Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

(name of child); height, (feet and inches); eyes, (color); complexion, (dark or fair); hair, (color). Having no sufficient reason to doubt that (he or she) is of the age therein certified, I hereby certify that (he or she) can read at sight and write legibly simple sentences in the English language; that (he or she) has regularly attended the public schools, or schools equivalent thereto, during the year previous to applying for such school record, and for the period required by the compulsory attendance laws of this Commonwealth. I have examined the certificate furnished by the principal teacher of the last school which said child attended, which states that (he or she) has received instruction in reading, spelling, writing, English grammar, and geography, and is familiar with the fundamental operations of arithmetic, to and including fractions. I have further satisfied myself that the certificate required by law as to proof of age can not be produced, for good cause and said child may be employed at such times and in such employments as the laws of this Com monwealth permit children to be employed.

This certificate belongs to (name of child), and is to be surrendered to (him or her) when (he or she) leaves the service of the corporation, copartnership, firm, or person or employer, holding the same; but if not claimed by said child within thirty days from such time, it shall be returned to the said common school superintendent or principal teacher, as the case may be.

(Signature of person authorized to approve and sign, with official character or authority.)

SEC. 7. The blank forms of these several certificates shall be furnished, free of charge, by the department of mines of this Commonwealth, upon application by the proper persons, and shall be uniform throughout the State. A duplicate of each employment certificate shall be filled out and kept on file by the city, borough or township common school superintendent, or the principal teacher in localities not under the jurisdiction of any city, borough or township superintendent issuing the certificate, together with a certificate of the registration of birth, baptism or circumcision, or, in case of a foreignborn child, a copy of passenger manifest, passport, or other official record, as herein provided by this act.

SEC. 8. False swearing to any affidavit given in accordance with the provisions of this act shall constitute perjury, and be punishable as such.

SEC. 9. A failure to produce to the common school superintendent, any truant or attendance officer, the chief of the department of mines of this Commonwealth or any mine inspectors, an employment certificate and the list required by this act, when requested so to do, shall be prima facie evidence of the illegal employment of any minor child whose employment certificate is not produced or whose name is not so listed; and it shall be the duty of the chief of the department of mines of this Commonwealth, and the right of any citizen of this Commonwealth, in the name of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, upon any violation of the provisions of this act providing for the keeping and filing of said employment certificate and list of minor children, to bring suit in the court of common pleas of the county wherein said violation occurred; and if, upon the trial of the case, the jury shall find such violation actually did occur, they shall render a verdict against the offending party or parties to an amount equal to ten dollars for each and every day said minor child or children were employed contrary to the provisions of this act; said amounts, when collected, to be paid into the State treasury for the use of the Commonwealth; and the State treasurer shall return one-half of the fine or fines so collected to the school district in which the child, so illegally employed, resided.

SEC. 11. Truant or school attendance officers shall report any cases of such illegal employment to the city, borough or township superintendent, or to the principal teacher in localities not under the jurisdiction of any city, borough or township superintendent, and to the inspector of mines of the district.

SEC. 12. The city, borough or township superintendent, and the principal teachers in localities not within the jurisdiction of any common school superintendent, and their duly authorized deputies, shall have the power to administer oaths and affirmations in all matters where persons desire to swear to, affirm or verify any documents or affidavits necessary to properly carry out the provisions of this act.

SEC. 13. Nothing in this act shall be so construed as to make the employers of minor children liable to the penalties herein mentioned for the illegal employment of said minor children before October 15, A. D. 1905.

SEC. 14. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act be and the same are hereby repealed.

ANNOTATIONS.

REGULATION OF EMPLOYMENT.

1. PARTS OF ACT UNCONSTITUTIONAL.

2. CONSTRUCTION OF ACT.

3. MINORS WORKING IN MINES-LEGISLATURE MAY PROHIBIT.
4. CLASSIFICATION OF MINORS-GROUNDLESS DISTINCTIONS.
5. CERTIFICATES-DUTIES OF SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS.

6. ACT REPEALED AGE LESSENED.

1. PARTS OF ACT UNCONSTITUTIONAL.

The provisions of this act which classify minors to whom employment certificates may be issued, violates section 1 of the 14th amendment to the Federal Constitution.

Collett v. Scott, 30 Pa. Supr. Ct. Rep. 430, p. 432.

So much of this act as requires the furnishing of employment certificates and as provides a method for obtaining the same, and imposes duties as to their issuance and fines and penalties for those not procuring them is unconstitutional and void.

