SEC. 11269. Stoping.-[Stoping within less than 25 feet of a shaft is forbidden, if other work is being carried on below the stoping.]

SEC. 11270. Speed of cage.-[Cages used for hoisting and lowering men may not exceed a speed of 80 feet per minute.]

SEC. 11271. Buildings.-[Blacksmith shops or drying rooms must not be within 50 feet of the mouth of a tunnel or shaft, unless fireproof.]

SEC. 11272. Penalties.-[Violations of the above provisions entail fines of from $300 to $1,000.]

SEC. 11273. Escape shaft.-[A second exit must be provided in mines of 100 or more feet in depth where the shaft is covered by a building that is not fireproof, and operations have been carried on by drifting and stoping designated distances.]

SEC. 11274. Scope.-[The provisions of the preceding section apply only to quartz mines in which 9 or more men are employed underground at stoping, and which have a nonfireproof building within 30 feet of the shaft.]

Employment of labor

SECTION 11402. Contracts releasing from liability.-Every person, company, or corporation which requires of its servants or employees, as a condition of their employment or otherwise, any contract or agreement whereby such person, company, or corporation is released or discharged from liability or responsibility on account of personal injuries received by such servants or employees, while in the service of such person, company, or corporation, by reason of the negligence of such person, company, or corporation, or the agents or employees thereof, is punishable by imprisonment in the State prison not exceeding five years, or by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, or both. SEC. 11403. Wage debts.-Every person, company, or corporation indebted to another person for labor, or any agent of any person, copartnership, or corporation so indebted, who shall, with intent to secure from such other person a discount upon the payment of such indebtedness, willfully refuse to pay the same, or falsely deny the same, or the amount or validity thereof, or that the same is due, is guilty of a misdemeanor: Provided, however, That nothing herein contained shall prohibit any employer from fixing regular pay days for the payment of wages or salary earned in the calendar month immediately preceding such pay days, except in cases where the employee is discharged.

SEC. 11404. Accepting fees forbidden.-Any superintendent, foreman, assistant, boss, or any other person or persons who shall receive or solicit, or cause to be received or solicited, any sum of money or other valuable consideration from any person for or on account of the employment or the continuing of the employment of such person, or of anyone else, or for or on account of any promise or agreement to employ or to continue to employ any such person, or anyone else, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be subject to a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, or undergo an imprisonment in the county jail of not more than one year, or both, at the discretion of the court.

SEC. 11405. Witnesses.-No person shall be excused from attending or testifying, or producing any books, papers, documents, or anything, or things before any court or magistrate upon any investigation, proceeding, or trial for a violation of any of the provisions of this act, upon the ground, or for the reason that the testimony or evidence, documentary or otherwise, required of him, may tend to convict him of a crime, or to subject him to a penalty or forfeiture; but no person shall be prosecuted or subjected to any penalty or forfeiture for or on account of any transaction, matter, or thing concerning which he may so testify, or produce evidence, of documentary, or otherwise; and no testimony or evidence so given or produced shall be received against him in any civil or criminal proceeding, action, or investigation.

NEBRASKA

CONSTITUTION

ARTICLE XV

SECTION 8. Employment of women and children-Minimum wage.-Laws may be enacted regulating the hours and conditions of employment of women and children, and securing to such employees a proper minimum wage.

SEC. 9. Labor disputes-Industrial commission.-Laws may be enacted providing for the investigation, submission, and determination of controversies between employers and employees in any business or vocation affected with a public interest, and for the prevention of unfair business practices and unconscionable gains in any business or vocation affecting the public welfare. An industrial commission may be created for the purpose of administering such laws, and appeals shall lie to the supreme court from the final orders and judgments of such commission.

COMPILED STATUTES-1922

Wages as preferred claims-In assignments

SECTION 246. Amount.-[Debts for clerks' or servants' wages in an amount not exceeding $100 may be paid or secured without being subject to the laws governing the property of assignments generally.]

