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same with the department, or who, being the keeper or person in charge of such office, shall at any time fail on the request of the inspector or person authorized by the inspector to produce for inspection the books of such office or to give any information as to the business carried on thereat reasonably required of him, or who, being a keeper or person in charge of such an office, shall charge fees at a higher rate than is prescribed under this act by the inspector, or charge a fee where no fee has been so prescribed shall be guilty of an offense and liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding £50, or, in default of payment, to imprisonment for a period not exceeding three months.

32. Whenever any person shall be charged with an offense under this act the registrar or clerk of the court before which such person is charged shall, within one month thereafter and whether or not a conviction is obtained, report concisely in writing to the inspector the particulars of the charge, the verdict or judgment thereon, and the sentence (if any) passed by the court.

33. 1. In any proceedings against an incorporated company for an offense under this act, the secretary and every director or manager thereof in this Colony may be charged with such offense and shall be liable to be punished therefor, unless he proves that he was in no way a party thereto.

2. In like proceedings against a local authority, the mayor, chairman, town clerk, secretary, or other similar officer shall be liable to be so charged with and in like circumstances punished for the offense.

3. In like proceedings against a partnership, every member in this Colony of such partnership shall be liable to be so charged and, in like circumstances, punished for the offense.

4. In like proceedings against a trade-union, the president, secretary, and every other officer thereof in this Colony shall be liable to be so charged and, in like circumstances, punished for the offense.

5. Provided that nothing in this section contained shall be deemed to exempt from liability any other person guilty of such offense.

34. 1. The governor may, from time to time, make, alter, and rescind regulations, not inconsistent with this act, prescribing

(a) The powers and duties of the inspector;

(b) The forms of registers and other records to be kept by the inspector; (c) The forms of application for the appointment of a board and of any summons of parties or witnesses to attend its proceedings;

(d) The fees and allowances which may be made to witnesses or to other persons acting on the orders of the board, and the forms of vouchers and receipts for any fees and allowances payable under this act;

(e) The fees payable to the department for registering any private registry office or for supplying copies of any report or recommendation mentioned in this act;

(f) What returns, statistics, information, and reports shall be furnished to the inspector, and the periods at which the same shall be furnished, by employers, masters of apprentices, and by trade unions;

(g) Penalties for any contravention of or default in complying with the regulations, not exceeding a fine of fifty pounds, or, in default of payment thereof, imprisonment for a period of six months.

And generally, for the better carrying of the objects and purposes of this act. 2. All such regulations shall be of force and effect on publication in the Gazette.

3. All such regulations shall, within seven days after such publication, be laid on the tables of both houses of Parliament, if Parliament be then in session, and, if Parliament be not then in session, within seven days after the commencement of its next ensuing session.

35. No proceeding under this act had before a board, nor any act or omission of a board, shall be deemed invalid by reason of any defect in form or technical irregularity.

36. This act may be cited for all purposes as the industrial disputes prevention act, 1909, and shall not come into operation, unless and until the governor shall declare, by proclamation in the Gazette, that it is His Majesty's pleasure not to disallow the act, and thereafter it shall come into operation on such date as the governor may, by like proclamation, declare.

IX. EUROPEAN LEGISLATION.

AUSTRIA.

The restrictions imposed by the Austrian Penal Code upon concerted action among employers or workpeople for the purpose of influencing conditions of labor were removed by Article Ì of an act dated April 7, 1870.

The freedom of workpeople in that country to make effective use of their rights with respect to combinations for the purpose of causing a strike is nevertheless, in practice, very much restricted by the provisions of the associations law of the 15th of November, 1867, which regulates the conditions for exercising the right of combination affirmed by article 12 of the law of the constitution. Under this law, which is still in force, the authorities charged with the administration of that law have power to forbid the formation of a union if it should propose to adopt aims or methods deemed to be "dangerous to the State," and to dissolve a union whenever it actually adopts aims or applies methods which the authorities hold to be of such a nature, or to be other than those clearly set forth in the sanctioned by-laws of the union.

