and street passenger railway company be inclosed, shall refuse or fail to use vestibule fronts, of frontage not less

when.

Proviso.

than four feet, on all passenger cars run, manipulated or transported by them on their lines during the latter half of the month of November and during the months of December, January, February and March of each year, except in cases of temporary emergency in suitable weather, not to exceed four days in any one month within the period herein prescribed for use of vestibule fronts, such company shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be subject to a fine of not less than ten dollars or more than one hundred dollars for each day: Provided, That said companies shall not be required to close the sides of said vestibules. The

North Carolina corporation commission is hereby authorized to make exemptions from the provisions of this section in such cases as in their judgment the enforcement of this section is unnecessary.

Sunday labor—Railroads.

SECTION 3844. If any railroad company shall permit the loading Labor forbid. or unloading of any freight car on Sunday, or shall permit any den. car, train of cars, or locomotive to be run on Sunday on any railroad, except such as may be run for the purpose of transporting the United States mails, and passengers with their baggage, and ordinary express freight in an express car exclusively, and such as may be run by law, such railroad company shall be guilty of a misdemeanor in each county in which such car, train of cars or locomotive shall run, or in which any such freight car shall be loaded or unloaded, and upon conviction shall be fined not less than five hundred dollars for each offense: Provided, that the word Sunday in this section shall be construed to embrace only that portion of the day between sunrise and sunset; and that trains in transitu, having started on Saturday, may, in order to reach the terminus or shops, run until nine o'clock a. m. on Sunday, but not later, nor for any other purpose than to reach the terminus or shops.

Bureau of labor and printing.

Proviso.

SECTION 3909. A bureau of labor and printing is hereby created Bureau and established, the duties of which bureau shall be exercised and tablished. discharged by a commissioner, who shall be designated as commissioner of labor and printing, and by an assistant, who shall

ant.

es

be appointed by the commissioner, and who shall be a practical Commissionprinter. The commissioner shall be elected by the people in er and assistthe same manner as is provided for the election of the secretary of state. His term of office shall be four years. The office of the bureau shall be kept in the city of Raleigh and the same shall be provided for as are other public offices of the State.

SEC. 3910. The commissioner, aided by the assistant commissioner, shall collect and collate information and statistics concerning labor and its relation to capital, the hours of labor, the earnings of laborers and their educational, moral and financial condition, and the best means of promoting their mental and moral and material welfare; shall also collect and collate information and statistics concerning the various mining, milling and manufacturing industries in this State, their location, capacity and actual output of manufactured products, the kind and quantity of raw material annually used by them and the capital invested therein; shall also collect and collate information and statistics concerning the location, estimated and actual horsepower and condition of valuable water powers developed and undeveloped in this State; also concerning farm lands and farming, the kinds, character and quantity of the annual farm products in this State; also of timber lands and timbers, truck gardening, dairying and such other information and statistics concerning the agricultural and industrial welfare of the citizens of this State as he may deem to be of interest and benefit to the public, and shall also perform the duties of mine inspector as prescribed in chapter one hundred and three; and shall have the powers and perform the duties in relation to the public printing that are set forth in chapter one hundred and nine. The assistant commissioner shall perform the duties of the commissioner in his absence from office or in case of a vacancy therein.

SEC. 3911. The commissioner shall annually publish a report embodying therein such information and statistics as he may deem expedient and proper, which report shall be printed and paid for by the State just as the reports of other public officers are printed and paid for. The number of copies of said report to be printed to be designated by the commissioner. The distribu

Duties.

Report.

tion of the reports will be paid for from the general fund and not from the appropriation. The commissioner shall send or cause to be sent a copy of the report to every newspaper in this State and a copy to each member of the general assembly; a copy to each of the several State and county officers; a copy to each labor organization in the State and a copy to any citizen who may apply for the same either in person or by mail, and he may also send a copy to such officers of other States and Territories and to such corporations or individuals in other States and Territories as may apply for the same or as he may think proper. He shall also make a full report to the governor as other State officers are required to do, embodying therein such recommendations as he may deem calculated to promote the efficiency of his department.

Mine regulations.

SECTION 4931. No minor under twelve years of age shall be allowed to work in any mine, and in all cases of minors applying for work the agent of such mine shall see that the provisions of this section are not violated; and the inspector may, when doubt exists as to the age of any person found working in any mine, examine under oath such person and his parents, or other witnesses, as to his age.

SEC. 4932. The owner, agent or operator of every coal mine shall keep a supply of timber constantly on hand, and shall deliver the same to the working place of the miner, and no miner shall be held responsible for accident which may occur in the mine where the provisions of this section have not been complied with by the owner, agent or operator thereof, resulting directly or indirectly from the failure to deliver such timber.

SEC. 4933. All underground entrances to any place not in actual . course of working or extension shall be properly fenced across the whole width of such entrance so as to prevent persons from inadvertently entering the same.

