178, sec. 15. In effect, June 13, 1912). The ten-hour law for factories and manufacturing establishments where children under fourteen are employed is extended to cover workshops and mercantile establishments, but exceptions are made of establishments engaged exclusively in packing fruits and vegetables from July 1 to November 1, of mercantile establishments in towns of less than 2,000 inhabitants, and of mercantile establishments on Saturdays. (C. 248. In effect, June 13, 1912).

United States.-The Children's Bureau is directed to investigate especially, among other questions, the employment of children, their accidents and diseases, dangerous occupations, and all state and territorial legislation affecting children. The force authorized for the bureau consists of fifteen persons, including the chief, assistant chief, and statistical expert. (C. 73. In effect, April 9, 1912). Appropriation, $25,640. (C. 350. In effect, August 23, 1912).

COMMISSION ON INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

United States.-A Commission on Industrial Relations is created, composed of nine persons, including at least three employers and three representatives of organized labor. The members are appointed by the President and are paid traveling and other necessary expenses and $10 a day while actually engaged in the work. The commission is authorized to hold sittings and public hearings anywhere in the United States, to administer oaths, summon and compel the attendance of witnesses, and compel testimony. Secretaries, experts, stenographers and other assistants may be employed, offices may be rented, books and other supplies may be bought, binding may be done, and members or employees may travel in or outside. the United States on the business of the commission. Experts may be paid not to exceed $5,000 a year, but no other person, except stenographers temporarily employed to take testimony, may be paid at a rate over $3,000 a year. The term of the commission is three years and at least one report must be made to Congress within the first year, one within the second year, and a final report not later than three years after the approval of the act. The Department of Commerce and Labor is authorized to cooperate with the commission in any manner and to whatever extent the Secretary of Commerce and Labor may approve.

Its duties are as follows: "The commission shall inquire into the general condition of labor in the principal industries of the United States including agriculture, and especially in those which are carried on in corporate forms; into existing relations between employers and employees; into the effect of industrial conditions on public welfare and into the rights and powers of the community to deal therewith; into the conditions of sanitation and safety of employees and the provisions for protecting the life, limb, and health of the employees; into the growth of associations of employers and of wage-earners and the effect of such associations upon the relations between employers and employees; into the extent and results of methods of collective bargaining; into any methods which have been tried in any state or in foreign countries for maintaining mutually satisfactory relations between employees and employers; into methods for avoiding or adjusting labor disputes through peaceful and conciliatory mediation and negotiations; into the scope,

methods, and resources of existing bureaus of labor and into possible ways of increasing their usefulness; into the question of smuggling or other illegal entry of Asiatics into the United States or its insular possessions, and of the methods by which such Asiatics have gained and are gaining such admission, and shall report to Congress as speedily as possible with such recommendations as said commission may think proper to prevent such smuggling and illegal entry. The commission shall seek to discover the underlying causes of dissatisfaction in the industrial situation and report its conclusions thereon." Appropriation for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1913, $100,000. (C. 351. In effect, August 23, 1912).

EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY, WORKMEN'S COMPEN

SATION, AND INSURANCE

The legislation of 1912 upon the subject of employers' liability and workmen's compensation may be most conveniently divided into general liability laws, compensation acts and amendments, and acts regulating employers' liability insurance companies. Statutes were enacted in Arizona, Maryland, Michigan, and Rhode Island. Of these the act of Maryland is purely voluntary; those of Michigan and Rhode Island are elective, with the well-known provision for bringing pressure to bear upon the employer by cutting off his defenses in case of non-election; while that of Arizona professes to be a workmen's compulsory compensation law. The bill drawn up in accordance with the recommendations of the federal commission failed of passage in Congress.

The Massachusetts compensation act of 1911 was changed in many minor details; the federal act was extended to employees of the Bureau of Mines, the Forestry Service, and the Lighthouse Service; and the New York legislature provided by resolution for an amendment to the constitution allowing the passage of a compulsory compensation act. Among the other laws relating to compensation should be noted especially the California act providing for an investigation by the industrial accident board of the causes and methods of preventing accidents, as well as of the various forms of liability insurance and workmen's compensation.

A. GENERAL LIABILITY LAWS.

Arizona. In accordance with the provision of the constitution an employers' liability law is enacted to protect the safety of employees in hazardous occupations. The list of occupations declared to be especially dangerous, by reason of inherent risks and hazards which are unavoidable by the workmen, includes substantially all railroad and street railway work; all work necessitating dangerous proximity to any explosive or to compressed air; iron or steel bridge building; the running of elevators and of derricks or other hoisting apparatus; work on ladders or scaffolds more than twenty feet above the ground or the floor beneath; electrical work; work in mines, quarries, open pits or cuts, ore-reduction works and smelters;

the construction and repair of tunnels, subways and viaducts; and all work in places where steam, electricity, or any other mechanical power is used to operate machinery. Employers must inform employees in such occupations, by rules, regulations or instructions, "as to the duties and restrictions of their employment", to the end of protecting their safety. In case of accident not caused by the negligence of the employee the employer is liable in damages, the questions of contributory negligence and assumption of risk being left to the jury as questions of fact. Contracting out is not permitted. If the employer appeals from the decision of a lower court and the judgment for the employee is sustained, the employer must not only pay the damages but must pay interest at the rate of twelve per cent per annum on the amount of the judgment from the date when the suit was first filed until the full amount is paid. Action must be begun within two years. (C. 89. In effect, May 24, 1912).

Railroads are forbidden to establish, maintain, or assist relief associations which require employees becoming members to enter into any contract or agreement, directly or indirectly, whereby they waive their right to damages in case of injury or death, and all such contracts are declared null and void. (C. 13. In effect, May 2, 1912). Employees of corporations are forbidden to obtain or attempt to obtain damages by false statements as to the nature or extent of an injury. Penalty for a corporation, from $100 to $5,000, and for an officer, agent, or employee, not exceeding $1,000, or imprisonment for not more than one year, or both, for each offense. (C. 90, secs. 23, 76-79. In effect, May 28, 1912).

Massachusetts. The provisions relating to notification of accidents before bringing actions for damages are modified so that, as in the case of claims before the industrial accident board, practically any form of written, signed communication giving the time, place, and cause of the injury or death is sufficient. (C. 251. In effect, March 14, 1912). The maximum amount which may be recovered in case of the death of an employee of a railroad corporation is raised from $5,000 to $10,000. (C. 354. In effect, May 1, 1912). Railroad companies are authorized to issue non-transferable passes to former employees who have been injured in their service. (C. 488. In effect, April 13, 1912).

Mississippi. The law providing that proof of injury is evidence