Collett v. Scott, 13 Luzerne Leg. Reg. 61, p. 68.

2. CONSTRUCTION OF ACT.

The clearly expressed intention of the legislature must not be thwarted by a technical or too narrow construction of the language of this act.

Collett v. Scott, 13 Luzerne Leg. Reg. 61, p. 62.

The first and second sections of this act are separable and are a valid and constitutional exercise of the police power and they, together with the repealing clause, must stand as valid, although the other sections are unconstitutional and void.

Collett v. Scott, 13 Luzerne Leg. Reg. 61, p. 68.

This act covers minors above the age of 16 years, as well as between the ages of 14 and 16 years, and also provides a method for obtaining employment certificates by all minors above the age of 14 years seeking the particular employment embraced by the act.

Collett v. Scott, 13 Luzerne Leg. Reg. 61, p. 63.

8. MINORS WORKING IN MINES-LEGISLATURE MAY PROHIBIT.

The legislature has power to prohibit the employment of minors under certain age in and about anthracite coal mines and the power to prescribe certain educational qualifications as a condtion to the right of minors who have reached the specified age to be employed, without imposing the same restrictions upon minors before engaging in other employments.

Collett v. Scott, 30 Pa. Sup. Ct. Rep. 430, p. 432.

Section 1 of this act, which makes it unlawful to employ any minor under 16 years inside any anthracite coal mines, or to employ any minor under 14 years in anthracite coal breakers or collieries, or around the outside workings of any anthracite coal mines. Section 2 of the act prescribes the remedy for the violation of the provisions of section 1. These provisions are a valid and constitutional exercise of the police power and are enforceable, although other sections of the act are unconstitutional.

Collett v. Scott, 30 Pa. Sup. Ct. Rep. 430, p. 435.

4. CLASSIFICATION OF MINORS GROUNDLESS DISTINCTIONS.

Where legislative classification is not based on any reasonable ground or any difference which bears a just and proper relation to the subject with reference to which the classification is attempted it is a mere arbitrary selection and will not relieve the statute from the equality clause of the 14th amendment.

Collett v. Scott, 30 Pa. Sup. Ct. Rep. 430, p. 433.

The provisions of the act of May 2, 1905, relative to the issuance of employment certificates to minors do not include minors over 16 years of age; and this classi fication of minors to whom employment certificates may be issued is in violation of the first section of the 14th amendment of the Federal Constitution.

Collett v. Scott, 30 Pa. Sup. Ct. Rep. 430, p. 432.

The provisions of this act clearly do not apply alike to all of the class affected by it. It does not afford all the members of that class similarly situated the equal protection of the law; but it deprives certain members of the class of the vital right to labor in and about the anthracite coal mines without due process of law. This inequality of protection and deprivation of right is founded solely upon a frivolous and arbitrary ground or distinction which can not be defended as being the exercise of the police power of the State. Collett v. Scott, 13 Luzerne Leg. Reg. 61, p. 67.

5. CERTIFICATES-DUTIES OF SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS.

A common-school superintendent who is required to obey the provisions of this act has such an interest in the act and his duties thereunder are of such character as to remove him from the class of purely ministerial officers and gives him standing to raise the question of the constitutionality of the act.

Collett v. Scott, 13 Luzerne Leg. Reg. 61, p. 64.

This act requires a common-school superintendent not only to devote his time but expend his own money without hope of being reimbursed. He is required to certify in each case if the applicant can read and write legibly simple sentences in the English language. This certificate is necessarily based upon an examination of the applicant, but the method of examination and the subject matter presented within the general limits of the act are left to the discretion and judgment of the superintendent, and his determination as to the applicant's qualification

is the result of his judgment and when fairly exercised can not be controlled or reversed.

Collett v. Scott, 13 Luzerne Leg Reg. 61, p. 64.

6. ACT REPEALED AGE LESSENED.

All the provisions of this act are repealed by the act of May 1, 1909 (P. L.

375).

Mining-Minors, In re, 37 Pa. County Ct. Rep. 265, p. 269 (Opinion of Attorney General).

This act made a clear distinction between the age limit for the employment of minors for working inside and outside of mines. The act of May 1, 1909 (P. L. 375), made no such distinction but stipulates the age limit at which minors may be employed. This latter act repeals this act and reduces the age limit from 16 to 14 years.

Mining-Minors, In re, 37 Pa. County Ct. Rep. 265, p. 269 (Opinion of Attorney General).

