Chap. 517.—An Act to amend and re-enact sections 128 and 129 of an
act entitled an act to raise revenue for the support of the govern-
ment and public free schools, and to pay interest on the public debt,
and to provide a special tax for pensions as authorized by section 189
of the Constitution, approved April 16, 1908, and acts amendatory
thereof. (S. B. 15L)

Approved March 17, 1916.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
sections one hundred and twenty-eight and one hundred and
twenty-nine of an act entitled an act to raise revenue for the
support of the government and public free schools, and to pay
interest on the public debt, and to provide a special tax for pen-
sions as authorized by section one hundred and eighty-nine of
the Constitution, approved April sixteenth, nineteen hundred and
three, and acts amendatory thereof, be amended and re-enacted
so as to read as follows: |

Sec. 128. Any person who solicits, hires, or contracts with,
laborers, male or female, to be employed by persons other than
himself, and every agent of such person, except as provided in
the next following section, shall be deemed to be a labor agent;
and no person shall engage in such business without having first
obtained license therefor. Every person who shall without a
license conduct business as a labor agent, shall pay a fine of not
fess than one hundred dollars ($100), nor more than five hun-
dred dollars ($500).

Sec, 129. Every perecn who engages in the business of a
Jabor agent except as hereinbelow provided, shall pay annually
five hundred dollars ($500) for the purpose of transacting the
said business, but before any such license shall be issued, the
applicant shall produce a certificate from the. corporation court
of the city, or the circuit court of the county in which such labor
agent proposes to have his office, or of the county in which he
proposes to do business, that to the personal knowledge of the
judge of such court, or from the intormation of creaible wit-
nesses under oath before such court, the court is satisfied that
the applicant is a person of good character and honest demeanor;
provided that labor agents in cities and towns of the Common-
wealth who have and keep a regular office in such city or town,
and who transact all their business in such office, and who do
not in person or by agent solicit, or hire or contract with labor-
ers outside of such office, or attempt so to do, except by written
or telegraphic or telephonic communication, shall be required
to pay annually only twenty-five dollars ($25) license tax for
such privilege, and the license so paid for and obtained shall
permit all the employees and agents of such person who assist
in the prosecution of such work in such office only, as afore-
said, to aid therein.

An emergency existing by reason of the fact that indus-
tries are being crippled by the employment of laborers by irre-
sponsible and itinerant labor agents to be transported to other
States, this act shall be in force from its passage,