information under the provisions of this Act shall not be disclosed, nor shall the name of any such individual, firm or corporation be communicated to any person or persons, except such as are employed in the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and any officer or employee of such bureau violating any of the provisions of this Section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be fined not to exceed five hundred ($500.00) dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than ninety (90) days.

SEC. 8. No report or return made to the said bureau under the provisions of this Act and no schedule, record or document gathered or returned by its officers or employees shall be destroyed within two (2) years of the collection or receipt thereof, but at the expiration of two (2) years all such reports, returns, schedules, records and documents as shall be considered by the commissioner to be of no further value, shall be destroyed, provided that the permission of the Governor shall first be obtained for such destruction.

SEC. 9. Upon the written complaint of two (2) or more persons, or upon his failure otherwise to obtain information in accordance with the provisions of this Act, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics shall have the power to enter any factory, mill, workshop, mine, store, business house, public or private work, or other establishment, or place where five (5) or more persons are employed at work, when the same is open and in operation, for the purpose of gathering facts and statistics, such as are contemplated by this Act, and for the purpose of examining into the methods of protecting employees from danger and the sanitary conditions in and around such building or place, of all of which the said commissioner shall make and return into the Bureau of Labor Statistics a true and detailed record in writing.

SEC. 10. If the Commissioner of Labor Statistics shall learn of any violation of the law with respect to the employment of children, or fire escapes, or the safety of employees, or the preservation of health, or in any other way affecting the employees, he shall at once give written notice of the facts to the county or district attorney of the county in which the law has been violated, or of some other county, if any there be, having jurisdiction of the offense, and the county or district attorney to whom such notice has been given shall immediately institute the proper proceedings against the guilty person.

SEC. 11. Any owner, manager, superintendent or other person in charge or control of any factory, mill, workshop, mine, store, business house, public or private work, or other establishment or place, where five (5) or more persons are employed at work, who shall refuse to allow any officer or employee of the said Bureau of Labor Statistics to enter the same, or to remain therein for such time as is reasonably necessary, or who shall hinder any such officer or employee, or in any way prevent or deter him from collecting information, shall be deemed guilty of a mis. demeanor, and upon conviction shall be fined in any sum not to exceed one hundred ($100.00) dollars, or imprisonment in the county jail for not to exceed sixty (60) days.

SEC. 12. The Commissioner of Labor Statistics shall receive a salary of two thousand ($2000.00) dollars per annum, payable monthly, and

he shall also be allowed a clerk and a factory inspector at a salary of one hundred ($100.00) dollars per month each, and such other employees and assistants as the Legislature shall at any time in the future authorize. The commissioner shall also be allowed all necessary postage, stationery and other expenses of a similar character necessary to the transaction of the business of the bureau, and the said salaries and expenses shall be paid as in the case of other state officers. In addition to his salary, the commissioner and any employee of the said bureau shall be allowed his actual and necessary traveling expenses, while in the performance of his duties under this Act, but the total of the expenses of the said bureau, outside of the salaries paid, shall not exceed one thousand, five hundred ($1,500.00) dollars per annum.

SEC. 13. The fact that there is no provision in this State for the collection, preservation and dissemination of labor statistics, and no official to look after labor conditions generally, creates an emergency and an imperative public necessity, that the Constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several days be suspended, and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after the passage, and it is so enacted.

[NOTE. The enrolled bill shows that the foregoing Act passed the House by the following vote, yeas 85, nays 12; and passed the Senate by a two-thirds vote, yeas 27, nays 2.]

Approved February 26, 1909.

Takes effect ninety days after adournment.

COURTS TWENTY-SIXTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT.

S. B. No. 237.]

CHAPTER 25.

