This proceeding is brought to review the judgment of the supreme court of Arkansas (81 Ark. 304, 98 S. W. 729), affirming a conviction of the plaintiff in error for violation of a statute of the state of Arkansas, entitled 'An Act to Provide for the Weighing of Coal Mined in the State of Arkansas as It Comes from the Mine, and before It Is Passed over a Screen of Any Kind.' The act provides:
'Sec. 1. It shall be unlawful for any mine owner, lessee, or operator of coal mines in this state, where ten or more men are employed underground, employing miners at bushel or ton rates, or other quantity, to pass the output of coal mined by said miners over any screen or any other device which shall take any part from the value thereof, before the same shall have been weighed and duly credited to the employee sending the same to the surface, and accounted for at the legal rate of weights fixed by the laws of Arkansas; and no employee, within the meaning of this act, shall be deemed to have waived any right accruing to him under this section by any contract he may make contrary to the provisions thereof, and any provisions, contract, or agreement between mine owners, lessees, or operators thereof, and the miners employed therein, whereby the provisions of this act are waived, modified, or annulled, shall be ovid and of no effect, and the coal sent to the surface shall be accepted or rejected; and, if accepted, shall be weighed in accordance with the provisions of this act; and right of action shall not be invalidated by reason of any contract or agreement; and any owner, agent, lessee, or operator of any coal mine in this state, where ten or more men are employed underground, who shall knowingly violate any of the provisions of this section, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be punished by a fine of not less than $200 nor more than $500 for each offense, or by imprisonment in the county jail for a period of not less than sixty days, nor more than six months, or both such fine and imprisonment; and each day any mine or mines are operated thereafter shall be a separate and distinct offense; proceedings to be instituted in any court having competent jurisdiction.' (Acts 1905, chap. 219, § 1.)
The case was tried upon an agreed statement of facts, as follows: 'That the Bolen-Darnall Coal Company is a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the state of Missouri, and is also doing business under the laws of the state of Arkansas, and has complied with the laws of Arkansas permitting foreign corporations to transact and do business within said state.
'It is further agreed that John McLean, defendant, is the managing agent of the said Bolen-Darnall Coal Company, and, as such, has charge of the coal mine of said company situated near Hartford, in Sebastian county, Arkansas.
'It is further agreed that the said Bolen-Darnall Coal Company employs more than ten men to work underground in its mine situated near Hartford, of which the said John McLean is agent and manager.
'It is further agreed that the said Bolen-Darnall Coal Company, by and through said John McLean, as its agent and manager, did, on the 19th day of June, 1906, in Greenwood district of said Sebastian county, employ one W. H. Dempsey and others, coal miners, to mine coal underground in said mine by the ton at the rate and price of 90 cents per ton for screened coal, and that the said John McLean, in the said district and county, did knowingly pass the output of coal, so mined and sent up from underground by the said W. H. Dempsey and others, over a screen, according to and as provided by a contract between it and the said Dempsey and others, and paid the said Dempsey and others for only the coal that passed over said screen, according to and as provided under the contract, and paid or allowed them nothing for the coal which passed through said screen, part of the value of said coal having passed through said screen, which part of said coal was not weighed or accredited to the said Dempsey and others, and for which they received no pay; said coal not having been weighed or accredited to the said Dempsey or others before the same was passed over said screen, as provided for by the statutes of Arkansas.
'It is further agreed the more than ten men were employed and did work under said employment underground in mining coal for the said Bolen-Darnall Coal Company, in said mine aforesaid, at said time; and it is also agreed that there are coal mines in said state and county operated by both corporations and individuals in which less than ten men are employed underground by the ton and bushel rates.