Protection of employees as voters

SECTION 2346. Threatening discharge or close of business.-It shall be unlawful for any person or persons, firm, company, or corporation employing any voter in the State of Nebraska to coerce or in any way attempt to coerce such voter in his voting or any other political action at any primary, caucus, convention, or election held or to be held in this State or to attempt to influence the political action of such voter by threatening to discharge him because of his political action, or by threats on the part of such person or persons, firm, company, or corporation to close his or its place of business in the event of the election of any candidate for public office, or in the event of the success of any political party at any election; and any person or persons, firm, company, or corporation in this State found guilty of a violation of this section shall be fined not more than one hundred dollars or be imprisoned not to exceed thirty days in the county jail.

Suits for wages-Homesteads not exempt

SECTION 2818. Exception.-The homestead is subject to execution or forced sale in satisfaction of judgments obtained:

First. On debts secured by mechanics', laborers', or vendors' lens upon the premises;

Railroads-Regulation of employment-Liability for injuries—Accidents

SECTION 5389. Pay days established.-Every railroad company authorized to do business by the laws of the State of Nebraska shall, on or before the first day of each month pay the employees thereof the wages earned by them during the first half of the preceding month, ending with the fifteenth day thereof, and on or before the fifteenth day of each month pay the employees thereof the wages earned by them during the last half of the preceding calendar month: Provided, however, That if at any time of payment any employee shall be absent from his or her regular place of labor and shall not receive his or her wages through a duly authorized representative, he or she shall be entitled to said payment at any time thereafter upon demand upon the proper paymaster at the place where such wages are usually paid and at the place where the next pay is due; any such railroad company which shall

violate any of the provisions of this act shall forfeit and pay the sum of $25 for each violation of this act which shall be proved, to be recovered in any court of competent jurisdiction by any person who shall sue for the same; one half of said penalty to go to said person so suing therefor, and the other half to go to the State: Provided further, Complaint of such violation be made within sixty days from the date such wages become payable, according to the tenor of this act.

SEC. 5390. Agreements forbidden.-It shall not be lawful for any railroad company to enter into or make any agreement with any employee for the payment of wages of any such employee otherwise than as provided in section one of this act, except it be to pay such wages at shorter intervals than herein provided. Every agreement made in violation of this act shall be deemed to be null and void, and it shall not be a defense to the suit for a penalty provided for in section one of this act; and each and every employee with whom any agreement in violation of this act shall be made by such railroad company shall have his or her action and right of action against such railroad company for the full amount of his or her wages in any court of competent jurisdiction of this State.

SEC. 5410 (as amended 1923, ch. 81). Liability.-Every railway company operating a railway engine, car, or train in the State of Nebraska shall be liable to any of its employees who at the time of injury are engaged in construction or repair work or in the use and operation of any engine, car, or train for such company, or in the case of his death to his personal representatives for the benefit of his widow and children, if any; if none, then to his parents; if none, then to his next of kin dependent upon him; for all damages which may result from negligence of any of its officers, agents, or employees, or by reason of any defects or insufficiency due to its negligence in its cars, engines, appliances, machinery, track, roadbed, ways, or works, or for failure to furnish adequate tools, appliances, or devices to enable its employees to perform their duties in a safe and proper manner, where such failure to furnish adequate tools, appliances, or devices renders it necessary for an employee under the direction of a foreman or other superior in the employ of any such railroad company to provide a substitute or substitutes for such tools, appliances, or devices to accomplish such work, and such employee so furnishing the substitute or substitutes for such tool, appliances, or devices shall not be deemed guilty of contributory negligence if the substitute or substitutes so furnished or provided by him shall prove inadequate or defective.

SEC. 5411. Comparative negligence.—In all actions brought against any railway company to recover damages for personal injuries to an employee, or when such injuries have resulted in his death, the fact that the employee may have been guilty of contributory negligence shall not bar a recovery when his contributory negligence was slight and that of the employer was gross in comparison, but damages shall be diminished by the jury in proportion to the amount of negligence attributable to such employee; all questions of negligence and contributory negligence shall be for the jury.