This act prohibits the employment of any children under the age of sixteen years inside of any anthracite coal mine, and the employment of any child under fourteen years of age in or about any anthracite coal breaker or colliery; and prohibits the employment of a child without a certificate. This act is repealed in toto by the act of 1909, notwithstanding the latter act has the unfortunate effect of reducing the age at which minors may work in an anthracite coal mine from 16 to 14 years.

Employment of Minors in Coal Mines, In re. (Opinion of Attorney General), 19 Pa. Dist. Rep. 846.

EMPLOYMENT IN INDUSTRIAL ESTABLISHMENTS.

LAWS 1905, P. 352.

MAY 2, 1905.

AN ACT to regulate the employment, in all kinds of industrial establishments, of women and children employed at wages or salaries, by regulating the age at which minors can be employed and the mode of certifying the same, and by fixing the hours of labor for women and minors.

[ocr errors]

NOTE.-This act is known as the factory act. The sections relating to the employment of minors relate incidentally to some phases of mining, but can not logically be separated from the body of the act. The entire act is under the title Industrial Establishments. (See p. 86.)

REGULATION OF AGES OF MINORS EMPLOYED.

LAWS 1909, P. 283.

APRIL 29, 1909.

AN ACT to provide for the health and safety of minors in certain employments, by regulating the ages at which said minors may be employed, their hours of employment, their protection against injury, and to prescribe rules for the obtaining of employment certificates, and providing penalties for violation of the provisions thereof.

SEC. 1. Be it enacted, etc.:

That from and after the passage of this act, no minor under the age of eighteen years, except as hereinafter provided, shall be employed, permitted or suffered to work, in, about, or for any * ** *

quarry.

* *

SEC. 2. That male minors over the age of eighteen years may be employed in any and all kinds of legal employment, within the Commonwealth; but all

minors under the age of eighteen years shall not be employed in or about blast furnaces, quarries; in the outside erection and repair of electric wires; in the running or management of elevators, lifts, or hoisting machines; in oiling hazardous and dangerous machinery, in motion; at switch tending, gate tending, track repairing; as brakemen, firemen, engineers, motormen, conductors, upon railroads; * in or about establishments wherein nitroglycerine, dynamite, dualin, guncotton, gunpowder, or other high or dangerous explosive, is manufactured, compounded or stored. (Amended. See following act.)

NOTE.-Secs. 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 apply wholly to other businesses and industries. The remaining sections of the act are identical with secs. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 of the act of May 1. 1909, except in the reference to the businesses and industries included. (See p. 803.)

ANNOTATIONS.

EMPLOYMENT OF MINORS.

[ocr errors]

1. PURPOSE AND APPLICATION OF ACT-COMPLETE SYSTEM.
2. CONSTRUCTION OF ACT-MEANING OF RAILROAD."
3. APPLICATION OF ACT TO INDUSTRIAL RAILROADS.

1. PURPOSE AND APPLICATION OF ACT-COMPLETE SYSTEM.

The occasion and necessity of the act of April 29, 1909, was the protection of children under 18 years of age by preventing them engaging in certain hazardous employments. That was the mischief felt at the time the law was enacted and this statute by the title of the act is one to provide for the health and safety of minors in certain employments and applies to the employments that are enumerated and no others. The prohibited employments include switch tending and engineers upon railroads. The mischief intended to be remedied and the undoubted purpose of the act clearly indicates that the word "railroad" was used in its broadest sense and applies wherever the road or way may be so designated.

Oxford Coal Co. v. Fidelity & Casualty Coal Co., 248 Pa. St. 311, p. 313.

This act, together with the act of May 1, 1909 (P. L. 375), constitutes a complete system for the employment of child labor in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and took the place of all other acts on the subject, and new certificates complying with the provisions of this act are required to make legal the employment of minors under the age of 16 years.

Minors' Employment Certificate, 18 Pa. District Rep. 885, p. 886 (Opinion of Attorney General).

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

The word "railroad" may have a different meaning in different statutes. The legislature may use it in a broad sense in one statute and in a technical and popular sense in another, but in each the legislative intent must be ascer tained and the intention carried out. When the words of a statute are not explicit the intention is to be collected from the contents and from the occasion and necessity of the law, from the mischief felt and the object and remedy in view; and an intention is to be taken or presumed according to what is consonant to reason and good discretion.

Oxford Coal Co. v. Fidelity & Casualty Coal Co., 248 Pa. St. 311, p. 313.

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »