Weight of bushel-Amendatory act----- Weights and measures-County and city inspectors---- Weights and measures-County and city inspectors-Amendment act Fellow servants-Negligence-Liability of operator_-- Pepper & Lewis's Digest-Digest of session laws compiled and annotated 1040 Purdon's Digest-Digest of session laws compiled and annotated. AN ACT authorizing the appointment of a commission to inquire into the causes and results of industrial accidents; to study advanced methods for safeguarding against the same; to inquire into the subject of fair compensation for those injured or killed as a result thereof; and to study the operation and effect of the workmen's compensation law of 1913; and making an appropriation for the expenses of said commission. SEC. 1. Be it enacted, etc.: That the governor is hereby authorized to appoint a commission of seven persons, to be known as the industrial accidents commission-two of whom shall be employers of labor, two of whom shall be employees in either mines or industrial establishments of this Commonwealth, or duly accredited representatives thereof, two of whom shall be learned in the law, and one of whom shall be a person skilled and experienced in making investigations—to inquire into the causes and results of industrial accidents in the mines, mills, factories, stores, and upon the railroads, street railways, ships, wharves, and in all industrial establishments, and in all other places where men, women, and children are employed in manual labor in this Commonwealth; to study the most advanced methods for safe-guarding against these accidents; to inquire into the subject of fair compensation for those who are injured in these accidents, and for the families of those who shall be killed as a result thereof; and to study the operation and effect of the Workmen's Compensation Law of 1913. SEC. 2. The chairman of said commission shall be designated by the governor. and the person named on said commission as a skilled and experienced investigator shall be the secretary of the commission. The commission shall have power to employ such legal counsel and other officers and employees as it may deem necessary to properly perform its duties. SEC. 3. The secretary of said commission shall receive an annual salary of $2,400 and his actual necessary expenses; and the other members of the commission shall receive no compensation for their services, but shall be allowed their actual traveling and other necessary expenses. The salaries of any other persons employed by the commission shall be fixed by it. 125672-20 -1 1 SEC. 4. Said commission shall make a full report, in writing, of its findings, together with such recommendations as it may deem proper, to the next meeting of the general assembly, which will convene in January, 1915. SEC. 5. The sum of $12,000 * be, and the same is hereby, appropriated for the expenses of said commission. The said expenses shall be paid on warrant duly signed by the chairman of the commission. EMPLOYERS TO REPORT ACCIDENTS. LAWS 1913, P. 843. JULY 19, 1913. AN ACT requiring employers to make report to the department of labor and industry of accidents to employees, and prescribing a penalty for noncompliance therewith. SEC. 1. Be it enacted, etc.: That within thirty days after the beginning of the disability of an employee because of any personal injury, caused by an accident occurring in the course of his employment, the employer, whether a person, firm, or corporation, shall make report of such accident to the department of labor and industry. Such report shall set forth the name, address, and nature of the business of the employer; name, address, sex, age, nationality, and occupation of the employee; date, day of week, hour, place, and character of the accident, and the nature of the injury, and the duration of the disability or probable disability, as far as the same can be ascertained. Such employer shall, also, upon request of the department of labor and industry, make such further report as may reasonably be required by it. SEC. 2. Any person, firm, or corporation having knowledge of the occurrence of such personal injury to an employee, in the course of employment, who shall fail to make report as aforesaid, shall be liable to the Commonwealth for a penalty of one hundred dollars to be recovered by action brought by said department. SEC. 3. Reports made in accordance with this act shall not be evidence against the employer in any proceeding, either under the Workmen's Compensation Law of 1913 or otherwise. SEC. 4. No employer who has made the report required by this act shall be required to make any other or further report of such accident to any other department of the government of the Commonwealth. SEC. 5. This act shall not apply to casual employments; nor to accidents resulting in disability continuing less than two days. ANNOTATIONS. ACCIDENTS-INVESTIGATIONS AND REPORTS. STATISTICS-REPORTS OF ACCIDENTS. This act provides the machinery for procuring the statistics and information and requires every employer to report within thirty days all personal injuries caused by an accident occurring in the course of the employment. This applies to all kinds and classes of industries. Section 4 of the act provides that the employer who has made the report required shall not be required to make any other or further report of any accident. But this act can not be taken as a repeal of the act of June 9, 1911 (P. L. 756), requiring a mine foreman to make weekly reports of accidents in and about the mine. Mine Accidents, In re (Opinion of Attorney General), 23 Pa. Dist. Rep. 136, p. 137. ARBITRATION-SETTLEMENT OF DISPUTES. SETTLEMENT OF DISPUTES BETWEEN OPERATORS AND MINERS. MAY 18, 1893. LAWS 1893, P. 102. AN ACT to establish boards of arbitration to settle all questions of wages and other matters of variance between capital and labor. WHEREAS, The great industries of this Commonwealth are frequently suspended by strikes and lockouts resulting at times in criminal violation of the law and entailing upon the State vast expense to protect life and property and preserve the public peace: AND WHEREAS, No adequate means exist for the adjustment of these issues between capital and labor, employers and employees, upon an equitable basis where each party can meet together upon terms of equality to settle the rates of compensation for labor and establish rules and regulations for their branches of industry in harmony with law and a generous public sentiment; therefore, SEC. 1. Be it enacted, etc.: That whenever any differences arise between employers and employees in the mining, manufacturing, or transportation industries of the Commonwealth which can not be mutually settled to the satisfaction of a majority of all parties concerned, it shall be lawful for either party, or for both parties jointly, to make application to the court of common pleas wherein the service is to be performed about which the dispute has arisen to appoint and constitute a board of arbitration to consider, arrange, and settle all matters at variance between them which must be fully set forth in the application, such application to be in writing and signed and duly acknowledged before a proper officer by the representatives of the persons employed as workmen, or by the representatives of a firm, individual, or corporation, or by both, if the application is made jointly by the parties, such applicants to be citizens of the United States, and the said application shall be filed with the record of all proceedings had in consequence thereof among the records of said court. SEC. 2. That when the application duly authenticated has been presented to the court of common pleas, as aforesaid, it shall be lawful for said court, if in its judgment the said application allege matters of sufficient importance to warrant the intervention of a board of arbitrators in order to preserve the public peace, or promote the interests and harmony of labor and capital, to grant a rule on each of the parties to the alleged controversy, where the application is made jointly, to select three citizens of the county of good character and familiar with all matters in dispute to serve as members of the said board of arbitration, which shall consist of nine members, all citizens of this Commonwealth; as soon as the said members are appointed by the respective parties to the issue, the court shall proceed at once to fill the board by the selection of three persons from the citizens of the county of well-known character for probity and general intelligence, and not directly connected with the interests of either party to the dispute, one of whom shall be designated by the said judge as president of the board of arbitration. Where but one party makes application for the appointment of such board of arbitration the court shall give notice by order of court to both parties in interest, requiring them each to appoint three persons as members of said board within ten days thereafter, and in case either party refuse or neglects to make |