Though this statute enforces a different rule against railroads from that applicable to other classes of litigants it is not unconstitutional; nor does the fact that the act covers subjects embraced within the Federal safety appliance laws invalidate its provisions abolishing the fellow-service doctrine. 32 Sup. Ct. 606.

SEC. 5412 (as amended 1923, ch. 80). Contracts not a bar.-No contract of employment, insurance, relief benefit, or indemnity for injury or death entered into, by or on behalf of any employee, nor the acceptance of any such insurance, relief benefit, or indemnity by the person entitled thereto, shall constitute any bar or defense to any action brought to recover damages for personal injuries to or death of such employee, nor shall the recovery of any damages by an employee against the railroad company in any action brought therefor, impair in any way the right of the employee to the insurance, relief benefit, or indemnity provided in his contract for such relief benefit and insurance: Provided, however, In any action against any common carrier for damages the defendant may set off any sum it may have contributed toward the insurance, relief benefit or indemnity that may have been paid to the injured employee, or in case of his death to his personal representative. And no agreement hereafter or heretofore made, making the recovery of relief benefits or insurance conditioned upon the recovery or nonrecovery of damages by the employee against the employer, shall be of any force or validity, but such employee may recover his insurance or relief benefits notwithstanding any such contract or agreement.

SEC. 5455. Certain employees to be twenty-one years of age.-It shall be unlawful for any common carrier within this State to put in charge of any telegraph office or signal tower between the hours of 7 o'clock in the evening and 7 o'clock in the morning, any telegraph operator or towerman whose duty it shall be to assist in the movement of trains, unless such telegraph operator or towerman shall have reached the age of at least twenty-one years: Provided, This section shall not apply when such common carrier is engaged in relieving its tracks of a train wreck, an act of God, or some public calamity. SEC. 5456. Violations.-[Penalty for violation is a fine, $5 to $50, for each night of illegal employment.]

SEC. 5495 (as amended, 1923, ch. 171). Reports of accidents, etc.-Every common carrier incorporated or doing business in this State shall, on or before the 31st day of March of each year, transmit to the office of the railway commission a full and complete statement, under the oath of its proper officers, of the affairs of such common carrier, as the same existed on the 31st day of December next preceding. Such statement shall show:

Twenty-fourth. The number of employees killed and the number of employees injured by accident, and the cause or causes of such accident.

Twenty-sixth. An itemized statement of the amount of all damages paid on account of injuries to or the death of persons by reasons of accidents, stating in separate items the amounts paid on account of injuries or the death of employees, passengers, and other persons.

Protection of employees on street railways

SECTION 5563. Inclosed platforms.-[Electric, cable, etc., cars requiring a person to be on the platform must have such platform inclosed so as to protect the workman from the winds and inclemencies of the weather from November 1 to April 1 of each year.]

SEC. 5564. Prohibition. [Use of car without such inclosed platform is forbidden.]

SEC. 5565. Violations.-[Violations entail fine or imprisonment, each day's use being a separate offense; act does not apply to trailers.]

SEC. 5566. Enforcement.-[County attorneys must prosecute violators on information.]

Employment of children-School attendance

SECTION 6508. Requirement.-[Attendance is required to 16, except that if a child is 14, has completed the 8th grade, and his services or earnings are needed for his own support or of actual dependents he may be excused. However, if there is a part-time school in the district he must attend it for 8 hours per week throughout the school year.]

Railroads Height of wires above tracks

SECTIONS 7101-7108. Clearance.-[The State railway commission is given power to regulate the crossing of railroad tracks by electric or other wires, and may order changes where wires do not conform to standards fixed. The clearance must not be less than 25 feet, except that trolley wires may not be less than 22 feet from the top of the rails.]

