in any shop, or to rent or
board at any house. Five States have statutes prohibiting the hiring
of armed guards other than the regular police, and especially the
importing such from other States, Massachusetts and Illinois among the
number, though none of the five are so radical as the later statute
of Oklahoma quoted below. Statutes for the enforcement of the labor
contract exist usually only in the South, but we find a beginning of
similar legislation in the North, both Michigan and Minnesota having
statutes making it a misdemeanor to enter into a labor contract
without intent to perform it in cases where advances are made by way
of transportation, supplies, or other benefits. The new anti-tip
statute or law forbidding commissions to any servant or employee is
to be found in Michigan, Wisconsin, and other States (see page 155
above). A few States require any employer to give a discharged
employee a written statement of the reason for his discharge, but such
statutes are probably unconstitutional. Colorado has the extraordinary
statute forbidding employees to be discharged by reason of age.
The common law of loss of service is strengthened generally in the
Southern States by statutes against the enticing of employees. Public
employment offices, as well as State labor bureaus, are now maintained
in nearly all the States.

Examinations and licenses are now required in the several States
of electricians, engineers, horse-shoers, mining foremen, elevator
operators, plumbers, railroad employees, stationary firemen and
engineers, and street railway employees, in addition to the trades
enumerated on page 147.

All the Northeastern States except Maine and Vermont, and Maryland,
Delaware, West Virginia, Alabama, Missouri, Tennessee, Wisconsin,
Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, South Dakota, and Washington have general
factory acts, and all the mining States have elaborate statutes for
the safety of mines.

New York and Wisconsin have statutes forbidding or making illegal
labor unions which exclude their members from serving in the militia.

Connecticut and Massachusetts have laws to facilitate profit-sharing
by corporations. Such statutes would seem hardly necessary, as profits
may be shared or stock distributed or sold without a law to that
effect; if it be regarded as part of the reward of wages, no
injunction would be granted to protesting stockholders. Fifteen States
and Territories, including Porto Rico, have laws for the