Laborers and employes of any railroad company, except the officers thereof, "shall have a lien for all debts due to them for work and labor done and performed by them for such company, which shall extend to and cover all the property, rights, effects and credits of any description belonging to such corporation and situate in this State."* * * Both in Iowa and Colorado, "blacklisting" is prohibited. In the former State, if an employer, having discharged an employe, "prevent or attempt to prevent by word or writing of any kind, such discharged employe from obtaining employment with any other person except by furnishing in writing, on request, a truthful statement of the reasons for such discharge," he is guilty of a misdemeanor. And a railroad or any other corporation which authorizes its agents to blacklist a former employe, is liable in treble damages to such employe.† In Colorado, by an act of 1887, "no corporation, company or individual shall blacklist, or publish or cause to be blacklisted or published," any discharged employe, mechanic or laborer, with the intent and for the purpose of preventing him from engaging in or securing similar or other employment. The penalty is a fine of not less than fifty nor more than two hundred and fifty dollars, or imprisonment in the county jail for not less than thirty nor more than ninety days, or both. Missouri and Texas have substantially similar acts requiring notice to be given of a proposed reduction in wages. The act in the former State was passed in 1885, and applies to railroad, mining, express, telegraph and manufacturing corporations generally. In Texas,‡ only railroad companies are affected: "All persons in the employment of any railway company shall be entitled to receive thirty days' notice from said company before their wages can be reduced by such company, and in all cases of reduction the employe shall be entitled to receive from such company wages at his contract price for the full term of thirty days after such notice is given, to be recovered in any court of competent jurisdiction. "The notice * * * may be given by posting written or printed hand-bills, specifying the parties whose wages are to be reduced and the amount of such reduction, in at least three conspicuous places in or about each shop, section-house, station, depot, train or other places *Civil Code, ? 3079. + Laws of 1888, p. 80. where said employes are at work; provided, such employe shall, within fifteen days from the date of such notice, inform such railway company, by posting like notices as given by such railway company, whether he will or will not accept such reduction; and if no such information is given such company by such employe, then such employe shall forfeit his right to such notice, and such reduction shall take effect from the date of such notice instead of at the expiration of the thirty days."* *This proviso is not in the Missouri act. APPENDIX. Tabular Statement of Railroad Casualties in New Jersey in 1887. Pennsylvania Railroad System Central Railroad of N. J. System *Probably 75 per cent. of the "not stated" were trainmen. Tabular Statement of Railroad Casualties in New Jersey in 1887-Continued. Lehigh Valley Railroad System- N. Y., Susq. and W. R. R. System- Phila. and Reading R. R. System- Unclassified Railroads New Jersey Junction... West Shore and Ontario.. *Probably 75 per cent. of the "not stated" were trainmen, |