Department of Labor-General powers

SECTION 7654. Functions.-The governor, through the agency of the department of labor created by this act, shall have the power:

1. To foster, promote, and develop the welfare of wage earners;

2. To improve working conditions;

3. To advance opportunities for profitable employment;

4. To collect, collate, assort, systematize, and report statistical details relating to all departments of labor, especially in its relation to commercial, industrial, social, economic, and educational conditions, and to the permanent prosperity of the manufacturing and productive industries;

5. To require [acquire] and diffuse useful information on subjects connected with labor in the most general and comprehensive sense of the word;

6. To acquire and diffuse among the people useful information concerning the means of promoting the material, social, intellectual, and moral prosperity of laboring men and women;

7. To acquire and diffuse information as to the conditions of employment and such other facts as may be deemed of value to the industrial interests of the State;

8. To acquire and diffuse information in relation to the prevention of accidents, occupational disease, and other related subjects;

9. To administer and enforce the workmen's compensation laws or employers' liability acts of the State, and for that purpose the secretary of the department of labor shall be the deputy commissioner of labor and compensation commissioner, and the duty hereby imposed upon him, as such, of executing all of the provisions of Article VIII, chapter 35, Revised Statutes of Nebraska for the year 1913 [ch. 28, relating to workmen's compensation], and any and all act or acts amendatory thereof.

SEC. 7655. Law enforcement. In addition to the general powers conferred upon the governor in the preceding article he is hereby invested with the power and charged with the duty of enforcing, through the agency of the department of labor created by this act, all of the provisions contained in this article and all provisions which may be hereafter enacted as amendatory thereof.

SEC. 7656. Free employment offices.-The department of labor shall establish and maintain in its office and in connection therewith a free public employment bureau.

Employment of women

SECTION 7657. Seats for females.-It shall be the duty of every agent, proprietor, superintendent, or employer of female help within the State of Nebraska to provide a chair, stool, or seat for each and every such employee, upon which their female workers shall be allowed to rest when their duties will permit, or when said position does not interfere with the faithful discharge of their duties.

SEC. 7658. Penalty.-Any agent, proprietor, superintendent, or employer in the State of Nebraska faling to comply with the requirements of the preceding section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be fined in a sum not less than ten ($10) dollars nor more than two hundred ($200) dollars and stand committed until such fine be paid, and shall also be liable to an action for damages to the employee whose health has been injured by such neglect.

SEC. 7659. Work time.-In metropolitan cities and cities of the first class no female shall be employed in any manufacturing, mechanical, or mercantile establishment, laundry, hotel, or restaurant, office, or by any public-service corporation in this State more than nine hours during any one day or more than fifty-four hours in one week. The hours of each day may be so arranged as to permit the employment of such female at any time from six o'clock a. m. to ten o'clock p. m., but in no case shall such employment exceed nine hours in any one day, nor shall such female be employed except by public-service corporations between the hours of 10 p. m. and 6 a. m.

SEC. 7660. Schedule to be posted. Every such employer shall post, in a conspicuous place in every room where such females are employed, a printed notice stating the number of hours of work required each day, the hours of commencing and stopping, the time allowed for meals. Printed forms for such notices shall be furnished by the department.

SEC. 7661. Violations.-[Penalty is a fine, $20 to $50 for each offense.]

Employment of labor-Service letter

SECTION 7666. Service letters.-Whenever any employee of any public-service corporation or of a contractor who works for such corporation or contractor doing business in the State of Nebraska shall be discharged or voluntarily quits the service of his employer, it shall be the duty of the superintendent or manager, or contractor, upon the request of such employee, to issue to such employee a service letter, setting forth the nature of the service rendered by such employee to such corporation or contractor, and the duration thereof, and truly stating the cause for which such employee was discharged or quit such service.

SEC. 7667. Form.-Such letter shall be written in its entirety upon a plain sheet of white paper to be selected by such employee. No printed blank shall