Chap. 1007.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 3 and 4 of an act entitled an
act to provide for a bureau of labor and industrial statistics, and for defining the
duties of said bureau, approved March 3, 188.

Approved March 4, 1898.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sections
three and four of an act entitled an act to provide for a bureau of labor
and industrial statistics, and for defining the duties of said bureau, ap-
proved March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, be amended
and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 3. The governor shall appoint, by and with the consent of the sen-
ate, some suitable person who is identified with the labor interests of the
state, who shall be designated commissioner of labor statistics, and who
shall, upon the request of the governor, furnish such information as he
may require. The term of office for said commissioner shall be two
years from date of his appointment, with power of removal by the gov-
ernor for cause.

$4. The commissioner shall. have power to take and preserve testi-
mony, examine witnesses under oath and administer the same; and in
the dischar ge of his duties may, under proper restrictions, enter any pub-
lic institution of the state, and any factory, workshop or mine. The
commissioner may also furnish and deliver a written or printed list of
interrogations to any person, company, or the proper officer of any cor-
poration, and require full and complete answers to be made thereto and
returned 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
euch 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 competent jurisdiction, shall be fined in a sum not ex-
ceeding one hundred dollars nor less than twenty-five dollars, or by 1m-
prisonment in the county jail not exceeding ninety days, or by both fine
and imprisonment: provided, however, that nothing in this act shall be
construed as permitting the commissioner or any employe of this bureau
to make use of any information or statistics gathered from any person,
company or corporation for any other than the purposes of this act.
2. This act shall be in force from its passage.