The attitude of the Government toward combinations for the purpose of strikes among workpeople and officials employed in the railway service is illustrated by the following examples of judgments delivered by the Austrian Supreme Court in cases in which the decisions of the provincial authorities had been appealed against:

(1) The question as to whether a proposed society should be regarded as dangerous to the State must not be determined solely by reference to its bylaws; regard must also be had to the actual occurrences that have conduced to, or accompanied, its formation, especially where an official record of those occurrences is forthcoming. If the occurrences were of a nature to warrant the conclusion (say) that a union of engine drivers, by organizing and combining with other unions of the same kind, was aiming at bringing about a state of things which would enable the engine drivers as a body to dictate terms to the State and the private railway undertakings, then there could be no doubt as to the union being dangerous to the State. (Judgment dated April 16, 1902.)

(2) It would be dangerous to the State and illegal if a union of railway servants were to participate in a congress which discussed the possibility of using the strong arm of labor for paralyzing the activities of the State or the possibility of bringing civilized life to a standstill by means of a union of forces between the railway servants and organized labor in general. (Judgment dated July 10, 1897.)

From the foregoing it will be seen that the Government has power under the associations law to frustrate from the very beginning any attempt to organize strikes such as might threaten the economic life of the country as a whole, or even of a particular locality.

In the case of a projected union of railway workers, postal officials, or other employees in public-utility services, the authorities would refuse to sanction by-laws in which mention was made of the strike as a means to be applied in the last resort for attaining the objects of the union, or in which provision was made for the accumulation of a strike fund. If, after its formation had been sanctioned, the union were to call a meeting to discuss the possibility of a strike, or to attempt to compel its members to contribute to a strike fund, it would be considered to be overstepping its legal bounds. It would be dissolved and its funds seized. A wide discretion is

thus left to the authorities in determining what objects and methods are to be deemed dangerous to the State or prejudicial to the public welfare.

While there exist in Austria several more or less important trade unions composed of persons employed in the railway, postal, and other public services, no strikes have so far taken place in those services.

BELGIUM.

Combinations for the purposes of strikes and lockouts remained illegal in Belgium until the Penal Code had been amended by a law of June 8, 1867. By the omission from the amended code of articles 414-416 of the original law, workpeople and employers ceased to incur any penalty for taking concerted action with a view to raising or lowering wages, even in cases where the exercise of this right should involve a breach of contract.

While thus legalizing concerted stoppages of work in themselves the new Penal Code provided certain safeguards against practices arising out of the exercise of the right to institute strikes and lockouts. The practices thus provided against were (a) interference with the free exercise of industry or labor, and (b) strikes in the public services.

In the case of persons employed by the State (including the railway, postal, telegraph, and telephone services), strikes were definitely prohibited by a new article (236) of the same code, which provided that

Officials who, as a result of concerted action, shall resign their posts with the object of hindering or suspending either the administration of justice or the accomplishment of a lawful service shall be punishable by imprisonment for a period of one month or two years and by a fine of 100 or 200 francs. They may further be deprived of the right to be employed in any capacity in the public service.

With regard to the formation of trade unions, as distinguished from other kinds of societies (cooperative, friendly etc.), and the presentation of collective demands, the rights of persons employed in the railway, postal, telegraph, and telephone services are subject to certain limitations which do not apply to persons employed in private enterprise. Their position in these respects is defined in an amended code of rules issued by the minister of railways, posts. and telegraphs on the 10th of March, 1910. These rules contain. among other provisions, the stipulation that employees of the departments of railways, posts, and telegraphs may, provided they safeguard order and discipline, form trade unions which "have for their object the study of questions relating to the trade and the protection of the trade interests of their members. No other assembly, temporary or permanent, may occupy itself with the same object." It is further provided that employees desiring to form such a trade union shall send to the superior authority for the purpose of receiving authorization, the text of the union's by-laws, the list of the founders, and the list of members on the executive committee. Trade unions so organized may present to the ministry, either directly or through the usual official channels, all the petitions and proposals that they consider advisable and which have reference either to the

performance of the official duties or to the position of the members or to the organization of the service.

Since the first establishment of railways in Belgium there has been no serious strike in the transportation industry. As a consequence in this connection article 236 of the penal code has never been applied. The absence of strikes on the Belgian State railways is, however, stated to be due to the facts that posts on the railway are more and more sought after. Men who could earn higher wages in other branches of trade, it is stated, enter the service of the railways because of its stability, the prospect of a pension, advantages for their children, and on account of the prestige which they enjoy as public employees and officials.

DENMARK.

Recent Danish legislation for the prevention and settlement of labor disputes is embodied in two acts dated April 12, 1910. Under one of these laws provision is made for the appointment of a permanent arbitration court, composed of members of the existing national federations of employers and work people, respectively, together with a president and a vice president, each of whom possesses the qualifications of an ordinary judge. It is the business of this court to endeavor to make the parties to a dispute respect any agreement concerning arbitration into which they may have entered. The court has power to inflict fines on the party or parties adjudged guilty of violating the terms of an agreement. Witnesses summoned before the court are bound to appear, and its awards are final and enforceable as verdicts of the ordinary courts.

The arbitration court, in cases brought before it under the law, is required to decide how far the conduct complained of constitutes a violation of existing agreements and how far a decision complained of and found to be in violation of existing agreements is void. The party or parties responsible for the conduct complained of may be sentenced to a fine, which, if injury has been caused to anyone, shall accrue to the party by whom the injury has been actually suffered and in other cases to the plaintiff. Unless otherwise stipulated beforehand, the organization as such incurs legal liability only when it has made itself a party to the conduct of which complaint is made.

The arbitration court, in determining the amount of the fine, is governed by the magnitude of the injury, having due regard to the extent to which the offending party may have acted innocently. Where specially extenuating circumstances are found to exist the court may decide to inflict no fine.

Specially aggravating circumstances are deemed to exist where the offender has refused, although bound by his agreement to accept, arbitration, or where he has acted contrary to the terms of a legally pronounced award or of a judgment given by the arbitration court. to which the law relates.

The second of the two laws enacted in 1910 provides for the appointment of a Government conciliator, holding office for two years at a time. Whenever a serious strike or lockout has either taken place or appears likely to do so, and negotiations between the disputants have proved unavailing, the conciliator may, on his own initiative or on the application of one of the parties, summon them to a conference, and the parties are bound to obey such summons.

FRANCE.

The principle of liberty both for employers and for work people to take concerted action with a view to the cessation of work has been formally recognized in France since the amendment, by a law dated May 25, 1864, of articles 414-416 of the penal code. In their amended form these articles imposed penalties only when the strike or lockout is brought about by threats or fraudulent devices." Even in its amended form, however, article 416 of the penal code prevented the effective exercise of the right to strike until the passage of the trade-associations law of March 21, 1884. The consequences of such repeal are described in a ministerial circular of August 25, 1884, in the following terms:

(a) The fact of having concerted measures with a view to preparing for a strike is no longer an offense either as regards associations of employers or workmen who are not members of an association.

(b) Fines, prohibitions, prescriptions, or interdictions pronounced in pursuance of concerted measures are no longer considered an attempt to prevent the free exercise of industry and labor.

A further obstacle to the effective exercise of the right to carry on strikes and lockouts was removed by those articles of the trade associations' law of.1884, under which freedom is granted to form trade associations without first obtaining formal sanction from the Government.

The only limitations upon complete freedom to strike in the railway service in France are contained in a law of July 15, 1845, of which article 20 is as follows:

Any engine driver, guard, or brakeman who shall desert his post during the progress of a journey shall be punished with imprisonment for a period of six mouths to two years.

A law dated July 22, 1909, authorized the Government to suspend during a period of strike or lockout the operation of certain laws whereby vessels sailing under the French flag enjoy a monopoly of the trade between the ports of continental France and those of Algeria and Corsica. This law was enacted in consequence of the frequent interruptions of maritime communications between France and the ports of the countries mentioned, by reason of strikes of French seamen, and it may be regarded as indirectly prohibiting strikes and lockouts of seamen engaged in that particular trade under the threat of a suspension of the monopoly.

It may be added that the same law provides for the establishment of a permanent arbitration board for dealing with disputes between the shipping companies and their seamen.

In 1910 a general strike was attempted by railway employees in France, but it was declared off after six days because the Government called the striking employees to the colors and placed them under military orders. An order was then issued requiring them to maintain and operate the railways.

GERMANY.

In Germany the State railway system, with the exception of about 1.000 miles of line in Alsace Lorraine, is owned and administered by the governments of the various constituent States. The enactment

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