An Act to amend Section 26 of Article 22 of Title IV of the Revised Civil Statutes of Texas, and to change and prescribe the times for holding district court in the Twenty-sixth Judicial District of the State of Texas, and to define the jurisdiction thereof, and to provide for the venue and transfer of causes in the Twenty-sixth and Firty-third District Courts, and to provide for a clerk of the district court of the Twenty-sixth and Fifty-third Judicial Districts in and for Travis county, and to conform all writs, process, bonds, recognizances and drawing of petit and grand juries of such courts to the changes made, and providing for the drawing of grand juries in the Twenty-sixth and Fifty-third Judicial Districts, and to repeal all laws in conflict herewith, and declaring an emergency.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas:

SECTION 1. That Section 26 of Article 22 of Title IV of the Revised Civil Statutes of the State of Texas, be and the same is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

Section 26. The Twenty-sixth Judicial District shall be composed of the counties of Williamson and Travis, and the terms of the district court of said district shall be held therein hereafter as follows:

In the county of Williamson, on the first Monday is February and June, and may continue in session five weeks, and on the first Monday in November, and may continue in session four weeks.

In the county of Travis, on the third Monday in March and may continue in session to and including the last Saturday in May; on the first Monday in September and may continue in session to and including the last Saturday in October, and on the first Monday in December and may continue in session to and including the last Saturday in January, provided, that a grand jury for said court in Travis county shall not be drawn except for the December term of said court, unless the district judge should deem it necessary to call a grand jury at the other term, and should so order.

The two district courts in Travis county shall have concurrent jurisdiction with each other throughout the limits of Travis county of all matters civil and criminal of which jurisdiction is given to district courts by the Constitution and the laws of the State of Texas; provided, that the district judge of the Fifty-third Judicial District shall order drawn or selected a grand jury for the September and April terms of said court and for the other terms if in his judgment he thinks it necessary, and should so order.

The clerk of the district court of Travis county, as heretofore constituted, and his successors in office, shall be the clerk of both the district courts of Travis county, and shall perform all the duties pertaining to both of said courts.

Either of the judges of said district courts in and for Travis county may in their discretion transfer any cause, or causes, civil or criminal, that may at any time be pending in his court to the other district court in Travis county by an order or orders entered upon the minutes of his court, and where such transfer or transfers are made the clerk of the district court of Travis county shall enter such cause or causes upon the docket of the court to which such transfer or transfers are made, and when so entered upon the docket, the judge of said court shall try and dispose of said causes in the same manner as if such causes were originally instituted in said court.

All writs, process, bonds and recognizances civil and criminal issued, executed or entered prior to the taking effect of this Act and returnable to terms of said court heretofore fixed by law in the two counties composing said district, are hereby made returnable to the next issuing [ensuing] term of said court as fixed by this Act, and shall be as valid and binding as if no change had been made in the time of holding said court, and all grand and petit juries, drawn and selected under existing laws shall be as valid as if no change had been made in the time of holding said court, antl, provided that grand and petit jurors drawn and selected under existing laws shall be required to appear and serve at the next ensuing term of said court as fixed by this Act and their acts shall be as valid at the next ensuing term of said court in each county of said district as provided by this Act as they would have been under existing laws if no change had been made in the time of holding said court.

Should any district court of said Twenty-sixth Judicial District be in session under existing laws when this Act takes effect the same shall come to an end under such existing laws, and its process, writs, orders, judgments and decrees shall be valid and shall not be effected [affected] by the change in the terms made by this Act.

That all laws and parts of laws in conflict with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed.

That the time of holding court in and for said district is now so inconveniently arranged and the docket in Williamson county is so congested that the business of said court cannot be expeditiously disposed of, and, therefore, a change in the time of holding said court in the manner herein provided, creates an emergency and an imperative public necessity for the suspension of the Constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several days in each branch of the Legislature, and, that this Act take effect from and after its passage, and it is so enacted.

[NOTE. The enrolled hill shows that the foregoing Act passed the Senate by a two-thirds vote, yeas 24, nays 0; and passed the House by the following vote, yeas 95, nays 6.]

Approved February 26, 1909.

Became a law February 26, 1909.

RAILROAD COMPANIES-REQUIRED TO EQUIP LOCOMOTIVES, ETC., WITH SAFETY APPLIANCES.

