SECTION 2. In special cases the railroad commissioners of this state may extend the time for com iance with this act for a period not exceeding one year.

SECTION 3. Any person o corpor: t on opera ing a line of railway by steam power in this state who shall fail or neglect to comply with the provisions of this act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. and on conviction, shall be punished by a fine of five hundred dollars for each offence: Provided, That employés shall not be deemed guilty or subject to punishment under this act.

ACTS OF 1890.

CHAPTER 262.-Protection of employés as voters.

SECTION 36. Any person entitled to vote at a general election, held within this state, shall, on the day of such election, be entitled to absent himself from any service or employment in which he is then engaged or employed, for a period of two hours between the time of opening and the time of closing the polls; and such voter shall not, because of so absenting himself. be liable to any penalty, nor shall any deduction be made on account of such absence from his usual salary or wages: Provided, however, That application shall be made for such leave of absence prior to the day of election. The employer may specify the hours during which such employé may absent himself as aforesaid. Any person or corporation who shall refuse to an employé the privilege hereby conferred, or who shall subject an employé to a penalty or reduction of wages because of the exercise of such privilege, or who shall, directly or indirectly, violate the provisions of this act, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.

CHAPTER 388.-Payment of wages.

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SECTION 1. Every manufacturing, mining or quarrying, lumbering, mercantile, railroad, surface, street, electric and elevated railway (except steam surface railroads, steamboat, telegraph, telephone and municipal corporation, and every incorporated express company and water company shall pay weekly, each and every employé engaged in its business, the wages earned by such emplové to within six days of the date of such payment: Provided, however, That if at any time of payment any employé shall be absent from his regular place of labor, he shall be entitled to said payment at any time thereafter upon demand. SECTION 2. Any corporation violating any of the provisions of this act shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding fifty dollars and not less than ten dollars for each violation, * * provided an action for such violation is commenced within thirty days from the date thereof. The factory inspectors of this state, * * * may bring an action in the name of the people of the state as plaintiff against any corporation which neglects to comply with the provisions of this act for a period of two weeks, after having been notified in writing by such inspectors that such action will be brought. On the trial of such action, such corporation shall not be allowed to set up any defense for a failure to pay weekly any employé engaged in its business the wages earned by such employé to within six days of the date of such payment other than a valid assignment of such wages or a valid set-off against the same, or the absence of such employé from his regular place of labor at the time of payment, or an actual tender to such employé at the time of payment of the wages so earned by him, or a breach of contract by such employé, or a denial of the employment. No assignment of future wages, payable weekly, under the provisions of this act shall be valid if made to the corporation from whom such wages are to become due, or to any person on behalf of such corporation, or if made or procured to be made to any person for the purpose of relieving such corporation from the obligation to pay weekly under the provisions of this act. Nor shall any of said corporations require any agreement from any employé to accept wages at other periods than as provided * * * this act as a condition of employment.

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CHAPTER 394.-Mine regulations and inspection.

SECTION 1. The governor shall immediately after the passage of this act, appoint by and with the advice and consent of the senate. a mining inspector whose term of office shall be three years, from the date of his appointment, and in case of the removal, resignation or death of the inspector, the vacancy shall be filled by appointment by the governor for the unexpired term.

SECTION 2. No person shall be appointed inspector, who is not a citizen of the state of New York, or unless he is possessed of a competent and practical knowledge of mining, thoroughly acquainted with the best methods of working, ventilating, and timbering mines, and he must have an experience of at least five years in mining in the metalliferous or other mines of this state.

SECTION 3. The inspector shall give his whole time and attention to the duties of the office to which he has been appointed and shall see that every necessary precaution is taken to secure the health and safety of the workingmen employed in the metalliferous and other mines of this state; it shall also be the duty of the inspector to keep a record of the names and location of all the metalliferous and other mines of this state, and to collect all the data possible in regard to the manner of working the same. He shall examine carefully into the manner and method of timbering shafts, drifts, inclines, slopes and tunnels, through which miners and other persons pass to and fro, while engaged in their daily labor. SECTION 4. The inspector shall examine into the manner of the ventilation of all mines, and shall see that the ventilating current shall be conducted and circulated to and along the face of each and every working place throughout the entire mine in sufficient quantities to insure the removal of powder, smoke and other noxious gases, to such an extent that all working places and travelling roads shall be in a safe and fit state to work and travel therein.