SEC. 4934. No owner or agent of any coal mine worked by shaft shall permit any person to work therein unless there are, to every seam of coal worked in such mine, at least two separate outlets, separated by natural strata of not less than one hundred feet in breadth, by which shafts or outlets distinct means of ingress and egress are always available to the persons employed in the mine; but it is not necessary for the two outlets to belong to the same mine if the persons employed therein have safe, ready and available means of ingress or egress by not less than two openings. This section shall not apply to opening a new mine while being worked for the purpose of making communications between said two outlets, so long as not more than twenty persons are employed at one time in such mine; neither shall it apply to any mine or part of a mine in which the second outlet has been rendered unavailable by reason of the final robbing of pillars previous to abandonment, as long as not more than twenty persons are employed therein at any one time. The cage or cages and other means of egress shall at all times be available for the persons employed when there is no second outlet. The escapement shafts shall be fitted with safe and available appliances, which shall always be kept in a safe condition, by which the persons employed in the mine may readily escape in case an accident occurs; and in no case shall an air shaft with a ventilating furnace at the bottom be construed to be an escapement shaft within the meaning of this section. To all other coal mines, whether slopes or drifts, two such openings or outlets must be provided within twelve months after shipments of coal have commenced from such mine; and in case such outlets are not provided as herein stipulated, it shall not be lawful for the agent or owner of such slope or drift to permit more than ten persons to work therein at any one time.

SEC. 4935. No owner or agent of any mine operated by a shaft or slope shall place in charge of any engine used for lowering into or hoisting out of mines persons employed therein any but experi

enced, competent and sober engineers, and no engineer in charge of such engine shall allow any person except such as may be deputed for such purposes by the owner or agent to interfere with it or any part of the machinery, and no person shall interfere or in any way intimidate the engineer in the discharge of his duties, and in no case shall more than two men ride on any cage or car at one time, and no person shall ride upon a loaded cage or car in any shaft or slope.

SEC. 4936. The owner or agent of any coal mine, whether shaft, Ventilation. slope or drift, shall provide and maintain for every such mine an amount of ventilation of not less than one hundred cubic feet per minute per person employed in such mine, which shall be circulated and distributed throughout the mine in such a manner as to dilute, render harmless and expel the poisonous and noxious gases from each and every working place in the mine, and no working place shall be driven more than sixty feet in advance of a break through or airway, and all break throughs or airways, except those last made near the working places of the mine, shall be closed up by brattice trap-doors, or otherwise so that the currents of air in circulation in the mine may spread to the interior of the mine when the persons employed in such mine are at work, and all mines governed by this chapter shall be provided with artificial means of producing ventilation, such as forcing or suction fans, exhaust steam furnaces, or other contrivances of such capacity and power as to produce and maintain an abundant supply of air, and all mines generating fire damp shall be kept free from standing gas.

SEC. 4937. Every working place shall be examined every morning with a safety lamp by a competent person before any of the workmen are allowed to enter the mine.

Examination.

All safety lamps used in examining mines, or for working Safety lams. therein, shall be the property of the operator of the mine, and a competent person shall be appointed, who shall examine every safety lamp before it is taken into the workings for use, and ascertain it to be clean, safe and securely locked, and safety lamps shall not be used until they have been so examined and found safe and clean and securely locked, unless permission be first given by the mine foreman to have the lamps used unlocked. No one, except the duly authorized person shall have in his possession a key, or any other contrivance, for the purpose of unlocking any safety lamp in any mine where locked lamps are used. No matches or any other apparatus for striking lights shall be taken into any mines, or parts thereof, except under the direction of the mine foreman.

SEC. 4938. The mine foreman shall measure the ventilation at Air to be least once a week, at the inlet and outlet, and also at or near the measured. face of all the entries, and the measurement of air so made shall be noted on blanks furnished by the inspector; and on the first day of each month the mine boss of each mine shall sign one of such blanks, properly filled with the said actual measurement, and present the same to the inspector.

SEC. 4939. The owner, agent or manager of any mine shall give notice to the inspector in the following cases: 1. When any working is commenced for the purpose of opening a new shaft, slope or mine, to which this chapter applies. 2. When any mine is abandoned, or the working thereof discontinued. 3. When the working of any mines is recommended after an abandonment or discontinuance for a period exceeding three months. 4. When a squeeze or crush, or any other cause or change, may seem to affect the safety of persons employed in the mine, or when fire occurs.

SEC. 4940. The owner, agent or manager of every mine shall, within twenty-four hours next after any accident or explosion, whereby loss of life or personal injury may have been occasioned, send notice, in writing, by mail or otherwise, to the inspector, and shall specify in such notice the character and cause of the accident, and the name or names of the persons killed and injured, with the extent and nature of the injuries sustained. When any personal injury of which notice is required to be sent under this

Notice to inspector.

Accidents.