An Act to promote the safety of travelers and employes by compelling common carriers engaged in commerce by railroad within the State of Texas to equip their locomotives, tenders, cars and similar vehicles used in moving intrastate traffic within said State with certain safety devices and appliances, and providing penalties for violations of this Act, and providing further that employes of such carriers continuing in the service with notice or knowledge of such violations shall not be held to have assumed the risk of injuries resulting from the same and declaring an emergency.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas:

SECTION 1. That from and after the first day of January, A. D. 1910, it shall be unlawful for any common carrier engaged in intrastate commerce by railroad within the State of Texas to use on its lines in moving intrastate traffic within said State any locome ive engine not equipped with a power driving wheel brake and appliances for operating the train brake system, or to run any train in such traffic after said date that has not a sufficient number of cars in it so equipped with power or train 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, or to run any train in such traffic after said date that has not all of the power or train brakes in it used and operated by such engineer, or to run any train in such traffic after said date that has not at least seventy-five per centum of the cars in it equipped with power or train brakes; and for the purpose of fully carrying into effect the objects of this Act, the Railroad Commission of Texas may, from time to time, after full hearing by public order, increase the minimum percentage of cars in any train which shall be equipped with power or train brakes, and after such minimum percentage has been so increased it shall be unlawful for any common carrier to run any train in such traffic which does not comply with such increased minimum percentage.

SEC. 2. That from and after the first day of January, A. D. 1910, it shall be unlawful for any common carrier engaged in commerce as aforesaid to haul or permit to be hauled or used on its line of railroad within the State of Texas any locomotive, tender, car or similar vehicle employed in moving intra-state traffic within the said State which is not equipped with couplers, coupling automatically by impact, and which can be coupled and uncoupled without the necessity of men going between the ends of locomotives, tenders, cars and similar vehicles.

SEC. 3. That from and after the first day of January, A. D. 1910, it shall be unlawful for any common carrier engaged in commerce as aforesaid to use in moving intra-state traffic within said State any locomotive, fender, car or similar vehicle any draw-bar of which, when measured perpendicularly from the level of the tops of the track rails upon which such locomotive, tender, car or similar vehicle is standing to the center of such drawbar, is more than thirty-four and one-half (34 1-2) inches in height, or less than thirty-one and one-half (31 1-2) inches in height. SEC. 4. That from and after the first of January, A. D. 1910, when any person, firm, company, corporation, or receiver engaged in commerce as aforesaid shall have equipped a sufficient number of its locomotives, tenders, cars and similar vehicles so as to comply with the provisions of Section 1 of this Act, it may lawfully refuse to receive from connecting lines of road or shippers any locomotives, tenders, cars or similar vehicles not equipped sufficiently, in accordance with the first Section of this Act, with such power or train brakes as will work and readily interchange with the brakes in use on its own locomotives, tenders, cars, and similar vehicles, as required by this Act.

SEC. 5. That from and after the first day of January, A. D. 1910, it shall be unlawful for any common carrier engaged in commerce as aforesaid to use in moving intra-state traffic within said State any locomotive, tender, car or similar vehicle which is not provided with sufficient and secure grab irons, hand holds and foot stirrups.

SEC. 6. That every such common carrier, whether a co-partnership, a corporation, a receiver or an individual or association of individuals, violating any of the provisions of this Act, shall be liable to the State of Texas for a penalty of not less than two hundred nor more than one thousand dollars for each offense, and such penalty shall be recovered and suit brought in the name of the State of Texas, in any court of proper jurisdiction in the county of Travis, or in any other county in said State into or through which such line of railroad may run, by the Attorney General or under his direction, or by the county or district. attorney in the county in which the suit is brought and the attorney bringing such suit shall receive a fee of fifty dollars for each penalty recovered and collected by him, and ten per cent of the amount col-. lected, to be paid by the State, and the fees and compensation so allowed shall be over and above the fees allowed such attorney under the general fee Act.

SEC. 7. That any employee of any common carrier engaged in commerce as aforesaid who may be injured or killed, shall not be held to have assumed the risks of his employment or to have been guilty of contributory negligence if the violation of such carrier of any provision of this Act contributed to the injury or death of such employee.