SECTION 5. The inspector shall positively prohibit any person or persons from riding on any loaded cars, cage or bucket, into or out of any mine; the inspector shall also prohibit the storing of powder or oils of any description in or around shaft-houses, engine-houses or boiler rooms, and shall order that all supplies of an inflammable and destructive nature be stored at a safe distance from the mine openings.

SECTION 6. All such boilers used for generating steam for mining purposes, shall be kept in good order, and the owner, agent, manager or lessee, shall have them inspected by a competent boiler maker, once in six months, and the result of the examination shall be certified to in writing to the inspector; they shall also provide for the inspection of the engines, brakes, cages, buckets, ropes and chains weekly, and keep the same in good order.

SECTION 7. Every such boiler or nest of boilers used in mining for generating steam shall be provided with a proper steam gauge and water gauge, to show respectively the pressure of steam, and the height of water in the boiler, and with a proper safety valve; every such boiler-house in which boiler or nest of boilers is placed shall be provided with a steam gauge properly connected with the boilers, and another steam gauge shall be attached to the steam pipe in the engine-house, and placed in such position that the engineer or fireman can readily examine them and see what pressure is carried.

SECTION 8. Every owner, agent, manager or lessee of any metalliferous or other mines in this state, shall admit the inspector to such mine for the purpose of making the examination and inspection provided for in this act, either by day or by night, and render any necessary assistance for such inspection. Said inspector shall not unnecessarily obstruct the working of said mine. Upon the refusal of the owner, agent, manager or lessee to admit the inspector to such mine, such owner, agent, manager or lessee, shall be upon conviction, subject to a fine of not less than fifty dollars nor more than three hundred dollars, and, for a second refusal and conviction, shall be imprisoned not less than six nor more than twelve months.

SECTION 9. It shall be the duty of every owner, agent, manager or lessee of any mine to cause the same to be properly timbered, and that no person shall be permitted to work in an unsafe place, unless it be for the purpose of making it

secure.

SECTION 10. Any person having charge of a working place in any mine, shall keep the roof and sides thereof properly secured by timber, or otherwise so as to prevent such roof and sides from falling, and he shall not do any work or permit any work to be done under dangerous material, except for the purpose of securing the same.

SECTION 11. When high explosives, other than gunpowder, are used in any mine, the manner of storing, keeping, moving, charging and firing, or in any manner using such explosives, shall be in accordance with special rules, as furnished by the manufacturers of the same.

SECTION 12. In charging holes for blasting, in slate, rock or ore in any mine, no iron or steel pointed needle or tamping bar shall be used unless the end of the tamping bar or needle is tipped with at least six inches of copper or other soft metal. No person shall be employed to blast unless the mine superintend

ent or person having charge of such mine is satisfied that such person is qualified by experience to perform the work with ordinary safety. It shall be the duty of said person, when about to fire a blast, to give timely notice to all persons who may be in danger therefrom, and shall give sufficient alarm, so that any person or persons who may be approaching shall be warned of the danger. SECTION 13. Any minor [sic] or other person, who shall, against the wishes or order of the owner, agent, manager or lessee of any mine, intentionally injure or destroy any property, handle or destroy any part of the machinery, or enter into any building of such mine or do any act whereby the property of the person, firm or corporation, or the lives or Health of persons are in danger, shall be guilty of an offence against this act, and upon conviction, shall be imprisoned not less than six months or more than five years in the discretion of the court.

SECTION 14. Any owner, agent, manager or lessee having charge of any metalliferous or other mines, whenever loss of life or serious accident shall occur connected with the working of such mine, shall give notice immediately by mail or otherwise, and report all facts thereof to the mine inspector, which report shall be filed in his office for future reference.

SECTION 15. The inspector shall keep all records of mine examinations, showing the date of examination, condition in which the mines are found and manner of working the same, and make a report to the legislature on or before the fifteen h day of January, in each year, said report shall contain the number of mines visited, number of mines in operation, the number of men employed in each and the amount of capital invested. It shall also contain the number, and cause of accidents, fatal and non-fatal that may have occurred in and about the mines.

SECTION 16. The district attorney of any county of this state is hereby authorized upon the request of the mine inspector to commence and prosecute to termination, before any court of record, in the name of the people of the state, actions or proceedings against any person or persons or corporations reported to him to have violated any of the provisions of this act.

SECTION 17. The inspector shall exercise a sound discretion in the enforcement of this act, and if he shall find anything to be dangerous or defective in or connected with any metalliferous or other mines so as to, in his opinion, threaten or tend to the bodily injury of any person, the inspector shall give notice in writing thereof to the owner, agent manager or lessee of such mine, stating in such notice the particulars in which he considers such mine or part thereof to be dangerous, and order the same to be remedied.

SECTION 18. In case the owner, agent, manager or lessee, after written notice being duly given, does not conform to the provisions of this chapter, any court of competent jurisdiction may, on application of the inspector of mines, by civil action in the name of the people of the state of New York, enjoin or restrain the owner, agent, manager or lessee from working the mine until it is made to conform to the provisions of this act.

SECTION 20. The unreasonable neglect or refusal of any person upon the written requisition of said mining inspector to perform the duties or requirements of this act shall be deemed a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be punished, (except as hereinfore provided, by a fine of not less than fifty, nor more than two hundred dollars, or by imprisonment for not less than thirty, nor more than ninety days, or by both fine and imprisonment; and all fines co lected under the provisions of this act shall be paid into the general fund of the treasury of the state.

CHAPTER 564.-Stock corporations-Liability of stockholders for debts due employés.

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SECTION 57. * * Such stockholders shall, jointly and severally also be personally liable for all debts due and owing to any of its laborers, servants, or employés, other than contractors, for services performed by them for such corporation. Before such laborer, servant, or employé shall charge such stockholder for such services, he shall give him notice in writing, within thirty days after the termination of such services, that he intends to hold him liable, and shall commence an action therefor within thirty days after the return of an execution unsatisfied against the corporation, upon a judgment recovered against it for such services. No person holding stock in any corporation as collateral security, or as executor, administrator, guardian or trustee, unless he shall have voluntarily invested the trust funds in such stock, shall be personally subject to liability as a stockholder; but the person pledging such stock shall be considered the holder thereof, and shall be liable as stockholder; and the estates

and funds in the hands of such executor, administrator, guardian or trustee, shall be liable in the like manner, and to the same extent as the testator or intestate, or the ward, or person interested in such trust fund would have been, if he had been living and competent to act, and held the same stock in his own name, unless it appears that such executor, administrator, guardian or trustee voluntarily invested the trust funds in such stock, in which case he shall be personally liable as a stockholder.

SECTION 58. No action shall be brought against a stockholder for any debt of the corporation, until judgment therefor has been recovered against the corporation, and an execution thereon has been returned unsatisfied in whole or in part, and the amount due on such execution shall be the amount recoverable, with costs against the stockholder. No stockholder shall be personally liable for any debt of the corporation not payable within two years from the time it is contracted, nor unless an action for its collection shall be brought against the corporation within two years after the debt becomes due; and no action shall be brought against a stockholder after he shall have ceased to be a stockholder, for any debt of the corporation, unless brought within two years from the time he shall have ceased to be a stockholder.

CHAPTER 565.-Liability of railroad companies for wages of employés of contractors

SECTION 30. An action may be maintained against any railroad corporation by any laborer for the amount due him from any contractor for the construction of any part of its road, for ninety or any less number of days' labor performed by him in constructing such road, if within twenty days thereafter a written notice shall have been served upon the corporation, and the action shall have been commenced after the expiration of ten days and within six months after the service of such notice, which shall contain a statement of the month and particular days upon which the labor was performed and for which it was unpaid, the price per day, the amount due, the name of the contractor from whom due, and the section upon which performed, and shall be signed by the laborer or his attorney and verified by him to the effect that of his own knowledge the statements contained in it are true. * *

CHAPTER 565.-Intemperate persons not to be employed on railroads, etc.

