The law in regard to this question is contained in chapte 619 of the Acts of 1913, which provides as follows:

SECTION 1. Every employer of labor, whether a person, partne ship or corporation, engaged in carrying on any manufacturing c mercantile establishment in this commonwealth as hereinafter define shall allow every person, except those specified in section two, employe in such manufacturing or mercantile establishment at least twenty four consecutive hours of rest in every seven consecutive days. N employer shall operate any such manufacturing or mercantile estal lishment on Sunday, unless he shall have complied with the provision of section three; but this act shall not authorize any work on Sunda not now authorized by law.

SECTION 2. This act shall not apply to (a) janitors; (b) watch men; (c) employees whose duties include no work on Sunday oth than (1) setting sponges in bakeries; (2) caring for live animals; (: maintaining fires; (4) caring for machinery; (5) employees engage in the preparation, printing, publication, sale or delivery of newspaper (6) any labor called for by an emergency that could not reasonab have been anticipated.

Your question is confined to manufacturing establishment The term "manufacturing establishments" is defined by S 1909, с. 514, § 17, to mean "any premises, room or plac used for the purpose of making, altering, repairing, orn. menting, finishing or adapting for sale any article or pa of an article."

By section 5 of chapter 619 of the Acts of 1913 it is pr vided that

In this act "manufacturing establishments” and “mercantile esta lishments" shall have the meaning defined in section seventeen chapter five hundred and fourteen of the acts of the year ninetee hundred and nine, except that neither of said terms shall be held include establishments used for the manufacture or distribution gas, electricity, milk or water, hotels, restaurants, drug stores, live stables, or garages.

I assume that in using the term "manufacturing esta lishments" you refer to such establishments as are with this definition and are not within the exceptions above me tioned.

The language of the statute is too clear to admit of a po sible misunderstanding: "every employer of labor, gaged in carrying on any manufacturing or mercantile esta

e

lishment in this commonwealth as hereinafter defined, shall allow every person, except those specified in section two, employed in such manufacturing or mercantile establishment at least twenty-four consecutive hours of rest in every seven consecutive days." This is the language of the statute. I do not know how your question can be more clearly answered. The language is not ambiguous.

No one regards the work of taking an inventory as rest, nor can the taking of an inventory in the ordinary course of business be regarded as "labor called for by an emergency that could not reasonably have been anticipated," within the provisions of section 2 of chapter 619, above quoted.

Very truly yours,

THOMAS J. BOYNTON, Attorney-General.

Constitutional Law - Newspapers.

A law to prohibit contracts by publishers appointing local sole agents for the sale of periodicals would be unconstitutional.

Committee on Legal Affairs.

FEB. 13, 1914.

GENTLEMEN: Your inquiry of February 12 received relative to the constitutionality of House Bill No. 229, entitled "An Act relative to the sale of newspapers and periodicals." The purpose of this act appears to be to prohibit contracts by publishers appointing local sole agents for the sale of periodicals.

The Constitution of Massachusetts enumerates among the natural, inalienable rights of men the right "of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property." Bill of Rights, Art. I. The Constitution of the United States protects "life, liberty and property." U. S. Const. Amendments, Arts. V and XIV. These provisions of State and Federal Constitutions protect freedom of contract. As our Supreme Judicial Court has expressed it, "the right to acquire, possess and protect property includes the right to make reasonable contracts." Commonwealth v. Perry, 155 Mass. 117, 121.

These rights, however, are subject to limitations, arising under the proper exercise of the police power. The nature of the police power and its extent, as applied to conceivable cases, cannot easily be stated with exactness. It includes the right to legislate in the interest

of the public health, the public safety and the public morals.... 1 we are to include in the definition, as many judges have done, the righ to legislate for the public welfare, this term should be defined wit some strictness, so as not to include everything that might be enacte

on grounds of mere expediency.

Commonwealth v. Strauss, 19

Mass. 545, 550.

It is difficult to see how the proposed bill falls within th police power. The practice which it prohibits is not con trary to public policy as laid down in the past by the primar tribunal of public policy, to wit, the Legislature. The law prohibiting contracts which bind a buyer to buy exclusivel; of the seller contain provisos expressly excepting contracts o the sort aimed at in the proposed bill. See the followin quotations:

But the provisions of this section shall not prohibit the appointmen of agents or sole agents for the sale of, nor the making of contract for the exclusive sale of, goods, wares or merchandise. (R. L. c. 56, § 1.)

Provided, that nothing in this act shall be construed to prohibit th appointment of agents or sole agents to sell or lease machinery, tools implements or appliances. (St. 1907, c. 469, § 1.)

