OFFICE OF THE CORPORATION COUNSEL, GENTLEMEN: I have the honor to herewith return draft of amendments intended to cover the recommendations of the major and superintendent of police to H. R. 17511, as directed by the reference of the Commissioners. The amendments suggested by the office are indicated, in cases of omission, by striking out the matter which it is suggested shall be omitted, and by interlining matter suggested in addition. I have omitted the matter contained in lines 8, 9, 10, and 11, on page 2 of the bill, because it has occurred to me that the definition therein contained might encourage solicitation of business in the learned professions, including that of law and medicine. I think such solicitation should not be encouraged. I find a definition of "employment agencies" in the fifteenth volume of "C.Y.C.," page 1042, taken from the Connecticut general statutes, to include "the business of keeping an intelligence office, employment bureau, or other agency for procuring work or employment for persons seeking employment, or for acting as agent for procuring such work or employment where a fee or other valuable thing is exacted, charged, or received for registration, or for procuring or assisting to procure employment, work, or a situation of any kind, or for procuring help for any person.' In section 3 of the bill I have taken the liberty to change the time when the license shall expire and have made the period of expiration to agree with the time fixed generally in the license laws, to wit, the 31st of October. Provision is made in line 22, page 3, for the right to refuse applications not in conformity with the requirements of section 3. On page 4 I have inserted language expressly providing for a fee of $100, to be paid annually, and that the notice mentioned shall be posted in the office of the assessor instead of the office of the Commissioners; that the Commissioners shall have power to reject applications for license and power to revoke the same, in addition to the penalty prescribed by the act. In section 4, referring to the bond, I have inserted a provision which required the condition of the bond to conform to the act and to the act of Congress known as the "labor law." On page 7 I have inserted provision for inspection by the agents of the Commissioners, and in section 8, pages 8, 9, 10, and 11, I have made changes in the rate of compensation in accordance with my understanding of the recommendation of the major and superintendent of police, in order to make his recommendations effective. Omissions will be noticed on page 12 in reference to the name and address of the officer charged with the enforcement of the law, and striking out the provision prohibiting employment agents from inducing an employee from leaving his employer. On page 13 I have inserted a provision for employment by proprietors of barrooms and the right of bartenders to make application, and have changed the penalty as recommended by the major and superintendent of police. On page 14 I have stricken out the general provision giving the right to the Commissioners to refuse a license to any person guilty of immoral, fraudulent, or illegal conduct, and provided in lieu thereof that the conduct must be an illegal act or in violation of this law. I have also omitted the provision that the representative or associate of persons whose licenses have been revoked shall not receive a license, and have limited the time in which the revocation of a license shall last to at least six months. I have inserted provision that the corporation counsel, under direction of the Commissioners, shall enforce this act. I have omitted the provision giving the right to the Commissioners to revoke a license because of immoral and fraudulent conduct, because the court of appeals, in Czarra v. Board of Medical Supervisors (25 App. D. C., 443), decided that the words "unprofessional and dishonorable conduct" were too broad to allow the board of medical supervisors, upon a charge embracing those words, to revoke the license of a practicing physician, and because there is no definition in this act of "immoral or fraudulent conduct." Employment agencies have been regulated under the exercise of the police power, and this act contains a legislative declaration in effect that such regulation is necessary in this District. (See sec. 1404, Gray on Limitation of Taxing Power and Price v. People, 193 Ill., 114.) These citations maintain the right of the State to require employment agencies to pay license fees considerable in amount, unless it appears that the purpose is to prohibit the exercise of a lawful calling by imposition of oppressive license fees. H R-59-1-Vol 3- -3 A cursory examination failed to disclose any case where employment agencies have been limited in their right to compensation, and the provision in this bill limiting such compensation raises a question that is open to discussion and which can be said to be doubtful of solution. Employment agencies may afford a case similar to that of hackmen, ferrymen, public-service corporations, and the like, where the fixing of a rate of compensation is allowable within constitutional limitations. This subject is discussed at large in Tiedeman's Limitations of Police Power, section 93, and in Cooley's Constitutional Limitations, pages 745 to 739, inclusive. In Holden v. Hardy (169 U. S., 366) the right of a State to limit the period of employment of workmen in underground mines or workings to eight hours per day, except in cases of emergency where life or property is in imminent danger, was sustained; while in Lochner v. New York (198 U. S., 45) the labor law of the State of New York providing that no employee shall be required or permitted to work in bakeries more than sixty hours a week or ten hours a day, was declared to be an arbitrary interference with the right of contract and void under the Constitution. It is, however, a rule of constitutional law that a statute is presumed to be constitutional, and the endeavor of the courts is to always sustain its constitutionality if that can be done. It is also a rule of statutory interpretation that if a statute is void in part, and the part which is void can be separated from the remainder, the valid part of the statute will be sustained. E. H. THOMAS, Corporation Counsel. 59TH DONATING A GUN CARRIAGE TO RIPLEY, TENN. MAY 24, 1906.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. SLAYDEN, from the Committee on Military Affairs, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. J. Res. 160.] The Committee on Military Affairs, to whom was referred the joint resolution (H. J. Res. 160) authorizing the Secretary of War to furnish a certain gun carriage to the mayor of the city of Ripley, Tenn., report the same back to the House with the recommendation that it do pass. The city of Ripley, in Tennessee, is in possession of a 10-inch Columbiad gun, dug up on the battlefield of Fort Pillow, which the municipality wants to erect on the public square in that city. At the New York Arsenal, Governors Island, there is an obsolete 10-inch Rodman gun carriage, upon which the Columbiad may be mounted. Brigadier-General Crozier, Chief of Ordnance, in a communication to the Secretary of War, says: [Second indorsement.] OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF ORDNANCE, Washington, May 23, 1906. Respectfully returned to the honorable the Secretary of War with the information that the within-mentioned 10-inch gun carriage, now on hand at New York Arsenal, Governors Island, New York Harbor, is no longer required for the public service. Its value to the United States is that of old material, which is about $35. In view of the foregoing passage of the resolution. WILLIAM CROZIER, Brigadier-General, Chief of Ordnance, U. S. Ármy. indorsement the committee advise the SCHOOLS AND REINDEER IN ALASKA. MAY 24, 1906.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. HAMILTON, from the Committee on the Territories, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany S. R. 59.] The Committee on the Territories, to whom was referred the joint resolution (S. R. 59) relative to the appropriation for the native schools and reindeer enterprise in Alaska, having had the same under consideration, report it back to the House with the recommendation that it do pass. This resolution relates solely to the schools in Alaska outside incorporated towns and if passed will authorize the Secretary of the Interior, in his discretion, to use a certain sum of money, to wit, $6,221.84, for those schools. The following indicates briefly the necessity for the passage of this resolution: The act of Congress of March 3, 1901, was an act which, among other things, made provision for the support of the schools in Alaska which existed outside incorporated towns, and a portion of that act provided that 50 per cent, or so much thereof as might be deemed necessary, of the license fees collected outside incorporated towns in Alaska should be utilized for the maintenance of those schools which existed or might be established outside incorporated towns. This act of March 3, 1901, remained upon the statute book unchanged and unamended for almost four years-that is, until superseded by the act of Congress of January 27, 1905. During that four years of time there accrued in this school fund certain money which was not then expended for those schools. The balance of that fund remaining on hand and unexpended at the present time is $6,221.84. This amount of money is much needed at this time by those schools, and the Secretary of the Interior and the Commissioner of Education desire the legal authority to expend that money for this purpose. |