1. In Kansas grievous infringement of personal liberty has taken place and industrial warfare has not been avoided. V. The United States has achieved her pre-eminent rank among the enlightened nations of the world by placing as the mud-sill of her national structure, individual liberty and freedom of contract. For Congress to destroy this freedom of contract by providing for involuntary servitude on the part of the railway employees of the country would be for Congress to begin a policy which, when carried to completion, would mean the ruin of the country and which is, therefore, unthinkable.

General References

ANALYSIS OF LABOR PROVISIONS OF THE NEW TRANSPORTATION ACT

(From the Monthly Labor Review, April, 1920.)

The new railroad control act passed by Congress and signed by the President, February 28, 1920, differs from previous railroad legislation principally in its inclusion of significant and extended provisions for the adjustment of industrial relations in the railroad service. Previous railroad legislation had proceeded along two distinct lines. There was first a separate body of legislation affecting the finances and operations of the carriers; and a second series of laws regulating the relations of employer and employee. In the first group of laws belong, for instance, the interstate commerce act of 1887, the Elkins Act of 1903, the Hepburn amendment of 1906, the Carmack amendment of the same year, the Mann-Elkins amendment of 1910, the Panama Canal Act of 1912, and the two general laws on combinations and trusts-the Sherman Act of 1890, and the Clayton Act of 1914. The second group of laws has comprised the employers' liability act, 1908, the safety appliance act of 1893 and subsequent years, the mediation laws-Erdman, 1898, and Newlands, 1913-and finally the Adamson 8-hour law, September 3-5, 1916.

Following this came the war legislation, the chief feature of which has been the recognition extended to labor in the determination of labor conditions and regulations and in the adjustment of industrial relations.

Under the act of August 29, 1917, the President was authorized to take possession and assume control of the transportation systems of the country and to use them for such purposes as were connected with the prosecution of the war. The proclamation for the assumption of control was issued December 26, 1917. Subsequently, through the Federal control act, March 21, 1918, control by Executive order was replaced by control defined and limited under provisions of law. This Federal control act provided for Government operation of the railroads during the period of the war and not exceeding 21 months after the exchange of ratification of the treaty of peace.

As respects the control of industrial relations the new act incorporates some of the corresponding provisions of the Federal control act of March 21, 1918. Two kinds of boards are created to handle disputes: (a) Railroad boards of labor adjustment; (b) a railroad labor board.

The railroad administration act provided for three labor adjustment boards. No statement is contained in the new law as to the number of such boards. This class of boards, whatever the number set up, is to take jurisdiction of any dispute upon application of the chief executive of any carrier or organization of employees or upon the written petition of not less than 100 unorganized employees, or upon motion of the adjustment board itself on the request of the labor board.

No rules are laid down defining the precise composition of these adjustment boards and their methods of procedure. These matters are left to the decision of the carriers and their employees.

The labor adjustment boards receive for hearing and decide disputes involving only grievances, rules of employment, and working conditions which have not been settled in conference between the carrier and its employees. The transportation act, it will be observed, makes no change in the methods of collective dealing now in practice among the carriers and their employees for the making of the labor contract and determining general conditions of employment. The act, however, does attempt to give voice to the unorganized employees of the railroad. Whether or not this method of approach in dealing with the employees proves effective remains to be seen in the course of administration of the act.

The principal agency created by the law for the final adjustment of disputes between the railroads and their employees is the Railroad Labor Board. This board is composed of nine members-three representing the employees and subordinate officials, three representing the carriers, and three representing the public. All three groups of members are appointed by the President with the consent of the Senate, the first two groups from not less than six nominees offered by the employees and the carriers, respectively. Failure of either group to propose nominees gives the President power to appoint members directly to represent the group. The third group is appointed directly by the President.

The members of the board may not hold active membership in any organization of employees or be pecuniarily interested in any carrier. Honorary membership in any organization or rights to insurance or pension benefits in such organization are not required to be relinquished. The term of office is five years, and the salary $10,000 per Removal for cause rests with the President.

annum.

