REPORT OF THE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION ON LABOR LEGISLATION, INCLUDING RECOMMENDATIONS AS TO UNERAL LEGISLATION, VOLUME V OF THE COMMISSION'S REPORTS. WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 1900. [Extract from act of Congress of June 18, 1898, defining the duties of the Industrial Commission and showing the scope of its inquiries.] SEC. 2. That it shall be the duty of this commission to investigate questions pertaining to immigration, to labor, to agriculture, to manufacturing, and to business, and to report to Congress and to suggest such legislation as it may deem best upon these subjects. SEC. 3. That it shall furnish such information and suggest such laws as may be made a basis for uniform legislation by the various States of the Union, in order to harmonize conflicting interests and to be equitable to the laborer, the employer, the producer, and the consumer. 2 OFFICES OF UNITED STATES INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION, Washington, D. C., May 25, 1900. DEAR SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith the Report of the Industrial Commission on Labor Legislation, prepared in conformity with an act of Congress of June 18, 1898. Respectfully, JAMES H. KYLE, Chairman. To the SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION. REPORT ON GENERAL LABOR LEGISLATION. To the Senate and House of Representatives, Fifty-sixth Congress: The subject covered by this report is peculiarly a matter of domestic law, and with one or two notable exceptions (such as railway labor, which may be regulated under the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution) the commission have to recommend improved legislation to the State legislatures, under section 3 of the act creating this commission, rather than to Congress directly. Section 3 provides that the commission "shall furnish such information and suggest such laws as may be made a basis for uniform legislation by the various States of the Union, in order to harmonize conflicting interests and to be equitable to the laborer, the employer, the producer, and the consumer." It seems best to take up the subjects upon which the commission finds itself now ready to make recommendations in the order in which they are treated in the accompanying digest of existing laws relating to general labor. That order has been carefully considered, and is, it is hoped, both logical and practical, while the convenience to the reader in having the references consecutive is obvious. The subject of convict labor is specially treated in a separate report of the Industrial Commission, but for the sake of completeness a digest of the statutes on this subject is included in this report. The commission has not yet completed its investigation of the conditions of mine labor, and while some suggestions on this subject are contained in the present report, the subject will be more fully discussed later. Meantime a digest of the existing laws as to labor in mines is submitted in the present volume. Perhaps the subject of greatest public interest to-day is that of the regulation of the hours of labor permitted in industrial occupations, and especially in factories. (See Chap. I, Art. B, of the Digest of General Labor Laws in this volume.) Most of the Northern and Eastern States prohibit the employment of persons under the full age in factories or other mechanical establishments, for more than a prescribed time per diem, usually ten hours, and not exceeding sixty hours |