State v. Wilson
Decision Date | 11 November 1899 |
Docket Number | 11,310. [*] |
Citation | 61 Kan. 32,58 P. 981 |
Parties | THE STATE OF KANSAS v. HENRY WILSON |
Court | Kansas Supreme Court |
Decided July, 1899.
Appeal from court of appeals, southern department; A. W. DENNISON M. SCHOONOVER, and B. F. MILTON, judges.
STATEMENT.
THE appellant was convicted in the district court for the violation of section 1, chapter 188, Laws of 1893 (Gen. Stat 1897, ch. 149, §§ 48-53; Gen. Stat. 1899 §§ 4000-4005), entitled "An act to regulate the weighing of coal at the mine."
It is charged in the information that the Mount Carmel Coal Company, on or about the 21st day of October, 1897, was a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the state of Kansas, engaged in the business of mining coal from its mines located in Crawford county, at ton rates, the wages of miners employed being based upon the quantity of coal produced by each of them; that the appellant, Henry Wilson was an agent and superintendent of said corporation, having on its behalf the care and management of its coal-mines and mining business, with a large number of miners in his employ at ton rates; that as such agent he used certain scales for the purpose of weighing the output of coal at said mines, and did unlawfully and knowingly employ and make use of certain devices and screens to screen the output before the same had been weighed; that the output of said miners was screened with the knowledge of and by virtue of contracts with said miners, and the said Wilson failed, refused and did not weigh the same before it was passed over said screens, but unlawfully directed and caused it to be passed over screens before the same had been weighed, whereby a large part of the value was taken therefrom before the same had been weighed and duly credited to said miners and accounted for at the legal rate of weights as fixed by the laws of the state of Kansas. Chapter 188, Laws of 1893 (Gen. Stat. 1897, ch. 149, §§ 48-53; Gen. Stat. 1899, §§ 4000-4005), reads:
The constitutionality of the act was sustained by the court of appeals and the judgment of the district court affirmed. (The State v. Wilson, 7 Kan.App. 428, 53 P. 371.)
Judgment affirmed.
A. A. Godard, attorney-general, for The State.
Morris Cliggitt, and Perry & Crain, for appellant.
OPINION
In this opinion the writer gives the views of a majority of the court. On the argument and in the briefs much time and space were consumed in discussion of the question whether the act under consideration affects the right of contract, and whether the law as it reads has a meaning that the wages paid to coal-miners is to be measured by the gross output of valuable product mined and brought to the surface by the laborers employed therein. In our judgment, the law nowise affects the right of contract and does not hinder or prevent the mine operator or miners from making such agreements as they choose concerning the amount of compensation to be paid for labor in mining coal. Nor does the act prohibit the employment of miners at day wages, or make void contracts for the payment of wages based on the quantity of screened coal produced. In fact, the law permits complete freedom of action in the respect mentioned. The act does, however, in positive terms, make it unlawful for any mine owner, lessee or operator of coal-mines, employing miners at bushel or ton rates or other quantity, to pass the output of coal mined by said miners over any screen or other device which shall take away any part from the value thereof before the same shall have been weighed and duly credited to the employees at the legal rate of weights fixed by law.
Of the intent of the legislature in enacting the statute it is hardly necessary to inquire. We can see, however, a useful purpose to be accomplished. In the exercise of the police power the legislature may pass such laws as in its judgment are necessary regulating the measuring or weighing of commodities. In Blaker v. Hood, 53 Kan. 499, 36 P. 1115, it is said:
The utility of the act, if we have the right to enter upon such an inquiry, can be defended for the reason that the weighing of the gross output from the mine gives information to the miner, whose labor has separated it from the general mass of the vein, concerning the result of his effort. He is thus advised how much in weight of all grades of this fuel he has extracted from the earth in a day, a month, or a year, enabling him, when armed with this knowledge, to make contracts in the future based upon actual information of the benefits the employer has in the past derived from his labor. Thus informed he may act intelligently, resting his demand for pay on the actual value of his labor as shown by the calculated results of what he has theretofore accomplished. On the other side, the employer may also have this knowledge before his eyes when contracting with the miners for their services, enabling him to make an adjustment of wages based on known facts. By this system of weighing, deception as to the amount of coal mined is rendered impossible and fraud prevented. Standing in the light of such knowledge gained from established data, the miner may make a claim of right to wages he knows he can earn, fortifying his demand by reference to what he has done as found recorded in the weighmaster's books.
Further, it is important that the public should have within reach data sufficient to furnish information regarding the amount of coal produced from the mines within the state. A compliance with this law provides means for the compilation of statistics showing the entire output of coal. The dissemination of knowledge concerning the wealth and material resources of a state is a laudable employment, and legislation which tends to accomplish or in any way assist in such work ought to be upheld and encouraged. For this object alone the act in question is useful, and, being so, we cannot say that the legislature did not have such purpose in view when the same was enacted. We agree with the court of appeals in saying:
"Counsel throughout their whole argument assume...
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