Child Labor Act—Presumption op Constitutionality—Reasonable Doubt.—The presumption is that the act of February 20, 1905, regulating the employment and hours of labor of children, and prohibiting the employment of illiterate minors and of minors under certain ages, with certain restrictions and exceptions, is constitutional and valid, unless the contrary is made to appear beyond a reasonable doubt..

Id.—Determination op Facts by Legislature.—Where the constitutionality of the act is made to depend upon the existence or nonexistence of some fact or state of facts, the determination thereof is primarily for the legislature, and the courts will acquiesce in its decision unless error therein clearly appears.

Id.—Statute not Discriminatory or Special—Limitation op Employments—Question op Fact por Legislature.—The statute is not discriminatory or special because providing that no child under fourteen years of age shall be employed in any mercantile institution, office, laundry, manufactory, workshop, hotel, or apartment-house, or in the distribution or transmission of messages, without mentioning other employments. The preliminary questions as to the effect of the specified occupations on the children engaged therein, and as to the number of children engaged therein, are questions of fact for the legislature to ascertain and determine; and if any reasonable doubt exists as to the soundness of its judgment upon the existence of the facts, that doubt must be resolved in favor of the legislative action and the validity of the law.

Id.—Broadness op Specifications.—The specifications are broad and comprehensive. A saloon is a “mercantile institution,” a barbershop is a “workshop,” and ferries and railroads are engaged “in the transmission or distribution of merchandise.”

Id.—Proviso Containing Exception.—The proviso of the statute containing an exception as to children over twelve years of age whose parents are unable to labor from sickness, who may be permitted to labor by the judge of the juvenile court, does not contain any discrimination against orphans and abandoned children. The proviso is for the benefit of the sick parent; and if there are no parents whose necessities require the exception, the reason for the exception is wanting.

Id.—Exception as to Vacations.—The exception as to work of children over twelve years of age in vacations, upon a permit from the principal of the school attended by the child during the preceding term, is a reasonable regulation.

Id.—Provision as to Children Under Sixteen—Ability to Bead a^d Write.—The provision as to the hours of labor allowed in the ease of children under sixteen years, under the limitation that they can “read English at sight and write simple English sentences,” is not an unreasonable discrimination against illiterate children.

Id.—Independent Provision.—The possible invalidity of an independent provision in the statute cannot affect the validity of other provisions therein.