I am of the opinion that the words "reasonable necessary traveling and other expenses," referred to above, include only such necessary traveling and other expenses of the assistant factory inspector and deputy factory inspectors as are incurred while traveling in and about the State in the performance of their duties, and do not in any sense refer to the expenses of such persons while engaged in their duties at the office in Albany, or at the suboffice in the city of New York. There is nothing in section 65, above quoted, that in my judgment takes the deputy factory inspectors or assistant factory inspector in your office out of the rule above suggested. Respectfully yours, JULIUS M. MAYER, Attorney-General. Labor Law-Section 100. Term "Tenement-houses" referred to in said section is defined in chapter 550, Laws of 1904. STATE OF NEW YORK: ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S OFFICE, ALBANY, April 26, 1905. Hon. JOHN MCMACKIN, Commissioner of Labor, Albany, N. Y.: Dear Sir.-I have your favor of the 25th instant, in which you ask me to furnish you with an opinion covering the application of the Tenement-House Law to tenement-houses wherein no work is done other than in the stores on the first floor. You desire to know whether you shall treat such places under the provisions of section 100 of the law, or under the provisions of the General Factory Act. I beg to inform you that I have no doubt that the "tenement house" referred to in section 100 of the Labor Law is a tenementhouse as defined most recently in chapter 550, Laws of 1904. You will note that, in section 2 of said chapter, it is provided: The term tenement-house where used in this chapter," and in the same chapter is included the amendment of section 100, which said section, so amended by said chapter 550, Laws of 1904, constitutes now the present section 100. 66 I therefore conclude that a tenement-house, as referred to in section 100, "means any house or building, or portion thereof, which is rented, leased, let or hired out, to be occupied, or is occupied as the home or residence of three families or more living independently of each other, and doing their cooking upon the premises, and having a common right in the halls, stairways, yards, water-closets or privies, or some of them, and for the purposes of this act shall be construed to include any building on the same lot with any dwelling-house and which is used for any of the purposes specified in section one hundred of this act." Yours respectfully, JULIUS M. MAYER, Attorney-General. Commissioner of Labor Statistics. Railroad companies (Interborough Railway Co.) cannot be compelled by Commissioner to furnish statistics relating to strikes and lockouts. Section 32 of Labor Law does not apply to railroads. STATE OF NEW YORK: ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Mr. JOHN LUNDRIGAN, Second Deputy Commissioner of Labor. Albany, N. Y.: My Dear Sir.-I acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 6th instant. You inform me that "it has been customary, and is necessary in order that an intelligent report may be made to the Legislature. that all of the general facts and statistics relating to strikes and lockouts which occur within the State, be collected by, or fur nished to, the Board of Mediation and Arbitration." You also state that a strike existed on the property of the Interborough Railway Company, including the elevated and subway railroad service of New York city, beginning March 7, 1905, and that the Department of Labor has been unable to secure the usual information from the Interborough Company, although it has made both written and verbal requests. You state, in addition, that the general counsel of the railway company has informed one of the officials of your department that he was unable to find any provision of law which required a railroad corporation to furnish this information. You state that counsel, however, has said that, if you would furnish him the text of such statute, the Interborough Company would comply with the same and furnish you with the desired information. Your letter concludes with the inquiry: That you desire to know the application of this or any other law, so far as it relates to the collection of the statistical information referred to. Railroad companies are, in many particulars, under the jurisdiction of the State Board of Railroad Commissioners. The general powers and duties of that board in relation to examining books and affairs of a corporation of this character are defined in section 157 of the Railroad Law. In that section it is provided that the Board of Railroad Commissioners "shall have general supervision of all railroads and shall examine the same and keep informed as to their condition and the manner in which they are operated, for the security and accommodation of the public and their compliance with the provisions of their charters and of law." By section 163 of the Railroad Law, it is provided: "Every railroad corporation shall, on request, furnish the board any necessary information required by them concerning the rates of fare for transporting freight and passengers upon its road and other roads with which its business is connected, and the condition, management and operation of its road, and shall, on request, furnish to the board copies of all contracts and agreements, leases or other engagements entered into by it with any person or corporation. The commissioners shall not give publicity to such information, contracts, agreements, leases or other engagements, if, in their judgment, the public interests do not require it, or the welfare and prosperity of railroad corporations of the State might be thereby injuriously affected." It is thus apparent that the Legislature has confided to the State Board of Railroad Commissioners the power to obtain substantially any and all information which may be necessary in the public interest. "The Labor Law" is the short title of the codification of laws relating to labor in the State of New York, and among other things imposing certain legal obligations and regulating certain relations between certain kinds of employers and employees. In section 2 of said law are to be found various definitions, but these definitions must necessarily be read with other sections of the act, to ascertain whether the words "mechanic, workingman or laborer" apply to any employment in the State, or only to those employments referred to in the Labor Law. By article II of the Labor Law the Commissioner of Labor is charged with certain duties in relation to collecting labor statistics and presenting the same in his annual reports to the Legislature. It will be noted that section 31 defines the general powers of the Commissioner of Labor statistics, to wit: That he shall col lect the statistical details in relation to all departments of labor in the State, especially in relation to the commercial, industrial. social and sanitary condition of workingmen and to the pro ductive industries of the State. He is also empowered to subpoena witnesses, take testimony and administer oaths. In the following section, however, the kind of industries or businesses or place of business are clearly defined. Section 32 refers to the owner, proprietor, manager or lessee of any "mine, factory, workshop, warehouse, elevator, foundry, machine shop, or other manufacturing establishment." It cannot be said that a railroad comes within any of these classes of places or establishments. Section 32 likewise provides for a method of procedure. The owners or persons in charge of the places or establishments above enumerated are required, when requested by the Commis sioner of Labor Statistics, to furnish information and to admit him to such places. Any person refusing so to do is penalized by a forfeiture to the people of the State of the sum of $100 for each refusal or untruthful answer. Thus the statute sets forth an orderly system: First, the request of the Commissioner for the statistics; the subpoenaing of witnesses and taking of the testimony or depositions under oath, whenever necessary; and the punishment of any person who refuses to conform to the provisions of the statute, where such person is the owner, operator, manager or lessee of a place of business or establishment mentioned in the statute. The statute thus being penal must be strictly construed, and cannot be enlarged to comprehend the owner, operator, manager or lessee of a place of business not clearly designated, and particularly in view of the fact that the statute has undertaken, in section 32, to define the specific classes of places. If it were to be held that this statute applied to a railroad, then would follow the illogical construction that the commissioner could subpoena witnesses, administer oaths, and take depositions or testimony, but that he would not be required, in regard to a railroad, to, first, request information as provided by section 32; and thus, in the same statute, and by virtue of sections contained in the same article, there would be created by implication (not by direct mandate) one method for one class of places and another method for another. I am therefore of the opinion that you have no power or right · to obtain the statistics you desire from the railroad company in question. Yours respectfully, JULIUS M. MAYER, Attorney-General. Labor Law-Section 100. Workshops at the front of tenement-houses having no connection with remainder of house come under the statute as expressed in section 100, being a "part" of a tenement-house" under said section. 66 STATE OF NEW YORK: ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S OFFICE, June 1, 1905. Hon. P. T. SHERMAN, Commissioner of Labor, Albany, N. Y.: Dear Sir. I have considered with great care your letter of May 15th in which you ask the following question:. |