Chap. 321.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 4 of an act approvea
February 27, 1906, entitled an act to amend and re-enact section 4 of an
act approved March 4, 1898, amending and re-enacting sections 3 and 4
of an act entitied an act to provide for a bureau of labor and industriai
statistics, and defining the duties of said bureau, approved March 3,
1898, and adding an independent section thereto, so ag to make more
complete regulations for factory inspection and for the appointment of
factory inspectors. (H. B. 152.)

Approved March 27, 1914.

_ 1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
section four of an act approved February twenty-seventh, nineteen
hundred and six, entitled an act to amend and re-enact section four
of an act approved March fourth, eighteen hundred and ninety-
eight, amending and re-enacting sections three and four of an act
entitled an act to provide for a bureau of labor and industrial
statistics, and defining the duties of said bureau, approved March
third, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, be amended and re-
enacted and an independent section number seven be added so as
to read as follows:

Sec. 4. The commissioner shall have power to take and pre-
serve testimony, examine witnesses under oath, and administer the
same, and to that end may, under proper restrictions, enter any
public institution of the State, and any factory, store, workshop or
mine, and interrogate any such person, firm, or the proper officer
of a corporation, or file a written or printed list of interrogatories
and require full and complete answers to be made thereto and re-
turned under oath within thirty days of receipt of said list of
questions; and if any person who may be sworn to give testimony
shall wilfully fail or refuse to answer any legal and proper question
propounded to him concerning the subject of such examination, as
indicated in the second section of this act, or if any person to whom
a written or printed list of such interrogations has been furnished
by said commissioner shall neglect or refuse to fully answer and
return the same under oath, such person shall be deemed guilty of
a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof before a court of com-
petent jurisdiction shall be fined a sum not exceeding one hundred
dollars nor less than twenty-five dollars, or by imprisoriment in
the county jail not exceeding ninety days, or by both fine and im-
prisonment; provided, however, that nothing in this act shall be |
construed as permitting the commissioner or any employee of this
bureau to make use of any information or statistics gathered from
any person, company or corporation for any other than the pur-
poses of this act.

Sec. 7. The commissioner of labor shall have general super-
vision and control of the said bureau and shall be designated in
connection therewith as the “chief factory inspector.” He shall
secure the enforcement of all laws now in force, or which may here-
after be enacted, relating to the inspection of factories, mercantile
establishments, mills, workshops, and commercial institutions in
this State, and perform such other duties as are now, or which
may be hereafter prescribed by law to be performed by the factory
inspector. He shall have power to appoint an assistant chief fac-
tory inspector and such other deputy factory inspectors as may be
necessary. The duties of the assistant chief factory inspector and
of the deputy factory inspector shall be the same as those which are
now, or which may be hereafter, imposed by law upon the commis-
sioner of labor and his deputies who serve as factory inspectors.
Said chief factory inspector, assistant chief factory inspector, and
deputy factory inspectors, shall visit and inspect at all reasonable
hours, as often as practicable, the factories, mercantile establish- .
ments, mills, workshops, and commercial institutions in this State,
where goods, wares, or merchandise are manufactured, purchased,
or sold, at wholesale or retail. And the chief factory inspector
shall report in writing to the governor on the fifteenth day of Sep-
tember, annually, the results of his inspections and investigations,
together with such other information and recommendations as he
may deem proper. It shall be the duty of said inspectors to enforce .
the provisions of this act, and perform such other duties as are
now, or which may hereafter be prescribed by law, and to prosecute
all violations of law relating to the inspection of factories, mer-
cantile establishments, mills, work-shops, and commercial institu-
tions in this State before any justice of the peace, or any court of
competent jurisdiction in this State. And it shall be the duty of
the Commonwealth’s attorney of the proper county, or city, upon
the request of the chief factory inspector, or his assistant or deputy,
to prosecute any violations of law which it is made the duty of the
said factory inspector to enforce.