ACTS OF 1923

CHAPTER 33.-Labor organizations-Sale of real estate

Organizations.-[This act adds section 12 to chapter 57 of the code. This chapter relates to religious and other organizations, section 9 prescribing the mode of the sale of lands by trustees by petition and order of court. Section 12 makes these provisions applicable to the sale of real estate held by any labor organization or similar association of craftsmen or employees or branch thereof, but this does not give it or them the status of a corporation.]

105446°-25-71

WISCONSIN

STATUTES--1923

Protection of employees as voters

SECTION 12.19. Threats.-No person being an employer or acting for or in be half of any employer shall give, distribute, or cause to be given or distributed to any of his employees, any printed or written matter containing any threat, notice, or information, that in case any particular ticket of a political party or organization or candidate shall be elected, or any measure referred to a vote of the people shall be adopted, work in his place or establishment will cease, in whole or in part, or his place or establishment be closed up, or the salaries or wages of his workmen or employees be reduced, or other threats, expressed or implied, intended or calculated to influence the political opinions or actions of his workmen or employees.

Employment of children-School attendance

SEC. 40.73. (1) Attendance required.-[Children under 14, and children 14 to 16 years of age not regularly and lawfully employed in some useful employment or service at home or elsewhere, must attend school during the full period of the public-school term unless they have completed 8 grades of school or are excused for reasons stated.]

(3) Vocational schools.-Until September 1, 1921, any person between the ages of fourteen and seventeen, unless indentured as an apprentice, as provided in section 2377 [106.01], and after that date any person who has completed the period of compulsory full-time education and who has not completed the equiva lent of four years of school work above the elementary grades, or who has not completed the school term, quarter, semester, or other division of the school year in which he is eighteen years of age, living within two miles of the school of any town, or within the corporate limits of any city or village and not physically incapacitated, who is not required by subsection (1) to attend some pub lic, private, or parochial school, and who is not attending a free high school or equivalent of a high school, must either attend some public, private, or parochial school at least half time, or attend the vocational school half time in the daytime from the end of the period of full-time compulsory education to the end of the school term, quarter, semester, or other division of the school year in which he is sixteen years of age, and after that for at least eight hours a week until the end of the term, quarter, semester, or other division of the school year in which he is eighteen years of age for at least eight hours a week for at least eight months and for such additional months or parts thereof as the other public schools in such city, town, or village are in session in excess of eight during the regular school year, or the equivalent as may be determined by the local board of industrial education, provided such school or schools are maintained according to the provisions of sections 41.13 to 41.20, in the town, village, or city in which his parents or guardians reside. This subsection shall apply only to persons between the ages herein specified, living in towns, villages, and cities maintaining schools as provided in sections 41.13 to 41.20, providing for the establishment of vocational schools.

SEC. 40.74. Enforcement.-[Truant officers may enter any place of employ ment to ascertain whether minors are employed therein contrary to law. They may require the production of age and school certificates and lists, and must report all cases of illegal employment to the school authorities.]

Unemployment-Public works, etc.

SECTION 46.23. Board of control; unemployment.-It shall be the duty of the board of control to ascertain from the various departments and State institutions tentative plans for such extension of public works of the State as shall be best adapted to supply increased opportunities for advantageous public labor

during periods of temporary unemployment; together with estimates of the amount, character, and duration of such employment and the number of employees that could profitably be used therein, together with rates of wages and such other information as the board of control may deem necessary.

SEC. 46.24. Industrial commission.-It shall be the duty of the industrial commission, in cooperation with the immigration commissioner, to keep constantly advised of industrial conditions throughout the State as affecting the employment of labor; and whenever it shall be represented to the said industrial commission by the governor of the State or the said industrial commission shall otherwise have reason to believe that a period of extraordinary unemployment caused by industrial depression exists in the State it shall be the duty of the said industrial commission immediately to hold inquiry into the facts relating thereto and to find and report to the governor whether in fact such condition does exist.

SEC. 46.25. Expenditures to relieve depression.-In the event that the industrial commission shall report to the governor a condition of extraordinary unemployment caused by industrial depression does in fact exist in the State, the State board of control is hereby authorized to make such disposition of all funds to be used for said purposes among the several institutions and departments for such extension of the public works of the State under the charge or direction thereof, including the purchase of materials and supplies necessary therefor, as shall, in the judgment and discretion of the State board of control, be best adapted to advance the public interest by providing the maximum of public employment in relief for the existing conditions of extraordinary unemployment consistent with the most useful, permanent, and economic extension of the works aforesaid.

SEC. 46.26. Depression; labor lists.-It shall be the duty of the industrial commission immediately upon publication of a finding that a period of extraordinary unemployment due to industrial depression exists throughout the State, to cause to be prepared by the various institutions and departments approved lists of applicants for public employment and to secure from such applicants full information as to their industrial qualifications and to submit the same to the board of control. Preference for employments under the provisions of sections 46.23 to 46.26, inclusive, shall be extended first to citizens of this State, second to citizens of the United States at the time of making application; and last to aliens who are residents of this State at the time of making such application.

Occupational diseases-Reports

SECTION 69.49. Industrial diseases.—(1) Every medical practitioner in this State attending on or called in to visit a patient whom he believes to be suffering from poisoning from lead, phosphorus, arsenic, or mercury, or their compounds, or from compressed-air illness, contracted as a result of the nature of the patient's employment, shall send to the secretary of the State board of health and bureau of vital statistics a notice, stating the name and full postal address and place of employment of the patient and the disease from which, in the opinion of the medical practitioner, the patient is suffering.

(2) If any medical practitioner fails to comply with the provisions of this section, he shall be liable to a fine not exceeding ten dollars.

(3) It shall be the duty of the industrial commission to enforce the provisions of this section, and he may call upon the State and local boards of health for assistance.

Industrial commission—Factory, etc., regulations

SECTION 101.01. Definitions.-The following terms as used in sections 101.01 to 101.29 of the statutes shall be construed as follows:

(1) The phrase "place of employment" shall mean and include every place, whether indoors or out or underground and the premises appurtenant thereto where either temporarily or permanently any industry, trade, or business is carried on, or where any process or operation, directly or indirectly related to any industry, trade, or business, is carried on, and where any person is directly or indirectly employed by another for direct or indirect gain or profit, but shall not include any place where persons are employed in private domestic service or agricultural pursuits which do not involve the use of mechanical power.

(2) The term "employment" shall mean and include any trade, occupation, or process of manufacture, or any method of carrying on such trade, occupation, or process of manufacture in which any person may be engaged, except in such private domestic service or agricultural pursuits as do not involve the use of mechanical power.

(3) The term "employer" shall mean and include every person, firm, corporation, agent, manager, representative, or other person having control or custody of any employment, place of employment, or of any employe.

(4) The term "employee" shall mean and include every person who may be required or directed by any employer, in consideration of direct or indirect gain or profit, to engage in any employment or to go or work or be at any time in any place of employment.

(5) The term frequenter" shall mean and include every person, other than an employee, who may go in or be in a place of employment or public building under circumstances which render him other than a trespasser.

(6) The term "deputy" shall mean and include any person employed by the industrial commission designated as such deputy by the commission, who shall possess special, technical, scientific, managerial, or personal abilities or qualities in matters within the jurisdiction of the industrial commission, and who may be engaged in the performance of duties under the direction of the commission calling for the exercise of such abilities or qualities.

(7) The term "order" shall mean and include any decision, rule, regulation, direction, requirement, or standard of the commission or any other determination arrived at or decision made by such commission.

(8) The term "general order" shall mean and include such order as applies generally throughout the State to all persons, employments, places of employment, or public buildings, or all persons, employments, or places of employment or public buildings of a class under the jurisdiction of the commission. All other orders of the commission shall be considered special orders.

(9) The term "local order" shall mean and include any ordinance, order, rule, or determination of any common council, board of aldermen, board of trustees, or the village board, of any village or city, or the board of health of any municipality, or an order or direction of any official of such municipality, upon any matter over which the industrial commission has jurisdiction. (10) The term "welfare" shall mean and include comfort, decency, and moral well-being.

(11) The term "safe" or "safety" as applied to an employment or a place of employment or a public building shall mean such freedom from danger to the life, health, safety, or welfare of employes or frequenters, or the public, or tenants, or firemen, and such reasonable means of notification, egress, and escape in case of fire, and such freedom from danger to adjacent buildings or other property as the nature of the employment, place of employment, or publie building will reasonably permit.

(12) The term "public building" as used in sections 101.01 to 101.29 shall mean and include any structure used in whole or in part as a place of resort, assemblage, lodging, trade, traffic, occupancy, or use by the public or by three or more tenants.

(13) The term "owner "shall mean and include every person, firm, corporation, State, county, town, city, village, manager, representative, officer, or other person having ownership, control, or custody of any place of employment or public building, or of the construction, repair, or maintenance of any place of employment or public building, or who prepares plans for the construction of any place of employment or public building. Said sections 101.01 to 101.29, inclusive, shall apply, so far as consistent, to all architects and builders.

SEC. 101.02. Commission created; appointments.-There is hereby created a board which shall be known as the "Industrial Commission of Wisconsin." The governor, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, shall appoint a member who shall serve two years, another who shall serve four years, and another who shall serve six years. Thereafter each member shall be appointed and confirmed for terms of six years each. Each member of the board shall take and file the official oath. A majority of the board shall constitute a quorum for the exercise of the powers or authority conferred upon it. In case of a vacancy the remaining two members of the board shall exercise all the powers and authority of the board until such vacancy is filled. This board shall supersede and perform all of the duties of the industrial accident board provided in sections 102.01 to 102.41, inclusive.

SEC. 101.03. Organization.-Within thirty days after the passage and publication of this act such commission shall meet at the State capitol and organize in the manner provided for the organization of the industrial accident board in section 102.14 of the statutes. A majority of said commissioners shall constitute a quorum to transact business. No vacancy shall impair the right of the remaining commissioners to exercise all the powers of the commission. SEC. 101.04. Office; sessions.-The commission shall keep its office at the capitol and shall be provided by the superintendent of public property with suitable rooms, necessary furniture, stationery, books, periodicals, maps, instruments, and other necessary supplies. The commission may, however, hold sessions at any place other than the capitol when the convenience of the commission and the parties interested so requires.

SEC. 101.05. Legal status; seal.-The commission shall be known collectively as the "Industrial Commission of Wisconsin," and in that name may sue and be sued. It shall have a seal for the authentication of its orders and proceedings, upon which shall be inscribed the words "Industrial Commission-Wisconsin-Seal."

SEC. 101.06. Employer's duty as to safety.-Every employer shall furnish employment which shall be safe for the employees therein and shall furnish a place of employment which shall be safe for employees therein and for frequenters thereof, and shall furnish and use safety devices and safeguards, and shall adopt and use methods and processes reasonably adequate to render such employment and places of employment safe, and shall do every other thing reasonably necessary to protect the life, health, safety, and welfare of such employees and frequenters. Every employer and every owner of a place of employment or a public building now or hereafter constructed shall so con. struct, repair, or maintain such place of employment or public building, and every architect shall so prepare the plans for the construction of such place of employment or public building as to render the same safe.

SEC. 101.07. Employees changing safeguards.—(1) No employer shall require, permit, or suffer any employee to go or be in any employment or place of employment which is not safe, and no such employers shall fail to furnish, provide, and use safety devices and safeguards, or fail to adopt and use methods and processes reasonably adequate to render such employment and place of employment safe, and no such employer shall fail or neglect to do every other thing reasonably necessary to protect the life, health, safety, or welfare of such employees and frequenters; and no employer or owner or other person shall hereafter construct or occupy or maintain any place of employment, or public building that is not safe, nor prepare plans which shall fail to provide for making the same safe.

(2) No employee shall remove, displace, damage, destroy, or carry off any safety device or safeguard furnished and provided for use in any employment or place of employment, nor interfere in any way with the use thereof by any other person, nor shall any such employee interfere with the use of any method or process adopted for the protection of any employee in such employment or place of employment or frequenter of such place of employment, nor fail or neglect to do every other thing reasonably necessary to protect the life, health, safety, or welfare of such employees or frequenters.

SEC. 101.08. Employers to furnish information; inspection.—(1) Every employer and every owner shall furnish to the commission all information required by it to carry into effect the provisions of sections 101.01 to 101.29, inclusive, and shall make specific answers to all questions submitted by the commission relative thereto.

(2) Any employer receiving from the commission any blanks calling for information required by it to carry into effect the provisions of sections 101.01 to 101.29, inclusive, with directions to fill the same, shall cause the same to be properly filled out so as to answer fully and correctly each question therein propounded, and in case he is unable to answer any question, he shall give a good and sufficient reason for such failure, and said answer shall be verified under oath by the employer, or by the president, secretary, or other managing officer of the corporation, if the employer is a corporation, and returned to the commission at its office within the period fixed by the commission.

(3) Any commissioner or deputy of the commission may enter any place of employment or public building for the purpose of collecting facts and statistics, examining the provisions made for the health, safety, and welfare of the employees, frequenters, the public, or tenants therein and bringing to the atten