SECTION 42. Any railroad corporation may employ any inhabitant of the state, of the age of twenty-one years, not addicted to the use of intoxicating liquors, as a car driver or conductor, or in any other capacity, if fit and competent therefor.

CHAPTER 565.—Safety appliances to be provided by railroads.

SECTION 49. It shall be the duty of every railroad corporation operating its road by steam:

(1) To lay, in the construction of new and in the renewal of existing switches, upon freight or passenger main line tracks, switches on the principle of ei her the so-called Tyler, Wharton, Lorenze, or split point switch, or some other kind of safety switch, which shall prevent the derailment of a train, when such switch is misplaced or a switch interlocked with distant signals.

(2) To erect and thereafter maintain such suitable warning signals at every road, bridge, or stiucture which crosses the railroad above the tracks, where such warning signals may be necessary, for the protection of employés on top of cars from injury.

(3) To place guard-posts in the prolongation of the line of bridge trusses so that in case of derailment, the posts, and not the bridge trusses, shall receive the blow of the derailed loco notive or car.

(4) To use upon every new freight car, built or purchased for use, couplers which can be coupled and uncoupled automatically, without the necessity of having a person guide the link, lift the pin by hand, or go between the ends of

the cars.

(5) To attach to every car used for passenger transportation an automatic airbrake or other form of safety-power brake, applied from the locomotive, excepting cars attached to freight trains, the schedule rate of speed of which does not exceed twenty miles an hour.

(6) To provide each closed car, in use in every passenger train owned or reguH. Rep. 1960-24

LABOR LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES.

larly used upon a railroad, with one set of tools, consisting of an axe, sledgehammer, crowbar, and handsaw, to be properly placed so as to be easily removed.

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Every corporation, person or persons, operating such railroad, and violating any of the provisions of this section, hundred dollars for each offence, and the further penalty of ten dollars for each shall be liable to a penalty of one day that it shall omit or neglect to comply with any of such provisions. * * *

SECTION 5. * apparel, *

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ARTICLE 5.-Exemptions from taxation.

* The general assembly may exempt *

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wearing

* household and kitchen furniture, the mechanical and agricultural implements of mechanics and farmers; libraries and scientific instruments, or any other personal property, to a value not exceeding three hundred dollars.

ARTICLE X.-Exemptions from execution, etc.

SECTION 1. The personal property of any resident of this state, to the value of five hundred dollars, to be selected by such resident, shall be, and is hereby exempted from sale under execution, or other final process of any court, issued for the collection of any debt.

SECTION 2. Every homestead, and the dwellings and buildings used therewith, not exceeding in value one thousand dollars, to be selected by the owner thereof, or in lieu thereof, at the option of the owner, any lot in a city, town or village, with the dwelling and buildings used thereon, owned and occupied by any resident of this state, and not exceeding the value of one thousand dollars, shall be exempt from sale under execution, or other final process obtained on any debt. But no property shall be exempt from sale for taxes, or for payment of obligations contracted for the purchase of said premises.

SECTION 3. The homestead, alter the death of the owner thereof, shall be exempt from the payment of any debt during the minority of his children, or any one of them.

SECTION 4. The provisions of sections one and two of this article shall not be so construed as to prevent a laborer's lien for work done and performed for the person claiming such exemption, or a mechanic's lien for work done on the premises.

SECTION 5. If the owner of a homestead die, leaving a widow but no children, the same shall be exempt from the debts of her husband, and the rents and profits thereof shall enure to her benefit during her widowhood, unless she be the owner of a homestead in her own right.

SECTION 1. *

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labor shall be construed to authorize the employment of such convict labor on provision for imprisonment with hard public works or highways, or other labor for public benefit, and the farming out thereof, where, and in such manner as may be provided by law; but no convict shall be farmed out who has been sentenced on a charge of murder, manslaughter, rape, attempt to commit rape or arson.

SECTION 4. The general assembly shall provide, by proper legislation, for giving to mechanics and laborers an adequate lien on the subject-matter of their labor.

CODE OF 1883.
VOLUME I.

CHAPTER 10.-Exemptions from execution, etc.

SECTION 501. There shall be exempt from sale under execution or other final process issued for the collection of any debt upon all judgments heretofore, or