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quainted with the conditions thereof, and understood the same; and that, while sober and not in a state of intoxication, he signed it freely and voluntarily, for the uses and purposes therein mentioned."

SEC. 4513. The section forty-five hundred and eleven shall not apply to masters of vessels where the seamen are by custom or agreement entitled to participate in the profits or result of a cruise or voyage, nor to masters of coastwise nor to masters of lake-going vessels that touch at foreign ports; but seamen may, by agreement, serve on board such vessels a definite time, or, on the return of any vessel to a port in the United States, may reship and sail in the same vessel on another voyage, without the payment of additional fees to the shipping-commissioner, by either the seaman or the master.

SEC. 4514. If any person shall be carried to sea, as one of the crew on board of any vessel making a voyage as hereinbefore specified, without entering into an agreement with the master of such vessel, in the form and manner and at the place and times in such cases required, the vessel shall be held liable for each such offense to a penalty of not more than two hundred dollars. But the vessel shall not be held liable for any person carried to sea, who shall have secretly stowed away himself without the knowledge of the master, mate, or of any of the officers of the vessel, or who shall have falsely personated himself to the master, mate, or officers of the vessel, for the purpose of being carried to sea.

SEC. 4515. If any master, mate, or other officer of a vessel knowingly receives, or accepts, to be entered on board of any merchant-vessel, any seaman who has been engaged or supplied contrary to the provisions of this Title, the vessel on board of which such seaman shall be found shall, for every such seaman, be liable to a penalty of not more than two hundred dollars.

SEC. 4516. In case of desertion or casualty resulting in the loss of one or more of the seamen, the master must ship, if obtainable, a number equal to the number whose services he has been deprived of by desertion or casualty, who must be of the same or higher grade or rating with those whose places they fill, and report the same to the United States consul at the first port at which he shall arrive, without incurring the penalty prescribed by the two preceding sections. This section shall not apply to fishing or whaling vessels or yachts.

SEC. 4517. Every master of a merchant-vessel who engages any sea

man at a place out of the United States, in which there is a consular officer or commercial agent, shall, before carrying such seaman to sea, procure the sanction of such officer, and shall engage seamen in his presence; and the rules governing the engagement of seamen before a shipping-commissioner in the United States, shall apply to such engagements made before a consular officer or commercial agent; and upon every such engagement the consular officer or commercial agent shall indorse upon the agreement his sanction thereof, and an attestation to the effect that the same has been signed in his presence, and otherwise duly made.

SEC. 4518. Every master who engages any seaman in any place in which there is a consular officer or commercial agent, otherwise than as required by the preceding section, shall incur a penalty of not more than one hundred dollars, for which penalty the vessel shall be held liable.

SEC. 4519. The master shall, at the commencement of every voyage or engagement, cause a legible copy of the agreement, omitting signatures, to be placed or posted up in such part of the vessel as to be accessible to the crew; and on default shall be liable to a penalty of not more than one hundred dollars.

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SEC. 19. That a master of a vessel in the foreign trade may engage a seaman at any port in the United States, in the manner provided by law, to serve on a voyage to any port, or for the round trip from and to the port of departure, or for a definite time, whatever the destination. The master of a vessel making regular and stated trips between the United States and a foreign country may engage a seaman for one or more round trips, or for a definite time, or on the return of said vessel to the United States may reship such seaman for another voyage in the same vessel, in the manner provided by law, without the payment of additional fees to any officer for such reshipment or re-engagement.

SEC. 20. That every master of a vessel in the foreign trade may engage any seaman at any port out of the United States, in the manner provided by law, to serve for one or more round trips from and to the port of departure, or for a definite time, whatever the destination; 14 Secs. 19-20 of Act of June 26, 1884. 23 Stat. L. 58.

and the master of a vessel clearing from a port of the United States with one or more seamen engaged in a foreign port as herein provided shall not be required to reship in a port of the United States the seamen so engaged, or to give bond, as required by section forty-five hundred and seventy-six of the Revised Statutes, to produce said seamen before a boarding officer on the return of said vessel to the United States.

QUESTIONS

1. Is this not class legislation? Upon what basis can it be justified? 2. Whence does Congress derive its power to enact the provisions given above?

3. SHIPPING ARTICLES FOR VESSELS IN COASTWISE TRADE

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SEC. 4520. Every master of any vessel of the burden of fifty tons or upward, bound from a port in one State to a port in any other than an adjoining State, except vessels of the burden of seventy-five tons or upward, bound from a port on the Atlantic to a port on the Pacific, or vice versa, shall, before he proceeds on such voyage, make an agreement in writing or in print, with every seaman on board such vessel except such as shall be apprentice or servant to himself or owners, declaring the voyage or term for which such seaman shall be shipped.