The Supreme Judicial Court, in holding one of these statute constitutional, laid stress on the fact that the statute doe not prohibit the appointment of sole agents, and that i allows contracts for the exclusive sale of goods. Common wealth v. Strauss, supra, p. 551.

There is nothing in the nature of periodicals to distinguis them from other goods with respect to the practice aimed a in the proposed bill. A general law prohibiting the appoint ment of local sole agents would tend to hamper trade withou producing any appreciable general benefit to the citizens o the Commonwealth.

It is my opinion that the proposed bill, if enacted, would b unconstitutional.

Very truly yours,

THOMAS J. BOYNTON, Attorney-General.

Labor

Eight-hour Day Contract Work.

On public work for the State, performed outside the Commonwealth,

citizens of this State must be given the preference.

The eight-hour law has no extra-territorial effect.

FEB. 13, 1914.

Hon. P. H. CORR, Chairman, Board of Panama-Pacific Managers for Massachusetts.

DEAR SIR: Your Board requests my opinion upon the following questions, namely:

1. Is there anything in the Massachusetts laws requiring us to employ citizens or residents of Massachusetts on contract work of this kind outside of the State?

2. Is there anything in the Massachusetts laws which requires that men employed on this kind of work shall not labor more than a certain number of hours a day?

Taking up your first question, I find that section 21 of chapter 514 of the Acts of 1909 is as follows:

In the employment of mechanics and laborers in the construction of public works by the commonwealth, or by a county, city or town, or by persons contracting therewith, preference shall be given to citizens of the commonwealth, and, if they cannot be obtained in sufficient numbers, then to citizens of the United States; and every contract for such works shall contain a provision to this effect. Any contractor who knowingly and wilfully violates the provisions of this section shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars for each offence.

This statute clearly requires that in the construction of public works by the Commonwealth preference by given (1) to citizens of this Commonwealth, and (2) to citizens of the United States. While it is probable that in the enactment of this statute the Legislature had in contemplation only public works within the Commonwealth, still, it seems to me that a building of the kind to be erected by your Board in San Francisco may also be considered a public work constructed by the Commonwealth, and I am of the opinion that a contract made by your Board for the construction of such building should contain the clause provided for in the section of the statute above quoted. It should not be understood, however, that such a provision in the contract will obligate the contractor to transport men from Massachusetts to Sa Francisco, but that it will require the contractor, wheneve a citizen of this Commonwealth desires to work at the sam terms upon which other men are employed by the contracto in the kind of work applied for, to give such citizen the pre erence; that is, generally speaking, that other things bein equal, a citizen of this Commonwealth must be given wor in preference to anybody else, and failing to find a sufficier number of citizens of Massachusetts to do the work in hand the contractor must give a like preference to citizens of th United States.

Taking up now your second question, I find that section 1 and 2 of chapter 494 of the Acts of 1911, being the eigh hour law of this Commonwealth, provide as follows:

SECTION 1. The service of all laborers, workmen and mechanic now or hereafter employed by the commonwealth or by any coun therein or by any city or town which has accepted the provisions section twenty of chapter one hundred and six of the Revised Law or of section forty-two of chapter five hundred and fourteen of the ad of the year nineteen hundred and nine, or by any contractor or su contractor for or upon any public works of the commonwealth or any county therein or of any such city or town, is hereby restrict to eight hours in any one calendar day, and it shall be unlawful for a officer of the commonwealth or of any county therein, or of any su city or town, or for any such contractor or sub-contractor or oth person whose duty it shall be to employ, direct or control the serv of such laborers, workmen or mechanics to require or permit any su laborer, workman or mechanic to work more than eight hours in a one calendar day, except in cases of extraordinary emergency. Dan: to property, life, public safety or public health only shall be consider cases of extraordinary emergency within the meaning of this secti In cases where a Saturday half holiday is given the hours of labor up the other working days of the week may be increased sufficiently make a total of forty-eight hours for the week's work. Threat of 1 of employment or to obstruct or prevent the obtaining of employm or to refrain from employing in the future shall each be considered be "requiring" within the meaning of this section. Engineers sl be regarded as mechanics within the meaning of this act.

SECTION 2. Every contract, excluding contracts for the purch of material or supplies, to which the commonwealth or any cou therein or any city or town which has accepted the provisions of sect twenty of chapter one hundred and six of the Revised Laws, is a pa which may involve the employment of laborers, workmen or mecha shall contain a stipulation that no laborer, workman or mech: