AGRICULTURAL LABOR

THE AGRICULTURAL LAW, CHAPTER 1 OF THE CONSOLIDATED LAWS

ARTICLE 12

Agricultural Statistics

Section 280. Collection and dissemination of statistics.

281. Information to be furnished by supervisors.

§ 280. Collection and dissemination of statistics. The commissioner of agriculture may collect and disseminate such information relative to agriculture, and agricultural labor within the state, as he may deem wise for the purpose of promoting agricultural production within this state.

§ 281. Information to be furnished by supervisors.- Supervisors of the different towns and wards in this state shall furnish to the commissioner of agriculture upon request from him, upon blanks to be furnished by the said commissioner, such information as may be in their possession or may be obtained by them relative to agriculture, agricultural production and agricultural labor within their respective towns or wards. Such information shall be furnished to said commissioner within thirty days from the time it is asked for. The expense incurred by the several supervisors in furnishing such information shall be a town charge to be paid in the manner now provided by law for the payment of services and disbursements by such supervisor.

RAILWAY LABOR

[See also Duties and Liabilities of Employers and Employees, p. 185, and Labor Law, §§ 6, 7 and 8, pp. 11, 12, ante]

THE SAFETY OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES

THE RAILROAD LAW, CHAPTER 49 OF THE CONSOLIDATED LAWS

871. Duties imposed. It shall be the duty of every railroad corporation operating its road by steam:

1. To lay, in the construction of new and in the renewal of existing switches, upon freight or passenger main line tracks, switches on the principle of either the so-called Tyler, Wharton, Lorenz, or split-point switch, or some other kind of safety switch, which shall prevent the derailment of a train, when such switch is misplaced or a switch interlocked with distant signals.

2. To erect and thereafter maintain such suitable warning signals at every road, bridge, or structure which crosses the railroad above the tracks, where such warning signals may be necessary, for the protection of employees on top of cars from injury.

3. To use upon every new freight car built or purchased for use, couplers which can be coupled and uncoupled automatically, without the necessity of having a person guide the link, lift the pin by hand, or go between the ends of the cars.

4. To attach to every car used for passenger transportation an automatic air-brake or other form of safety-power brake, applied from the locomotive, excepting cars attached to freight trains, the schedule rate of speed of which does not exceed twenty miles an hour.

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Every corporation, person or persons, operating such railroad, and violating any of the provisions of this section, except subdivision six, shall be liable to a penalty of one hundred dollars for each offense, and the further penalty of ten dollars for each day that it shall omit or neglect to comply with any of such provisions. For every violation of the provisions of the sixth subdivision of this section every such corporation shall be liable to a penalty of twenty-five dollars for each offense.

§ 72. Inspection of locomotive boilers. It shall be the duty of every railroad corporation operated by steam power, within this state, and of the directors, managers or superintendents of such railroad to cause thorough inspections to be made of the boilers and their appurtenances of all the steam locomotives which shall be used by such corporation or corporations, on said railroads. Said inspections shall be made, at least every three months under the direction and superintendence of said corporations, or the directors, managers or superintendents thereof, by persons of suitable qualifications and attainments to perform the services required of inspectors of boilers, and who from their knowledge of the construction and use of boilers and the appurtenances therewith connected, are able to form a reliable opinion of the strength, form, workmanship and suitableness of

boilers, to be employed without hazard of life, from imperfections in material, workmanship or arrangement of any part of such boiler and appurtenances. All such boilers so used shall comply with the following requirements: The boilers must be made of good and suitable materials; the openings for the passage of water and steam respectively, and all pipes and tubes exposed to heat shall be of proper dimensions; the safety valves, fusible plugs, low water glass * indicater gauge cocks and steam gauges, shall be of such construction, condition and arrangement that the same may be safely employed in the active service of the railroad corporation without peril to life; and each inspector shall satisfy himself by thorough examination that said requirements have been fully complied with. No boiler, nor any connection therewith shall be approved which is unsafe in its form, or dangerous from defects, workmanship or other cause. The person or persons who shall make the said inspections if he or they approve of the boiler or boilers and the appurtenances throughout, shall make and subscribe his or their name to a written or printed certificate which shall contain the number of each boiler inspected, the date of its inspection, the condition of the boiler inspected, and such details as may be required by the forms and regulations which shall be prescribed by the public service commission. Every certificate shall be verified by the oath of the inspector, and he shall cause such certificate or certificates to be filed in the office of the public service commission, within ten days after each inspection shall have been made, and also a copy thereof with the chief operating officer or employee of such railroad having charge of the operation of such locomotive boiler; a copy shall also be placed by such officer or employee in a conspicuous place in the cab connected with the locomotive boiler inspected, and there kept framed under glass. The public service commission shall have power, from time to time, to formulate rules and regulations for the inspection and testing of boilers as aforesaid, and may require the removal of incompetent inspectors of boilers under the provisions of this section. Copies of such rules and regulations shall be mailed to every corporation operating a railroad by steam in this state. If it shall be ascertained by such inspection and test or otherwise, that any locomotive boiler is unsafe for use, the same shall not again be used until it shall be repaired, and made safe, so as to comply with the requirements of this section. Every corporation, director, manager or superintendent operating such railroad and violating any of the provisions of this section shall be liable to a penalty, to be paid to the people of the state of New York, of one hundred dollars for each offense, and the further penalty of one hundred dollars for each day it or he shall omit or neglect to comply with said provisions, and the making or filing of a false certificate shall be a misdemeanor, and every inspector who wilfully certifies falsely touching any steam boiler, or any appurtenance thereto belonging, or any matter or thing contained or required to be contained in any certificate, signed and sworn to by him, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. Any person, upon application to the secretary of said commission and on the payment of such reasonable fee as said commission may by rule fix, shall be furnished with a copy of any such cer

So in original.

tificate. The public service commission shall enforce the provisions of this section as to penalties.

§ 73. State inspector of locomotive boilers.-The office of state inspector of locomotive boilers is continued. Said inspector shall be appointed by the public service commissions and shall receive a compensation to be fixed by the commission, not exceeding three thousand dollars per year. He shall, under the direction of the commission, inspect boilers or locomotives used by railroad corporations operating steam railroads within the state, and may cause the same to be tested by hydrostatic test and shall perform such other duties in connection with the inspection and test of locomotive, boilers as the commission shall direct. But this section shall not relieve any railroad corporation from the duties imposed by the preceding section.

§ 74. Care of steam locomotives; steam and water cocks; penalty.-It shall be the duty of every corporation operating a steam railroad, within this state, and of its directors, managers or superintendents, to cause the boiler of every locomotive used on such railroad to be washed out as often as once every thirty days, and to equip each boiler with and maintain thereon at all times, a water glass, showing the height of water in the boiler, having two valves or shut-off cocks, one at each end of such glass, which valves or shut-off cocks shall be so constructed that they can be easily opened and closed by hand; also to cause such valves or shut-off cocks and all gauge cocks or try-cocks attached to the boiler to be removed and cleaned whenever the boiler is washed out pursuant to the foregoing requirements of this section; also to keep all steam valves, cocks and joints, studs, bolts and seams in such repair that they will not at any time emit steam in front of the engineer, so as to obscure his vision. No locomotive shall hereafter be driven in this state unless the same is equipped and cared for in conformity with the provisions of this section; but nothing herein contained shall be construed to excuse the observance of any other requirement imposed by this chapter upon railroad corporations, their directors, officers, managers and superintendents. Every corporation, person or persons operating a steam railroad and violating any of the provisions of this section, shall be liable to a penalty of one hundred dollars for each offense, and the further penalty of ten dollars for each day that such violation shall continue. The public service commission shall enforce the provisions of this section.

§ 75. Public service commission may approve other safeguards.—The public service commission may, on the application of any railroad corporation, authorize it to use any other safeguard or device approved by the commission, in place of any safeguard or device hereinbefore required by this article, which shall thereafter be used in lieu thereof, and the same penalties for neglect or refusal to use the same shall be incurred and imposed as for a failure to use the safeguard or device hereinbefore required, in lieu of which the same is to be used.

§ 77. Equipment of engines. It shall be unlawful for any railroad company to use within the state on its line or lines any locomotive engine not equipped with a power driving wheel brake and appliances for operating the train brake system.

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§ 78. Coal jimmies and caboose cars. The use of cars known and designated as coal jimmies" in any form and the use of any car as a caboose unless it shall have a suitable and safe platform at each end thereof, and the usual railing for the protection of persons using such platform, shall be unlawful within the state, except upon any railroad whose main line is less than fifteen miles in length and whose average grade exceeds two hundred feet to the mile. This section shall not be construed to authorize the interchange of such "coal jimmies" with, and the use thereof upon, railroads of more than fifteen miles in length or whose average grade is less than two hundred feet to the mile.

From and after the first day of July, nineteen hundred and twenty, it shall be unlawful for any corporation or individual to man, equip, or to use within the state on any railroad a caboose car, or car to serve the purpose of a caboose car, which shall be less than twenty-four feet in length exclusive of the platform, or which shall have a center constructive strength less than that of the fifty ton freight cars built according to master car builders' standards. Such caboose or other equivalent car shall be constructed with steel center sills with two four-wheel trucks; with each platform not less than twenty-four inches wide, with proper guard rails, grab irons and steps, which shall be equipped with a suitable rod, board or other guard designed to prevent slipping from the car step. Each such car shall have a door at each end and shall be equipped with four separate sleeping berths not less than six feet and two inches in length. Each such car shall contain a properly furnished toilet room, sink, ice box, water cooler, clothing lockers, and with a cupola of sufficient size to accommodate at least two men. Whenever any caboose or other car used for like purpose now in use by any such railroad company shall, after this act goes into effect, be brought into any shop for general repairs it shall be unlawful to again put the same into use within this state, as a caboose or other car used for like purpose unless it be equipped as provided in this act.

This section shall not apply to cabooses or other equivalent cars used in the switching service or on trains operated wholly within twenty-five miles of yard limits.

Any violation of the provisions of this section shall be a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars for each separate offense. This penalty is in addition to that provided for in section eighty-one of this chapter. [As am'd by L. 1913, ch. 497.]

§ 79. Air-brakes. It shall be unlawful for any railroad or other company to haul or permit to be hauled or used on its line or lines within this state any freight train that has not a sufficient number of cars in it so equipped with continuous power or air-brakes that the engineer on the locomotive drawing such train can control its speed without requiring brakemen to use the common hand brake for that purpose.

§ 80. Couplers. It shall be unlawful for any railroad or other company to haul, or permit to be hauled or used, on its line or lines within the state, any freight car not equipped with couplers of the master car builders' type, and coupling automatically by impact, and which can be uncoupled, except in cases of accident, without the necessity of men going between the ends of the cars.