CERTIFICATION OF THE NECESSITY OF THE PASSAGE OF ASSEMBLY BILL No. 2456 ANNUAL TAX LEVY STATE OF New York TO THE LEGISLATURE: Executive Chamber It appearing to my satisfaction that the public interest requires it; THEREFORE In accordance with the provisions of section fifteen of article three of the Constitution and by virtue of the authority thereby conferred upon me, I do hereby certify to the necessity of the immediate passage of Assembly bill number 2456 (Introductory number 1625) entitled, "An Act to provide ways and means for the support of government ". GIVEN under my hand and the Privy Seal of the State at the Capitol in the city of Albany this [LS] twenty-eighth day of April in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety nine. By the Governor: WM. J. YOUNGS THEODORE ROOSEVELT Secretary to the Governor CERTIFICATION OF THE NECESSITY OF THE PASSAGE OF ASSEMBLY BILL No. 2455THE SUPPLY BILL STATE OF NEW YORK Executive Chamber TO THE LEGISLATURE: It appearing to my satisfaction that the public interest requires it; THEREFORE In accordance with the provisions of section fifteen of article three of the Constitution and by virtue of the authority thereby conferred upon me, I do hereby certify to the necessity of the immediate passage of Assembly bill number 2455, entitled "An Act making an appropriation for certain expenses of government and supplying deficiencies in former appropriations", being the supplemental supply bill. (Introductory number 1624.) GIVEN under my hand and the Privy Seal of the State at the Capitol in the city of Albany this [LS] twenty-eighth day of April in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninetynine. By the Governor: WM. J. YOUNGS THEODORE ROOSEVELT Secretary to the Governor TO THE STATE BOARD OF HEALTH: Complaint having been made of the existence of a public nuisance and menace to the health and comfort of the citizens of Catskill and vicinity in the county of Greene in this State, caused by the manner in which the Shale Brick 'Works at Catskill are conducted, I therefore in accordance with the provisions of section six of article one of the Public Health Law, hereby direct and require you to make an examination into the alleged nuisances and questions. affecting the security of life and health in the locality aforesaid, in order to determine if the same conditions now exist as were found by your investigation to exist in the year 1898 as appears by your report of date November 19, 1898, made to Governor Black and to report the results thereof to me at your earliest convenience. Attest: WM. J. YOUNGS THEODORE ROOSEVELT Secretary to the Governor MEMORANDUM FILED WITH ASSEMBLY BILL No. 2222, REGULATING THE HOURS OF LABOR-APPROVED STATE OF NEW YORK Executive Chamber Albany, May 12, 1899 Memorandum filed with Assembly Bill printed number 2222, entitled "An Act to amend chapter four hundred and fifteen of the laws of eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, entitled 'An Act in relation to labor', constituting chapter thirty-two of the general laws relative to the hours of labor and the prevailing rate of wages".- Approved This bill carries out the recommendation made in my message to the Legislature that the eight-hour law should be so amended as to make it effective. It will work on the whole an undoubted improvement, but unfortunately it is so drawn as to emphasize instead of eliminating two or three of the defects in the old law. The need of the passage of this law is evident. There is at present and has long been on the statute books an eight-hour law, but it is so easy of evasion that it has been largely inoperative. It is always detrimental to the best interests of the State to have a law on the statute books which pretends to do something and does not do it, and this of course is especially the case where it is highly important that the nominal end sought to be attained really should be attained. The general tendency towards an eight-hour working day has undoubtedly been healthful, and it is wise for the State to set a good example as an employer of labor, both as to the number of hours of labor exacted and as to paying a just and reasonable wage. It is even more important to reach contractors who do the State. work than to reach the public servants of the State proper. Cheapness secured by the employment of gangs of men. under the padrone system is cheapness for which the State pays altogether too dearly, for it is obtained at the cost of the sacrifice of good citizenship. It is therefore just that the ordinary employee of the State and of contractors who do State work, should work for but eight hours and should receive a rate of wages not less than that paid for other labor of the same kind where the structure is to be put up, this not interfering with the purchase of a finished product. The permission to work over time for additional compensation has resulted in such wide spread evasion and nullification of the purposes of the law, especially among contractors, that it is wise to take it away in most cases. Certain needed exceptions are provided for in the bill, but there are other exceptions which must be provided for by the next Legislature, if the bill is not to be a cause of needless expense to the State in various directions. There are some forms of labor where though the man is employed on and off for more than eight hours a day, his labor is not continuous. This is notably the case as regards lock tenders on the less frequented canals. Curiously enough the less work there is to do on a lock, the longer is it necessary to have the nominal hours for labor. One of the most thoroughly satisfactory lock tenders in the State is a woman, the widow of a former lock tender, whose house is by the lock. It is on a canal where work is not regular and days may pass where all told she may |