SEC. 4521. If any master of such vessel of the burden of fifty tons or upward shall carry out any seaman or mariner, except apprentices or servants, without such contract or agreement being first made and signed by the seamen, such master shall pay to every such seaman the highest price or wages which shall have been given at the port or place where such seaman was shipped, for a similar voyage, within three months next before the time of such shipping, if such seaman shall perform such voyage; or if not, then for such time as he shall continue to do duty on board such vessel; and shall moreover be liable to a penalty of twenty dollars for every such seaman, recoverable, onehalf to the use of the person prosecuting for the same, and the other half to the use of the United States. Any seaman who has not signed such a contract shall not be bound by the regulations nor subject to the penalties and forfeitures contained in this Title.

SEC. 4522. At the foot of every such contract to ship upon such a 15 Rev. Stat., Secs. 4520-22. [The text is that of the Act of July 20, 1790, as amended by the Act of June 7, 1872, and by the Act of Dec. 21, 1898.]

vessel of the burden of fifty tons or upward there shall be a memorandum in writing of the day and the hour when such seaman who shipped and subscribed shall render himself on board to begin the voyage agreed upon. If any seaman shall neglect to render himself on board the vessel for which he has shipped at the time mentioned in such memorandum without giving twenty-four hours' notice of his inability to do so, and if the master of the vessel shall, on the day in which such neglect happened, make an entry in the log book of such vessel of the name of such seaman, and shall in like manner note the time that he so neglected to render himself after the time appointed, then every such seaman shall forfeit for every hour which he shall so neglect to render himself one-half of one day's pay, according to the rate of wages agreed upon, to be deducted out of the wages. If any such seaman shall wholly neglect to render himself on board such vessel, or having rendered himself on board shall afterwards desert, he shall forfeit all of his wages or emoluments which he has then earned.

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When a crew is shipped by a shipping-commissioner for any American vessel in the coastwise trade, or the trade between the United States and the Dominion of Canada, or Newfoundland, or the West Indies, or Mexico, as authorized by section two of an Act approved June nineteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-six, entitled "An act to abolish certain fees for official services to American vessels, and to amend the laws relating to shipping-commissioners, seamen, and owners of vessels, and for other purposes," an agreement shall be made with each seaman engaged as one of such crew in the same manner as is provided by Sections four thousand five hundred and eleven and four thousand five hundred and twelve of the Revised Statutes, not however including the sixth, and eighth items of Section four thousand five hundred and eleven; and such agreement shall be posted as provided in Section four thousand five hundred and nineteen. . .

4. VIOLATION OF SHIPPING LAWS

SEC. 4523.17 All shipments of seamen made contrary to the provi

16 Act of Aug. 1890, as amended by the Act of Feb. 18, 1895, by the Act of March 3, 1897, and by the Act of April 11, 1904. 26 Stat. L. 320, as amended by 28 Stat. L. 667, 29 Stat. L. 689, 33 Stat. L. 168.

17 Rev. Stat., Sec. 4523. [The text is that of the Act of July 20, 1840, as amended by the Act of June 7, 1872.]

sions of any act of Congress shall be void; and seaman so shipped may leave the service at any time, and shall be entitled to recover the highest rate of wages of the port from which the seaman was shipped, or the sum agreed to be given him at his shipment.

D. TERMINATION OF THE CONTRACT

[Unless the contract is for a definite period, generally it may be terminated by either party at any time. A contract of employment for a definite term is terminated (1) by the expiration of the time stated, (2) by the happening of any event agreed upon in the contract as affecting a termination, (3) by mutual consent, (4) by the act of either party where such right is given by a stipulation in the contract or by general usage, (5) by a change in the business of the employer, (6) by the employer's insolvency, (7) by the death or incapacitating disability of either party, (8) by the abandonment of his employment by the employee, (9) by the discharge of the employee by the employer. In case of a wrongful termination of the contract by either party, the other has a right of action to recover damages for the breach. Neither by an injunction nor by specific performance nor in any other way can an employee be forced to enter upon or continue a contract of employment. Nor, in general, is the breach of the contract by the employee punishable as a criminal offense, though, as already set forth, the statutes of some states have made it a misdemeanor for laborers, with the intent of defrauding their employers, to repudiate their contracts after they have received money or supplies on the faith thereof. Also, Congress has regulated the manner of discharge of seamen and, in a few states, statutory restrictions have been placed upon the employee's right of abandonment in certain occupations or under certain conditions, as will be seen in the following sections.]

QUESTIONS

1. A state statute provides that no employer shall discharge or discipline an employee without giving him an opportunity for a hearing in the presence of the person giving information concerning the conduct of the employee. Is it constitutional?

2. A state statute makes it a crime for an employer to discharge an employee because of the latter's membership in a labor union. Is it constitutional?

3. Congress makes it a crime for an interstate carrier to discharge an employee because of his membership in a labor union. Is it constitutional?

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