The labor board is authorized to hear and decide on appeal from the adjustment boards matters which those boards are empowered to consider. Wage or salary disputes which are not within the jurisdiction of the adjustment boards are also decided by the labor board if not settled by conference between the carriers and their employees. The labor board obtains jurisdiction of all disputes in the same manner as the adjustment boards, namely, upon its own motion or

upon petition of the carrier or of the employees, whether organized or unorganized.

The board may suspend the operation of any decision between a carrier and its employees if there is involved an increase in wages or salaries such as to necessitate substantial readjustment of rates.

Decisions of the Labor Board require the assent of at least five of the nine members, and in cases of decisions affecting wages or salaries at least one of the representatives of the public must concur in the decision.

The board has wide powers in compelling the attendance of witnesses, production of books, documents, and other information. While no penalty is provided for the violation of a decision of the labor board, yet the board is authorized to examine into the observance of its decisions and to make public the facts in any case.

In making its decisions affecting salaries and wages the board is directed to take into consideration as far as applicable, certain relevant circumstances. These relevant factors are: (1) The scale of wages paid for similar kinds of work in other industries; (2) the relation between wages and the cost of living; (3) the hazards of the employment; (4) the training and skill required; (5) the degree of responsibility; (6) the character and regularity of the employment; and (7) inequalities of increases in wages or of treatment, the result of previous wage orders or adjustments.

The Labor Board becomes a continuing investigational agency respecting the relation between the carriers and their employees, particularly as to questions of wages, hours of work, conditions of employment, and the privileges, rights and duties of carriers and employees. It is authorized to gather, classify, and publish from time to time information relating to such questions. It is required to publish annually its administrative decisions and regulations as well as those of the Interstate Commerce Commission in so far as the latter affect industrial relations.

The act requires each carrier to continue until September 1, 1920, the scale of compensation of its employees and subordinate officials which have been fixed under the Federal railroad control act. After that period wages will become subject to new adjustments between the carriers and their employees.

The Interstate Commerce Commission plays no essential part, exercises no control, within the field of industrial relations under the act. Its sole function in this respect is that of drafting the rules for the selecting of the members of the Railroad Labor Board.

The prohibition of strikes, contained in the Senate Bill, was not incorporated in the law. Apparently the law contains no provision for compulsory delay in striking pending investigation of a dispute. The act merely cites it as "the duty of all carriers and their officers, employees, and agents to exert every reasonable effort and adopt every

available means to avoid any interruption to the operation of any carrier growing out of any dispute between the carrier and the employees or subordinate officials thereof." It is a duty without penalty that is here stated. Whether or not the method of the injunction could be invoked to enforce that duty will be one for future determination by the courts.

LABOR PROVISIONS

The labor provisions of the Transportation Act of 1920, as outlined in Title III of the act, are as follows:

SECTION 300. When used in this title

(1) The term "carrier" includes any express company, sleeping car company, and any carrier by railroad, subject to the Interstate Commerce Act, except a street, interurban, or suburban electric railway not operating as a part of a general steam railroad system of transportation.

(2) The term "adjustment board" means any railroad board of labor adjustment established under section 302.

(3) The term "labor board" means the Railroad Labor Board. (4) The term "commerce" means commerce among the several States or between any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia and any foreign nation, or between any Territory or the District of Columbia and any State, or between any Territory and any other Territory, or between any Territory and the District of Columbia, or within any Territory or the District of Columbia, or between points in the same State but through any other State or any Territory or the District of Columbia or any foreign nation; and

(5) The term "subordinate official" includes officials of carriers of such class or rank as the commission shall designate by regulation formulated and issued after such notice and hearing as the commission may prescribe, to the carriers, and employees and subordinate officials of carriers, and organizations thereof, directly to be affected by such regulations.

SEC. 301. It shall be the duty of all carriers and their officers, employees and agents to exert every reasonable effort and adopt every available means to avoid any interruption to the operation of any carrier growing out of any dispute between the carrier and the employees or subordinate officials thereof. All such disputes shall be considered and, if possible, decided in conference between representatives designated and authorized so to confer by the carriers, or the employees or subordinate officials thereof, directly interested in the dispute. If any dispute is not decided in such conference, it shall be referred by the parties thereto to the board which under the provisions of this title is authorized to hear and decide such dispute.

SEC. 302. Railroad boards of labor adjustment may be established by agreement between any carrier, group of carriers, or the carriers as