Chap. 204.—An ACT to amend and re-enact chapter 3401 of the acts of 1908,
regulating the employment of children in certain employments, approved
March 13, 1908, as amended by chapter 339 of the acts of 1914, approved

March 27, 1914. [S B 43]
Approved March 14, 1918.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the
act of assembly regulating the employment of children in certain
employments, approved March thirteenth, nineteen hundred and
eight, as amended and re-enacted by an act approved March twen-
ty-seventh, nineteen hundred and fourteen, be amended and re-en-
acted so as to read as follows:

On and after July first, nineteen hundred and eighteen, no child
under the age of fourteen years shall be employed, permitted or suf-
fered to work in any factory, workshop, cannery, mercantile estab;
lishment, laundry, bakery, brick or lumber yard, theatre or place of
amusement, nor shall any child under the age of sixteen years be
employed in any mine or quarry.

2. No child under the age of sixteen years shall be employed,
permitted or suffered to work in, about or in connection with any
establishment or occupation named in section one (1) for more than
six days in any one week; (2) nor more than ten hours in any one
day; (3) nor before the hour of six o’clock in the morning nor after
the hour of seven o’clock in the evening.

3. No child under sixteen years of age shall be employed, per-
mitted or suffered to work in, about or in connection with any estab-
lishment or occupation named in section one unless the person, firm
or corporation employing such child procures and keeps on file and
accessible to any inspector of factories, or other authorized inspec-
tor or officer charged with the enforcement of this act, the employ-
ment certificate as hereinafter provided, issued to said child; and
keep two complete lists of the names, together with the ages of
all children under sixteen years of age employed in or for such es-
tablishment or in such occupation, one on file and one conspicuously
posted near the principal entrance of the place or establishment in
which such children are employed. On termination of the emplov-
ment of a child whose employment certificate is on file, such certifi.
cate shall be returned by the emplover within two days to the offi.
cial who. issued the same with a statement of the reasons for the
termination of said employment.
uch employment certificate shall be issued only by a notary
public, in the city, town or village in which the child is to be em-
ployed, upon the application in person of the parent or guardian
or custodian of the child desiring such employment. The person
authorized to issue an employment certificate shall not issue such
certificate until he has received, examined, approved and filed evi-
dence of age showing that the child is fourteen years old or upward,
which shall consist of one of the following proofs of age, and shall
be required in the order herein designated as follows:

(a) A birth certificate or attested transcript thereof issued by
a registrar of vital statistics or other officer charged with the duty
of recording births.

(b) A record of baptism or a certificate or attested transcript
thereof showing the date of birth and place of baptism of the child.

(c) A bona fide contemporary record of the date and place of
the child’s birth kept in the Bible in which the record of the births
in the family of the child are preserved, or other documentary evi-
dence satisfactory to the commissioner of labor of such person as
he may designate, such as a passport showing the age of the child, a
certificate of arrival in the United States issued by the United States
immigration officers and showing the age of the child, or a life in-
surance policy; provided that such other satisfactory documentary
evidence has been in existence at least one year prior to the time it
is offered in evidence: and provided further that a school record
or a parent’s guardian’s or custodian’s affidavit, certificate, or other
written statement of age shall not be accepted except as specified in
paragraph (d).

(a) A certificate signed by a public-health physician or a pub-
lic-school physician, specifying what in the opinion of such physi-
cian is the physical age of the child; such certificate shall show the
height and weight of the child and other facts concerning its phy-
sical development revealed by such examination and upon which
the opinion of the physician as to the physical age of the child is
based. A parent’s, guardian’s. or custodian’s certificate as to the
age of the child and a record of age as given on the register of the
school which the child first attended or in the school census, if ob-
tainable, shall be submitted with the physicians certificate showing
physical age.

The officer issuing the age certificate for a child shal] require the
evidence of age specified in sub-division (a) in preference to that
specified in any subsequent sub-division and shall not accept the
evidence of age permitted by any subsequent sub-division unless he
shall receive and file evidence that the evidence of age required by
the preceding sub-division or sub-divisions cannot be obtained.

4. In cities having a population of five thousand Or more, ac-
cording to the census of nineteen hundred and ten, no boy under
the age of fourteen years and no girl under the ape of eighteen
vears Shall be employed, permitted or suffered to work as messenger
for a telegraph, telephone or messenger company, in the distriby-
tion, transmission or delivery of goods or messages, and nn hac ne
der eighteen years of age, and no girl under twenty-one years of
age shall be so employed, permitted or suffered to work between the
hours of ten o’clock in the evening and five o’clock in the morning.

5. No boy under ten years of age and no girl under sixteen
years of age shall, in any city in this State of five thousand popula-
tion or more, distribute, sell, expose, or offer for sale, newspapers,
magazines, or other periodicals in any street or public place. Any
child violating the provisions of this section shall be deemed delin-
quent and, on complaint of any person, may be arrested and brought
before a court of competent jurisdiction which shall have the author-
ity to commit or otherwise deal with such child in accordance with
the provisions of the law in regard to delinquent children.

6. Any owner, superintendent, overseer, foreman or manager,
who shall knowingly employ, or permit any child to be employed
contrary to the provisions of this act, in any factory, workshop,
mercantile establishment, laundry, mine, bakery, brick or lumber
yard, with which he is connected, or any parent or guardian, who
allows any such employment of his child or ward, in these occupa-
tions or in selling newspapers as in section five, or any notary pub-
lic who shall issue a certificate, as provided in section three, in vio-
lation of the provisions of said section, shall be guilty of a misde-
meanor and, upon conviction of such offense, shall be fined not less
than twenty-five dollars nor more than one hundred dollars for
each offense.

But nothing in this act shall prevent a parent from working his
or her child in any factory, workshop, mercantile establishment or
laundry, or other place owned or operated by said parent.

Any employment contrary to the provisions of this act shall be
prima facie evidence of guilt, both as to the employer and the par-
ent or guardian of the child so employed; provided, that nothing
contained in this act shall apply to mercantile establishments in
towns of less than two thousand inhabitants or in country districts.

7. All acts and parts of acts that are or may be in conflict with
the operation of this act on and after July the first, nineteen hun-
dred and eighteen, are to that extent hereby repealed, said repeal
to take effect as of July first, nineteen hundred and eighteen.