Cornall Unlvarally Library HD5325.R21916A52 Threatened strike of r.Tilway employees.H THE MARTIN P. CATHERWOOD LIBRARY OF THE NEW YORK STATE SCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL AND LABOR RELATIONS AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924002755027 "*»S£"[ SENATE {D~™™. threatened strike of Railway employees - HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON INTERSTATE COMMERCi; JOTTED STATES, SENATE. SIXTY-FOURTH QONGRESS- FIRST SESSION ON BILLS IN CONNECTION WITH LEGISLATION RELATIVE TO THE THREATENED STRIKE OP RAILWAY EMPLOYEES WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1916 REPORTED BY MR. FLETCHER. In the Senate of the United States, September 7, 1916. Resolved, That the hearing entitled "Threatened Strike of Rail- way Employees" before the Senate Committee on Interstate Com- merce be printed as a Senate docixment, and that 9,000 additional cppies be printed, of which 4,000 copies shall be for the use of the Senate document room and 5,000 copies for the use of the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce. Attest: James M. Bakek, Secretary. CONTENTS. Page. Tentative print, proposed bills 5 Garretson, A. B., statement of 24 Gompers, Samuel, statement of 42 Lee, W. G., statement of 62 Bobinson, B. M., statement of 69 Lovett, R. S., statement of 69 Lee, Elisha, statement of 80 Sheean, J. M., statement of 93 Thom, Alfred P.^tatement of , 100 Goodwin Elliot H., statement of .- \... 106 Barrow, Henry C, statement of 108 l.amb, William E., statement of , 110 Walter, Luther M., statement of 113 Creight Thomas, statement of 117 French, R. S.", statement of 119 Emery, James A., statement of 119 Wilson, H. G., statementof : 124 Lyon, Prank, statement of 126 Clark, H. L., statementof 127 Cowles, James L., statement of 127 Carter, W . S . , statement of 130 Eight-hour roads 142 Stone, Warren S., statement of 145 Garretson, A. B., statement in reply 148 Bobinson, M. B. additional statement 157 Proceedings of Short Line Railroad Association 160 Weadcock, I Bernard F., statement of 162 Parker, John Clifton, statement of 163 Loree, L, F., statementof 165, 3 THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. THXniSDAY, AtTGUST 31, 1916. United States Senate, Committee on Interstate Commerce, Washington, D. 0. The committee met in room 326, Senate Office Building, at 10 o'clock a. m., pursuant to call of the chairman, Senator Francis G. Newlands presiding. Present: Senators Newlands (chairman), Smith of South Carolina, Pomerene, Myers, Robinson, Saulsbury, Thompson, Cummins, and Brandegee. Also present, representing the railroad interests, the following fsntlemen: Johii-F. Carroll, counsel; A. B. Thom, counsel, Southern ailway; C. P. Neill, manager bureau of information of southeastern railways; Charles B. Faullmer, counsel; F. I. Gowan, coimsel, Penn- sylvania Railroad, and F. C. NeiU, counsel, Pennsylvania Railroad; F. D. Underwood, president Erie Railroad; A. H. Smith, president New York Central System- Daniel Willard, president Baltimore & Ohio Railroad; Henry Walters, chairman of board, Atlantic Coast Line; G. L. Peck, vice president Pennsylvania Lines west of Pitts- burgh; W. W. Atterbury, vice president Pennsylvania Railroad; Samuel Rea," president Pennsylvania Railroad; R. S. Lovett, chairman executive committee. Union Pacific; James Russell, general manager Denver & Rio Grande; G. S. Waid, vice president and general manager Sunset Central Lines ; E. W. Grice, assistant to president, Chesapeake & Ohio Railway; A. M. Schoyer, resident vice president Pennsylvania Lines west. For the Employees Organization, A. B. Garretson, president of Brotherhood of -Railway Conductors; Samuel Gompers, president American Federation of Labor; W. L. Stone, grand chief Brotherhood Locomotive Engineers; W. G. Lee, president Brother- hood Railway Trainmen; and W. S. Carter, president Brotherhood Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen. The committee proceeded to consider several tentative bills per- taining to legislation in connection with the threatened strike of railway employees, which are here printed in full, as follows: [TENTATIVE COMMITTEE PRINT NO. 1.] In the Senate Committee on Interstate Commehcb. A BILL To establish the eight-hour standard work day in interstate transportation, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and Hoiise of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, Section 1. Beginning January first, nineteen hundred and seventeen, eight hours, in contracts for labor, shAll be deemed a day's work and the measure or standard for the purpose of reckoning the compensation of all persons who are now or may hereafter 6 THREATENED STEIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. be employed by any common carrier by railroad subject to the provisions of the act of February fourth, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, entitled "An act to regulate commerce," as amended, and who are now or may hereafter be actually engaged in the operation of trains used for the transportation of persons or property on railroads, from any State or Territory of the United States or the District of Columbia to any other State or Territory of the United States or the District of Columbia, or from one place in a Territory to another place in the same Territory, or from any place in the United States to an adjacent foreign country, or from any place in the United States through a foreign country to any other place m the United States. Sec. 2. The President shall appoint a commission of three to be known as the eight- hour day commission, which shall observe the administrative and financial effects of the inMitution of the eight-hour standard work day as above defined during a period of not less than six nor more than eight months, in the discretion of the commission, and within thirty days thereafter shall report its. findings to the President and to Congress. » The President shall transmit the report of the eight-hour day commission to the Interstate Commerce Commission, which shall consider an increase of freight rates to meet such additional expenditures by the railroads affected as may have been ren- dered necessary by the adoption of the eight-hour day and which have not been offset by administrative readjustments and economies, should the facts disclosed justify the increase. Sec 3. Pending the report of the eight-hour day commission and the decision of the Interstate Commerce Commission, as above provided, and for a period of days thereafter, the compensation of railway employees subject to this act for a standard eight-hour work day shall hot be reduced below the present standard day's wage, and for all services in excess of eight hours such employees shall receive not less than the pro rata proportion of the compensation received for the standard eight-hour work day. Any carrier violating this provision shall be liable to a penalty of not less than $100 and not exceeding $1,000 in respect to each employee whose compensation is affected by such violation, which penalty shall accrue to the United States, and may be re- covered in a civil action brought by the United States. Sec. 4. The eight-hour day commission shall organize and select its own chairman and make all necessary rules for conducting its work. It shall have authority to employ and fix the compensation of such employees, to rent ^uch offices and to pur- chase such books, stationery, and other supplies as shall be necessary to carry out the purposes for which the commission was created. It shall, whenever practicable, be supplied with suitable quarters in any Federal building located at its place of meet- ing or at any place where the commission may adjourn for its deliberations. The commission is authorized, as a. whole or by subcommittees duly appointed, to hold sittings and public hearings anywhere in the United States; and all testimony before the commission shall be on oath or aiflrmation. Witnesses shall be paid the same witness fees and mileage as witnesses in courts of the United States. For the purposes of this pet the eight-hour day commission, or any member thereof, shall have power to administer oaths, sign subpoenas, require the attendance and testimony of witnesses, and the production of such books, papers, contracts, agree- ments and documents as may be material to a just determination of the matters under investigation by it; and may invoke the aid of the United States courts to compel witnesses to attend and testify and to produce such books, papers, contracts, agree- ments, and documents to the same extent and under the same conditions and penalties as is provided for in the act to regulate commerce, approved February fovu:th, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, and the amendments thereto. A majority of the com- mission shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, and if the commission shall be divided in opinion, the findings of the majority upon any point shall be deemed the findings of the commission. Sec. 5. The members of the eight-hour day commission shall be paid actual travel- ing and other necessary expenses, and in addition a compensation of per diem, payable monthly, while actually engaged in the work of the commission and whil6 going to and returning from such work. The sum of ^-, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated, to be immediately available on the requisition of the President and to continue available until the commission shall havfe completed its work, for the payment of the necessary and proper expenses incurred as herein- before authorized, including per diem of the commissioners, witness fees and mileage, rent, furniture, office fixtures and supplies, books, salaries of employees, and traveling and other necessary expenses of members or employees of the eight-hour day commis- sion, to be approved by the chairman of said commission and audited by the proper accounting officers of the Treasury. ^ THREATENED STRIKE OP RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. " [TENTATIVE COMMITTEE PRINT NO. 2.] In the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce. [PUEUC— No. 6.) [S. 2517.1 [The part printed in roman is existing mediation law; the part indicated in linetype and italic shows pro- posed amendments thereto.] AN ACT Providing for mediation, conciliation, and arbitration m controversies between certain employ- ers and their employees. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the provisions of this act shall apply to any common car- rier or carriers and their officers, agents, and employees, except masters of vessels and seamen, as defined in section forty-six hundred and twelve. Revised Statutes of the United States, engaged in the transportation of passengers or property wholly by rail- road, or partly by railroad and partly by water, for a continuous carriage or shipment from one State or Territory of the United States or the District of Columbia to any other State or Territory of the United States or the District of Columbia, or frpm any place in the United States to an adjacent foreign country, or from any place in the United States through a foreign country to any other place in the United States. The term "railroad" as used m this act shall include all bridges and ferries used or operated in connection with any railroad, and also all the road in use by any corpora- tion operating a railroad, whether owned or operated under a contract, agreement, or lease; and the term "transportation" shall include all instrumentalities of shipment or carriage. The term " employees " as used in this act shall include all persons actually engaged in any capacity in train operation or train service of any description, and notwith- standing that the cars upon or in which they are employed may be held and operated "by the carrier under lease or other contract: Provided, however, That this act shall not be held to apply to employees of street railroads and shall apply only to employees engaged in railroad train service. In every such case the carrier shall be responsible for the acts and defa,ults of such employees in the same manner and to the same extent as if said cars were owned by it and said employees directly employed by it, and any provisions to the contrary of any such lease or other contract shall be binding only as between the parties thereto and shall not affect the obligations of said carrier either to the public or to the private parties concerned. A common carrier subject to the provisions of this act is hereinafter referred to as an "employer," and the employees of one or more of such carriers are hereinafter referred to as "employees." Sec. 2. That whenever a controversy concerning wages, hours of labor, or condi- tions of employment shall arise between an employer or employers and employees subject to this act interrupting or threatening to interrupt the business of said employer or employers to the serious detriment of the public interest, et thcr party both parties to such controversy may apply to shall notify the Board of Mediation and Conciliation created by this act and eithir party may apply to said board and invoke Aa services for the purpose of bringing about an amicable adjustment of the controversy; and upon the request of either party the said board shall with all practicable expedition put itself in communication with the parties to such controversy and shall use its best efforts, by mediation and conciliation, to bring them to an agreement; and if such efforts to bring about an amicable adjustment through mediation and conciliation shall be unsuccessful, the said board shall at once endeavor to induce the parties to submit their controversy to arbitration in accordance with the provisions of this act. If the Board of Mediation and Conciliation is unable to induce the parties to submit their controversy to arbitration, it shall be referred to a board of investigation, and it shall be unlawful for the employer or employers to declare or cause a lockout or for the employees to declare or cause a strike on account of the controversy prior to and during mediation and conciliation or during the investigation of said controversry and the report thereon, as hereihafter provided. In any case in which an interruption of traffic is imminent and fraught with serious detriment to the public interest, the Board of Mediation and Conciliation may^ if in its judgment ouoh action pccmo doflirablc, shall proffer its services to the respective parties to the controversy.* In any case in which a controversy arises over the meaning or the application of any agreement reached through mediation under the provisions of this act either party to the said agreement may .apply to the Board of Mediation and Conciliation for 8 THEEATENED STRIKE OF EAILWAY EMPLOYEES. an expression of opinion from such board as to the meaning or application of such agreement, and the said board shall, upon receipt of such request, give its opinion as soon as may be practicable. Sec. 3. That whenever a controversy shall arise between an employer or employers and employees subject to this act, which can not be settled through mediation and conciliation in the manner provided in the preceding section, such controversy may be submitted to the arbitration of a board of six, or, if the parties to the controversy prefer so to stipulate, to a board of three persons, which board shall be chosen in the following manner: In the case of a board of three, the employer or employers and the employees, parties respectively to the agreement to arbitrate, shall each name one arbitrator; and the two arbitrators thus chosen Shall select the third arbitrator; but in the event of their failure to name the third arbitrator within five days after their first meeting, such third arbitrator shall be named by the Board of Mediation and Conciliation. In the case of a board of six, the employer or employers and the employees, parties respectively to the agreement to arbitrate, shall each name two arbitrators, and the four arbitrators thus chosen shall, by a majority vote, select the remaining two arbitrators; but in the event of their failure to name the two arbitrators within fifteen days after their first meeting the said two arbitrators, or as many of, them as have not been named, shall be named by the Board of Mediation and Con- ciliation. When it is deemed necessary the membership of any board of arbitration may be increased to nine or twelve, as may be agreed upon by the parties to thg controversy, which board shall be chosen in the manner and ratio provided above. In the event that the employees engaged in any given controversy are not mem- bers of a labor organization, such employees may select a committee which shall have the right to name the arbitrator, or the arbitrators, who are to be named by the employees as provided above in this section. Sec. 4. That the agreement to arbitrate — First. Shall be in writing.; Second. Shall stipulate that the arbitration is had under the pro\'isions of this act; Third. Shall state whether the board of arbitration is to consist of three or six or more members; Fourth. Shall be .signed by duly accredited representatives of the employer or einployers and of the employees; Fifth. Shall state specifically the questions to be submitted to the said board for decision; Sixth, Shall stipulate that a majority of said board shall be competent to make a valid and binding award; Seventh. Shall fix a period from the date of the appointment of the arbitrator or arbitrators necessary to complete the board, .as provided for in the agreement, within which the said board shall commence its hearings; Eighth. Shall fix a period from the beginning of the hearings within which the said board shall make and file its award: Provided, That this period shall be thirty days unless a different period be agreed to; Ninth. Shall provide for the date from which the award shall become effective and shall fix the period during which the said award shall continue in force; Tenth. Shall provide that the respective parties to the award will each faithfully execute the same; Eleventh. Shall provide that the award and the papers and proceedings, including the testimony relating thereto, certified under the hands of the arbitrators, and which shall have the force and effect of a bill of exceptions, shall be filed in the clerk's office of the district court of the United States for the district wherein the controversy arises or the arbitration is entered into, and shall be final and conclusive upon the parties to the agreement unless set aside for error of law apparent on the record; Twelftji. May also provide that any difference arising as to the meaning or the application of the provisions of an award made by a board of arbitration shall be referred back to the same board or to a subcommittee of such board for a ruling, which ruling shall have the same force and effect as the original award; and if any member of the original board is unable or unwilling to serve, another arbitrator shall be named in the same manner as such original member was named. Sec. 5. That for the purposes of this act the arbitrators herein provided for, or. either of them, shall have power to administer oaths and affirmations, sign subpoenas, require the attendance and testimony of witnesses, and the production of such books," papers, contracts, agreements, and documents material to a just determination of the matters under investigation as may be ordered by the court; and may invoke the aid of the United States courts to compel witnesses to attend and testify and to pro- duce such books, papers, contracts, agreements, and documeivts to the same extent THEEATEKED STRIKE OF fiAlLWAY EMPLOYEES. 9 and under the same conditions and penaities as is provided for in the act to regulate commerce, approved February fourth, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, and the amendments thereto. Sec. 6. That every agreement of arbitration under this act shall be acknowledged by the parties thereto before a notary public or a cl^k of the district or the circuit court of appeals of the United States, or before a member of the Board of Mediation and Conciliation, the members of which are hereby authorized to take such acknowl- edgements, and when so acknowledged shall be delivered to a member of said board or transmitted to said board to be filed in its office. When such agreement of arbitration has been filed with the said board, or one of its members, and when the said board, or a member thereof, has been furnished the names of the arbitrsrtors chosen by the respective parties to the controversy, the board, or a member thereof, shall cause a notice in writijig to be served upon the said arbitrators, notifying them of their appointment, requesting them to meet promptly to name the remaining arbitrator or arbitrators necessary to complete the board, and ad\'ising them of the period within which, as provided in the agreement of arbitration they are empowered to name such arbitrator or arbitrators. When the arbitrators selected by the respective parties have agreed upon the remaining arbitrator or arbitrators, they shall notify the Board of Mediation and Conciliation; and in the event of their failure to agree upon any or upon all of the necessary arbitrators within the period fixed by this act they shall, at the expiration of such period, notify the. Board of Mediation and Conciliation of the arbitrators selected, if any, or of their failure to make or to complete such selection. If the parties to an arbitration desire the reconvening of a board to pass u^on any controversy arising over the meaning or application of an award, they shall jointly so notify the Board of Mediation and Conciliation, and shall state in such written notice the question or questions to be submitted to such reconvened board. The Board of Mediation and Conciliation shall thereupon promptly communicate with the members of the board of arbitration or a subcommittee of such board appointed for such pur- pose pursuant to the provisions of the agreement of arbitration, and arrange for the reconvening of said board or subcommittee, and shall notify the respective parties to the controversy of the time and place at which the board wiil meet for hearings upon the matters in controversy to be submitted to it. Sec. 7. That the board of arbitration shall organize and select its own chairman and make all necessary rules for conducting its hearings; but in its award or awards the said board shall confine itself to findings or recommendations as to the questions specifically submitted to it or matters directly bearing thereon. All testimony before said-board shall be given under oath or affirmation, and any member of the board of arbitration shall have the power to administer oaths or affirmations. It may employ such assistants as may be necessary in carrying on its work. It shall, whenever prac- ticable, be supplied with suitable quarters in any Federal building located at its place of meeting or at any place where the board may adjourn for its deliberations. The board of arbitration shall furnish a certified copy of its awards to the respective parties to the controversy, and shall transmit the original, together with the papers and proceedings and a transcript of the testimony taken at the hearings, certified under the hands of the arbitrators, to the clerk of the district court of the United States for the district wherein the controversy arose or the arbitration is entered into, to be filed in said clerk's office as provided in paragraph eleven of section four of this act. And said board shall also furnish a certified copy of its award, and the papers and proceedings, including the testimony relating thereto, to the Board of Mediation and Conciliation, to be filed in its office. The United States Commerce Court, the Interstate Commerce Commission, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics are hereby authorized to turn over to the Board of Media- tion and Conciliation upon its request any papers and documents heretofore filed with them and bearing upon mediation or arbitration proceedings held under the pro- visions of the act approved June first, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, providing for mediation and arbitration. S'Bfi. 8. That the award, being filed in the clerk's office of a district court of the United States as hereinbefore provided, shall go into practical operation, and judg- ment shall be entered thereon accordingly at the expiration of ten days from such filing, unless within such ten days either party shall file exceptions thereto for matter of law apparent upon the record, in which case said award snail go into practical opera- tion, and judgment be entered accordingly, when such exceptions shall have been finally disposed of either by said district court or on appeal therefrom. At the expiration of ten days from the decision of the district court upon excep- tions taken to said award as aforesaid judgment shall be entered in accordance with said 'decision, unless during said ten days either party shall appeal therefrom to the 10 THREATENED STEIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. circuit court of appeals. In such case only such portion of the record shall be teins- mitted to the appellate court as is necessary to the proper understanding and consid- eration of the questions of law presented by said exceptioi;^ and to be decided. The determination of said circuit court of appeals upon said questions shall be final, and, being certified by the clerk thereof to said district court, judgment pursuant thereto shall thereupon be entered by said district court. If exceptions to an award are finally sustained, judgment shall be entered setting aside the award in whole or in part; but in such case the parties may agree upon a judgment to be entered disposing of the subject matter of the controversy, which jud^ent when entered shall have the same force and effect as judgment entered upon an award. Nothing in this act contained shall be construed to require an employee |to render personal service without his consent, a nd no injunction or other legal pr-occ BB ohall bo igouod which ohall compel the performance by any employee agaimjt his will of a Sec. 9. ^Whenever a controversy shall arise between an employer or employers and employees subject to this act, which can not be settled through mediation and conciliation in the manner provided in section two, and the Board of Mediation is unable to induce the parties to submit their controversy to arbitration in accordance with the provisions of. this act, the said controversy shall be referred to a board of investigation, which shall consist of three members, of which each of the parties to the controversy shall recommend one, and these two, together with the third member, who shall act as chairman of the hoard, shall be appointed by the President of the United States. Upon notice by the President of the appointment of the board of investigation, the Board of Mediation and Conciliation shall arrange a time for the beginning of the investigation and a place where such proceedings may be held. The board of investigation shall organize and make all necessary rules for conducting its hearings. The board shall fully and carefully ascertain all the facts and circumstances, and in its report shall set forth such facts and circumstances, and its findings therefrom, including the cause of the dispute and the board's recommendation for the settlement of the dispute accord- ing to the merits, and substantial justice of the case. Its recommendation shall deal with each item of the dispute and shall state what in the board's opinion ought or ought not to be done by the respective parties concerned. Wherever it appears to the ooard expedient so to do, its recommendation shall also state the period during which the proposed settlement should continue in force, and the date from which it should commence. The report shall be made to the Board of Mediation and Conciliation, who shall cause the same to be published. All testimony before the board of investigation shall be given under oath or affirmation, and any member of the board shall have the power to administer oaths or affirmations. It shall be furnished such assistants as may be necessary in carrying on its work. Each member of the hoard of investigation shall receive such compensation as may he fixed by the Board of Mediation and Conciliation together with his traveling and other necessary expenses. So much as may be necessary of the appropriation of the Board of Mediation and Conciliation for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and seventeen, is hereby made available for the payment of the necessary and proper expenses of boards of investigation. Authority for incurring expenses, including subsistence, by boards of investigation shall first be obtained from the Board of Mediation and Conciliation. •Sec. n. That whenever receivers appointed by a Federal court are in the possessiop and control of the business of employers covered by this act the employees of such employers shall have the right to be heard through their representatives in such court upon all questions affecting the terms and cqnditions of their employment; and no reduction of wages shall be made by surh receivers without the authority of the court therefor, after notice to such employees, said notice to be given not less than twenty days before the hearing upon the receivers' petition or application, and to be posted upon all customary bulletin boards along or upon the railway or in the customary places on the premises of other employers covered by this act. Sec. 10. That each member of the board of arbitration created under the provisions of this act shall receive such compensation as may be fixed by the Board of Mediation and Conciliation, together with his traveling and other necessary expenses. The sum of $25,000, or so much therpof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated, to be immediately available and to continue available until the close of the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and fourteen, tor the necessary and proper expenses incurred in connection with any arbitration or with the carrying on the ■work of mediation and conciliation, including per diem, traveling, and other neces- sary expenses of members or einployees of boards of arbitration and rent in the Dis- trict of Columbia, furniture, office fixtures and supplies, books, salaries, traveling expenses, and other necessary expenses of members or employees of the Board of Mediation and Conciliation, to be approved by the chairman of said board and audited by the proper accounting officers of the Treasury: THEEATENED STRIKE OP RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 11 Sec. is. Any railroad company declaring or caimng a lockout, or any officer or agent of any railroad company who assists or participates in declaring or causing a lockout con- trary to the provisions of this Act shall be liable to a fine of not less than fSOO nor more than f 5,000 for each day or part of a day that such lockout exists. Any officer, agent, or employee of any organized body of labor or labor organization who declares or causes a strike contrary to the provisions of this Act shall be liable to a fine of not less than $500 nor more than $5,000 for each day or part of a day that such strike exists. . Any person who incites, encourages, or aids in any manner any employer to declare or continue a lockout, or any person who aids in any manner any officer, agent, or employee of any organized body of labor or labor organization in declaring or causing a strike con- trary to the provisions of this act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and liable to a fine of not less than $10 nor more than $100. Sec. 13. There shall be a commissioner of mediation and conciliation, who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and whose salary shall be $7,500 per annum, who shall hold his office for a term of seven years and until a successor qualifies, and who shall be removable by the Presi- dent only for misconduct in office. The President shall also designate not more than two other officials of the Government who have been appointed by and with the ad- vice and consent of the Senate, and the officials thus designated', together with the commissioner of mediation and conciliation, shall constitute a board to be known as the United States board of mediation and conciliation. There shall also be an Assistant Commissioner of Mediation and Conciliation, lyho shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and whose salary shall be $5,000 per annum. In the absence of the Commissioner of Mediation and Conciliation, or when that office shall become vacant, the assistant commissioner shall exercise the functions and perform the duties of that office. Under the direction of the Commissioner of Mediation and Conciliation, the assistant commis- sioner shall assist in the work of mediation and conciliation, and when acting alone in any case he shall have the right to take acknowledgments, receive agreements of arbi- tration, and cause the notices in writing to be served upon the arbitrators chosen by the respective parties to the controversy, as provided for in section five of this act. The act of June first, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, relating to the mediation and arbitration of controversies between railway companies and certain classes of their employees is hereby repealed: Provided, That any agreement of arbitration which, at the time of the passage of this act, shall have been executed in accordance with the provisions of said act of June first, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, shall be gov- erned by the provisions of said act of June first, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, and the proceedings thereunder shall be conducted in accordance with the provisions of said act. SUGGESTED SHORT BILL AS SUBSTITUTE FOR TENTATIVE COM- MITTEE PRINT NO. 2. In the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce. A BILL To amend an act entitled "An act providing for mediation, conciliation, and arbitration in controversies between certain employers and their employees," approved July fifteenth, nineteen hun- dred and thirteen. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. That the act entitled "An act providing for mediation, con- ciliation, and arbitration in controversies between certain employers and their em- ployees," approved July fifteenth, nineteen hundred and thirteen, be amended by adding at the end of said act the following: "Sec. 12. If the Board of Mediation and Conciliation is unable to induce the parties to submit their controversy to arbitration, it shall be referred to a board of investi- gation, and it shall be unlawful for the employer or employers to declare or cause a locikout or for the employees to declare or cause a strike on account of the controversy prior to and during mediation and conciliation or during the investigation of said controversy and the report thereon, as hereinafter provided. " Sec. 13. When it is deemed necessary the memoership of any board of arbitration may be increased to nine or twelve, as may be agreed upon by the parties to the con- troversy, which board shall be chosen in the manner and ratio provided above. "Sec. 14. Whenever a controversy shall arise between an employer or employers and employees subject to this act, which can not be settled through mediation and conciliation in the manner provided in section two, and the Board of Mediation is unable to induce the parties to submit their controversy to arbitration in accordance 12 THREATENED STEIKE OF SAILWAY EMPLOYEES. with the provisions of this act, the said controversy shall be referred to a board of investigation, which shall consist of three members, of which each of the parties to the controversy shall recommend one, and these two, together with the third member, who shall act as chairman of the board, shall be appointed by the President of the United States. Upon notice by the President of the appointment of the board of investigation, the Board of Mediation and Conciliation snail arrange a time for th,e beginnmg of the investigation and a place where such proceedings may be held. The board of investigation shall organize and make all necessary rules for conducting its hearings. The boafd shall fully and carefully ascertain all the facts and circumstances, and in its report shall set forth such facts and circumstances, and its findings therefrom, including the cause of the dispute and the board's recommendation for the settle- ment of the dispute according to the merits and substantial justice of the case. . Its recommendation shall deal with each item of the dispute and shall state what in the board's opinion ought or ought not to be done by the respective parties concerned. Wherever it appears to the board expedient so to do, its recommendation shall also state the period during whiqh the proposed settlement should continue in force, and the date from which it should commence. The report shall be made to the Board of Mediation and Conciliation, who shall cause the same to be published. "All testimony before the board of investigation shall be given under oath or aflSr- mation, and any member of the board shall have the power to administer oa,ths or afloirmations. It shall be furnished such assistants as may be necessary in carrying on its work. "Each member of the board of investigation shall receive such compensation as may be fixed by the Board of Mediation and Conciliation together with his traveling and other necessary expenses. So much as may be necessary of the appropriation of the Board of Mediation and Conciliation for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and seventeen, is hereby made available for the payment of the necessary and proper expenses of boards of investi^tion . Authority for incurring expenses, including subsistence, by boards of investigation shall first be obtained from the Board of Media- tion and Conciliation. " Sec. 15. Any railroad company declaring or causiiig a lockout or any officer or agent of any railroad company who assists or participates in declaring or causing a lockout contrary to the provisions of this act shall be liable to a fine of not less than $500 nor more than $5,000 for each day or part of a day that such lockout exists. ' 'Any officer, agent, or employee of any organized body of labor or labor organization who declares or causes a strike contrary to the provisions of this act shall be liable to a fine of not less than $500 nor more than $5,000 for each day or part of a day that such strike exists. "Any person who incites, encourages, or aids in any manner any employer to declare or continue a lockout, or any person who aids in any manner any officer,.agent, or em- ployee of any organized body of labor or labor organization in declaring or causing a strike contrary to the provisions of this act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and liable to a fine of not leas than $10 nor more than $100." [TENTATIVE COMMITTEE PRINT No. 3.] In the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce. A BILL To provide for Government operation in case of military necessity. If at any time any railway engaged in interstate commerce or in the transportation of the mails shall cease to operate or be seriously hindered in its operation because of a strike of its employees, the President shall have power to direct the operation of such railway whenever in his judgment essential for military purposes, and to that end he may employ such part of the military forces or such civil agents or draft into the service of the United States such persons as may be necessary. Any person refusing to perform such service shall be guilty of a crime and puniahed by fine or imprisonment or both. THEEATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 13 SUGGESTED SHORT BILL AS SUBSTITUTE FOR TENTATIVE COMMIT- TEE PRINT NOS. 2 AND 3. In the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce. [The part printed in roman shows present law; the part in stricken-through type and italic indicates pro- posed amendments to existing law.] A BILL To amend an Act entitled "An Act providing for mediation, conciliation, and arbitration in controversies between certain employers and their employees," approved July fifteenth, nineteen hun- dred and thirteen. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section one of an act entitled An act providing for media- tion, conciliation, and arbitration in controversies between certain employers and their employees," approved July fifteenth, nineteen hundred and thirteen, be amended so as to read as follows: " Section 1. The provisions of this act shall apply to any common carrier or carriers and their officers, agents, and employees, except masters of vessels and seamen, as defined in section forty-six hundied and twelve. Revised Statutes of the United States, engaged in the transportation of passengers or property wholly by railroad, or partly by railroad and partly by water, for a continuous carriage or shipment from one State or Territory of the United States or the District of Columbia to any other State or Territory of the United States or the District of Columbia, or from any place in the United States to an adjacent foreign country, or from any place in the United States through a foreign country to any other place in the United States. "The term 'railroad' as used in this act shall include all bridges and ferries used or operated in connection with any railroad, and also all .the road in use by any corpora- tion operating a railroad, whether owned or operated under a contract, agreement, or lease; and the term 'transportation' shall include all instrumentalities of shipment or carriage. "The term 'employees' as used in this act shall include all persons actually on gaged in any capacity in train operation or train n cJYicc of any .description, who are now or may hereafter be actually engaged in the operation of trains, used for the transpor- tation ^ persons or property on railroads from any State or Territory of the United. States or the District of Columbia to any other State or Territory of the United States or the Dis- trict of Columbia, or from one place in a Territory to another place in the same Territory, or from any place in the United States to an adjacent foreign country, or from any place in the United States through a foreign country to any oiher place in the United States, and notwithstanding that the cars upon or in which they are employed may be held and operated by the carrier under lease or other contract: Provided, however, That this Act shall not be held to apply to employees of street railroads and shall apply only to employees engaged in railroad train service. In every such case the earner shall be ^esponsible for the acts and defaults of such employees in the same manner and to the same extent as if said cars were owned by it and said employees directly employed by it, and any provisions to the contrary of any such lease or other contract shall be binding only as between the parties thereto and shall not affect the obligations of said carrier either to the pubhc or to the private parties concerned. "A common carrier subject to the provisions of this act is hereinafter referred to as an 'employer,' and the employees of one or more of such carriers are hereinafter referred to as 'employees. ' " Sec, 2. That there be added at the end of said act the following: "Sso. W. Whenever a controversy shall arise between an, employer or employers and employees subject to this act, which can not be settled through mediation and conciliation in (he manner provided in section two, and the Board of Mediation is unable to induce the parties to submit their controversy to arbitration in accordance with the provisions of this act, the said controversy shall be referred to a board of investigation, which shall consist of three members, of which each of the parties to the controversy shall recommend one, and these two, together with the third member, who shall act as chairman of the board, shall be appointed by the President of the United States. Upon notice by the President of the appointment of the board of investigation, the Board of Mediation and Conciliation shall arrange a time for the beginning of the investigation and a place where such proceedings may be held. The board of investigation shall organize and make all necessary rules for conducting its hearings. The board shall fully and carefully ascertain all the facts and circumstances, and in its report shall set forth sum facts and circumstances and its findings therefrom, including the cause of the dispute and the board's recommenda- tion for the settlement of the dispute according to the merits and substantial justice of the case. Its recommendatvm shall deal with each item of the dispute and shall state what in the board's opinion ought or ought not to be done by the respective parties concerned. 14 THEEATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. Wherever it ajipears to the board expedient so to do, its recommendation shall also state the period during which the proposed settlement should continue in force and the date from which it should commence. The report shall be made to the Board of Mediation and Con- ciliation, who shall cause the same to be published. "All testimony before the board of investigation shall be given under oath or affirmation, and any member of the board shall have me power to administer oaths or affirmations. It shall be furnished such assistants as mm/ be necessary in carrying on its work. "Each member of the board of investigation shall receive such compensation as may- be fixed by the Board of Mediation and Conciliation,' together with his traveling and other necessary expenses. So much as may be necessary of the appropriation of the Board of Mediation and Conciliation for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and seventeen, is hereby made available for the payment of the necessary and proper expenses of boards of investigation. Authority for incurring expenses, including subsistence, by boards of investigation shall first be obtained from the Board of Mediation and Conciliation. "Sec. is. Pending the efforts of the Board of Mediation and Conciliation to induce the employer or employers and employees to submit their controversy to arbitration, and until me investigation of such controversy by the board of investigation provided for in section twelve of this act has been completed and its report thereon published, it shall be unlawful for the employer or employers to declare or cause a lockout, or for the employees, acting in combination, to declare or cause a strike on account of such controversy. "Sec. 14. Any railroad company declaring or causing a lockout, or any officer or agent of any railroad company who assists or participates in declaring or causing a lockout contrary to the provisions of this act, shall be liable to a fine of not less than fSOO nor more than f 5, 000 for each day or part of a day that such lockout exists. "Any officer, agent, or employee of any organized body of labor or labor organization who declares or causes a strike cojltrary to the provisions of this act shall be liable to a fine of not less than' f 500 nor more than f 5, 000 for each day or part of a day that such strike exists. " Any person who incites, encourages, or aids in any manner any employer to declare or continue a lockout, or any person who aids in any manner any officer, agent, or employee of any organized body of labor or labor organization in declaring or causing a strike con- trary to the provisions of this act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and liable to a fine of not less than flO not more than flOO. "Sec. 16. If at any time any railway engaged in interstate commerce or m the trans- portation of the mails shall cease to operate or be seriously hindered in its operation because of a strike of its employees, the President of the United States shall have power to direct the operation of such railway whenever in his judgment essential for military purposes, tnd to that end he may employ such part of the military forces or such civil agents or draft into the service of the United States such persons as he may deem necessary. "Any person refusing when so drafted to perform the service for which drafted shall be guilty of a crime and shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished by fine not exceeding , by imprisonment not exceeding , or by both such fine and im- prisonment. "Sec. 16. Any provisions of said act of July fifteenth, nineteen hundred and thirteen, which are inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed." The Chairman. House bill No. 308 has passed the House of Repre- sentatives and is pending in the Senate upon a favorable report of this committee, which the stenographer will insert in the record. (The bill referred to is here printed in full, as follows :) [H. B. 308, Sixty-Iourth Congress, first session.] AN ACT To amend the act to regulate commerce, as amended, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section twenty-four of an act entitled "An act to regulate commerce," approved February fourth, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, . as amended, be further amended to read as follows: "Sec. 24. That the Interstate Commerce Commission is hereby enlarged so as to consist of nine members, with terms of seven years, and each shall receive $10,000 compensation annually. The qualifications of the members and the manner of 'the payment of their salaries shall be as already provided by law. Such enlargement of ttie commission shall be accomplished through appointment by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, of two additional Interstate Commerce Commissioners, one for a term expiring. December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and twenty-one, and one for a term expiring December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 15 twenty-two. The terms of the present commissioners, or of any successor appointed to fill a vacancy caused by the death or resignation of any of the present commissioners, shall expire as heretofore provided by law. Their successors and the successors of the additional commissioners herein provided for shall be appointed for the full term of seven years, except that any person appointed to fill a vacancy shall be appointed only for the unexpired term of the commissioner whom he shall succeed. Not more than five commissioners shall b^ appointed from the same political party." Sec. 2. That section seventeen of said act, as amended, be further amended to read as follows: "Sec. 17. That the commission may conduct its proceedings in such manner as will best conduce to the proper dispatch of business and to the ends of justice. The com- mission shall have an official seal, which shall be judicially noticed. Any member of the commission may administer oaths and affirmations and sign subpoenas. A majority of the commission shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, except as may be otherwise herein provided, but no commissioner shall participate in any hearing or proceeding in which he has any pecuniary interest. The commission may, from time to time, make or amend such general rules or orders as may be requisite for the order and regulation of proceedings before it, or before any division of the com- mission, including forms of notices and the service thereof, wmch shall conform, as nearly as may be, to those in use in the courts of the United States. Any party may appear before the commission or any division thereof and be heard in person or by attorney. Every vote and oflicial act of the commission, or of any division thereof, shall be entered of record, and its proceedings shall be public upon the request of any party interested. The commission is hereby authorized by its order to divide the members thereof into as many divisions as it may deem necessary, which may be changed from time to time. Such divisions shall be denominated, respectively, division one, division two, and so forth. Any commissioner may be assigned to and may serve upon such division or divisions as the commission may direct, and the senior in service of the commissioners constituting afly of said divisions shall act as chairman thereof. In case of vacancy in any division, or of absence or inability to serve thereon of any com- missioner thereto assigned, the chairman of the commission, or any commissioner designated by him. for that purpose, may temporarily serve on said division until the commission shall otherwise order. ■ "The commission may by order direct that any of its work, business, or functions arising under this act, or under any act amendatory thereof, or supplemental thereto, or under any amendment which may be made to any of said acts, or under any other act or joint resolution which has been or may hereafter be approved, or in respect of any matter which has been or may be referred to the commission by Congress or by either branch thereof, be assigned or referred to any of said divisions for action thereon, and may by order at any time amend, modify, supplement, or rescind any such direction. All such orders shall take effect forthwith and remain in effect until otherwise ordered by the commission. "In conformity with and subject to the order or orders of the commission in the premises, each division so constituted shall have power and authority by a majority thereof to hear and determine, order, certify, report, or otherwise act as to any of said work, business, or functions so assigned or referred to it for action by the com- mission, and in respect thereof the division shall have all the jurisdiction and powers now or then conferred by law upon the commission, and be subject to the same duties and obligations. Any order, decision, or report made or other action taken by any of said divisions in respect of any matters so assigned or referred to it shall have the same force and effect, and may be made, evidenced, and enforced in the same man- ner, as if made or taken by the commission as a whole. The secretary and seal of the commission shall be the secretary and seal of each division thereof. "The salary of the secretary of the commission shall be $7,500 per annum. "Nothing in this section contained, or done pursuant thereto, shall be deemed to divest the commission of any of its powers." Sec. 3. So much of section eighteen of the act to regulate commerce as fixes the salary of the secretary of the commission is hereby repealed. Passed the House of Representatives April 17, 1916. Attest: South Trimble, Ckrk. 16 THBEATENED STKIKE OF EAILWAY EMPLOYEES. The Chairman. I wish to insert in the' record certain telegrams and letters which I have received in regard to this question. (The letters and telegrams referred to are here printed in full, as follows :) Bethlehem, Pa., Augiist SO, 1916. Chairman Interstate Commerce Committee, United States Senate, Washington, D. C: Representing 60 individual anthracite coal operators, shipping 14,000,000 tons of coal annually, we respectfully protest against any Federal action which does not contemplate a complete and impartial investigation of the present railroad labor situation. We request legislation forbidding strikes or lockouts pending the con- clusion of similar investigations. We protest against the establidiment by law of the eight-hour day, as demanded by the railroad employees. Anthracite Coal Operators' Association. Allan C. Dodson, Secretary. Emporia, Kans., Augv^t 9, 1916. Hon. George W. Norris, United States Senate. Dear Sir: Some two years ago I had occasion to write a certain Senator from Mis- souri concerning his opposition to the workman's compensation bill then before the Senate. He became quite angry with me for presuming to criticize his action, on the ground that I was "no constituent of his." As I understand, you, like myself, are, or at least have been, a Progressive. I take it that your idea of what is required to make any citizen a constituent of a United States Senator is somewhat less restricted than this Missouri Senator. I am writing you "in regard to the present crisis in the affairs of our country caused by the demand of the men who compose the four great brotherhoods of engine, train, and yard men. You will note -the attached clipping from the Kansas City Star of August 5, in which you are quoted as expressing your views as to the causes and remedy for existing conditions. In this interview you are said to have been surprised that this threatened catastrophe had not occurred sooner. I think you will find the reason is that these men have relied on their ability to secure certain legislation to relieve their burdens through the passage of "full- crew" and train-line limit bills in the various State legislatures, but in which they were almost invariably prevented from' securing through the power of the railroad companies. Therefore responsibility for the present situation rests with the mem- bers of the various legislatures and with Congress. In our own State two years ago bills introduced by friends of these men were "turned down cold" in committees through the influence alone of the 11 railway companies who fought that lerislation. In your interview of the 5th instant you are quoted as saying:' "It is foolish to cuss the management, for they are merely hired men, like the other employees." That is true, but they are, fortunately for themselves, in a position to secure for themselves con- ditions of service and wages out of all proportion to what they can (even if they were willing) grant the other employees. Now, the cause of the whole situation lies in what you say in reference to the capitalization of these corporations. You say they are "watered " to from two to five times their real value. I oelieve your estimate en- tirely too low. I believe that if the Government took over for operation the entire railway systems of the country, and paid off their debts, it would then be paying about two prices for the property. I contend that the holders of the stock have no right to dividends so long as the bonded debts equal the cost or value of the property — and many of them exceed that. And where is this excess of "water" going to end? Do railroad companies put a part of their earnings into "sinking funds" to meet bond issues coming due? Isn't it a fact that every time they pay off an issue of bonds the debt is greater then before? Through payment of commission, etc., on the new issue railway securities have increased about three billion in the last eight years and you and I know mighty well that has not been caused by new construction. ' Now, Senator, if this strike of practically all the engine, train, and yard men ia forced, asit surely will be if their just and reasonable demands are not met, our Gov- ernment is face to face with a proposition. Are there statesmen in Congress big enough to handle it? For the President to declare mai-tial law and attempt to oper- ate the roads would only be temporary makeshift. The roads in the very nature of things would be handed back to their alleged owners — with conditions as bad as ever. If the eight-hour and other demands are granted by the managements without THREATENED STRIKE OP RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 17 a walkout the fight has only begun. For the managements will attempt to "get even" when they meet the various committees to formulate schedules. What they have to give up when they grant the demand for the eight-hour day — and the danger of a strike is still present. Now, Senator Norris, the whole cause of the present condition is this: Owners of stock in public corporations have always claimed the right to vote their stock, and as an equal right, the right to delegate that vote to a "proxy." That vote has been admitted tacitly, if not otherwise, by ihe public, and through the use of that right and the general indifference Of the public and of the general run of stock- holders alike, the right has been abused by promoters and captains of industry until to-day the railways can't afford to grant decent conditions of employment to the nien who produce by their work all the revenue, without bleeding the consumer (and the employee is a consumer) by higher rates and a corresponding increase of his already high cost of living. And yet, the only remedy you seem to propose is the construction, by the Government, of two roads from the Lakes to the Gulf and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. That is sure some remedy. First, every ounce of power of the Shylocks would be brought to bear against it— they would fight it harder than they did the Panama Canal; second, the pork barrels would be emptied in locating it; and, third, it would be an economic blunder. There is no necessity for such lines. The ground is already covered. It would take many years to even start such a project. In their frantic desire for public sympathy the committee representing all the roads are advertising in papers all over the land. One I have before me clipped from the Emporia Gazette ot August 5. In it the committee says "the railways are the public service." That is true, and the public has a perfect right to take over and operate its own service. The ad also says: "The employees are public servants." If that be true they are entitled to the eight-hour day without fiurther argument — under Federal law. Now there are two practical ways of handling this aituatipn . Congress can authorize the President to take over afld operate through one of the departments, or a depart- ment to be established for that purpose, the whole railway system of the country. Or it can, by proper legislation, make all receiverships permanent. The "receiver" to be a department of the Government, instead of as at present, an appointee of a court. Either one would finally lead to actual Government ownership and it would by that mode of handling squeeze out the water you mention. For the water is there ail right and even in larger amount than people imagine. The managers realize it even if they refuse to admit it and the men know it to a certainty. But the thing in the published interview that must' cause a laugh from those familiar with past per- formances in Congress is this: "What I fear most in Government ownership is politics. I would, to remedy that, make it a jail offense for any Congressman or Senator to ask for the promotion of any employee, once that Government ownership was established. " Now, Senator, I would ask you if political corruption can be any worse under Govern- ment operation than it has been for the past 60 years, or than it is right now. That, and that alone, is the fundamental cause of the present situation, and the end is not yet. For instance, there is the Shields water power bill already passed by the Senate. Then there is the Phelan bill to override the decision of the Supreme Court in denying the claim of certain corporations to thousands of acres of California oil lands set aside for use of the Navy. .. I understand that the present Secretary of the Interior favors that bill — his brother being attorney for the corporations. Will that bill paas? I do not know. But will you ask for a law making it a jail offense for any Congressman or Senator who votes for the "promotion' ' of that enterprise? If so, you better get busy or the present need of such a law is very great. Mr. Norris, we have tried Republicanism, and we have tried Democracy, we tried to try Progressivism and failed. We are ho nearer social and industrial justice than when the two old parties were first born. Is there any hope for any improvement of conditions in either old party? None that I can see. But the short-lived revolt of the Progressives has had one good effect. It has caused a close and earnest study of socialism. The Socialist platform holds out the only hope for fundamental democracy, for industrial peace and justice. The closer one studies it the clearer becomes the conviction that socialism must come. And one of these days the politicians will be falling into line for the very reasons that now keep them out. For the tide has already turned thatissurely going to carry the Socialist Party to victory. It will not be at this election, nor perhaps the next, but since 1892 the vote has doubled every four years. And in November 2,000,000 votes for Benson and Kirkpatrick will no doubt be cast. The present war in Europe and the rampant greediness of the Shylocks in this country are making Socialists faster than all other causes combined. Not always will working men and women have to appeal in vain to legislatures and to Congress for relief from their burdens. Not always will they have to depend on the strike to secure -decent 60341°— S. Doc. 549, 64r-l 2 18 THREATENED STEIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. wages and working conditions, denied them in order that the Shylocks may draw dividends from water that an indulgent people permits them to inject into the railway .and industrial securities, for there is no more truer thing than that aa President Lincoln said: "You can fool all the people part of the time, part of the people all the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time." - Yours for social and industrial justice and true democracy. F. W. Ives, R. F. D. 9. REQUEST FOR ACTION IN THE PRESENT RAILROAD SITUATION. Resolutions adopted by the Philadelphia Bourse, an organization composed of over 2,500 business men, firms, and corporations, having as one of its objects the improve- ment of the city. State, and Nation, acting through its committee on commercial affairs of its board of directors, at a meeting held August 29, 1916. The Senate and Bouse of Representatives in Congress assembled: Whereas the transportation of passengers, mail, express matter, and freight is and has become generally recognized as a public service, and the corporations engaged in such public service are subject to control and regulation in the interest of the public service by the several States in which they operate and by the United States; and Whereas such public-service corporations can not perform their functions or render service to the public except through the medium of numerous operating employees; and Whereas men employed by such public-service corporations, especially in the oper- ating departments, are public servants and as such owe a duty to the public which can not be lightly disregarded; and Whereas such men voluntarily enter the employ of such corporations and by so doing assume duties and obligations to the public which become paramount to any per- sonal claims; and Whereas the principal operating employees of the most important public service transportation corporations of the country disregarding their obligations to the Eublic have threatened, and are threatening to stop the operation of such companies y refusing, as a body, to work, which threats if carried out will paralyze the com- merce and industries of the whole country, bringing misery to millions of working people whose wages depend upon the commerce and industries which would come to a stop without railroad transportation; and Whereas these operating employees have formulated certain demands upon the employing public-Bervice corporations as the price of their continuance in the per- formance of their duties to the public, which demands the employing corporations contend are beyond reason and beyond their ability to meet, thus raising an issue that is clearly arbitrable ; and Whereas it should be impossible for such a situation to arise, and it is manifest that legislation is requisite to prevent its recurrence: Therefore, Resolved, That the Philadelphia Bourse, speaking for several thousand business men, urges upon the Congress the immediate enactment of legislation which will declare operating employees of public-service corporations engaged in interstate commerce to be public servants and as such not free to conspire or combine to leave the service of the employer simultaneously or proximately so, or at any time except upon due and sufficient notice and shall further declare that all disputes between bodies of employees of public-service corporations engaged in interstate commerce shall be submitted to arbitration, such arbitration to be compulsory and final, refusal to accept the award being punishable as contempt of court by a fine or imprisonment or both, in the discretion of the court, no decision to be reopened for arbitration under two ysars from its rendering. Philadelphia Bourse. Robert Comly, Chairman of Committee on Commercial Affairs.^ George E. Bartol, ^ President. True copy. Attest: ^ Emil P. Albrecht, Secretary. THREATENED STEIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 19 New Yokk, August SO, 1916. Senator Nbwlands. Dear Sib: The closing up of all railroads in the United States would be a great calamity, particularly for the poor people, the throwing of thousands of people out of jobs, etc. The strike of the railroad men is malicious, obnoxious, scandalous, and domineering. They want to rule all wage earnings. It is like the robber, your money or your life. This Baihoad Trust ought to be crushed. No eight-hoiu' law, except eight hours' work and eight hours' pay, or arbitration. Respectfully, Van Oj?stal & Co. Hartfohd, Conn., August SO, 1918. Interstate Commerce CoMMrrTEB, United States Senate, Washington, D. C. Gentlemen: Notice of a meeting of your committee for to-morrow morning appears in the evening paper. Inability to attend in person makes this note impera- tive, as I am a private citizen and taxpayer and, I trust, a loyal son to my country. I look confidently to your committee and to others of o\a Government to protect us from a contemplated measure whose harmfulness needs no elaboration to appall. And I believe this railroad strike should be and can be prevented on the following grounds: Public policy is the final test of law and equity. If an act in contravention of public poUcy is illegal, then the combining^^of men to stop, or threaten to stop, the supply of food in order to enforce a wage claim is against public policy and can be enjoined. Over and above all questions of wage the public weal is paramount, and common law, in the opinion of many, can enforce it. As no mention has publicly been made of this ground, I take the liberty of offering it to your committee. Surely no more foolish piece of law could be devised than that purporting to exempt any one class from the operation of the Sherman Act. That exemption, being against public policy, ought immediately to be repealed; but the enforcement of the com- mon law of public policy can, I am convinced, be made, nevertheless, at once. Yours, respectively, J. S. Stevens. Washington, D. C, August SI, 1916. Senator Newlands, United States Senate. Sir: As a citizen and voter I take the liberty of calling your attention to what seems to me to be the best and most direct route to settlement not only now but for all future time of the present situation in transportation circles. And without the enactment of cumbersome and indirect legislation by Congress. At present a physician, dentist, lawyer, or plumber requires a license or certificate to engage in his particular line of business. If you have an automobile and wish to drive it you must have a license. But an official can direct the affairs of a large rail- road and an engineer can drive an express train 70 miles an hour, often through vil- lages and across public roads, and no license is required. The Government has abso- lute no jurisdiction over him. Instead of creating new methods why not simply extend to their logical conclusion those now so common? Require that all persons operating as common carriers, whether officials or employees, be licensed by the Interstate Commerce Commission under such rules and regulations as they may adopt,'all persons, now so employed or acting, to be given a temporary blanket license for six months or a year, and then to require an individual license. The commission can refuse to grant licenses to men who strike or to officers who refuse to grant proper and reasonable wages, hours, etc. Under such a law a strike would be useless, for the simple reason that if a man lost his license the road could not re- employ him, even if it wanted to. Nor would any official of a common carrier indulge in an act which 'would violate the conditions of his license to act as such official, thereby automatically removing him from his position. Under such a law there would be no strikes or lockouts, and the commission would have full power over the roads, as both officers and employees would be.dependent on the commission. 20 IHBEATENED STEIKE OP BAILWAY EMPLOYEES. A penalty clause would be required to be imposed on the corporation who accepted the services of an unlicensed officer or employee. ■ _ . This may seem radical, but if a workman can not fix a leaking water pipe without a license why should he be permitted to handle an express train or direct those handling it without one? Very sincerely, yours, ^" ' E. B. McBath. » New York, August SI, 1916. Hon. Francis G. Nbwlands, Chairman Senate Interstate Commerce Committee, Washington, D. C: Please investigate responsibility of terminal duplication and inadequacies for rail- road waste. Reducing terminal costs would release profits for employees, stockholders, shippers. Average freight car moves slightly over 20 miles daily. Takes fortnight Jersey to New York and back. Can't Congress compel improvement of terminal corporation making possible moving freight farther in 8 hours than now in 10. Institute for Public Service, W. H. Allen, Director. Chicago, III., August SO, 1916. Francis G. Newlands, United States Senate, Washington, D. C: The Chicago Association of Commerce urges upon the President and upon the Con- gress that it IS inconsistent with the ideals of our Government and subversiveof its principles that legislation should be had in the pending railroad crisis without time and opportunity for due consideration. The questions involved are complex and intricate, and while the Congress has the final responsibility it has not hitherto had either the time or opportunity to consider them. When the legislation occurs it should be well considered and fair to all interests. It is impossible and inconsistent with the dignity of the Congress and of the American people that this should be accomplished under the shadow of the impending strike, we therefore insist that the President and the Congress jointly or acting separately, as may be determined, demand that the date for the pending strike be postponed for such reasonable time as may permit Con- gress to act freely and intelligently, and call upon the patriotism of the trainmen to accede to such demand. Chicago Assoclation of Commerce, By John W. O'Leart, President. New York, N. Y., August SO, 1916. Hon. Francis G. Newlands, Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C: In behalf of American Electric Railway Association, representing largest part of mileage of both urban and interurban electric railways of country, would urgently request exemption of electric interstate carriers from provisions of any eight-hour law drafted in response to President Wilson's request. Conditions are entirely dis- similar to those of steam railways , as was recognized by your committee in exemption of electric railways from provisions of similar bills. Charles L. Henry, President American Electric Railway Association. Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America „ „ Washington, D. C, Augusts!. 1916. Hon. Francis G. Newlands, Chairman Committee on Interstate Commerce, Ignited States Senate. Gentlemen: The Chamber of Commerce of the United States urges Con'Tess at the present moment to do two things, and no more'r ° 1. To provide immediately for a prompt, thorough, and impartial investigation of all facts relevant to the present lailroad controversy. THREATENED STEIKE OP RAILWAY EMPLOYEES, 21 2. To command the brotherhoods and the raiboada to suspend all action in the nature of a strike or lockout pending such investigation. No facts are as yet established on which further action can be intelligently taken. The rishts of the public are paramount. Equal justice to all parties can be secmred without industrial warfare. The supreme duty of Congress is to protect the country from a disaster for which there can be no possible justification. Respectfully, 0. F. "Weed, For the Special Committee on Railroad Situation. Eluot H. Goodwin, General Secretary. Chicago, III., August SO, 1916. Hon. Francis G. Nbwxands, Chairman Senate InterHate Commerce Commission, Washington, D. C: Telegram announcing hearing for Thursday morning received at 12.30 to-day, and since Broadway Limited, only train which could reach Washington in time for hear- ing, was due to leave in 10 minutes, opportunity to attend was lost through insuffi- ciency of notice. Am requesting Mr. Elliot H. Goodwin, general secretary of Chamber of Commerce of United States, to attend hearing in my stead with such members of railroad-situation committee as can be brought to Washington in time to be of service. Hahey a. Wheeler. Bloomington, III., August 30, 1916. Senator Newlands, Washington, D. C. -Honored Sir: The Conmiercial Club of Bloomington, 111., urges upon you and upon Congress the necessity of proper time for the consideration of the questions involved in the railway controversy. Demand the date for pending strike be post- poned for reasonable time for proper consideration by Congress to act intelligently in this matter and for the best interests of all. Commercial Club op Bloomington, By Geo. C. Heberling, President. Cincinnati, Ohio, August SO, 1916. Hon. Francis G. Newlands, Washington, D. C: The Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, on behalf of its 3,500 members, strongly urges that ip any legislation adopted by Congress affecting the pending railroad strike the vital and well-established principle of arbitration be insisted upon in the settle- ment of aU features of the controversy, since any impairment of this principle would affect most disastrously the whole industrial structure of the nation. We further urge that legislation be adopted which will prevent any body or bodies of men from paralyzing the public utilities of the country, thus endar^ering the health and com- fort of the people and placing their lives and that of the nation itself in peril. Wm. B. Melish, Executive Secretary. W. C. CuLKiNS, President. Anderson, Ind., August SO, 1918. Hon. Francis G. Newlands, Chairman Committee on Interstate Commerce, Washington, D. C: The Federal relations committee of the American Electric Railway Association, representing practically all electric railways of the country, strongly urge that electric railways be excluded from operation of any bill r»ulating hours of service intro- duced pursuant to recommendations of President. The cost of eight-hour limitation would be ruinoas to large proportion of electric railways, many of which are now barely able to exist. Arthur W. Beady, Chairman. 22 THEEATENED STRIKE OF BAILWAT EMPLOYEES. Detroit, Mich., August SO, 1916, Hon. Frank E. DoRBMtrs, Washington, D. C: While we think the houra-of service bill proposed by the President for steam railways is not intended to apply to electric street railways or electric interurban railways, former experience makes us apprehensive that through inadvertance such words may be used as to, make it so applicable. Such a result would be niost prejudicial to the owners of all street and interurban railways engaged in interstate busines'', one of which is my client, the Detroit United Railway. It would compel it to carry on operations at a loss, which it can not recoup by increasing rates because those are fixedr by contracts with municipalities. The Interstate Commerce Commission can not, as it can in the case of steam railways, authorize these rates to be increased. - I have no doubt that other street and interurban railways engaged in interstate commerce will have the same grievance as that of my client herein set forth. We respectfully ask that you examine this matter speedily, and if consistent with your conception of duty, assist in placing in the bill a provision similar to that in House bill now on the calendar, 9047 and 9216, which reads: "This act shall not apply to electric street railways or electric interurban railways; " Mr. Weadock is on his way to Washington to see you on this subject. William L. Carpenter. Philadelphia, Pa., August SI, 1916. Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce, Washington, D. C: On behalf of organized labor I protest against passing of eight-hour-a-day law limited to railroad only as unjust class legialation and discrimatory. It eight-hour law is passed it should apply to the production as well as transportation of commodi- ties in mterstate commerce alosg lines of child-labor law. Henry S. Spackman. Chicago, III., ATigiist SI, 1916. Hon. Francis G. Newlands, Senate Chamber, Washington, D. C: Attention of Congress is called to statement in morning press dispatches by'W. G. Lee, president of trainmens' brotherhood. We respectfully request that Congress investigate, and if Mr. Lee is quoted correctly, that he be summarily called to account. The Illinois Manufacturers' Association and its allied organizations employ in Illi- nois some 600,000 people and our investment is enormous. We respectfully demand the protection of the Giavemmeirt and protest against Congress being cajoled into any rush legislation. Is Congress running the country or has it been delegated to the four brotherhood chiefs? Samuel M. Hastings, President. John M. Glenn, Secretary. Hyde Park, Mass., August SO, 1916. Senator Newlands, Chairman Interstate Commerce Committee, Washington, D. C. Sir: Voters will hold their Representatives and Senators responsible for the rail- road strike and its consequences if one is not prohibited by law, enacted before Sun- day night, with teeth in it. Other legislation should follow, but this is imperative and I ask you to do your utmost to accomplish it. Yours, truly, Arthur H. Russell. The Chairman. The committee will now come to order. The pur- pose of this hearing is to consider the measures which have been recommended by the President as necessary to meet the emergencies of a threatened strike and tie-up of the railroads. These measures THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 23 cover the 8-hour standard workday without diminution of the present 10-hour pay; the creation of a wage commission to inquire mto the increased cost of this change to the carriers, and the sub- mission of the report of the wage commission to the Interstate Com- merce Commission for its consideration and determination as to whether and to what extent the facts necessitate an increase of rates. Supplementary to this is a measure giving the President, in case of military necessity, the power to direct the operation of the railways and to employ the military forces and the civil agents to that end, or to draft into the service of the United States such persons as may be necessary, as well as an amendment to the existing act regarding mediation and arbitration intended to guard against similar emer- gencies by providing that in the case of a failure of mediation and conciUation under the present act & Government board of investi- gation shall inquire into the facts and report them to Congress, and that meanwhile, until such inquiry and report is made, the privilege of concerted action upon the part of the employers to declare a lock- out or of the employees to declare a strike, shall be stayed. I wish also to call attention to the fact that none of the legislation proposed involves compulsory arbitration. It simply provides in case of the failure of voluntary mediation and arbitration for a Gov- ernment inquiry and the stay of the action of all the parties to the controversy until investigation and report shall be made, leaving them free thereafter to act as they may be advised. The legislatito also contemplates an enlargement of the Interstate Commerce Com- mission and its division into branches with a view to a more efficient discharge of its constantly increasing functions and responsibilities. As to the hurried character of the proceeding I have to say that it arises from the fact that a general strike has been ordered, by the railroad brotherhoods to take place September 4. The time, there- fore, for legislation is so limited as to preclude the deliberation essen- tial to such important legislation. Though time is pressing, the Com- mittee on Interstate Commerce has deemed it unwise to embark on legislation imtil after a hearing of the parties interested — the brother- hoocb, the carriers, and the Slipping and consuming public. They regret that the time is so limited, and they trust that before the con- clusion of the hearing the ofl&cials at the head of the brotherhoods, realizing that Congress is about to enter with serious and continuous purpose upon the most important questions affecting their interests, will, by a postponement of the strike, enable Congress to act with the care, /iehberation, and temperance which the importance of the questions involved demands. The world is now suffering from a gigantic, international war, the result of the apphcation of the doctrine of force. The world has thus far failed to find a tribunal which internationally can without the apphcation of force settle international differences as differences are settled in domestic legislation and administration by nations through the law. The present comphcation, if carried to its logical ' riesults, will involve domestic civil war in the United States, the consequences of which can not be measured. Thus far no tribunal has been estabhshed for the purpose of settUng the differences between employers and employees; the whole question has been left largely to the doctrine oi force, and the question is whether we can not by some orderly process of law create a system which will 24 THREATENED STRIKE OF BAILWAY EMPLOyjSJSS. do justice as between employers and employees without resort in any degree to force. I wiU state that there are three groups, of persons interested in this legislation — the railway brotherhoods, the railway managers, and the shippers and consuming pubhc. It has been decided to give three hours to each one of these groups, and I will first call upon the brotherhoods to present their views regarding this legislation, asking them to divide among themselves the period of three hours assigned to them. I should hke to state at the outset that it is desirable to have a statement as to the time assigned to each speaker so thftt the chairman can see to it that this hearing is completed within the time Umited. I win first call upon the representation of the brotherhoods. Mr. Garretson, will you please proceed. Mr. A. B. Garretson. Mr. Chairman and members of the com- mittee, may I ask whether or not that time must be used consecu- tively, or whether a portion of it can be used in closing, because it places us in a degree manifestly at a disadvantage if we are unable to answer any statement that is put forward by the other side. The Chairman. How would you hke the time divided as to that 1 Mr. Garretson. It seems to me that if we are compelled to open it would be reasonable in opening to have two hours, and an hour in closing. The Chairman. That order will be made. WiU you kindly state who are to speak? Mr. Garretson. Yes, sir; I was arranging them. On behalf of the four executives of the railroad unions I wUl speak in general. Messrs. W. S. Stone, grand chief of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers; W. G. Lee, president of the Brotherhood of Kailroad Trainmen; and W. S. Carter, president of the Brotherhood of Loco- motive Firemen and Enginmen, will each consume a short period of that time. Mr. Samuel Gompers, of the American Federation of Labor, will also speak on the subject. Those will comprise the speakers on behalf of the brotherhoods. The Chairman. Mr. Garretson will now be heard. STATEMENT OF ME. A. B. GAERETSON, PEESIDENT OF THE BEOTHERHOOD OF EAILWAY CONDTJ/CTOES. Mr. Garretson. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I suppose that no real understanding can be had of the attitude of these organizations toward the legislation in question without a shght sketch at least of what has led me members of these organizations to take the position that they have in this matter. Generally speaking, it is a principle of union labor that many questions should not be dealt with legis- latively; that it is infinitely better, that the settlement of those questions which arise between themselves and their employers should be settled by direct negotiation between the two parties at interest.' That this has been with these brotherhoods an mtense conviction is demonstrated by the record of the organizations during the years of what might be described as their muitancy — because there is no disguising the fact that in the successful conduct by the other side in a contention of this character a form of militancy does enter into it and is a potent factor in arriving at a conclusion. THEEATENED STEIKE OF BAIL WAY EMPLOYEES. 25 The ideal conditions that must exist between two parties to a contention, whether it be employer and employee or members of either party in a mimcipality of any size, aire best obtained where there is mutual respect founded upon a degree of mutual fear, and an unhappy condition arises when either is in the full exercise of the power which may arise into autocratic exercise. That is just as unfortunate when it may be exercised by one interest as by the other. In industrial strife the record of the ages show that the question now before Congress — because in its present stage it has passed from control in a large degree of either of the parties thereto into the hands of the third party, represented by the regularly elected Members in the supreme deliberative body of the Commonwealth — the' proposition is the effecting of a solution of this question, as old as the ages, that will relieve the present tense situation. The danger lies largely in this: The time at disposal for the purpose precludes that calm deliberation that should be brought to the settJement of the question. We are by no means insensible to this, but we, Uke many men before us, and possibly hke our associates on the other side of the question, are in the grip of a power greater than we. The members of these organizations are as good citizens as any under the jurisdiction of Congress. The record of the years gone by is the absolute demonstration of that, but they are exactly hke the men ^ on the other side, when the heat of passion comes on, balked desire, unreaUzed hope, and the veneer of civiUzation falls off, and you have the primeval man to deal with on both sides of the question. Con- sequently they approach it in the spirit "that they desire it, and if it is within their power they will have it. The attitude of the other side is almost a replica of that, in that they will not give in, and, like the primeval man, both are prepared , to appeal to his club. It is a misfortune, and no reasonable man on either side denies it, and I believe that if a settlement can be effected by Congress, even though, we are in every essential opposed to the settlement of such questions by the legislative method, that it would be considered desirable and will have the reasonable aid of both parties. For our own side, we waive the age-old traditions of these unions, and accept a legislative settlement. You have got to bear in mind this: To sketch the movement for the eight-hour day on behalf of these brotherhoods, it is not a new issue. So far back as 1907 three of these brotherhoods brought exactly the same demand to a concerted committee of western managers as we brought to this Nation-wide conference of managers, namely, the establishment of the eight-hour day and the -payment for punitive overtime simply for the purpose of making it effective, and any practical man knows that as to the problem of overtime — and I am speaking from the fullness of one man's experience — ^there has never been an argument advanced against punitive overtime that was not introduced against the pay- ment of overtime at all. I piloted a train over the prairies of the western frontier for years when there was 24 hours in every day, and as many days in the month as the calendar showed, and if a man worked continuously, or had it been possible, from month's beginning to month's end, he got the monthly wage and no more. I have lived the history of the 26 THREATENED STRIKE OP RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. evolution of tlie payment to men for serrices other than that com- prised in the daily -wage, and there never has"been an argument adduced in these later cases that was not adduced against the payment of overtime at all, and as an ethical proposition there is no naore reason that a man should be worked more than eight hours than there is that he should be worked the full 24. In principle it is the same. In a degree it differs. The effort of 1907 failed, and from that time, among the great body of the membership of these organizations, effort has been put forward, and it culminated immediately after that in an effort to cure by legislation the excessive hours that men were required to work. In my own experience I have remained on duty absolutely without any form of rest, time after time, for 72 hours. This was when there was an absence of either power in the organization or legislation covering short hours. In the experience of many men hu- man endurance was the only limit, and until the enactment first of clauses in hundreds of our agreements limiting when a man should be released after so many hours' service for rest, or until the enact- ment of the 10-hour maximum law, men were worked to exactly where some member of the crew could keep his eyes open. It was openly advocated that one man could stay awake whUe the rest got a nap. "What did the enactment of the 10-hour maximum law mean ? It meant that the railway companies must report violations of that law. In other words, report all cases above 10 hours, and the record of those reports shows that in thousands and hundreds of thousands of cases men were required to serve above 16 hours — anywhere from 16 to 65 — and those reports are a part of the records of the govern- mental organization that has supervision. But if they ran into hun- dreds of thousands above 16 hours, think of the millions of cases where men are worked 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 15 hours and 59 minutes, of which no feport is made. They are men standing on the deck of a rolling locomotive, shoveling more tons of coal within a given num- ber of hours than a stevedore on the wharves would shovd. That is what is required of the men. A brakeman on a local freight train handles more tons of freight at the intervening stations of his run than an ordinary loader of these cars handles on trucks at the point where they are loaded or unloaded in car lots, and in addition thereto rendering the day's service in mileage or hours that he is given as an equivalent for the money he received, and they must hola out on an assigned run until they do not get in in time to assume their daily run out, and those men are mulcted of the wage because the physical organ- ism of man is not able to stand the strain made upon its resources. Every day on the continent over there are thousands of crews that are required to remain on duty between 12 and 16 hours of which no knowledge is available except from the reports of the individual himself because the reports are nowhere availalDle. Senator Pomerene. Do your brotherhoods have records of those cases ? Mr. Gaeretson. Senator, we have records, not complete in their character, that we require these men to make to us at times but we have no method of exacting compliance and consequently they are nothing like complete. Moreover, we get them on a comparative basis. We will take a given division and require them from that THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 27 territory, but not in general because we have no offices big enough to store such records. AH of these things will make you understand something of the intensity of feeling that the men have with respect to these matters. A chosen few, who have desirable runs, where the interests of the com- pany send these men across the division, have not that same feeling. All thatthey insist upon is that these men may themselves come under similar conditions by a shift of runs. It is the kindly interest that they take in their associates who are subjected to these things. Out of this grew the combination of these organizations, which for the first time appears in its entirety as covering the jurisdiction of the United States. The men realizea that divided they were unable to stand against the eternal statement, " If we pay it to the conductors and . brakemen we have got topay it to the engineers and firemen, and they are not asking for it." What is the logical situation ? Rob the argu- ment of its force — instead of one man going in on the 1st day of July and asking for it and being refused because the others did not ask, and then the others going in on the 1st day of January and being - refused because it had not been granted to the other men, they came together and formulated the demand, for it is a demand — you may fiut it in the form of a request if you will, it is an insistent demand or the same right to be allowed to enjoy something of life that the ordinary citizen leads. Have vou ever thought that all the members of this organization are wand.erers on the face of the earth, in so far as social existence is concerned ? They make none of the engagements that the ordinary man makes. The great body of them are chaimgang men, subject to call at all hours. There is only one inflexible rule, and that is that the caller must know where to find the man when he is wanted. The consequence is that the average life of the average citizen is a sealed book to the man who follows the handicraft of a train or engine em- ployee, only the minority who are on assigned runs being able to do any of- those things, and they are always subject to the road's delay. AU of these things combined brought this movement to its culmi- nation. Then what took place? Leaving all question of every other agency out of it, it has never been approached by the em- ployer from any standpoint but the economic basis, for the question IS purely economic. There are men among us who are undisciplined enough to believe that a question which affects society should take precedence of the economic phase of it and that the human element should be the determining factor regardless of its effect on divi- dends. We believe that the obligation of a large employer is as great to keep the human part of his plant in proper working condition as it is' to keep the iron or wooden part of his plant in condition, and that the humanity necessary to operate a road is just as much a part of the road as are the lathes in the machine shop. A road can not buy a locomotive or a ton of coal any cheaper because the company is bankrupt or nondividehd paying than a road that pays 33 per cent, and why should it be permitted to buy its labor cheaper than it ought to be bought for the same reason, or than its competitor is ready to pay because it feels able economically to do so ? That idea is founded deep in the brains and in the hearts of many of our men. 28 THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. When this movement came up we met those who were authorized to represent the railways of the country. We met those men with a request from all the properties upon which the men had taken action. What were we met with? The statement that 'that com- mittee had authority to represent something like 175 of the larger properties and a few of the smaller ones; a refusal of authority to represent something like 80 or 90 others of the Unes. - About 75 of the properties that gave authorization absolutely owned road after road represented by" the conference committee of managers as small properties where its ownership is more absolute than it is of the parent property, and here comes the flat refusal that that property- would not authorize the conference committee of managers to speak for them: If a settlement is effected by the President of the United States, it would only affect the 176 and would throw out the small properties, 75 in number, owned by the same people, where there was no fear felt. This mutual respect, based upon mutual fear, did not exist on the httle properties but it did on the big. To show you the consistency of the efforts of the arbitrators, a man who has dealt with the problem of arbitration consecutively for 25 or 27 years becomes somewhat of a skeptic of the attachment of people to an arbitration theory when the spokesman for those who champion arbitration says, "I am willing to arbitrate for my prop- erty where there are 10,000 men who can go against me," and refuse to give his authority on a property of which he owns or his corpo- ration owns 100 per cent, where there are only 60 men and where there is nothing to arbitrate, and that is the attitude of these gen- tlemen who have so feelingly dwelt upon the refusal of the brother- hood to arbitrate. In other words, they won't arbitrate where they fear, and there is nothing to arbitrate where there is no fear. Can you wonder at the attitude of the men on these properties when con- fronted with a statement of that kind? The wide circulation of statements made by that body from company sources over all the lines of these railways as a campaign document, has solidified the forces of the men, because they are in communion with each other; they recognize the absolute insincerity of proclaiming undying devotion to arbitration on the big lines and the same people refusing it on the httle ones. Every agency connected with this strike has been deluged with manufactured telegrams — manufactured either by absolute process or coming from men who have an absolute lack of sympathy with lengthening the workday because their own employees are liable to get the fever and are liable to organize. Arbitration has been de- manded by forces that for all the years of their existence have made it an absolute dischargable offense for a man to even be suspected of belonging to an organization; and arbitration can not be had with the individual. Think of the International Harvester Co. arbitrat- ing with a single employee. It would be easier for Satan to scale the parapets of paradise than it would be for that man to get a hearing. His funeral would be held on the road toward it, and as long as we advocate universally the sacred principle of arbitration and keep the men from organizing the wage won't be increased nor the day won't be shortened. Instead of these organizations discrim- inating against the 80 per cent of the other lailway employees who are not employed, these organizations are looked upon as the savior • THEEATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 29 / of those men, and tot very shame, time after time, we have forced the company by our demands to grant these men a recognition that otherwise in that direction would never have come to them. How a,re the petitions for these men met ? It is rather interesting to read some of the communications that have been sent to us. Who signed those petitions as a portion of the 80 per cent ? Who placed their future in our hands unsolicited — men we never knew or heard of stating to us the methods of the machinery of administration on railroads used to get those signatures, admitting that in self-defense, in consideration of the bread for their children to eat, they had to sign them, and that they knew they were signing their manhood awaj, but it was because they were unorganized, there was no pro- tection for them if they did not. They were not unwise enough to go up and say "Unless you sign this you will be discharged. " They simply sent the minor officials of the company around to the men and stated that it would be well to sign this, and they did. There is going to be an element in this war, if it has to come — an element to be reckoned with, and I say to"you on behalf of those men, as an interpretation of my own of the industrial situation, that there is an element of deadly danger underlying the social crust, and liable, as we know, to be brought to the surface unless means are found for a settlement of this question before it reaches that stage. These men who head these organizations are not unmijidful of the responsibility that rests upon them. YoTi have seen the scare headlmes about refusing to call off the strike — the bravado, which is all it is. I do not know whether you gentlemen have been able to sense the position that the leaders of the organization occupy. I can not make it as clear for other men as I can for myself. When the insistent demand of the man takes a certain crystallized form and is transferred to their leader he lies under an obHgation to them primal in its character. It is the first obligation that for the time being rests upon him, because the acts of the men have made him their spokesman and have created a responsibihty that he can not lightly disavow. If there is an honest relationship between man and man he is subject to it. Have you ever thought of this ? For 27 years I have given mj undivided time and my undivided effort, and the use of the best abihty that God endowed me with, to the settle- ment of questions that arise between the men and the managers of the American, Canadian, and Mexican railways. During all that period the men of the organization of which I am a part have given me first and least of their hard-earned money. They are above that. They have given me a confidence that few men have enjoyed and a trust that was without limit, because they beUeved that during the course of these years I had never betrayed an interest nor failed in the faithful effort to carry out the trust reposed in my charge. Can you understand what it means to me when I am confronted with the request of the President of the United States to defer an hour of action which I know means one of two things — the death of the opportunity or the disintegration of the organization and the turning over of large bodies of men, through belief that their leader has be- trayed them, into the hands of the irresponsible element and virtually the institution of mob rule which we saw examples of in 1877 and in 1894} 30 -THREATENED STRIKE OP RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. As to the question of authority, for myself I could call off the / strike. I can only call it off in one way ana that is by showing to the men that a satisfactory settlement has been effected. I care not through w;hat agency that settlement comes. Every effort was ex- hausted first to perfect it with the representatives of the other in- terests, and then the mediators, on the governmental sanction, came in. We refused to join the call for mediation, but the moment they requested us for time for the exercise of their friendly services, it was granted, and what was the result? The other side called in arbitra- tors to mediate us. The side that called them in made no recession. They wanted the other people mediated. Then in accordance with the law the mediators tried to get arbitration. What was the result ? Let me give you the history of these tentative propositions of the railway managers that can be "jack-potted" with the rest of the things to be arbitrated. In the year 1910 a conference committee of managers representing the eastern territory were in conference with two of these organiza- tions, the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen and the Brotherhood of Railway Conductors. The break came as it came in this instance. Two hours after the break came that conference committee of mana- gers published in the newspapers the proposal that they proposed to put in and arbitrate along with our demands, and we never saw the proposals, nor were they .ever presented to us until after they had been published in the press. That is where I read them first, and I was there, as I am here, one of the parties in control of the movement. It was only by the insistent demand of great neutrals like Seth Low, men of that class, that they were induced to withdraw those and settle for an arbitration only of the demands that had been legally presented to them. Following ,that the engineers and firemen had wage tests in the western territory. The propositions involved in this will mean the abolition of all the special privilege — call it by that name as an extreme. There are a series of allowances that through the years have been built up by those men who are required to give more than the equivalent of a day's labor fpr a day's wage, that they shall be paid arbitrarily for that service certain allowances, an hour for this and an hour for that. These proposals embrace all of those things that the men have enjoyed for years and which were granted ^ to them as a question of equity. All of those are to be arbitrated, whether or not we will get them, and whether or not we will keep them. Can you imagine men who have enjoyed payment for a cer- tain service for a long series of years agreeing to arbitrate as to whether or not they wiU take away that which is an equivalent for the amount of money that is involved in the shortening of the day ? Not if he is human, he will not. The engineers and firemen refused, as we did, to include this in arbitration, and then it took the influence of the President of the United States to induce the managers to a;rbi- trate what in this instance wiU reappear in three declarations intro- duced by the managers of the conference committee covering exactly the same things under different language. They were exactly the same old propositions. The skin was the skin of Esau, but the voice was the voice of Jacob, and whatever guise they masqueraded under, it was the determination to take away first the minimum day which THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 31 we have enjoyed for years, and which I will say to you we intend to enjoy as long as we are a power. There were various other allowances. To show you how little belief there was on the part of that manager's committee that they would even be considered by us The Chairman. What do you mean by "minimum day" ? Mr. Garretson. Mr. Chairman, our contracts all read — or virtually all — 100 miles or less; 10 liours or less constituting a day. Bear in mind at the terminal we wiU have 50 crews. They run first in and first out. We are pieceworkers. There is no guaranty. If we work one day a month we get one day's pay. It is necessary to protect the abUity of the man to earn in duU times by making a i-ule that they run first in and first out in regular turn. The first man in is the first man out. If that man was called out for a S-mile run and was only paid for 5 miles, he would stand behind 50 crews and might not be again called for a fuH day of 24 hours for three days. So in self-defense, if that man moves at all, if he runs 100 miles or less, in 1 hour he has earned a day and goes behind all other crews. If he runs 1 mile in 10 hours he is given the equivalent of a day's wage. Now you understands what it means to us. mien these three propositions were read into the recordby the conference committee of managers, here is what took place: Our propositions were embodied on a single sheet something like this [indicating] and, in the vernacular, they are known as Form 35. That is obtained from the committee of managers and ourselves. As spokesman for those brotherhoods, my associates and myself, we kept answering questions as to what those meant for something like four days. Nowiing else took place except an explanation of the outside limit of cost that was involved in those propositions. Every question was answered and the fullest amount of mformation given as to what the limit of appUcation should be. When they had finished and so announced, I tm-ned to the chairman of the conference committee and said to him, "Now I vacate the gridiron ; suppose you get on. We want to know what your propositions mean,' It took them 24 hours to determine whether or not they would answer at all. They never expected that we would even consider them, and they did not know themselves what the propositions meant. They were drawn hke God's grace- wide enough to include anythirig, and they had to invent what they called a yardstick to get them inside the hmits. That is the kind of things that produce the state of mind that the men at home are in. I want to impress one thing upon this committee and that is that from the 1st day of, June, when the first conference was held between the committee of 600 and the managers' committee, up to the present date there has never been made to us any proposition looking toward the settlement by the other interests. 'To use an interpretation that they themselves accepted, everything that was advanced was con- tingent upon a contingency, and a definite effort of any kind has never been made, except this, and they made that from the start and have made it a number of times 'since to the agencies. I guess that existed or intervened in an effort to state that they would arbitrate; first, that they would refer the whole proposition to the Interstate Commerce Commission, which we promptly refused, and which we still refuse; that they would refer the whole proposition, bear in mind, including these tentative propositions and the yardstick, to 32 THEEATENED STEIKE OF EAILWAY EMPLOYEES. Federal mediation, and we refused and still refuse. When we haye bought a house and live in it and our title is passed upon, we W.U not arbitrate whether ,it is ours or not. Let me disabuse your mind of the idea that there is any actual sentiment against arbitration in these organizations. Three of them ' at least are on record favoring it. They believe in the principle but they do not believe in arbitration that will arbitrate where you stand to lose and won't arbitrate where you stand to win. They beheve that arbitration is either arbitration or it is not, and what is more, their experience with arbitration has not made them-in love with the practical results that have come from it. That is not founded upon the idea that in every case there have been unfair men on the board of arbitration. Under the Newlands Act Lhave been party to arbitrations as large as has ever existed, and I know that the two neutral men are as high-minded, honest gentlemen as God ever made, but what was the result ? Those gentlemen wrote what they believed would produce a certain result. It did not produce it, as they were warned it would not. Those gentlemen desired to change that award in accordance with what they intended to do, and counsel for the employees told them that under the Newlands Act there-was no remedy; that whatever they had done had to stand. What was the next result ? The interpretation of that award now being safeguarded from legal interference, the other side proceeded to interpret what it meant. Can you imagine us going into a court of law, I and another man on a question purely personal to us, but involving property, after the court had handled the case and the jury had handed in the verdict — can you imagine one of the parties going outside and arrogating to himself the right to interpret that verdict?' There is one of the things that lies behind the position. There have been awards handed down by the Federal Arbitration Board under existiHg law that were not in effect when the legal limit for which they should be in effect had expired, and are not in effect yet — and this is not one side interpreting the fact; it is admitted that such is the case — on the groimd that there is a moot question contained in it that they can not apply until they get an understanding, although a number of these questions have already been passed on by the board in accordance with the insistence of the men. These men are no more superhuman than other citizens. They are human and their life is a human one. They are self-reliant m«n. Have you ever thought of the class of men that engage in these blisin esses? It is a life where they are face to face with the death angel every hour of the day, where they are exposed to the inclement of every change of weather, where they fight the elements and difficulties that confront them, and it develops quaUties in them that make them hard-headed and insistent upon what they believe to be right. It is a business where cowards quit and weaklings die, because physically and mentally they are not able to stand the requirements that are to be met with and to respond to them. That class of man when he becomes convinced that he is the victim of bitter injustice resents a further application of those conditions of which he complains to him imtil they have been modified. Now, in regard to the legislation, I have shown you the attitude of our men. I want to say to you that of the five propositions, or THBEATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMFLOYEJIS. 33 recommendations that are made by the President, under the ordinary Erocess of our policies nearly aU, of those we are out of accord with ; ut in the hope of effecting a possible settlement we have waived many of those deep-rooted prejudices and abandoned our ordinary attitude, and are willing to aid in the passage of a legislative remedy^ that will make it 'possible for recallmg the order^for these men to abandon the service on the 4th day of September. I am only going to touch cursorily on a number of those recommendations. As before stated, we have never recognized the legislative as the proper method for the estabhshment of the workday, but in this y instance we have given in to those who have come to us in our adhe- sion to the passage of this eight-hour-day law accompanied by the requirements found in that section placing the wage, pending certain investigations, at its present rate, and we have only drawn attention to one other proviso therein. As it is framed, it seems to us, and it has been stated to us, that the only remedy for the men in the event the companies refuse to conform thereto under the law would be a suit for damages. That would be about as valuable to the membership as a compulsory-arbitration act would be to a single individual, and he would stand just about as much show. If that was placed on the basis that all of the other enactments governing railway employees have been placed — that where viola- tions take place suit would be brought by the Government, like in the safety-appHance act and in the hpurs-of-service act — then you have introduced a measure that has merit to make whpt we are swallowing at least more palatable. I say to you on behalf of these four brotherhoods that the passage of that act alone with these pro- visions furnishes the one agency that will produce an absolute settle- ment of the trouble involved, because it embodies what we accepted the first day, or the day after the President made his proposition, and waived more than 50 per cent of the judgment which up to that time had been to us a religion. As for the other measures, no influ- ence that can be brought to bear on these organizations wUl ever induce them willingly to accept- that act, or what it describes The Chairman. To what do you refer now 1 Mr. Gakeetson. The compulsory investigation act. The Canadian industrial-disputes act was originally known as the "Lemieux Act," and it is very largely referred to in that language on the other side. These four organizations exercise international jurisdiction. We have been Lemieuxed almost as often as we have been Erdmanized and the consequence is we speak from knowledge and not from hearsay. The Chairman. Do your brotherhoods include employees of the Can^,dian railways? Mr. Garretson. All of them; Mexico also for two of us, but we are not exercising much jurisdiction down there at the present time. [Laughter.] The Chairman. I will state, Mr. Garretson, that you have spoken now about 40 minutes. Mr. Garretson. I thank you, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen. There are imfeeling members of the opposition who seem to say that I get intoxicated with the sound of my own voice, and I could not tefl how long I had spoken. 60341°— S. Doc. 549, 64-1 3 34 THREATENED STRIKE OP HAILWAT EMPLOYEES. Our experience with the Lemieux Act is this: From the day it became effective I was in conierence, and at a very crucial point, with the Canadian Pacific Railway. I was threatened with its pro- visions and it was so unknown to the president of the railway now it might work that that question was passed over .on account of what he feared might come from the act. Afterwards he expressed his regrets to me that he had not waited and worked under it, while on the other hand I had burned a few candles after I learned what it meant. Here is what it has done: In 1910 Mr. Lee, of the Trainmen, and myself started the first of these collective bargainings in the East. We made the same demand upon all thfe railways east of Chicago and north of the Ohio River, including the Canadian lines east of Port William and Winnipeg. There were three Canadian lines, the C. P. R., the Canadian Northern, and the G. T. About, I think it was, the 7th of January we commenced negotiations with the firstline in the States. Our two Canadian vice presidents were assigned on the day following to take charge of the three Canadian properties, leaving 77 on this side of the line. There was no collective deal. We took up each line by itself. On the first line the Federal mediators were called in and effected a friendly settlement. . We then settled the second property on exactly the same basis without any outside influence. On the third large line in the States we agreed to arbitrate, and the arbitration proceeding on that line constimed about 90 days. All of the other properties were handled individually. On the 19th day of July following we settled the last of the 77 prop- erties in the United States, and on that night, at 6 o'clock p. m., the men left the service of the Grand Trunk road, and no one of the three is settled yet. That was the effect of the Lemieux Act. The Grand Trimk road seized the opportunity to reenforce itself with the hope of utterly defeating the demand of the men, and it has been the record of every industry to which it has been applied that we are the only men on the otlier side of the hne who conformed to its provisions. The other classes of labor utterly scorn acceptance of it imless they have an object to attain. They did not investigate. They struck and WiOuld let them investigate afterwards. It is made of Canadian workingmen a nation of lawbreakers, and it has bred a contempt for the law that is a menace to good citizenship. Moreover, the minister of labor, who was the real author of that bill, W. L. McKenzie King, testified before the late Federal Industrial Commission that there were not jails enough in Canada to hold the men who. had violated it. There is indisputable testimony. ■ Is it intended to make the American workingmen a class that have contempt for law, or is it intended by enactment to breed respect for the law ? That is a question that you have to meet, because that phase of it is directly ahead of you, if such legislation is either contemplated or made effective. If you wiU stop to remember, the law is a weak paraphrase of a certain New Zealand enactment, where it was said to be success- ful and to have the approval of labor, and it has. But what are the conditions there where it had its birth, where it has had successful application, when contrasted with those places to where it has either been transplanted or it is proposed to transplant it? In the Gov- ernment of New Zealand every agency, exclusive of the administra- THBEATENED STBIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 35 tive, legislative, and judicial, is prolabor. It is a labor government from top to bottom, the only exception being the Governor General; but you are sufficiently conversant with the status of the English de- pendencies that are members of the imperial federation to know what real power a governor general exercises in such a colony. He is an interesting factor in a Crown dependency, but in a federation he exercises virtually no power in any vital question. It is a law that with all its agencies is actively favoring labor. How different a result can be obtained when you transplant it into Canada, or here, where every existing agency of government is passively or actively in great accord with the existing order. There is the difference. Every unseen influence that has been referred to as having all the elements of invisible government are hopelessly against it. Its fair application to many of the agencies of a visible government have in the past been likewise utiHzea. I do not know that I am a special alarmist in these things, but when a man has gone through the experience that I have in connection with questions of this character, I wiU admit that he does not acquire as high an opinion of the moral impulses and the active force of the consciences of a good many men as he started out with. There may be a great many men who are in possession of one of the qualifica- tions at least that Caesar described' as necessary for his wife to pos- sess. They may be pure, but there is a great doubt if they are above reproach. 1 want to place on record here the protest of every laboring man represented by these brotherhoods against the passage of anything that savors of making men stay at work during this period. Think of what would happen here with the existing causes between the railways and their employees, assuming for the moment that a cer- tain amoxmt of disintegration would take place on the other side, or thay they should play the game for all it is worth. The Chairman. Mr. Garretson, will you allow me to call your attention to one misapprehension imder which you seem to labor ? Mr. Gakeetson. Yes, sir. The Chairman. You imagine that this provision, which you call the compulsory investigation provision, will compel a man to remain in employment whilst the investigation goes on. Mr. Garretson. Yes, sir. The Chairman. I think you should modify that. It simply pre- vents concerted action for a strike. It does not interfere, as I understand it, with the individual right of any man to give up his employment. Mr. Garretson. Oh, Senator, may I draw your attention to the fact that if some individual man threatened to strike on one of these railways, this body would not be in session for the purpose for which it is. The strike of an individual man is nothing. It is the con- certed strike of many individuals that is referred to now that is, threatening the peace of a nation. This proposed action makes the combination of men for the purpose of self-defense a criminal act until it has been investigated. That is what we object to. The Chairman. Yes; that is a correct statement of the law. Mr. Garretson. Bear in mind that I do not attempt to use a legal term. I am only using a layman's language in explaining our atti- tude toward it. That is exactly the phase of it to which we object, and which we will never accept until we are compelled to. 36 THEEATENED STRIKE OF EAILWAY EMPLOYEES. I do not want that statement to be misconstrued. What I mean is that if Congress passes it we will have to accept it, but the contest will never die until it is wiped off of the statute books. Here is the President of the United States mediating. Have prep- arations gone on to meet what was expected would follow or have they not ? It is a rule of mediation under the Newlands Act that both sides maintain the status quo while it is going on, and that neither side uses the period to entrench himself. The Canadian act requires the same thing, and there have been instances where strike breakers assembled, imported here in this land of the free for the purpose of displacing men who got an award giving their full demand and then the company repudiating it and replacing every man of them and. absolutely throwing them out of employment through ' utilizing the days while the investigation was going on to defeat the men's cause. Those are the experiences that meet us. As to the conscription act, I have onlj this to say. As long as that is only a military necessity, we are not m any way going to oppose it, although essentially we are utterly at variance with the conscription idea. The men of this organization do not need conscription to de- fend the flag when it is assailed, but they are not spoiling to g^o beyond the borders of the land and assail somebody else. We have accepted that and will not fight against it, though mora,lly we may oppose the principle. No man in this Republic wifl be found readier to give every consistent aid for the maintenance of this Government until it has been hopelessly demonstrated that this Government wants all aid but gives no aid. Those are the only three acts, as I imderstand, that have been prepared. There you have our attitude. Tjie Chairman. I desire to state also that a resolution was offered esterday in the Senate and is now before the committee, introduced y Mr. Lee of Maryland, as follows : Resolved, That in order to afford sufficient time for the intelligent consideration of the legislation suggested in the President's message to Congress of August twenty-ninth, the Senate of the United States hereby requests the representatives of the railway employees who have fixed upon September fourth for the comnjencement of a general strike, to postpone the date of the beginning of sufch strike for one week, and that a copy of this resolution be immediately forwarded by the Secretary of the Senate to said representatives having the matter of the strike in Uieir charge. The committee will be glad to hear from the brotherhoods, when it suits their convenience, upon this resolution. I understand it has been brought to their attention for the first time now. Mr. Gakretson. It has. The Chairman. You understand that the resolution has not passed as yet ? Mr. Garretson. It was not? The Chairman. It has not yet. It is before the committee for consideration. Mr. Garretson. Mr. Chairman, passed or not passed, I want to say to you that there will be no hesitation on the part of these brother- hoods in making it perfectly clear to you what their attitude is -on that question, as they made it clear to the. President of the United States when he suggested — he did notformallv request, although I may be wrong — both he and ourselves when he requested it, were possibly too much interested to weigh the value of a word; he may I SaSfiATENEb STftl^E OS* RAILWAY BMPLOTEES. B1 have formally requested it, but he did not press the request after hearing what we had to say. Therefore, as a matter of personal priviles;e, I may be allowed to answer that in the latter part of my statement. I shall answer it fully and freely. The Chairman. You may answer it at your convenience. Senator Cummins. I desire to ask just one question. You stated that in accepting the proposition of the President you gave up one- half of the demands that you had made upon the railway companies. WUl you state what the demands were that you surrendered in accept- ing the proposal of the President ? Mr. Gaeretson. I shall be very glad to do so. You will bear in mind that that estimate is exactly in line with the estimate of the conference committee of managers itself, because their original state- ment was that our demands would cost them 100 millions, and yet after the acceptance of the present demands became public they dropped their estimate to 50 milMons per year. Bear in mind that I am not giving the seal of commendation or approval to these fig- lu-es, but the two sums are found to be exactly on the same basis, and arrived at by the same method of computation which exists in this Form 35 which I referred to earlier. While it has much lan- fuage, when you strip it of the various provisions there is only one asic proposition in it, and that is the demand, for the eight-hour day for the men represented by the brotherhoods, and to make that effective" and to render it uneconomic to work men on long hours we demanded time and a haK for every hour of work in excess of the- time required to complete a trip at an average speed of 12 J miles per hour. Bear in mind that to us mileage and hours are interchange- able. Therefore, while they now pay pro rata overtime there is no incentive to shorten the hours if they can make money by using us on long hours. It is a penalty clause which makes the eight-hour day a thing that is worth while to observe. The charge that has been made by the other side that it was impos- sible to put in a true eight-hour day on a railway is correct. It can not be done for the simple reason that a workman in the ordinary pursuit follows his occupation virtually at the door of his home, where he has aU the privileges of his home, whatever they may be, available to him. The trainman can not stop, because eight hours may find him in a semidesert country, or find him 50 miles from his home; therefore he is coinpeUed to go on and work, but he demands a higher rate of speed. , He now works 10 miles an hour. He would then work 12^, and if he is run beyond that speed he wants to penalize the company until they will control, so far as they may, the speed of his train and get him in on time and not pay overtime. Senator Cummins. I did not intend to draw you into an extended argument. I simply desire to know what you gave up. You gave up the penalty • Mr. Garretson. We did. Senator Cummins. And those that you reckon at 50 per cent of the demands ? Mr. Garretson. Both. We have estimated it at that. Further, we gave up what is known as the transportation time for the con- ductors and trainmen in the western territory. For instance, in the western territory, as to engineers and firemen, their time commences when they are called to report. That is, we will say a train is going 38 THREATENED STBIKE OP RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. out at 7.30. Wlien they come to commence their duties and get the train ready for duty, their time commences. The conductors and trainmen in the western territory are not paid well ; they give free to the country all that transportation time, and that was another relinquishment, but that does not involve great sums of money. Senator Brandegee. When you say you gave those things up, you do not mean that you permanently abandoned them, but agreed to submit them to arbitration\? Mr. Garretson. That was not the exact understanding. Our understanding with the President — ^understand, this never came under the President's proposition — we said to the President that under our practices with railroad companies when we effected any settlement it runs for a year. That is the unfailing practice of the conductors and trainmen. For that year those tiaings are held in abeyance.' After that time they may be released. We are perfectly willing to put them in the scrap heap for a year. That was our attitude. Senator Brandegee. I understand you now. Mr. Garretson. Is there anything further? The Chairman. Mr. Garretson has consumed 65 minutes. Mr. Garretson, That leaves 55 minutes available in the first period ? The Chairman. Yes. Senator Pombrbne. Would you object to incorporating in your remarks this Form 35 of which you speak ? Mr. Garretson. We shall be glad to furnish the committee with a copy of the sheet. We will see that it is sent down proinptly to the committee's headquarters as soon as we return to our offices at the hotel. Senator Pomerene. You have no objection to having it printed with your testimony, have you ? Mr. Garretson. None whatever. That Form 35 is our original proposal. The Chairman. Will you insert in the record the various proposals and suggestions between your organizations and the railroad man- agers, also the various proposals that were made at the conference with the President? Mr. Garretson. Mr. Chairman, let me call your attention to this: There is not in existence a proposal that has ever been made by the conference committee of managers to us, except in the stenographic record of the hearings, and a letter confirming the same. That is the only record there is on that subject, and we shall be very glad to furnish you with a copy of that. Mr. Elijah Lee. That letter to you contained the original propo- sitions as presented by those trainmen that we desired to argue ? Mr. Garretson. Does that not embody the proposition to arbi- trate? - Mr. Lee. Oh, yes. Mr. Garretson. It is all in one letter and we will be glad to furnish a copy. As far as the negotiations between the President and our- selves are concerned, the President's proposition to us was conveyed simply in the form of a few lines of memoranda. Our acceptance of it was in a letter conveyed to him, and that letter, bear in mind was a letter modified in a certain degree by a verbal understanding' and does not constitute an exactly true record. THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 39 I am making this absolutely subject to the verification by the President of the United States — that that was the only record between us. Twice the President gave to us copies of what were named memoranda — bear in mind, without one word of comment, without heading and without signature, which he said to us had been handed to him by the representatives of the executives of the rail- ways. That is the sole record that there is of these proceedings. It nearly all obtains in the minds of the men who carried on the conference. Senator Thompson. You will include that in your statement ? Mr. Garretson. We will send you copies of those memoranda also. Senator Brandegee. When you put in the record a copy of the record you sent to the President in reply to these memoranda, can Jou state the substance of the modification you said was made to it y mutual understanding ? Mr. Garretson. We wiU write a line and attach it which will give our understanding. We shall be very glad to do so. And that will be subject to the President's 0. K. (Mr. Garretson subsequently submitted the following data, which is here printed in full, as follows:) Order of Railway Conductors or America, Washington, D. C, September 2, 1916. Hon. Francis G. Newlands, United States Senator, Chairman Interstate Commerce. Dear Sir: Herewith, as agreed, copy of Form 35; letter from Mr. Elisha Lee, chair- man of the national conference committee of the railways; copy of the memoranda furnished us hy the President of the United States as to the terms on which he rec- ommended settlement, and which was accepted by the brotherhoods; and copies of the two memoranda transmitted to us by the President of the United States, as re- ceived by him from the presidents of the railways. Yours, truly, A. B. Garretson, President. No. 35. Article 1. (o) In all road service 100 miles or less, eight hours or less, will consti- tute a day, except in passenger service. Miles ih excess of 100 will be paid for at the same rate per mile. (b) On runs of 100 miles or less overtime will begin at the expiration of eight hours. (c) On runs of over 100 miles overtime will begin when the time on duty exceeds the miles run divided by 12J miles per hour. (rf) All overtime to be computed on the minute basis and paid for at time and one- half times the pro rata rate. (e) No one shall receive less for eight hours or 100 miles than they now receive for a minimum day or 100 miles for the class of engine used or for service performed. (/) Time will be computed continuously from time required for duty until release from duty and responsibility at end of day or run. Art. 2. (a) Eight hours or less shall constitute a day in all yard and switching service. The minimum day's pay for 8-hour yards shall not be less than the present day's pay for 10-hour yards; provided, that in yards having a minimum day of more than 10 hours, the present day's pay as in effect January 1, 1916, will be continued with the 8-hour day. (6) Time to be computed continuously from time required for duty until released from duty and responsibility at end of day or run. All over 8 hours within any 24-hour period to he computed and paid for at the rate of time and one-half time. (c) All overtime to be computed on the minute basis. Art. 3. (a) Eight hours or less at present 10 hours' pay will constitute a day's work in hostling service. 40 THBEATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES, (6) Time to be computed continuously from time required for duty until released from duty and responsibility at .end of day or run. All over 8 hours withm any 24-hour period to be computed and paid for at the rate of time and one-half time. (c) All overtime to be computed on the njinute basis. Art. 4 Any rates of pay, including excess mileage or arbitrary differentials tnat are higher, or any rules or conditions of employment contained in individual schedules in effect January 1, 1916, that are more favorable to the employees, shall not be modi- fied or affected by any settlement reached in connection with these proposals, ihe general committee representing the employees on each railroad will determme which IS preferable and advise the officers of their company. Nothing in the settlement that may be reached on the above submitted articles is to be construed to deprive the employees on any railroad from retaining their present rules and acceptmg any rates that may be agreed upon or retaining their present rates and a;ccepting any rules that may be agreed upon. National Conference Committee op the Railways, Grand Central Terminal, New York, August 9, 1918. A. B, Garretson, President 0. R. C. W. S. Stone, Orand Chief Enriineer B. ofL. E. W. S. Carter, Presidents, of L. F. & E^ W. G. Lee, President B. of E. T. Gentlemen: The national conference committee of the railways has again given most careful consideration to the matters in controversy between us and to all that has been said in our various conferences which began on June 1. We have also care- fully considered the serious situation presented by the result of the strike vote of employees and the responsibility which rests on both parties to the conference to exhaust every honorable means to avoid the public injury which must inevitably result should you decide to exercise the power which the etrite vote has placed in your hands. After such consideration it is our judgment that the proposals which the men have supported by their vote involve such extraordinary changes in operating methods and such radical revisions in established bases of compensation as to make it apparent that there is little- probability of our being able to harmonize our differences of opinion unless this result can be brought about through the Federal Board of Mediation and Conciliation, which was created to assist the parties in just such circumstances as now confront us. The national conference committee of the railways is as sincerely anxious as your committee can be to reach some amicable adjustment of the matters involved in the present controversy, but we are convinced that in the end we shall have to invoke the friendly offices of the Federal Board of Mediation. The unbroken experience of the past 10 years sustains us in this view. During that period in practically no large concerted moA'ement has a conference committee of managers and a committee of your representatives ever been able to reach a final and complete adjustment of the matters in controversy between them until after they had invoked the provisions of the Federal mediation law. It seems to us that all the considerations that have existed in former controversies to prevent a settlement being reached by direct negotiations are present in an accentuated form in the present case. It is not open to question that whatever we can do by direct negotiations -we can also do just as quickly and as effectively through mediation, and experience has demonstrated that a common ground could be reached through the mediators in cases where the parties have been wholly unable to reach such common ground through direct negotiations. Accordingly we propose that you join with us in an application to the United States Board of Mediation and Conciliation and invoke its services for the purpose of bringing about an amicable adjustment of the controversy. Yours, truly, The National Confehenob Committee of the Railways, By Elisha Lee, Chairman. THREATENED STEIKE OP RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 41 president's pboposal. The White House, Washington. Conceaaion of the eight-hour day. Postponement of the other demand, as to payment for overtime, and the counter suggestions of the railway managers until experience actually discloses the con- sequences of the eight-hour day. In the meantime the constitution, hy authority of the Congress, of a commission or body of. men, appointed by the President, to observe, investigate, and report upon those consequences, without recommendation. Tlien such action upon the facts as the parties to the present controversy may think best. MEMORANDUM A, TRANSIIITTBD BY THE PRESIDENT TO THE RAILWAY BROTHERHOODS AS RECEIVED BY HIM FROM THE PRESIDENTS OF THE RAILWAYS. We have been giving most earnest and respectful consideration to the suggestions of the Pnesident as to a means of avoiding the national catastrophe of the threatened strike. While our own minds are clear as to the facts and as to the consequences of granting the demands of the men, either as a whole or in substantial part, our state- ments have not been acquiesced in and our conclusions have been questioned. In adjdition we have been met by a strong and insistent protest from shippers against any effort to put on them in^the shape of increased rates the financial burdens of an adjustment. Under these circumstances, it seems to us wise that there should be an investigation by some Government authority — by a commission appointed by the President, by Congress itself, or by any other means deemed appropriate by the President — of all the facts in the case, at which investigation the three parties in in- terest — the employees, the railronds, and the public — shall be heard, and the facts reported without recommendation. Wheo the facts are thus acsertained and beyond dispute, the railroads will be in a position to make prompt answer to the suggestions of the President and then answer can be measured by the ascertained facts. Meanwhile it seems clear that the situation should remain unchanged, and the disaster to the public interests, incident to an attempted interruption of commerce, should not be permitted by either party or by the Government, it being understood that the interests of no party to the controversy shall be prejudiced by the delay. We suggest the enactment by Congress at once of a law within the policy of the Ca- nadian industrial disputes investigation act, which in itself will furnish a guaranty against hasty action now and against the recurrence of such an unfortunate situation in the future. We call attention to the fact that the principles of the proposed act do not involve an impairment of the freedom of action of either party after the facts have been reported. MEMORANDUM B, TRANSMITTED BY THE PRESIDENT TO THE RAILROAD BROTHERHOODS AS RECEIVED BY HIM FROM THE PRESIDENTS OF THE RAILWAYS. We propose aa a basis of settlement the following: (o) The railroads will, effective September 1, 1916, keep the time of all men rep- resented in this movement, upon an eight-hour basis and by separate account, monthly, with each man, maintain a record of the difference between the money actually earned by him on the present basis and the amount that would have been earned upon an eight-hour basis, overtime on each basis to be computed pro rata. The amounts so shown will be subject to the decision of the commission provided for in paragraph (c) of this memorandum and payable in money as may be directed by said commission in its findings and decision. (6) The Interstate Commerce Commission to supervise the keepina; of these accounts and report the increased cost of the eight-hour basis, after such period of actual expe- rience aa their judgment approves or the President may fix, not, however, less than three month.^. (c) In view of the far-reachin<5 consequences of the declaration made by the Presi- dent, acceptino: the eight-hour day, not only upon the railroads and the classes of labor involved directly in this controversy, but to the pubUc and upon all industry, 42 THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. it seems plain thai before the existing conditions tire changed the whole subject, in so far as it affects the raikoads and their employees, should be investigated and deter- mined by a commission to be appointed by the President, of such standing as to compel attention and respect. to its findings. The judgment of such a cpmrnission -wouia be a helpful basis for adjustments with labor and such legislation as intelligent pubuc opinion, so informed, might demand. \. ■ t The railroads will accept the findings of such a commission upon the issue ot an eight-hour basis of pay as compared with the present basis, as well as upon any otner matters now in controversy that may be submitted to it by either P^^ty- The commission should consist of not less than five members and should also be authorized" to hear and determine all questions that may arise in the appncation of the findings of said commission or in the working out of such plan as it may propose. The Chairman. Who is your next speaker, Mr. Garretson ? Mr. Garretson. Mr. Gompers. STATEMENT OF ME. SAMUEL GOMPERS, PRESIDENT AMERI- CAN FEDERATION OF LABOR. Mr. Gompers. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, of the subject of a general investigation into the cost, into the subjects of rights, operation, constitutional guaranties, and all there can really be no objection. I have in mind the fact that at a meeting of the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor a resolution was adopted pledging the brotherhoods the cooperation and support of the American Federation of Labor in the effort to establish the eight-hour workday in the railroad service, and another resolution adopted by our Council against any form of compulsory arbitration with compulsory award, or any device that would take away'from the men of the railroad service the rightful ownership of themselves. The Chairman. Mr. Gompers, wiU you kindly bear in mind that there is no proposal here for compulsory arbitration ? There is a pro- vision for governmental investigation with' a stay of the right to com- bine, either for a lockout or a strike, pending that investigation. Mr. Gompers. I understand that, Mr. Chairman, and I made no reference to the measures before this committee at this time. I merely wanted and tried to state an action of the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor upon two specific subjects, and to in- dicate that these declarations were in line with the history and the work and the policy of the work of the American labor movement. The American Federation of Labor has had before it for consid- eration for the last iew years the proposition tor the estabhshment of an eight-hour day by law i n pr ivately owned industries, and in each instance it was defeated. We believed that the workers and the employers should endeavor to agree upon the conditions, wages, and hours of labor. Of course in governmental employ the Government is the employer; hence the hours can be established by law, and only in that way. We beheve in the idea of the people of America, foimded upon the historic development of the races and the coimtries from which we all come; that is, to have the Govern- ment do for us and for our people that which the Government alone can do, and that in all other activities of life decision shall result from our intelligence and our initiative and our activity. The labor movement holds these things to be fundamental: To agree with employers if we can; to stop work when necessary; to bring the employers to a realization of the demands which we make; and to XHEEATENED STBIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 43 have employers, as has not been their practice, but as sustained by the courts, that they have the right — despite inactive law— that they have the right to discharge workers for any cause or for no cause at aU. And we insist that u that is their right, if the employers have the right to discharge workmen, individually or collectively, despite the enactment of a law by the Congress of the United States, then we hold that there is the correlative right of the worker to quit, whether singly or in concert. There is much to be said and there is too little time in which to say it, and yet I reahze, in view of the existing conditions, that you can not give very much more time than you have already allotted. I must run along in the effort to present the thoughts that are in my mind, and not only my own thoughts but the position which we take in the American labor movement regarding the fundamental right of the masses of the men, the citizenship of this country. First, there is a proposition for conscription — conscription of the crews in the railway service and those engaged in the administration of the railways. Conscription in the time of peace is repugnant to th6 institutions under which we hve. Conscription to operate the railroads in order that the companies may perform their obliga- tions to society is not within the reahn of constituted authority and power and rights. But I shall prefer to confine whatever time has been allotted to me by the gentlemen representing the railway employees to the question of governmental investigation, and that in the meantime and until the investigation has been completed the rights of the workers to quit their employment is denied them. The Chairman. I think that is hardly accurate, Mr. Gompers. The right of the workers to quit their employment is not denied under this measure. Mr. Gompers. In concert. The Chairman. But, as I understand it, the right of concert of action with reference to a strike is stayed pending this govermnental investigation. I do not understand it interferes with me individual liberty of any man. Mr. Gompers. Mr. Chairman, to my mind Mr; Garretson has very emphatically and very clearly presented that view of the indi- vidiial quitting work in a great industrial or transportation con- cern. The worker, industriaUy, has lost his individuality in modern times. He is simply a cog in the great wheel of industry, and all of the workers, as cogs, operate in cooperation with each other, and wjien that is true individual right is gone. How can individual workmen resent, or an individual workman resent, any wrong or injustice? The man who works on a railroad for a long time, as a rule, is unfitted for any other service. He has to apply for work in the railroad service upon other hues, and with the combination of the managers of the railroads an individual workman has a splendid chance of -establishing and maintaining his industrial rights. I understand the purpose — that is, if enacted into law the men will be stayed from acting in concert until the commission has made its investigation. But in the meantime concerted action to stop work is uiuawful and punishable. 44 THREATENED STRIKE 6* EAILWAt ElVtPLb^fiS. American citizens, American workers, have the right not to be com- pelled to work against their will. Involuntary service can not be enforced under the Constitution of the United States, and yet when 5, or 10, or 500, or 5,000 propose to exercise their constitutional, guaranteed right to do a thing, it is made unlawful and they are compelled to give involuntary service. - Now, Mr. Cliairman and gentlemep, that may be a very fond wish to tie men to their work, but we have been taught something in these United States, both as natives and as naturalized citizens; that is, that there are some rights to which the masses of the people are entitled, and I can not conceive of their giving up those rights without a protest, an emphatic protest. You may make strikes illegal, may make strikers criminal, but you are not going to avert strikes when strikes are necessary in order to express the needs of America's workers for a higher and a better consideration of their rights and of standards of the service which they give to society and without which society itself is imperiled. The experience of the countries that have attempted compulsory arbitration and the enfbrcement of a compulsory award, the experi- ence of countries in which compulsory investigation and the stay of the workers from quitting their employment, has been all to the detrimeiit of the principle of compulsion and a denial of the right of the workers to leave their employment. In the Australasian countries the effort has gone to the furthest limit, and I may say to you gentlemen that the Australian compul- sory arbitration act was put into existence after a strike almost analo- fous to the position now before us, except that this is attempted efore a proposed strike, and out of the desire to tie the men to their work; out of a desire, by law, to make strikes and lockouts impossible — the rights guaranteed not only by time and Constitution but by common concept are to be taken away. In Colorado there exists a law that makes it unlawful for men to strike pending an investigation of the dispute. That law has been not only abortive in preventing strikes, it has not Only injured the interests of the workers and interfered and denied their rights, but it has resulted in a revolution of feehng to such an extent that at the convention of the organized workers of Colorado, the Colorado State Federation of Labor last month passed a resolution, with but one dissenting vote, against the proposition, demanding the repeal of that law at the hands of the legislature of that State. I have a copy of the circidar of the president and secretary of the Colorado State Federation of Labor transnjitting the resolution adopted by that State convention, and if you care to do so I shall be very glad to submit it as part of my remarks at the present time. The Chairman. That may be included in the record. (The matter referred to is here printed in full, as follows:) Denver, Colo., August $1, 19'16. To the organized-labor movement of Colorado, greeting: The following resolution was adopted at the twenty-first annual convention of the Colorado State Federation of Labor, held in Colorado Springe August 14-18 1916 after due deliberation and consideration, with only one dissenting vote. The repeal oi the industrial commission law is to be made one of the paramount issues of the coming - THEEATENED STBIKE OF RAILWAY -EMPLOYEES. 45 campaign, and in this undertaJring we ask the aid and assistance of all members of organized labor in this great Centennial Sta,te who desire to retain their industrial liberty. We would ask that where central organizations exist that committees be appointed from those organizations, and where there is no central labor union that committees be appointed from local unions to interview candidates for the legislature as to their intention to support or defeat this law, in order that we may be able to properly advise our membership. Action should be taken at once in order that our member- ship may be properly advised as to who are our friends and enemies at the primary on September 12. John McLennan, President Colorado State Federation of Labor. Ed. Andehson, Secretary. EESOLTJTION ADOPTED BY THE TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL CONVENTION OP COLORADO STATE FEDERATION OF LABOR, DECLARING FOR THE REPEAL OF THE INDUSTRIAL- COMMISSION LAW. The rights and liberties of the wage earners of the State of Colorado have been invaded and usurped by the enactment of the industrial-commission law. The extensive powers and authority conferred upon the three commissioners provided for in this law transcends and overshadows the power and authority conferred upon all other political departments of the State. The thirteenth amendment to the Federal Constitution provides that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction." In contravention of this amendment, and in defiance of the specific declaration against slavery and involuntary servitude, the twentieth General Assembly of Colorado passed the industrial-commission law, which makes it a misdemeanor for employees not to give at least 30 days' notice to the indus- trial commission when a change affecting conditions of employment with respect to wages and hours is desired, and provides that any offender shall be punished by a fine. With an assumption of power unparalleled in the annals of legislative history, the industrial commission was clothed with the power and authority to override and set aside the first amendment to the Federal Constitution, which provides that, "Congress shall make no laws * * * abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or of the right of the people to peacefully assemble and petition the Government for redress of grievances." In defiance of this amendment the Colorado General Assembly empowered the industrial commission to forbid any person "To incite or encourage in any manner any employee to go or continue on strike contrary to the provisions of the industrial-commission law," and provided a penalty of fine and imprisonment should such einployee exercise his_ rights under the Federal Constitution. The law further empowers the industrial commission to invade the meetings of wage earners, thus destroying the right of free assemblage. The industrial commission is given the further power of exercising unlimited authority over the various departments of the State government which either directly or remotely deal with the conditions, health, or activities of. the wage earners of the State. The American Federation of Labor has, during its entire existence, exercised its great influence against the delegation of any of the personal rights of the working people to political commissions, ior these rights are fundamental and deal with their Uves and liberties. Government by commission is not a government of or by the people and is a menace not only to the welfare of the wage earners but to the people as a whole. The industrial commission is not directly responsible to the people of the State; and the power and authority placed in its hands is not in consonance with the spirit of a republican form of government. The fundamental reasons underlying the organizations of labor are found in the almost universal injustice inflicted upon the wage earners. Alleged economists, unfair employers, scheeming politicians, and corrupt courts have sought, by theii machinations and specious arguments, to define labor power as property or as a com- modity. The Sherman antitrust law, passed in 1890, was framed for the specific purpose of regulating aggregations of capital, but labor organizations were the first attacked as iUegal combinaJtions in restraint of trade. For 24 years the American 46 THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. Federation of Labor heroically fought to secure legislation containing a specific pro- vision drawing a clear line of demarcation between human and property rights. The passage of the labor provisions of the Clayton antitrust law, containing that now famous declaration, "The labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce," was the result of its efforts to restore to the wage earners their rights guaranteed to them under the Constitution of the United States. , , ^i Almost immediately following the passage of this Federal law, the Colorado General Assembly placed upon its statute books the industrial-commission law, which arro- gantly defies the legislation enacted by the Federal Congress. _ . The laboring people of the State of Colorado do not propose to submissively submit to this invasion of their rights. We resent the imputation that we are not loyal citi- zens of the United States and of the State of Colorado, and that it is necessary that we be restrained from exercising any right guaranteed to every other citizen. Upon every page of history there is written the wrongs committed against labor, and wherever it has had the courage and independence to assert its rights and to exercise its economic and political power, there has always followed subtle schemes of which the industrial- commission law is a counterpart, to deprive the wage earners of their rights and liber- ties. So far the power conferred upon the industrial commission has been cautiously em- ployed, with the evident purpose in view of securing the support of the wage earners. With adroitness and clever argument the industrial-commission law has been adver- tised in other States by its supporters as a new solution of the labor problem. The men and women of labor, whose bodies bear the imprint of industry's scars,_ are assured that their rights, liberties, and interests are sate in the hands of this political commission. y The wisdom and judgment of the oflScials of labor, acquired by long experience, are lightly waived aside by these new guardians of labor's vital interests. Already flushed with the wisdom of still greater power, the industrial commission, through its votaries, are clamoring for still more power, although, according to the terms of the law, every statute in the State which relates directl)^ or indirectly to labor comes under the power and authority of the industrial commission. Therefore, it is plainly evident that the organized labor movement of the_ State of Colorado must immediately prepare to protect itself against this invasion of its rights and liberties. The continuation of the industrial commission law will eventually strip from the workers of this State every right which they now enjoy, and will destroy the independence of the trade-unions and make of the working people mere vassals. The industrial commission has already made a record which challenges the funda- mental principles of the American Federation of Labor. The industnaf commission law places in the hands of three men (whose experience ^deprives them of a full or even a partial knowledge of the great struggle of the wage earners) the destiny of the working people of this State. In fact, our entire Uvea would be dominated and controlled by three men. The influence which placed this law upon the statute books of the State of Colo- rado is the same influence that defied the eight-hour law in the coal mines and was responsible for the coal miners' strike. It is the same influence that denied the right of organization to the coal miners of the State. It is the same influence that made it necessary for -Confess to select a special com- ' mittee of investigation to bring to public light the indignities and the brutality exer- cised by the coal operators in the southern fields. , It is the same influence that sought to sacrifice the life of John R. Lawson because he championed the cause of the striking coal miners. It is the same influence that snuffed out the lives of the women and children of Ludlow. - It is the same influence that caused the present governor of this State to declare in the public press that if the smelter men on strike in Leadville continued their protest, the military arm of the State would be employed to drive them back to work. , It is the same influence that converted Huerfano County into a caldron of corrup- tion, and rendered_ unsafe the lives of its citizens, unless they blindly submitted to the absolute dictation of corporation gunmen. It is the same influence that sought to prejudice the minds of the citizenship gen- erally by publicity bureaus. It is the same influence that is employing every effort to securely fasten this law upon the wage earners of this State in order that its influence may play its part in sub- jugating the workers of other States. In fact, the wage earners of tiiis State are fully cognizant of the reasons for the intro- duction aiid passage of this law, and the influences and desires of those who were re- sponsible for its enactment. THEEATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 47 In the light of these facts, and with a full confidence in the courage, loyalty, and ability of the wage earners of this State, the State federation of labor, in twenty-first annual convention assembled, does hereby declare: That the workers will not relinquish the right to strike whenever and wherever that course may be deemed advisable by the men and women of labor. The right to strike is the only distinguishing mark between free men and slaves, and we shall unflinch- ingly make every sacrifice to retain our freedom. That we shall resist to the uttermost any attempt upon the part of the industrial commission to wrest from us any of those rights and liberties guaranteed by the organic law of our country. That the unqualified repeal of' the industrial-commission law, every section and paragraph, shall be made me paramount issue of the coming campaign, and that we shall hold to strict accountability the men and political parties of Colorado who and which ask for the suffrage of the citizens of our State. That the workmen's compensation law be amended in such a manner as to provide for officers to administer that law. Conscious of the great wrong committed in attempting to deprive the wealth pro- ducers of this State of their rights and liberties, yet undaunted in our fight for justice, freedom, democracy, and humanity, we confidently submit our course to the sympa- thetic consideration and cooperation of our fellow workers and fellow citizens of Colorado. Adopted August 17, 1916. Mr. GoMPEES. Now the experience in Australasian countries has been this, and I shall try simply to run over a few points so you may have them in mind. The law has not stopped strikes. The fact of the matter is that it has made strikes criminal and those engaged in them violators of the law. Let me call your attention to a few instances showing the operation of that law. In the c^se of the boot and shoe workers of Australia the case went to the courts for an award, and the award was given in favor of the workmen. The operators, the manufacturers, could not operate under the law and the award unless they paid the wages and E anted the conditions which the court of arbitration had awarded, stead of doing so, and abiding by it, the manufacturers. kept their establishments closed and imported their shoes from the United States and England. The shoe workers found that they could not very well travel as fast as the cable or the mails; they were riveted to the country and to the soil and they had to work under any condi- tions that the employers would give, and the arbitration was brushed aside. What has been true in this instance has occurred in several others. One case of the- sheep shearers and sheep butchers. In that case thousands went out on a strike. The Government could not arrest them all, punish them all, and so they were left scot free ; but in cases of smaller numbers of employees, employed by smaller establish- ments, there the law was put into effect with aU its rigor. I shall not attempt to describe to you a pen picture written by Mr. Russell, one of the great magazine writers- — Charles Edward Russell — in which he described the brutality which even a liberal Government hke AustraHa meted out to men who dared cj^uit their work and urge their fellows to stand for their rights and their interests Mr. Garretson has already referred to several instances arising in Canada, under the law of which the pending bill is virtually a replica. Let me say, in one instance an American officer sent the benefits provided by the constitution of the United Mine Workers of America to the representative of the general organization in Cwfidftj and 48 THKEATENED STRIKE OP EAILWAY EMPLOYEES. when he undertook to pay these coal miners the benefits for which they had contributed before any trouble arose, he was haled before- the courts and punished. At present -in Hamilton, Ontario, the raachinists are on strike to enforce an award under the compulsory-investigation act and ex- pression of opinion of the commission. The commissioners refused pubhcity even to the conditions of the investigation and the condi- tions of labor. The Hydro-Electric Co., of Toronto recently rejected an award. The electricians struck to enforce the award, and, because of the time the companies had to gather strike breakers and to prepare for any eventuahty, the men were defeated. It may not be amiss to say that in Canada this compulsory investigation act, a stay of the rights of the workers to leave their employment, is not called by the name of its author; it is no longer called the Lemieux Act; it is called the "lemon act." ' Now, I think that I have the right to say that I have, with my fel- lows, endeavored to be of service to our people and to help avoid and evade strikes and industrial confhcts. I think I am justified, with- out any appearance of vanity, in saying that I have contributed some- thing, that I have contribtited as much as any other man in America to avoidance of strikes. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, there are some things that are worse than strikes. Manhood which has de- teriorated and has been undermined when it comes to the questibn of fiving compulsory service is of far greater importance than a strike, he' history of the world for centuries has been to make the workers free. The four years of Civil War, costing himdreds of thousands of the best blood of our country on both sides, was fought out in order that slavery should be aboUshed. What is the difference between a slave and a free workman ? The slave must work when his master wills, and when the State behind the master directs and enforces that will and whim. What con- stitutes freedom of men that work except that they own themselves and have the right to determine when they will or will not work 1 I do not undertake now, and will not undertake at any time, to underestimate the suffering which will come to many and the incon- venience which all wiU suffer if a strike is inaugurated on the rail- roads. But I ask you gentlemen — ^we have got to live as the Republic of the United States when that strike is over and is a part of his- tory — shall we then find upon the statute books of the United States a law that for one moment declares that a man may not fold his arms and say, "I will not work," or find that when he and two or more others shall agree that they will fold their arms, that thereby they have become criminals and liable to be tried and convicted and sentenced to imprisonment ? Such a condition is intolerable and in conflict with the principles of a free repubhc. Some years ago I had occasion to speak with a gentleman, a man of splendid attainment, high in the affairs of our country's thought. I have no hesitancy in mentioning his name here. His name is Mr. Theodore Marburg, of Baltimore, Md. He and I had occasion to go to a meeting of the National Civic Federation to be held in New York City, and on the road he and I talked about compulsory arbitration. He talked about estoppage of work, strikes; that they TIIEEATENED STRIKE OF EAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 49 ought to be done away with, discussing them from an industrial aiid a human standpoint and from a legal standpoint, from the standpoint of human rights. I asked him this question: "Mr. Marburg, is it not true after all what you want to accomplish by this species of laws is that you will tie the men to their tasks and compel them to work whether they will it or not?" He repHed, "Well, that is the lan- guage in which you have put it, but that is the purpose." This statement was not merely a private conversation between Mr. Marburg and myself, for at the meeting of the National Civic Fed- eration, within a day or two afterwards, I repeated the question and the answer m his presence and asked him whether I had correctly reported him, and he answered that I had reported him accurately. Now, gentlemen, I trust that this legislation will not be enacted hy the Congress of the United States. It is too serious a question. It is so fundamentally repugnant to every conception of human liberty that the Congress of the United States should stay its hand and not attempt to go back — go back to conditions prevailing before the proclamation of independence and the adoption of the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States abolishing human slavery. 1 hold in my hand a copy of the dissenting opinion of the late Associate Justice Harlan in the Arago case — it was in the case of seamen and the right of seamen to leave vessels when their vessels were in safe harbor, and the Supreme Court decided that they had no such right. I shall not take your time by reading it. I ask that it may be incorporated in the record at this time. The Chairman. That order will be made. (The dissenting opinion referred to is here printed in full, as follows :) Mr. Justice Harlan dissenting: _ The appellants shipped on the American bartentine Arago, having previously signed articles whereby they undertook to perform the duties of seamen during a voyage of that vessel from San Francisco (quotin" from the record) "to Knappton, State of Washington,- and thence to Valparaiso, and thence to such other foreign ports • as the master may direct, and return to a port of discharge in .the United States." The vessel was engaged in a purely private business. As stated in the opinion of the court,. the appellants left the vessel at Astoria, Oreg., without the consent of the master, having Been dissatisfied with their employment. The grounds of such dissatisfaction are not stated. Upon the application of the master, a justice of the peace at Astoria, Oreg., pro- ceeding under sections 4596 to 4599 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, issued a warrant for the arrest of the appellants. They were seized, somewhat as runaway slaves were in the days of slavery, and committed to jail without bail, "until the Arago was ready for sea." After remaining in jail some 16 days, the^ were taken by the marshal and placed oil board the Arago against their will. While on board they refused to turn to or to work in obedience to the orders of the master. Upon the arrival of the barkentine at San Francisco they were arrested for having refused to work on the vessel, and committed tor trial upon that charge. If the placing of the appellants on board the Arago at Astoria against their will was illegal, then their refusal to work while thus forcibly held on the vessel could not be a criminal offense, and their detention and subsequent arrest for refusing to work while the vessel was going from Astoria to San Francisco were without authority of law. The question therefore is, whether the appellants, having left the vessel at Astoria, no matter for what cause, could lawfully be required against their will to return to it, and to render personal services for the master. The Government justifies the proceedings taken against the appellants at Astoria by sections 4596, 4598, and 4599 of the Revised Statutes of the United States. By section 4596 it is provided : "Sec. 4596. Whenever any seaman who has been lawfully engaged, or any ap- prentice to the sea service, commits any of the following offenses, he shall be punish- -6034X°— S, Doc, 549, 64-1- 50 THREATENED STRIKE OF BAILWAT EMPLOYEES, able as follows: First. For desertion, by imprisonment for not more than three months, and by forfeiture of all or any part of the clothes or effects he leaves on board, and ot all or any part of the wages or emoluments which he has then earned. Second. J^or neglecting and refusing, without reasonable cause, to join his vessel, or to proceed to sea in his vessel, or for absence without leave at any time withm twenty-Jour hours ot the vessel sailing from any port, either at the commencement or during the progress ot any voyage; or for absence at any time srithout leave, and without sutticient ""eason, from his vessel, or from his duty, not amounting to desertion, or not treated as such by tlie master; by imprisonment for not more than one month, and also, at the discretion of the court, by forfeiture of his wages, of not more than two days' pay, and, for every twentv-four hours oi absence, either a sum not exceeding six days Pay, or any ex- penses which have been properlv incurred in hiring a substitute. Third. For quitting the vessel without leave after her arrival at her port of delivery, and before she is placal in security, by forfeiture out of his wages of 'not more than one month s pay. i ourth. For willful disobedience to any lawful command, by imprisonment for not more than twto months, and also, at the discretion of the court, by forfeiture out of his wages of not more than four days' pay. Fifth. For continued willful disobedience to lawful commands, or continued willful neglect of duty, by imprisonment for not more than six months, and also, at the'discretion of the court, by forfeiture, for every twenty-four hoiu-s' continuance of such disobedience or neglect, of either a sum not more than twelve days' pay, or sufficient to defrav any expenses whicb have been properly incurred in hiring a substitute. Sixth. For assaulting any master or mate, bv imprisonment for not more than two years. Seventh. For combining with any others of the crew to disobey lawful commands, or to neglect duty, or to impede navigation of the vessel, or the progress of the voyage, by imprisonment for not more than twelve months. * * *" These provisions are brought forward from the act of June 7, 1872 (c. 322, sec. 51, 17 Stat., 273). Section 4598 provides: "Sec. 4598. If any seaman who shall have signed a contract to perform a voyage shall, at any port or place, desert, or shall absent himself from such vessel, without leave of the master, or officer commanding in the absence of the master, it shall be lawful f the one or the other side, of the de- clared opinion or judgment of a disinterested board of investigation. Now, gentlemen, I nave taken more time than I intended to upon this matter. All that I wished to get before the committee at this time was the suggestion that there has been at all times a willingness upon the part of the railroad companies to have this matter heard, decided, enforced, and carried out in an orderly manner. That has been the position we have assumed from the outset. The problem as it has confronted us has seemed to us to be one so fimdamentally affecting the rights and interests of the people's transportation that those people had a right to know what the facts were on which the judgment of the board of arbitration or the judgment of the tribunal rested, and the suggestion that was made here that certaia small lines have been excluded from the arbitration is unfair, and I want, for one, to make reference to that. I know that certain roads did not give a power of attorney to the conference managers to represent them in this concerted movement. I never heard until this morning that any one of those roads have declined to arbitrate with you. Mr. Gaeretson. What roads ? Mr. Sheean. Any of the roads in this movement. The proposition was whether a small road having a schedule fitted to its local con- ditions should or should not join in the general concerted movement where it was proposed to lay down a hard and fast rule that would govern all roads alike and impose absolutely fixed, uayielding restric- tions upon all of them, or would deal with men upon that line and negotiate the schedule which fitted the local conditions of that road. Now, it may be true, I do not know, that there has been a declina- tion to arbitrate, but so far as I have heard, the announcement made this morning as to certain small roads, having been excluded from the feneral movement, had declined to arbitrate, was the first time I had eard that statemeat. THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 97 Just one other suggestion and then I am through. The suggestion was aJso made, as I remember, about arbitrating the ownership of a house which they abeadj own. I will state that this eight-hour day they have not upon a single road in the form here proposed, in the Umted States. They were not willing to arbitrate any of the ques- tions that were raised by counter proposals submitted on behalf of the managers, and leave the impression here that their attitude was that they were willing to arbitrate or have passed upon their own demands. I call your attention, gentlemen, to a statement riven out to the Associated Press by the United States Board of Mediation and Con- ciliatio.n at the time the negotiations broke. It is dated August 13, 1916: After repeated efforts to bring about an arbitration in the pending contrsversy be- tween the railroads aqd their employees in train and yard service, the United States Board of Mediation and Conciliation was to-day advised by representatives of the employees that they would not submit the matters in dispute to arbitration in any form. The employees further stated to the board that they would not arbitrate their own demands even if the contingent demands of the railroads were withdrawn, and also declined to suggest any other plan or method for a peaceful settlement of the controversy. Now, I want to say, gentlemen, in closing, that there is now on be- half of the committee with whom I have been associated for the last month or so the same feeUng of appreciation for the men represented by the four leaders upon the other side — a feehng that these men and these managers are some day going to work together again no matter what may be the outcome here. I want to say that it does seem to all of these managers that a difference over the rate of pay — because, gentlemen, the title of the axrt, on the first hne of the act now under consideration, shows that it is for the purpose of reckoning the com- pensation for services and for that alone — that a disptte arising over the reckoning of compensation naturally ought to be passed upon calmly and deliberately without threat on either side, and that the railroads and their managers have confidence, and they have always had confidence, that these men could be treated fairly and would be treated fairly, and ask only at this time whether it be by Congress or by some unpartial body that oppoitunity for consideration of all of the facts, in keeping with the course of conduct that has ordinarily been characteristic and typical of the leaders of these men — be per- mitted in this case so that reason, judgment, and intelligent under- standing should be the basis of settlement rather than a settlement enacted under threat or suggestion that that alone is the thing that will prevent a national calamity. Senator Beandegee. Mr. Sheean, let me ask you this : You appear to be familiar with this business, This biU on the first line of the first page proposes to make these provisions apply to the passenger as well as to the freight traffic. There has been nothing said about the passenger traffic. What effect would it have on it if this bill were passed ; what is the necessity for appljdng it to the passenger traffic ? Are there more than eight-hour runs ia the passenger service of the coimtry? Mr. Sheean. No; the longest that I know of — that is on the basis of pay ; there are some that are longer ia time ; some of those long local or accommodation trains that they have ia the Far West — 60341°— S. Doc. 549, 64-1 7 98 THEEATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. but the speed basis, 6 hours and 40 minutes of the western award, I think, is the lowest speed basis. Mr. Gareetson. There is no through traffic that is affected by it. Mr. Sheean. There is no through traffic that is affected by it. The Senator was asking about the word "persons," on line 10. I suggested last evening that I thought by the time your eagle eye had gone over this tnat the word "persons" would be taken out of it. Mr. Garretson. I had my eagle eye on it, but I did not see very well. Mr. Sheean. Answering the question, I think in view of the pro- visions of section 3 that it should be not less than the present day. I do not think anybody would be affected by the enactment of tms law. Senator Brandegee. One reason for my suggesting the question was that there are other provisions in the bill T^ch provide that the report of the wage commission be filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission, ana it shall then be the duty of the Interstate Commerce Commission to consider the question of raise in freight rates, and I wanted to know whether if the roads earning principafly from the pas- senger business and not from freight, whether they were to have the opportunity to have the commission raise the passenger rates as well as the freight rates. I wanted to be informed in general upon that. Mr. Sheean. Yes; I would prefer to let Mr. Thom answer any of these questions, because, frankly, I have given no consideration to this bill, except the general thought that if a program suggested here by the Chief Executive was necessary as an emergency program , reason- ably necessary to meet all of the circumstances of the present case, that it would seem in keeping with that program that the entire sug- gestion, when" interwoven with the others of the various bUls would be- essential' to accomplish the purpose of the emergency legislation, and I had not attempted to analyze specially the provisions of the bill. I had noticed that the word "persons" appeared on the first page, and had suspected that it might oe suggested on the other side that the passenger men not being mvolved there was no reason why that word should remain in the bill. Mr. Garretson. Mixed trains pay freight-train rates. Senator Brandegee. I want to correct myself. Everybody understands that, this is not a bill. It is simply a draft of bill which may become the basis of a proposition. Senator Lewis. May I ask a question ? What is the attitude of the railroads, if they have expressed any, as to whether this eight- hour provision shall apply to switchmen, freight handlers, and section men ? Would that also entail additional loss ^o them if the eight- hour doctrine were carried through the whole service ? Mr. Sheean. Unquestionably. > Senator Lewis. As applicable to one set of the service, would it not be applicable to the others ? , T ^' ?^^^■^^^ ^^ ^°^ "^^^ pardon me, this suggested bill is not at all, I think, a biU which the railroads would recommend as a fair and proper bill, seeking as it does, upon its face simply to fix the wages of a certain class of employees. But replying directly to the question you asked, if the same day, or basic day, were extended to aU of the other employees covered by THREATENED STiaKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 99 your inquiry, undoubtedly the $60,000,000 involved in this, with these four organizations, would become a very small amount as a cost added to the transportation." The Chairman. What would the estimate of the additional cost in ' the contingency that Senator Lewis refers to ? Mr. Sheean. Mr. Chairman, I am not satisfied with the figures which were suggested to me as showing something Uke $250,000,000, and for . this reason : It seemed to me in the carrying out of a per- centage to the other class of employees we were assuming that the per- centage and the pay rate would be necessarily aflEected in the same way. That IS subject to some question, and you would require an analysis, a very careful analysis, of just what the time was. For mstance, some of the shops now hsive a nine-hour day and others an eight- hour day. It is not a safe percentage to apply. It is a factor merely in the total average. But on that estimate it would run to something like $250,000,000. The Chairman. I would like to ask Mr. Lee a question. Mr. Lee, how many men have all the raikoadg in the country in their employ ? Mr. Elisha Lee. Both passenger and freight? The Chairman. Yes. Senator Robinson. Do you mean as affected by this legislation? The Chairman. No; all of the railroads, including plerks, and everybody employed, except those employed in construction. Mr. Elisha Lee. I am informed 1,700,000. I did not have the figures in my head. The Chairman. How many are embraced in this bill ? Mr. Elisha Lee. Aroimd 300,000. The OaAiRMAN. That would be a little less than one-fifth of the whole nmnber ? Mr. Elisha Lee. Yes, sir; between one-fifth and one-sixth'. , The Chairman. What is the sum total paid to aU the employees of the companies ? Mr. Elisha Lee. As I remember the figures, $1,000,300,000; some- thing of that sort. Mr. Garretson. One bilhon three hundred and eighty-one thou- sand. The Chairman. I wiU ask, Mr. Lee, if you have made any estimates of the effect of the wage cost of the roads the estimates of the basic eight-hour day with reference to all employees of the roads, woidd have ? Mr. Elisha Lee. Do you mean if aU the employees of the roads were put on an eight-hour basis ? The Chaijiman. Yes. Mr. Elisha Lee. I have not made a study of that, Senator. Senator Brandegee. Let me ask you this question : This bill or this proposal purports to apply this basic day for the purpose of reck- oning compensation for service to those actually engaged in the work of operating trains and transportation business or property of the rail- roads. Does your estimate mclude yardmen and switchmen ? Mr. Elisha Lee. Yes, sir; not passenger. Everything but passen- fer service. The passenger service is not included in our estimates. am not clear in my own mind whether that means passengers or not, but our estima'tes did not include passengers. The Chairman. Gentlemen, I will state that you have 55 minutes remaining. Mr. Thom, please proceed. 100 THBEATENED STEIKE OF EAILWAY EMPLOYEES. STATEMENT OF MR. AIFEED P. THOM OF THE RAILWAY EXECUTIVES COMMITTEE. Mr. Thom. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, there is no place in this high presence for partisan or acrimonious debate. A very high responsiliility rests upon those who to-day address this committee to endeavor to place before them all the facts that wUl be illuminating so that in the calm light of reason the great issues here involved may be decided.. There is no necessity to emphasize the situation with which this country is confronted. It is in every man's mind. It is serious enough to have been presented to Congress in a special message by the President of the United States. It is serious enough to cause Congress to determine to delay its adjournment so that it may deal in some efl&cient way with the problems here involved and thus avert a great national disaster. It is proper for those entrusted with this responsibility now to understand the attitude of the parties who have heretofore been in contention, and it is the duty of those who speak for these contend- ing parties to lay aside every thought except to put before this high judicial body the facts and the motives which have actuated and con- trolled them. I shall try to supplement somewhat — although supple- ment hardly seems necessary — the views which have already been presented on the side of the railroads, and at the outset I wish to call attention to the facts which Judge Lovett presented to you to indicate the fiduciary capacity in which these railroad men stand to the issues which are here mvolved. It must be recognized that they do not represent themselves or any controlling private interest of their own, but it must likewise be realized that they are clothed with very great and very serious re- sponsibilities to the most vital interests of the whole people. In the first place, as I have said, they stand as fiduciaries for fair treatment to their employees of every grade. They stand as fiduci- aries to see that the jjroper wage fund, whatever it is, is not unduly absorbed by any special part of these employees, and that one does not unduly absorb the available earnings which they have, and which must be appUed to other legitimate and useful purposes. They are fiduciaries also for the great pubhc. It is their respon- sibility to see that the transportation facilities of this country are adequate and that they are furnished to the people on a reason- able basis, and it is their further fiduciary duty to see that those who have invested their means in these enterprises and who have supphed the transportation facilities of this Nation receive a fair and reasonable return upon their investments. I pause here, Mr. Chairman, to say that this latter duty, the duty to see that their money invested in these transportation facilities receives a fair return, is not a duty simply to the owners of their securities. It far tran- scends the interest of the man who is a bondholder or stockholder, because the obligation of these gentlemen is to continue the furnishing of these facilities and to improve and add to theija as the public needs may demand, and unless there is a fair return upon the money invested, at once there is an impossibility created to get any new money and to continue the furnishing of these additional securities. THREATENED STRIKE OP RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 101 So that the question of dividends and the question of whether there shall be returns on the investment does not stop with the security holders. It far transcends in public importance any private interest, and goes to the question of whether or not there shall be a credit Created and maintained which wiU enable these railroad managers to do their duty and to continue to increase and improve all their facilities as the commerce of the country may demand. So you can not speak fairly of dividends as a private interest in this connection. You can not say we had just as soon receive our wages, as I have heard some of these gentlemen saj, from roads in the hands of receivers as from any other source. You can not say that these gentlemen sitting on the other side of the table represent- ing labor are not interested themselves in the maintenance of a proper rate of return upon those investments, because the continu- ance of their labor, the success of the enterprise of which they are a part, and the facilities of the coimtry all depend upon the estabhsh- ment and maintenance of the dividends and returns on the investment which is made in these properties to a reasonable and attractive extent. Now, confronted with those obligations, confronted with this high fiduciary duty, these railroad presidents came to the conclusion that to grant this request would prejudice the performance of every one of me others of their public duties. They believe that the amount involved here in the eight-hour day alone amounts to at least $60,000,000 a year. That is their behef . Now, confronted with that responsibility, confronted with the obhgation of performing their duties, believing that the amount involved is at least $60,000,000 a year, with the tie-up of over $1,200,000,000 capital, and the taking of that amount from the improvement fund that the railroads might have to add to their faciUties, confronted with that, I say, what must be their attitude; what would the consciences of you gentlemen say should have been their attitude? Should they voluntarily concede a result which in their conscience they beheve would prejudice the performance of every one of these nigh duties? But with those views, and conscientiously convinced— with those views passed into the region of convictions — they do not insist that they should be received without question or that they should be accepted without question either by the public or by the representatives of their labor — wiey said, "Here is a situation big enough, with consequences far- reaching enough, to be determined by somebody that is not interested. We do not demand the right to determine the question; we do not think that any other interested party ought to claim the right to determine that question. We think it ought to be determined by the enlightehed consciences of impartial men." ^oiat was the first proposition that was made, and that was the proposition which my friends here dechned. We were told that an eight-hour day was not an arbitrable question. We were told that the judgment of society had already accepted it and it could not longer be arbitrated. We answered to that that these gentlemen would not have an eight-hour day; that they never demanded it,^ and that they would not accept it if it was tendered to them. For every eight- hour day which has passed under the review of the judgment of this country has had a humanitarian object and has not been regarded as a means simply of increasing wages for hours that should remain 102 THEEATENED STRIKE OB" RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. unchanged. The child-labor bill — I do not mean the recent bill — but the child-labor laws, the female-labor laws, all restricted the hours of labor. There is no restriction here of the hours of labor, and if there was, and if my friends were not allowed to work more than eight hours in a day they themselves, as Mr. Fitzpatrick said in that article, would not consider it. That is the first answer. The second answer that we made is that an eight-hour day for men in the train service has never been recommendeaby any executive authority to any legislative body in this country. It has never been adopted by any legislative body in this country. It has never been adopted by any party platform in this country, but on the contrary where .the question was presented and considered of an eight-hour day, the pro- vision in the platform carefully limited it to Government employees; and did not apply it throughout the industrial world or to the tram, service, and the last expression on the subject made by anybody is found in the act of 'Congress which I now hold in my hand m which section 2 — I refer to the Newlands Act — ^it is declared that hours of labor are a fair sub j ect of arbitration. Now, under those circumstances, are these executives to be con- demned because they considered an eight-hour day, even if consid- ered alone, as a fair subject of arbitration ? But this proposition was not for that kind of an ei^ht-hour day. There was a corollary attached to it, and that corollary was that there should be 10 hours' pay for 8 hours' work; that there should be ten-tenths of pay and eight-tenths of work. We say that subject was certainly a fair subject of arbitration. The amount of pay which should be given for this shorter day— and the yardstick of work had been 10 hours— suppose it had been cut to five, my friends would not have argued that they should receive the same pay for five hours work. Now, it is cut to eight in the proposition, and it simply reduces itself to this, that the yardstick which measures wprk shall not be the standard yardstick, but shall be reduced in length so there may be more yards to be paid for and that the shorter yard shall be paid for at the price of the standard yard*. Is, or is not, that a fair subject for arbitration ? Is, or is it not, to be a fair charge against these railroad managers that, confronted with that they claimed the right of having that enormous question determined not by themselves, and not by these gentlemen who are claiming the benefit of it, but by an impartial board of arbitration that should be appointed ra any way that was thought proper by the constituted authorities of this country. But that was denied. Confronted with that situation, confronted also with these fiduciary duties, all of which in, their judgment would have been prejudiced by the accep- tance of this view, these railroad managers went further, and sug- gested that an inquiry should be made into the fact, reported to Con- gress, and the answer of the railroads should be given in the light of the facts which would then be undisputed, when we would Know whether our estimate of $60,000,000 was correct, when we would know whether that was an undisputed fact, and the answer to this import- ant matter should be given in the hght of those imdisputed facts. That was riot satisfactory. But our friends say that they will not accept arbitration, and in the public press they give the reason, that this IS a class question and a class question can not be arbitrated. To say that is to indict the Nation, because the proposition is not XHEEATENED STBIKE OB" RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 103 that we shall appoint the arbitrators, not that our friends shall appoint the arbitrators, but that the President of the United States shall appoint the arbitrators, and if society can not find a possible way of settling these disputes on some just basis, and they must be relegated to settlement by force, then society has broken down and there is no such spirit of fairness in this Nation as will enable it to exist. You have heard also the other proposition that was made that we would keep all our accounts on the basis of an eight-hour day, have a commission appointed by the President to say what was right after reviewing all the facts, and we woidd act from the beginnmg in accordance with that suggestion. Now, gentlemen, I call your consciences to witness whether or not there is in this attitude any purpose whatever to deny human right or to deal arbitrarily with anyone on the demands or the rights of these laboring people. What is the alternative to this pe^iceful method that has been suggested ? Our friends have repHed that the only alternative is force, and they have put their strilse order out before the people. When asked here what other suggestions they have to' make they stand mute and make no suggestions. So that the question confronting the Senate of the United States and the people of the United States is whether or not the contention is to be conciured in; that when demands are made by people powerful enough to force their acceptance, this Nation stands helpless in the face of such demands, and, right or wrong, they must be, conceded. Is that govern- ment? Is that socisS organization? Is it a government which has means of equitable decisions in controversies between the classes that constitute society? Must there mot be somewhere strength enough and wisdom enough and fairness enough that when a class declares it is oppressed, its demands may be measured by some peace- ful, fair, and competent tribunal and granted or denied on their merits? Or must we be relegated to the irresponsible and imregu- lated power of organizations of private citizens strong, enough to enforce upon society their demands ? Now, what confronts us to-day ? What is the situation before us ? A crisis has arisen important enough for the President of the United States to come to Congress and to present a reconmiendation hx the pubUc interests. He says that the five measures here constitute the remedy — or six measures constitute the remedy. When in that solemn way from the head of our social fabric, after weeks of con- sideration, that reconamendation is received, Congress is denied the right for time to dehberate upon the merits of the question and are t(3d, as we are told, "You must surrender before next Monday, sur- render your constitutional right to deliberation in legislation and to the establishment of peacefullaws, or this nation wiU be plunged into the calamity of starvation and ruin in order that the views of a few may triiimph. Now, is that a fair position ? Is that a position that can receive the approval of disinterested and patriotic men ? Can you permit your constitutional right to legislate for the general welfare to be held up by the demand that if you do not legislate and legislate in a particular way by next Monday this Nation shall be plimged into ruia and the calamity of imiversal suffering shall be put upon the people ? 104 THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. I hope mjr friends will not persist in any such attitude. I hope they will reheve this Congress from the threat of this great calamity, and enablis you to go to your chamber and deliberate what should be done, and I pledge you for those I represent that whatever may be the resiilt of your conclusion they will loyally and at Once accept it. Now in pursuance of this demand, which I feel my friends can not justify, they say to you, Do not adopt the program of the President. Throw out of it everything that we do not want or there will be a strike next Monday. Give us the eigfit-hour day, that is what we want. Give us the investigation. That we do not care about, but throw out every possible safeguard that this crisis shall never arise again. Do not touch that. That is their- demand. Every other interest in this country is prohibited from making a combination in restraint of trad©. These gentlemen, if engaged in business, could not make a combination in restraint of trade, but they object to the limitations upon them that they shall not make .a Com- bination in restraint of trade to last until the Kepublic can be infoi^med of the merits of the controversy, and then the prohibition against the restraint be removed. is this American Nation to be from time to time, from month to month, and from year to year, confronted again with this great menace to its peace and to its prosperity ? Are the homes of the American people, those not interested on the side of the railroads and those not interested on the side of labor, are they to be rendered insecure; is living to be made harder; are the comforts of life to be menaced, and is life itself to be threatened because of the im- possibility of continuing this transportation business ? Is all that to continue to be done? The President of the United States tells you in his message that ought not to continue. You, gentlemen, in your hearts, know it ought not to continue. And yet you are told, with all the force that comes from a splendid organization, led with the capacity which you have seen illustrated here to-day, that unless you give up all thought of securing the future peace of this country and letting men pursue their honest pursuits, without fear of unregulated and irresponsible power, that next Monday all these calamities will be put upon the people and that Congress must render its judgment if that judgment be contrary to the views which these gentlemen entertain. Is that right? Is that government ? Is that order and regulated society, or is it anarchy ? Is it the reign of law or is it the reign of force? And what must the conscientious conclusion of all our people be? What must be the conclusion of these gentlemen when they awake from this bad dream which now has them in its grasp? What would be their conclusion if the railroad managers were de- termined to withhold from and repudiate arbitration and to deter- mine to make the public suffer by an interruption of transportation — what would be their judgfnent oi the attitude of these railroad mana- gers ? Would Congress wait a moment in putting the hard mailed hand of governmental power upon them and telling them they must come back to the performance of their duties? And is there any reason why what would be justice and what would be justified in their case should not be done, even when- they are not the parties who are threatening the peace of this country, but others more powerful, THBEATENED STEIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYilES. 105 the people who have put out the strike vote and decline to withdraw it in order that Congress may proceed in an orderly way to determine what legislation this country ought to have ? Now, gentlemen, that is the situation. That is the issue. It has gotten far beyond the question of the rights of the railroads or the rights of labor. It has gotten to the question of whether or not the Government is competent to meet a situation which brings strain upon it and to continue to preserve the peace and welfare of this Nation. Senator Cdmmins. Mr. Thom, I wish to ask you a question. I did not quite catch your conclusion about one point. Do you advocate the passage of > all the measures that have been proposed by the President ? Mr. Thom. I do not hke some of them, but I think in the present emergency all ought to be passed, but I do not think some ought to be passed and some left out. Senator Lewis. Is it your view, Mr, Thom, may I assume that you mean to infer or to express to Senator Cummins that, for instance, if we pass the eight-hour law, should we pass that, that that should also be followed by what you call the guardianship against future possi- bilities by the passage of the law known as the arbitration law? Mr. Thom. Yes, sir; and should also be followed by the bill making compensation so far as need to these railroads for what this will be found to be the cost to them. Senator Lewis. You would have all the measures passed as a single system of reUef ? Mr. Thom. I think it ought to be as a single system if any of it is to -be passed. Senator Pomeeene. It was suggested here in one c/i the arguments made to-day that a certain portion of these roads could afford to pay this increase and certain others could not. Have you investigated that subject sufficiently to be able to tell us what portion of these roads could afford to pay this increase and certain others could not. Have you investigated that subject sufficiently to be able to teU us what portion could and what could not ? Mr. Thom. No, sir; I have been on the outskirts of this Whole busi- ness. I do not know. The Chairman. That concludes, I believe, the side of the railway managers, does it not, Mr. Thom ? Mr. Thom. Yes, sir. The Chairman. We will now hear from the shippers and from the consuming public. I believe there was one Mr. Robinson who re- quested a few minutes to speak regarding the short lines. Mr. Robinson. You have before you two parties who have well defined issued before them. 1 represent a> class of roads that are not involved in that controversy for the reason that our employees have made no demands and were not in touch with the brotherhoods. Un- der those circumstances I ask that I may be heard after you have finished with the parties who are in the contest so I may point out what exceptions ought to be made in our behalf. May I appear at that time f I prefer not to get between the parties who have dhect issues before them. The Chairman. I see no objection to that course. 106 THREATENED STRIKE OP RAILWAY EMPLOTEES. Mr. Garretson. What short road combination is this ? Is it a bunch of sinall industrial roads that were excluded imder certain Interstate Commerce Commission decisions ? Can you tpll me ? The Chairman. I really do not khow the nature of the roads. Mr. Garretson. Roads industrial iu their nature and the property mostly of industrial plants, is that what the gentleman represents ? Mr. Robinson. That is not what I represent. I represent the short-line railroads running, anywhere from 25 to 300 miles. Some of them may be more or less industrial roads, but the great majority of them are real common carriers, holding independent- Mr. Garretson. Are any of them represented in these demands ? Mr. Robinson. Not so far as I know. We have about 125 rail- roads and have had no demands made upon them by the brotherhoods. The Chairman. And your purpose is to see that the law does not include you ? , Mr. Robinson. That is my object, and my statement I shall make will be for that purpose. Mr. Garretson. Can you require a list of those roads to be filed with you ? The Chairman. Yes, certainly. Mr. Garretson. Then we can determine whether or not demands have been presented there or whether they properly come under the same class as some roads that are represented by the managera' com- mittee, or conference committee, and whether there is dualrepresen- tation here. The Chairman. I have no doubt the gentleman when- he presents his case will state the roads for which he appears. We wiU now hear from the shippers, and I wiU ask what arrange- ment has been made regarding the time amongst them. I think I have a statement here that Mr. Goodwin, of the Chamber of Commerce, will ask for 10 minutes; Mr. Barlow, of the Association of Commerce, Chicago, win ask for 30 minutes; Mr. Lamb, who represents general clients, 20 miautes; Mr. Walter, 30 minutes; Mr. Cray, 10 minutes; Mr. French, 5 minutes; Mr. Emej-y, 20 minutes; Mr. Wilson, 15 minutes. ' We wiU'hear from Mr. Goodwin. STATEMENT OF MR. ELLIOT H. GOODWIM", OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES. The Chairman. Will you state what organization you represent ? Mr. Goodwin. I am general secretary of the Chamber of Com- merce of the United States. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the' committee, I ask your patience to state the interests which the Chamber of Commerce of the United States has in this controversy. 'The controversy was in the air at the time of the annual meeting of the Chamber of Com- merce of the United States in Washington last February. It was discussed there by 1,000 or more delegates, who realized how serious it would become if this matter was permitted to come io a crisis, and a representative committee to study all phases of it and to seek some form of remedy on behalf of the pubhc and the shippers was ap- pointed. That committee; with its chairman, Mr. Harry A. Wheeler, of Chicago, a former president of. the Chamber of Commerce of the THBEATENED STRIKE OE RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 107 United States, has been at work since last March keeping closely in touch with everything that has happened. A report was put before us by that committee unanimously recommending an investigation of all the facts bearing upon this controversy by the Interstate Commerce Commission, and before that recommendation was sub- mitted to Congress it was submitted to all the commercial organiza- tions affiliated with the national chambers throughout tlie United States. The number of those organizations to-day is 800, and at the time the recommendation was submitted it was well over 700. Forty-five days were allowed them to vote, and the vote in favor of the proposi- tion was almost unanimous. We came to Congress, and the chairman of this committee introduced it as Senate joint resolution No. 145. Gentlemen, it is an absolute rule of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States that no one can attempt to say a word f Of it except when that word has just been submitted and approved by our constituent members, either through their representatives in meeting or through a referendimi as conducted in this case. I have said the number of the chambers is 800 commercial bodies, and I will say that the number of members, firms and individuals that belong to those chambers, is well over 300,000. The imderlying principle of that referendum is what we have to present to-day as holding perfectly sound to the committee which is considering the legislation which has been proposed by the President. I am here to represent the chamber because of the very brief notice which it was possible for your committee to give of this hearing. It was -telegraphed to the chairman of oiu- committee, Mr. Wheeler, in Chicago, who was unable, because of shortness of time, to come. The president of the chamber was called upon and could not come for the same reason. Members of the railroad committee have been here, and this slratement, fully authorized and supported by the vote of the chambers throughout the country, is presented to your committee as the recommendation on the legislation which is before you for consideration. It is as follows: The Chamber of Cominerce of the United States urges Congress at the present mo- ment to do two things and no more: First, to provide immediately for a prompt, thor- ^ ough, and impartial investigation pf all facts relevant to the present raJroad contro- versy. Second, to command the brotherhoods and the railroads to suspend all action in the nature of a strike or lockout pending such investigation. No facts are as yet i established on which further action can be intelligently taken. The rights of the pub- lic are paramount. Equal justice to all parties can be secured without industrial warfare. The supreme duty of Congress is to protect the country from a disaster for which there can be no possible ju5;ification. This is respectfully submitted on behaH of the chamber by Mr. Weed, representing the special committee on the railroad situation, and myself as general secretary. I wish, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, merely to add one word, and that is that Mr. Weed was called away* He is the president of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, one of our members, and one of those ■ who voted on this proposition, and he wired me to put on record the Boston Chamber of Commerce in favor of the recommendations he ■ submitted. ; Senator Pomeebne. Pardon me, but my attention was diverted. Did I imderstand you to say that was submitted to the vote of the chambers of commerce ? 108 THEEATElfED STKIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES, Mr. Goodwin. Yes, sir. Senator Pomeeene. When was it taken ? ■ Mr. Goodwin. It closed June 9. Senator Thompson. You mean the membership, the 800 members ? Mr. Goodwin. Yes, sir. Senator Pomeeene. They did not then know of this pending legislation ? Mr. Goodwin. No, sir; we are acting now on what they recom- mended at that time. Senator Pomeeene. They could not have had this legislation before them, so they have expressed no opinion with respect to it ? Mr. Goodwin. That is true. We are advertising what they said then and what stiQ holds .good, that an investigation of all the vital issues should underhe a determination of any of those vital issues. ■ The Chairman. Is that all, Mr. Goodwin? Mr. Goodwin. That is all, yes, sir; thank you. The Chaieman. Mr. Goodwin has had six minutes. We wiU now hear from Mr. Barlow, representing the Association of Commerce, of Chicago. STATEMENT OP MR. HENRY C. BARIOW, REPRESENTING THE ASSOCIATION OF COMMERCE, CHICAGO. ILL. Mr. Barlow. I am traffic director for the Chicago Association of Commerce. That association comprises approximately 4,000 mem- bers — ^manufacturers, jobbers, retailers, lawyers, physicians, and every- one interested in the commercial, civic, industrial, ^and other devel- ' opment of the city in which we reside. I reached Chicago yesterday morning at 11 o'clock. We received notice from this committee of this hearing at 12.20. I took a train at 12.40 and reached here this morning at half past 10. That is all the notice that the shippers of Chicago nave received of the hearing before your honorable body on this most important subject. Senator Lewis. Of course, Mr. Barlow recognizes that we have had very short notice ourselves. Mr. Barlow. I Appreciate that. I wish to dwell on that a little in my remarks. Something has been said here of the rights of the- corporations and the individuals. May I, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the conunittee, invite your attention to the fact that all civilization is placing on the altar of justice many of the individual rights that we possess, in order that the community at large may enjoy the greatest amount of freedom. We have taken away from the earners the right to operate their railroads and conduct their affairs as they think best, and we have placed that right in the national commission, known as the Interstate Commerce Commission, and I am here, in a humble capacity before you, this honorable committee, bringing you the message of the Association of Commerce, which is that we ■feel the time has come to require that all parties to this controversy shall, in the interests of humanity, in the interest of the hundred million of people in this country who must pay the bills, who must suffer the consequences of any overt act on the part of either party to this controversy, that tbey shall temporarily, at least, lay the rights which they claim on the table until this Congress has the time t6^ THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 109 make a complete study of the requirements of this most extraordinary situation and make a report on it; that Congress may hear not only ■ from the 300,000 men engaged in railroad service, of which I have had the honor to be one for many years, and the 225 railroad companies, who are primarily the parties to the controversy, but from the 100,000,000 people, a few of whom I am attemptmg to speak for, who must suffer the penalty, who must pay the bills. Now, no rights are forfeited or will be forfeited by an impartial study of this question that Congress may have before it, or of the facts upon which it can intelligently deal with this great problem. This is no time, if I may assume to state it, in the hurry of the present situa- tion, to undertake to deal with a question intelligently that goes to the very foundation of our present form of government, in my opinion. What does the pi-esent bUl propose, and I have in mind what we denominate the eight-hour bill ? Beginning at the fifteenth hne it provides that — Tte President shall transmit the report of the wage commission to the Interstate Commerce Commlsaion, which shall accept the findings of the>wage commission unless clearly erroneous, and upon these findings and such other facts as it may consider germane the Interstate Commerce Commission, within — days from the receipt of the report of the wage commission, shall reach a decision as to what extent, if any, the change in the sfamdard work day necessitates an increase in the- freight rates of the railways affected in' order to conserve their efficiency and secure a fair return of the capital invested. Let me digress just one moment. What freight rates ? Between 25 and 30 per cent of the freight traffic of this country is purely intrastate. One-third of the earnings of all the railway companies in this country is made up from the operation of passenger trains. Will the State of Iowa, wiU the State of Illinois, will the State of Ohio, grant an increase in freight rates, or must the small propor- tion in the total aggregate of the earnings of the railroad companies, made up from interstate-commerce eammgs, pay this entire bill ? If so, the speaker says it is an unjust discrimuiation in favor of State traffic and in opposition to and against interstate traffic. That is one of the important points in the speaker's opinion why this matter should receive very careful consideration at the hands of Congress. How is this tax, if it is to be imposed — and thp :;peaker believes that if the bill is passed and from .$60,000,000 to $200,000,000, what- ever it be, is added to the burdens of the railroads, and the consumers in this country must foot the biUs. How? How much wiU the State of loTra pay, the State of Ohio, the State of Illinois, or shall we create and enforce an imdue discrimination in favor of those States and tax 70 per cent of the interstate earnings of these companies, which is made up of freight earnings, less the amount of intrastate traffic, the residue to pay all the amount which must be raised to meet this issue? That is the question which I ask you, gentlemen, to take some action upon that will stop any overt act on the part of either party to this question until it can be fully studied by you gentlemen, determined to what extent, what are the facts, what is justice, what is propriety; let the people of the coimtry know it who must foot these bills; let us have our day in court as well as these honorable gentlemen and the railway carriers. 110 THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOTEES. Again, why should the passenger traffic be excluded from any payment of the bill when it falls (Sie ? It is said that this now only has reference to freight earnings, but we know, the speaker does, that in the intricate working out of railway pay more or less of this burden wiU fall upon passenger traffic, and the speaker feels con- vinced that the passenger business should pay its proportion. The Interstate Commerce Commission act provides that all rates shall be just and reasonable and none discriminatory, and the act further declares that all unjust and unreasonable and discriminato.iy rates are unlawful. Under the commerce act, embarrassed by this provision in this law proposed, can the Conunerce Comnlission, before which we as shippers must try our case (not before your honorable body), advance rates to meet the additional pay granted these m^n, be it right or wrong (the speaker is not discussing), providing it finds the present rates are in fact just and reasonable ? In other words, in the fulfillment of the provisions of this biU, can the Commerce Commission permit the railroads to practice extortion because they increased the pay of their men ? The speaker thinks not. Therefore, we bring this message to you from the 4,000 members of the Association of Commerce. Take some action now that will pre- vent any overt act on the part of either party to this controversy. Enter into a very careful and exhaustive investigation as to what is just and reasonable to both parties to this controversy, as also to the great body of consumers in this country, and when you have deter- mined those facts spread them broadcast, and then let all parties come to the controversy; let them come and discuss it, but do not, I beg of you, embarrass the Interstate Commerce Commission. That is the only body to which the shippers, the consumers, the manufactiu-ers can go under a resolution or a law that practically, on the face of it, requires them to meet this issue with an mcrease in rates, and it may be that the present rates are just and reasonable. Gentlemen, I will consimae no more of your time, and I thank you for your courtesy. The Chairman. We will now hear Mr. Lamo. STATEMENT OF MB. WILLIAM E. LAMB, OF CHICAGO, ILL. Mr. Lamb. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I have no doubt that I am in a great measure in the same position with Mr. Barlow by reason of the shortness of time of the notice that ship- pers and representatives of shippers would be heard here to-day. In my humble way I have been representing the shipping interests of the country for a number of years, and this question that seems to be presented now to the country is not so much whether the employees of the railroads shall be entitled to this increased pay as it is whether or not the shipping pubhc shall finally pay it. I have no doubt that my friend. Col. Thom, and the representatives of the rest of the rail- roads would be perfectly willing to avert this strike by agreeing to this increase in wages if they could the positively assured that the shipping pubhc would finally pay it. I do not say that in criticism, but I thmk that is the condition, because of the seriousness of the situation. Now we are waking up to the fact that we have an interest in this thing. Heretofore perhaps we were willing that the brotherhoods and the railroads should settle their difficulties without interference THEEATENED STRIKE OE RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. Ill on our part. But, as it appears now from the proposed bill, unless we say something in our own behalf we are likely to foot the biU; and notwithstanding what a very distinguished citizen of this country has said, that flie consiuner will finally pay it, I say from my own experience that I have plants that can not pass increased rates along to the consumer. They must stand it themselves. As to this first bill, the eight-hour bill, I am going to make a few remarks in regard to the second paragraph of the second section, commencing with line 15. It appears uiat the Interstate Commerce Commission, upon submission of this report to the wage commis- sion, must, imless the report is clearly erroneous, accept it as final and then, taking into account such other matters as it may deem proper, determine to what extent these increases in wages have mcreased the cost of operation and make increased freipit rates accordingly. The Chairman. You probably have not looked at the corrected biU. Mr. Lamb. I have the one marked "Corrected" on the outside, and I still think that my criticism is proper. The Chairman. What did you state with reference to the accept- ance of the Mr. Lamb. I will read the one I have, Mr. Chairman. That will remove all confusion. The President shall transmit the report of the wage commiasion to the Interstate Commerce Commission, which shall accept the fimdinga of the wage commission, unless clearly erroneous, and upon these findings and such other iacts as it may con- sider germane the Interstate Commerce Commission, within — days from the receipt of the report of the wage conmiission, shall reach a decision as to what extent, if any, the change in the' standard workday necessitates an increase in the freight rates of the railways affected in order to conserve their efficiency and secure a fair return on tiie capital invested. Has there been any change? The Chairman. Your statement is correct. You are reading from the so-called corrected bill, No. 1 ? Mr. Lamb. Yes, sir. The Chairman. But later on there was one which has been printed but not circulated. It revised the measures in that particular, and that is what I had in mind. You are quite correct in your statement; Mr. Lamb. Under the circumstances it would seem that sopae- body representing the shippers should have a chance to be heard upon the correctness of this report. What does it mean to say that somebody is clearly erroneous, and who is to determine it ? < Then again, if the Interstate Commerce Commission is to deter- mine whether it is clearly erroneous, upon what is it to determine? Is the Interstate Commerce Commission going to take this report into the privacy of its conference room and there discuss the report to determine whether or not it is clearly erroneous, or is it going to call before it parties who are advised in these matters so that the Interstate Commerce Commissibn may have before it the facts instead of the mere dispute ? On the other hand, is the bill going to Srovide that when this report is passed to the Interstate Commerce ommission the shippers will have an opportunity to be heard upon that question as they are entitled to be heard whenever an increase of freight rates is to take place ? And if the present provision of the law relating to hearings upon advanced rates pass as it is wiU not the 112 THEEATENED STEIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. Interstate Commerce Commission comes in at the end of its hearings and say, "But we had before us the report of the wage commission which said that these wages were justified and we find that this increased the cost of operation of the raih-oads so much that we must therefore increase these rates" ? I say that it is unfair to the shipping pubhc to suggest at this time that any of these matters should be fastened upon either the ship- , pars or the consuming pubhc imtil each side has had a chance, jand a fair chance, to be heard upon these questions. I do agree, however, with Judge Lovett, who spoke here in behalf of the raihoads, that if there is a power in this Congress to avert the present crisis that it ought to be exercised. I say that in view of the statement made by my friend Mr. Garretgon, that it is impossible at this late day to stop the strike by applying to the members of the various brotherhoods. I say that n there is a power in Congress to stop it, that power should be exercised. I do not think, however, the suggestions that are made here are the ones that will properly do that. There is not anything here, unless it is in the Pubhc Document No. 6 (the No. 2 which I have I have not had the chance to examine with the care I should hke to give to it), but there is not anything in any of the bills that wUl prevent the recurrence of a situation of this kiad. I recall, to go back into ancient history a httle ways, that when the 5 per cent advance rate case was up, one of the reasons given by a very prominent railroad official for the necessity for this in- crease was that a short time before the raihoad employees — I think some of these brotherhoods; I am not sure; I would not be positive as to that — ^had demanded and received from the raUroads a 6 per cent increase in their wages; that the railroads, after due deliberation, had felt the necessity of granting these demands rather than to sub- mit to the strike which they claimed was threatened and which they claim would have taken place. A gentleman, who was examining this witness, said to him: "You claim the necessity for this increase rests partly upon this demand of the labor organizations, and the granting oi that demand 1" He rephed, "I do." He was asked, "Wh.&t are you going to do if you get your 5 per cent increase and subsequently these labor organi- zations come to you and demand a further increase in wages and threaten you with a strike?" He said, "We wiU probably grant the increase."- "And then what are you going to do to overcome that?" "We are coming back to the Interstate Commerce Commission for an increase in freight rates." Apparently the suggestion made by the man who was asking the questions has come to pass. Now we claim, as shippers, that if any legislation is passed now it should be in the exercise of the fuU power of Congress to prevent such situations arising in the future, and I beheve with Judge Lovett that the power is in Congress to prevent these thinm. If legislation becomes necessary to prevent the strike, i do not beheve that it is essential at this time that any feature of the act to regulate commerce be regulated. There are many features of that law that require amendment in the interest of the public, but in the shortness of time that is now before us, requiring action, it would be improper, in my judgment, to undertake to pass hurriedly any of the proposed bills that amend the act to regulate commerce. That if any legislation takes place at this time it should be nothing more than THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 113 bills along the lines of the three that are hereby proposed, and as to the first one, with the suggestion of the chairman that it has been amended to meet one of the first conditions I have made, I do not feel it proper to pursue that line of remarks. But in any event I do not "feel that any of this legislation, such as is here, xmless it becomes necessary to stop this strike, that anything that would tend to increase the costs to shippers or to the consuming public should be entered into hastily, but that everyone should have the rmlest chance and opportunity to be heard upon these questions. Gentlemen, I thank you. The Chairman. Mr. Walter, we will hear from you. STATEMENT OF MR. lUTHER M. WAITER, ATTORNEY FOR THE NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL TRAFFIC LEAGUE. Mr. Walter. The league is an organization composed of boards of trade, traffic bureaus, individual shippers, and in the aggregate num- bers more than 200,000. They are vitally interested in what you may do here to-day. The time in which they might prepare to come before you has, as you know, been limited, as has ypur own, but there are two things of vital interest to the members of the National Industrial Traffic League. One relates to the Interstate Commerce Commission, the determmation of rates and the service which we shall have from the common carriers and their employees. The other relates to the eight-hour day. Mr. H. G. Wilson, the chairman of the legislative committee of the league, will conclude the argument on behalf of the shippers. I shml briefly direct my attention to two things. •First, I would remind you that after much deliberation you have created a committee whose purpose it is and whose duty it is to make a survey of the entire situation invqlved in what we have here and all other railroad matters going back for 30 years, including ■ among other things Government ownership ; that, yOu well know, wiU take months of time. That duty you can perform only after you get all the facts and the experiences which expert men can dehver to you. So if it is proposed here and now to maka.a change in the law affecting the Interstate Commerce Commission, I think you might well pause. In House bill 308, which has passed the House and is now on call in the Senate, it is proposed to so divide the commission as to make two, three, or more menibers of the commission pass upon the question of freight rates. "We want written into that biU a provision by which the whole nine members can pass upon whether the rates proposed to be ad- vanced are just or reasonable, and if you do not give us that right we want the right to go to the courts to see whether the law has been complied with. The men who pay the freight rates are the men who finally pay these men, who may or may not be entitled to greater wages ; the law which says that there shall be an investigation as to whether the rates shall be 19 cents on grain or 20 cents, requires a full hearing, and we who pay these men, as we pay the freight rates, insist there shall be a full hearing, and then if after that full heariag these men are entitled to the money, the shippers of the country wiU cheerfully pay it. 60341°— S. Doc. 549, 64-1 8 114 THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. Now, as to bill No. 1, corrected. The question was asked this morning as to the employees other than trainmen, and I call your attention to the language in this bill, and I subimt that f a,u-Iy interpreted it includes every employee, no matter whether he is a trainman or not. First. Beginning * * *, eight houra shall be deemed the measure or standard of a da^r's work for the purpose of reckoning the compensation for services of all em- ployees vpho are now or may hereafter be employed by any common cMTter by rail- road subject to the provisions of the act of February fourth, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, entitled "An act to regulate commerce," as ameiaded, pd who are now or may hereafter be actually engaged in the work of operating trains. Now, if it was intended to limit that to trainmen there should 'have been a more direct connection and the last "and" should have been left out. Is it not a skillful way of undertaking to give to all employees an eight-hbm: yardstick for compensation! If the Supreme Court should, as it did in the employers' liabilitjr'act, strike out the clause because it included those not engaged in inter- state commerce, then you would stiU have the clause that would protect those who were engaged as trainmen. Unless you make that change I submit it is possible for the interpretation that I have placed upon it. Bear in mind the situation, gentlemen, with reference to the Indus- trial Traffic League members, who themselves are employers of labor. If it is proper and fair for these men to say, "We will paralyze the country's transportation imless we get what we want," what is to stop our employees from saying that they will paralyze oiir business imless we give them what ttey want ? Is there to be no limit to the demands and no power of law to protect ? If you gentlemen of the Senate stay away from your duties, you are arrested and brought, back. Are these' men above the law that they can not be compelled to lalaor as servants of the public? A common carrier can not take its money, its rails, or its cars and cease to serve the public. It has got to go on with its service. Are these men, who sell their services to the common carrier, of greater and more sanctity than the men who put their money in the road ? The carriers offer to set aside a fund to pay increased wages if arbitrators find an increase warranted; why can not the trainmen work six months with the money where it can be secured ? [Turning- to the chiefs of the brotherhoods.] If I have a contest with you in court, the money can be impounded awaiting the determination of that case, and then it is distributed. Why can not these men, instead of going back 10 centuries and bringing about the "wager of battle" by which men settled their dis- Sites with the spear and shield, conform to modern conditions? ave 10 centuries gone by without doiug anything, gentlemen? If you have a just cause, submit it to your fellowmen. The shippef, the consumer, the producer, the man who raises the grain ana the man who eats the Bread, in the end has got to pay what you get. Why can you not meet the demands of the President ? Why can you not meet the demands of the public ? If you do so, yom own men will be satisfied with it. You can not afford to look to reelection as the chairmen of your brotherhoods. Patriotism must rest in the bosom of every man, and I think when the shippers come here and say, "We are willing to do whatever in the end may be found to be right," that you should accept it as your standard of conduct. THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 115 Now, I want to say here for the league that we reigard the Interstate Commerce Com:mission as second to no tribxmal in the land. We would resent any influence brought to bear upon the Interstate Commerce Commission other than the presentation of the "facts and the law. And we want nothing written into legislation here that takes from that commission the power to act as its oath of office Requires or as the statute says- it must act. Otherwise, you can not expect it to endure. More money is involved in, more people of the coimtry are affected by, decisions of the' Interstate Commerce Commission than in the decisions of your Supreme Ccmrt or of any court of the land; so I bespeak earnestly of you gentlemen here to let no principle be sacrificed, but to maintain steadfastly the purpose that the law shall be fair, freely construed, and that there be nothing written in it that will take from all of us that equal opportunity which we as citizens of the United States expect and demand as of right. I desire to submit a partial summary of rail operating revenues of steam roads, prepared by the Interstate Commerce Commission. The Chairman. The summary will be inserted in the record with- out objection. (The summary is here printed in full as follows:) 116 THREATENED STEIKE OF EAILWAY EMPLOYEES. > to OS «1 a s ,s ■<. 1 8. SB so 2g s- og O V} O ^^ fa S" o •1 *»- 2i S B 3 H I S . 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We will now hear from Mr. Creigh. STATEMENT OF MR. THOMAS CEEIGH, ATTOENEY, REPRE- SENTING THE CHICAGO ASSOCIATION OF COMMERCE. Mr. Creigh. Mr. Barlow, of the Chicago Association of Com- merce, has I think, excellently covered the views of this large associa- tion of the Middle West. However, we- sent to your chairman a telegram along these lines [reading]: Chicago, August 25, 1916. Hon. Francis G. Newlands, Chairman Interstate Commerce Committee, United States Senate, Washington, D. C. In the present railroad trainmen's crisis we look with considerable apprehension upon the possibility of amendments to the act to regulate commerce, changing the nuinber of commissioners, and reorganizing the body, unless worked out after mature deliberation. We earnestly request that jrour committee grant hearings to representatives of con- sumers and shappers", and their organizations, especially to those skilled in rate mat- ters who are ahve to the present difficulties and have given constructive thought to change's which could be made in the present law to secure greater dispatch, efficiency, and satisfaction of results. : We submit, furthermore, that without due deliberation and the presentation of all the facts, general increases in freight rates, or increases against any particular com- modities, or general understandings that increases will be allowed, are as unwarranted and as likely to lead to disastrous and unfair results as the granting of wage advances without arbitration. The Chicago Association of Commerce, John W. O'Leaey, President. I think it was in response to that telegram, Mr. Chairman, that you Erobably sent us the telegram yesterday giving us the opportunity to e heard to-day. The situation confronting us to-day, however, is one where we should talk to you as citizens of the United States and not within the limited field of the shippers of the country looking out to see where the burden of the increased freight rate wiU fall. The question to-day is not on the particular bill — the Adamson bill — that we had reference to in this wire. The question is what the Senate of the United States and the Congress of the United States will and can do promptly in this crisis to prevent a railroad strike with all the consequences to the hundred million people in this country. There- fore I propose to make no argument on the details of the Adamson bill. Our association thought, however, that we should be present at this session, short as the time was in which we could prepare oxirselves. We thought it was fair that so far as it lay in our judgment you should know what the attitude of the business communities of the Central West is as regards the proposition of the granting under duress of wage advances, without arbitration, or of the meeting of a strike and all of its consequences. Some days ago the Association of Commerce, at a very large meeting of merchants and manufacturers of Chicago, sent to the President a kindred wire to the one that was sent here. It reads as follows : To the President of the United States, Washington, D. C: We axe unalterably of the opinion that arbitration, ^ving due consideration to the merits, is the only means for securing proper disposition of controversies where the 118 THREATENED STKIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYTiKS. parties affected are unable to agree. This applies as well to the present trainmen's wage situation as to the issue of proposed freight advances now apparently involved with it. The situation, aa we understand it, is not one of the propriety or practicability of the eight-hour work day, but is purely a question of the amount of compensation . We can not accept the proposition that in order to avert a strike many millions of dollars of increased wages mUst be paid without arbitration and without public consideration of the necessities or conditions of the men or the carriers. • Justice to the 100,000,000 people who ultimately pay the bill demands investiga- tion by an impartial tribunal oefore permitting a few hundred thousand men to demand and receive many millior dollars additional pay. Results which will be satisfactory in the present situation can not be arrived at by conclusions formed with a view to expediency. Consultation and deliberation are essential. Vastly more is involved in the present issue than the wages of these rela- tively few trainmen, or in the consequences of a strike if it can not be justly averted. The Chicago Association of Commerce, John W. O'Leaky, President. Mr. Ceeigh. I will say, as my conclusion from the talk that I h'ave had with business men and discussions I have heard, that if it came to a choice between the two evils, if that is necessary, of having a strike or of having the carriers and the consuming public submit to these demands, the manufacturers and the merchants, at least of the Middle West, will take a strike. Gentlemen, it is peculiarly a time when we ought to give this due dehberation. Consider it from the standpoint of aU the parties, the public, the merchant, the manufacturer, and the workman, whose prosperity is the real prosperity of the consuming public, and to whom the merchant and the manufacturer desire to sell. But here we have this horrible war on the other side of the water, and this intensive production that is now being caused on the other side, and we all of us hope the situation wUl come when peace will fall on the other side of the water, and we think then of the vast problems we shall have confronting us in otir manufactures, in our consumption, on our wage earning, and on our population. Shall we now, in this moment, and without dehberation, pass this eight-hour bOl under duress here, a biU which will automatically increase the cost of our production, especially for those toward the Central West and the farther west from the seaboard — shall we increase their cost of maniifacture and thereby make it impossible for them to meet this more keen competition that we all know is bound to come ? Shall the responsible parly that is in power ^t the present time, that came into power a few years ago on the promise of reduced cost of hving — ^when other circumstances have perhaps contributed to a condition where cost has not been really reduced — act to contribute $60,000,000, $100,000,000, or $200,000,000 to the cost of living ? I think that shotdd not be done under the haste and duress and tne compulsion and the threat of a strike being called. I heard this morning with interest the proposition that human rights should be protected. Of course they should be protected. Gentlemen, is it not true that the long course of our Anglo-Saxon civilization and the course of the legislative history, at least of- the last few decades here, is bringing more and more the idea that the men who claim rights must admit that they assume and owe duties to the public? Why should it be, gentlemen, on the argu- ments made here, that the public service and other public corporations have duties to the public, and that the employees of those corporations have rights, but owe no duty" to perform? I do not think that that THEEATENED STRIKE OF KAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 119 will ever be claimed even by our good friends here, and I certainly think that the Senate and the Congress and the President of the United States have ample power in this present crisis to pass such legisla,tion as will prevent this strike, especially when it is true that , under the propositions of arbitration, if the wages and the demands are just, they will be assumed and dated back, and then I am satis- fied that the shipping public and the consuming public, too, will be satisfied that if it become necessary that those mcreased costs be passed to them, that they will also bear them fairly. The Chairman. The next gentleman to speak is Mr. French. STATEMENT OF ME. R. S. FRENCH, GENERAL MANAGER NATIONAL LEAGUE COMMISSION MERCHANTS OF THE UNITED STATES. Mr. French. Gentlemen of the committee, I am general manager of the national league and also represent the Western Fruit Jobbers' Association of America and the International Shippers' Associa- tion, with a membership of 1,500 firms located in every State in the Union, with a constituent membership of 5,000. These organizations are engaged in buying, sellijig, arid shipping, and in the distribution of the products of the soil. I know of no element of commercial life that is more alive, more mindful of the serious consequences by way of financial loss and the damage to humanity as a result of a nation-wide strike. Unfortunately, time would not permit me, as is the usual custom, to submit these three bills to our membership by referendum for their attitude. I am, however, convinced that they are fully cognizant of the present serious situation. I am, therefore, authorized, gentlemen, to mdorse the recommendation as made by Mr. Goodwin for the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America for the interests that I represent. The Chairman. We will now hear Mr, Emery. STATEMENT OF MR. JAMES A. EMERY, ATTORNEY AT LAW, WASHINGTON, D. C. Mr. Emery. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I have been requested by the president ofthe National Association of Manu- facturers, on, telegraphic advice from the board of directors, to give expression to a view of the association upon certain features of the legislation proposed here. While I think their position could be accurately stated upon other features than those to which I address myself, I speak of one measure in particular, because upon that point the associaton has expressed its opinion since 1904 recurrently, and that is the proposal that in controversies affecting or threatening to interrupt the movement of commerce between the States that the Congress shall, either by itself or through the President, einpower an investigation, and that during the period of investigation it shall be unlawful for the combinations who are parties to the dispute by their actions, either in locking out or in striking or by acts having similar effects as these, to interrupt the commerce of the United States. The National Association of Manufacturers is composed of some 3,700 individuals, firms, andi corporations, who are employing in the 120 THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES, aggregate at the present time substantially three millions of men. Their capacity to continue that employment is entirely dependent upon the uninterrupted flow of commerce between the States, not alone for the sale of then- commodities, but for their supply of that raw material and fuel without which production can not continue. I need not refer to the distress which in industrial centers is oc- casioned by their entire dependence upon the country for a con- tinuous flow of food supphes. That is an obvious matter, and I assume that this Congress will consider that the tremendous de- velopment of our industrial civilization has made us not less but more dependent upon each other socially. One hundred years ago we were far less dependent on each other than we are to-day, be- cause we have developed great industrial centers; we have specialized en industries, and we have- built our civilization up on a rehance iupon the flow of conamunication with our fellows. Sever that com- munication and you destroy the materials upon which material civili- zation rehes for its continuance. Those whom I represent look with sincere regret and with great fear upon the situation which is here presented, in which a great body of not only important, but highly complex legislation is pre- sented to you for your consideration, and your deliberations are taking place under the guns. It is not a situation which conduces to either calmness of thought or deliberation of judgment, but it is a situation in which something more than the economic demands of any faction of this community, whether of employers or of em- ployees, is at stake, because, whether or not we wish it, the circum- stances have now presented themselves to our greatest lawmaking body for national action to protect the interests of the people of the United States in uninterrupted communication between the States. Personally, I have perhaps less doubt than some as to the power of the Executive, through such forces as are at his command, to pro- tect the flow of commerce between the States, as a great Democratic President did. And, as I hstened to this discussion here, I thought I heard again the moving Ups of a great professor at Princeton lec- turing upon the exercise of his powers as President of the United States in protecting the flow of commerce in 1904, when he said upon the platform of Princeton University that the first duty of the President of the United States was to keep clear and to keep moving the instrumentalities of commerce upon which the people of this country had become dependent. I would have no desire personally, or for those whom I represent, to question the right of men to combine for the improvement of their hours of labor or working conditions, or in the protection of that dearest possession which they have, to exert their concerted power by withdrawing their service for the protection of their interests and their farailies dependent upon their earnings. But, sirs, this is not a country of absolute right for either employer or employee. Not only for individuals, but much more for cornbinations. And it has seemed to me that as the discussion has led that way it is well for this dis- tinguished body to consider for a moment whether or not it is true that the right to strike is an absolute right or an exceedingly modified one — ^not in the interest of the individuals who may be par- ties to the strike, but in the interest of those innocent victims of every such struggle, particularly when the contest reverts to the continua- THREATENED STRIKE OP RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 121 tion of a service of a public nature upon whicli the Nation itself is utterly dependent. Sirs, I consider that an entirely different set of principles must control the situation of such an event from thait which would apply to a struggle of merely private interests over an economic issue. In the first place there can be no doubt that the right of a body of men to quit the service of an employer is not in itself in that com- bined form an absolute right, any more than the right of a body of employers to combine to discharge their employees. And the courts of the United States have had frequent opportunity to pass upon that highly important question, and it was decided by a late President of the United States, and has become part of the law of this land, quoted with approval by the Supreme Court of the United States, that a com- bination to strike, for tne purpose of compelling- a carrier to violate a law of the United States, was not a lawful strike, but a conspiracy, and that calling it bj the name of a strike made it neither legal nor right. A combination is to be measured by quite a different standard than the act of an individual, especially when many have subordinated their will and action to the power and judgment of one, then they have ceased to be a mere aggregate of units and have become a new and powerful oxganization, producing the power to work injury not possessed by the units of which the o];'ganization is composed. And that has been the theory of common law and common sense since first that power was called to the attention of the people of our blood. When that principle is applied to an effort, or a threat to interrupt an indispensable public service — the supply of water that we need, the food supply upon which we are dependent, the functions of the Gov- ernment of the United States, the railway service of a nation, the communication upon which the Nation has become dependent in any form — it seems to me' that with the increasing dependence that modem society has upon the preservation of an uninterrupted use of those indispensables that we must not alone consider rights, but duties; that the men who voluntarily accept employment in the per- formance of a quasi pubhc function, as m the service of a carrier which has laid upon it the burden and duty of serving the pubhc, it must accept that employment under the conditions which the people of the Nation fix for the protection of the public service and the defense of their own life. I can not, therefore, doubt, under the opinions and the sugges tions contained in the opinions, and the inherent reasons of the acta themselves, that the Congress of the United States possesses the power to qualify the contracted service on interstate carriers so as to provide that neither by the action of Ihe carrier itself nor its employees shall they combine or conspire to quit so that the neces- Bary effect of their action or their purpose or motive is the destruction of the public service, without which the Nation can not live. Mr. Justice Harlan, in Arthur v. Oakes (63 Fed.Rep., 317, 319,) in an opinion that was widely commented upon at that time, and which has been one of the most influential opinions of that character from that hour to this, pointed out the marked distinctions between the acts of individuals and combinations and the acts of combtnations in quit- ting a quasi public service for the mere purpose of bettering their own condition, and where their intent and motive were to paralyze the pub- lic service as the means of forcing an unwilling public into adherence to 122 THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. the demands or requests they set out. He pointed out the distinction which the courts of equity could exercise to prevent the acts which either amounted to restraint of trade or to a serious interruption of the pubhc service and the acts of individuals which imperil the public, and he said, in his opinion, there was no doubt it did not rest with any court of equity nor with any judge to say that any man should remain by force of law in the position he had, even if by deserting it he imperiled human life, but it was within the power of the legislature to say that if he did so quit and imperil human life he must accept, the responsibility of his action under criminal statutes. Much has been said on this question of society holdmg the employee responsible, a doctrine which "is as new as laughter, yet still as old as tears." Much has been said in the courts of the rights of the respec- tive parties, but, sirs, the public interest, where the public service is at stake, is the dominant mterest to which both must bow, and our English ancestry, in thought and blood, wrote that idea and pre- served it in a law which has been offered as a precedent for all kmds of relief which labor combinations were seeking from the equal operation of the law. I refer to the trade-dispute act of 1906, in which is embodied, as part of it, the conspiracy provision of the act of 1865, which makes it a criminal offense for an individual to quit the service of a gas or water facility if he thought by so doing it would deprive the community in whole or in part of the operation of that utility, and the same principle is applied in a subsequent paragraph to a desertion of a post which imperils life or property. Now, certainly, the interest of society, as a whole, is greater than the interest of any part of it, save as to some great inalienable part of it, which men of our blood have preserved against the attack even of society itself. I can not believe there is any such issue as that at stake here. There is presented, as I see it, an economic issue, a demand, under the guise of shorter hours, for an increase of wages. We are told that those making the demand do not want a rigid eight-hour day; that they would be the first to petition you against the enactment of legis- lation which made it unlawful for them to be employed in. excess of eight hours, but they demand an eight-hour day with a ten-hour day pay, and the conflict has arisen between the parties at interest, as to Y whether they can, in the discharge of their duties, grant that demand and serve the public, relying upon it for the payment of that charge. We who are not parties to uie immediate conflict are put in the un- happy condition of suffering while they fight it out. We think the time has come when such things should not be fought out in the public service, but should be thought out, and the better the cause which either party has, the more willing they ought to be to lay it down on a desk where public opinion may pass upon it. In a con- test which has gone over months, why can not a delay of 30 days more be granted? Has the time come when any body of men, numerically strong enough in the United States and possessed of the capacity to interfere or destroy any part of the public service upon which national 'defense itself may be dependent, can say, "We will either take what we want or put this penalty upon the public" ? Is society to become the victim of its parts 1 Is it not greater than those individuals who compose it, so that the fraction of the whole, which the social organism has created to carry on its affairs, possesses THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 123 the inherent right of sell-defense, and you gentlemen possess the exclusive jurisdiction over the particular area in which this conflict is now being fought and are master regulators of the service which it is sought to destroy? The President has said in a telegram to the president of the National Association of Manufaoturers that this condition ought not to have arisen, and ought never again to arise. Now, can you gentlemen, if you believe, as the President, that the condition ought not to have arisen, if you possess the power to prevent the combination — without awaiting the submission to any investigating party that you or the President may determine upon — if you possess the power to prevent that combination paralyzing the industries of , this country, has not the time come when it is your duty to exercise the power on behalf of the people of the United States who are to be the victims of the calamity, which can be compared only with the European war, and which you are asked to pass upon in a condition that almost pre- cipitated, if it did not supply the direct occasion of the great Euro- pean conflict, when a small State was asked, within a brief time, to act upon the demands of a great monarchy or power, or find itself in a state of war ? So we venture to suggest, most respectfully, gentlemen, that there is no defect of power in the Congress of the United States, in the pro- tection of interstate commerce, to condition a contract of employ- ment so that those who accept it shall accept It under the obUgations which attach to the oflB.ce, just as I beUeve any one of you gentlemen will realize and believe yourself, that it is entirely competent for Congress to say that it shall be a criminal act for a switchman to de- sert nis switch or the master of a signal to desert his tower, and thus allow a great train, whether passenger or freight, to pass on to de- struction or death. Would anyone question your power to so pro- tect the commerce of the United States ? Yet the question that is E resented to you here is far greater than the protection of any single fe. It is the protection of the uninterrupted flow of commerce of this Nation, upon which its very Ufe is dependent, and it is not an endeavor on your part to say to any party to the controversy that, "You must work under conditions which you do not desire" but it is only an endeavor to require, as I see it, in whatever form the suggestion may finally come, that the action of this combination shall wait upon the Executive of the United States or the people of the United States, represented by Congress, and to insist that the confhct shall not be fought out over their bodies, and that there shall not be an interruption of the service upon which the Mfe of the Nation is dependent. One of the members of the committee has been good enough to sug- gest that I might be desirous of filing with the committee the authorities which I have not troubled the committee with citing. I thank you. The Chairman. That may be done. (The citations referred to are here printed in full, as follows:) [Arthur v. Oakes, 63 Fed., 317-319.] But it was contended that the circuit court exceeded its powers when it enjoined the employees of the receivers "from combining and conspiring to quit, with or without notice, the service of said receivers, with the object and intent of crippling the property in their custody, or embarrassing the operation of said railroad, and from so quitting the service of said receivers, with or without notice, as to cnpple the property, or prevent or hinder the operation of said railroad." 124 THKEATENED STRIKE OP RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. This clause embodies two distinct propositions — one, relating to combinationa and conspiracies to quit the service of the receivers with the object and intent of crip- pling the property or embarrassing the operation of the railroads in their charge; the other, having no reference to combinations and conspiracies to quit, or to the object andintentof any quitting, but only to employees "so quitting" as to cripple the property or prevent or hinder the operation of the railroad. * * * But these evils, great as they are, and although arising in many cases from the inconsiderate conduct of employees and employers, both equally indifferent to the general welfare, are to be met and remedied by legislation restraining alike em- ployees and employers so far aa necessary adequately to guard the rights of the public as involved in the existence, maintenance, and safe management of public highways. The Chairman. The committee will now hear from Mr. H. G. WUson. STATEMENT OF MR. H. G. WILSON, TRAFFIC COMMISSIONER OF COMMERCE CLUB OF TOLEDO, OHIO. Mr. Wilson. Mr. Chairman, my name is H. G. Wilson. I am traffic commissioner for the Toledo Commerce Club, of Toledo, Ohio. I am appearing, however, in this instance, as chairman of the legis- lative committee of the National Industrial Traffic League, an organ- ization the natxure of which has been explained by Mr. Luther Walter. I want to say, in the first place, that there is a very small number of shippers present; that if it had been possible for this committee to give more notice — ^and of course we understand why it could not give more notice — that this room would not have been large enough to hold the number of shippers there would have been here. At a hearing before the Interstate Commerce Commission just recently in this city, involving merely a question of the rate adjustments on transcontinental traffic, a matter which interested a good many shippers but only a small proportion of shippers of the United States, all of whom were involved in this question, there were over 300 shippers present from aU parts of the United States, and everyone of those shippers, I have no doubt, would have been here to present their views to you if it would have been possible to have given them notice. Now, gentlemen of the committee, for several months past this wage question, as between the carriers and these train-service em- ployees, has been discussed more or less. It has been a matter of common knowledge, at least, that certain demands — or at least that some demands — were going to be presented to the carriers for their consideration. As long ago as last April of this year, at the spring meeting of the National ddustrial Traffic League at Baltimore, the subject was given consideration by the membership, and resolutions were adopted at that time, a copy of which has been forwarded to the chairman of this committee, and I think to the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives and to the President of the United States. Unfortunately I find I have n,ot a copy of that resolution with me at the moment, but if it does not happen to be in the records of this committee, I wiU be very glad to forward it to the committee. The substance of that resolution was to the effect that the con- troversy between the two interests was one of vital importance to the public in the results which might ensue, and if, by reason of the controversy, the transportation instrumentaHties of the coimtry should be interrupted, or a great strike threatened, the resolution was to the effect that we thought a public calamity existed an THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 125 emergency existed, and that Congress should take proper action upon the subject, in some manner, to prevent a strike. With the particidar merits of the controversy^ the National Indus- trial Traffic League did not concern itself at the time, for two rea- sons, chiefly because it did not know what those demands were. One other question that I wish to speak to you about a moment, is with rfespect to the Adamson bUl No. 308, which I understand is before this committee, having been passed in the House. The National Industrial League, at its annual meeting in Chicago, in November of last year, gave consideration to the subject matter related to in that bUl, although at that time the bill had not been presented in the House. The discussion and consideration were due to the fact that the mem- bers of the National Industrial Traffic League had experienced a con- siderable amount of trouble in the way of delay in having matters adjusted through the commission, due to the overcrowded condition of work in that body, and by conference with the commission and conference and discussion among themselves, had reached the con- clusion that the suggestion for the change in the organization and increase in membership, and its organization into subdivisions, was about the best way that could be developed to help relieve the over- crowded condition of work in that body, and therefore, at that meet- ing, the National Industrial Traffic League indorsed what they then understood to be the proposition to be put up to this Congress, which later culminated in the Adamson biU. At that time, of course, we had no idea that any situation such as the present would be thrust upon the country, and since this condition has arisen, within the last two weeks some of our members of the legislative committee and members of the executive committee also have given consideration to that bill and the authority granted to the subdivisions of that commission, which you will recall gives to those subdivisions all of the powers and authority of the Literstate Commerce Commission conferred upon it by the law. Now, we feel that, in view of this condition that confronts us now, which might resiilt in another mov6 for some considerable increase in freight rates generally throughout the coimtry, that no subdivi- sion of the cominission should have final power to act on any such matters that contemplate the revision of an entire freight-rate sched- ule or a substantial part of it ; but we feel that such power, or order of such subdivision, should be supported by at least a majority of the membership of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and, as chairman of the legislative committee, I will say that we have drafted for the action of this committee, an amendment to the Adamson bill which has been presented to the chairman, and I be- lieve is in his hands. It is very short, and if it is desirable I will read that part of it and the place where the amendment would go. It would follow at the conclusion of line 5, on page 5 of House bill No. 308, and adds the following language: Provided, however, That in the case of any order, decisioil, report, or other action taken by any of the said divisions, where such order, decision, report, or other action involves a change in the rate schedules, in whole or in substantial part thereof, that such order, decision, report, or other action shall be approved by a majority of the Interstate Commerce Commission before it shall have the full force and effect or be in force as an order of the commission. I thank you. The Chaieman. The committee will next hear Mr. Frank Lyon. 126 THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. STATEMENT OF MR. FRANK lYON, ATTORNEY AT LAW, WASH- INGTON, D. C. Mr. Lyon. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I only want about five minutes. I do not represent any special interests here, but I am an attorney practicing before the Interstate Com- merce Commission. I do not deem myself wise enough to advise this committee as to what should be done in this controversy, so far as these wages are concerned, or what length of their work day should be. But I am deeply interested in the Interstate Commerce Commission. I have no practice except before that commission, and I trust that the committee will put nothing in this biU which intimates that the Interstate Commerce Commission should take any action with re- spect to an increase in wages. I think the Interstate Commerce Commission ought to be left free, as it has been up to this time, to decide what are reasonable and just rates, without any intimation from Congress. Congress has fuU authority to allow th§ increase in rates, if it so desires, and if Con- gress wants an increase in the rates of this country, I think it should take the burden and increase them by an act oi Congress, but not intimate that the Interstate Commerce Conmiission should consider a specific thing like an increase of wages. I represented the commission in what is known as the Ten Per Cent case a few years ago as attorney, and I was employed after that, having resigned from me commission, in the recent Five Per Cent case, and in both of those cases the railroads presented this question of the increase of wages as a justification for mcreased rates, and in neither case were they sustained by the commission. There were some increases allowed in the last case, but they were not based on increased wages. It does not follow, and I think that Congress should go on record that it does not follow, as of necessity that because a railroad in- creases the wages of its employees that therefore there should be increase in the cost of transportation. It has never been regarded by the railroads or anybody else, as far as I am aware, that an in- crease of wages necessarily leads to any increase in the cost of the unit of transportation, and I object very seriously, so far as I may. to any intimation of that kind being put upon an increase of wages by an act of Congress. I think it is imfair and unjust, and I think it is not in conformity with the facts, and I seriously ask the committee not to make that a part of- this controversy. It does not figure in it. If these men are entitled to increased wages or a shorter day, and Congress thmks it rests upon them to give them this shorter day, that has nothing to do with the question of the reasonableness of the rates. From what I have read and heard all my life, I have imder- stood that increased wages and shorter hours lead to greater effi- ciency — the men produce more units under that system than under another system. Whether it be true or not I do not know, but that has been the general belief, and they have certain findings along that line. As I said, I do not care to advise the committee as to its constitu- tional power to protect the pubhc against the controversy that will foUow. Seriously, I do not oeUeve that there will be such a strike, THBEATENED STEIKE OF KAILWAT EMPLOYEES. 127 and I say that with all due respect to these gentlemen. It has never occurred in the history of the world where men have the responsibility that these gentlemen have. They never exercised it. It would mean the death of many people and the starvation of many children and the paralyzing of industry, as has been shown here, and I think the history of the world, except in acts of actual war, will not show where men have exercised such authority. The bluff is carried, as in poker, up to a certain point. You are told that unless you do a certain thing by Monday morning that they will touch the explosive; that they wiU kill children and starve people and paralyze industry. That is legitimate. If I were representmg these men I would do the same thing, but I do not think there should be hasty legislation upon a threat of that kind, for which there is no paraUet in the history of the world. There is no instance in the history of the world where it has ever occtirred, and I challenge you to point it out. There has been no such case in the history of the world where a few men vested with the authority that these gentlemen possess have exercised it to bring about such results. I think it was stated by one man that he could suspend this strike. I think I saw that statement in the newspapers. As I say, my per- sonal view of the subject is that I do not believe this power will be exercised. The other question is a serious one. I do not want the Interstate Commerce Commission to be handicapped in the way I mention. In a recent controversy before the commission some one in high authority said something about an increase in rates, and that matter was quoted before the Interstate Commerce Commission as a justification for the increase. It was resented by the shippers gen- erally, yet how much more serious would it be for a formal act of Congress to be passed, intimating that because it had deemed proper to give the employees higher wages and a shorter day, that therefore the rates should be increased, and I sincerely trust the committee will not do so. The Chairman. Mr. Clark will next be heard. STATEMENT OF MR. H. 1. CIARK. Mr. Clark. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I received a telephone message from New York, from the secretary of the American Electric Raihrajr Association, directing me to appear and tell you that the electric railways were not protected in any legis- lation which might relate to steam railroads. I find, from my attend- ance, that the discussion has reached a higher and broader plane than the question of whether or not the proposed legislation shall embrace certain railroads or leave certain raitoads out, but as I told the chairman a while ago, the proposed bills make no provision whatever for distinction between the electric and steam railroajis, and I trust that any legislation that may be the result of this conference will make that broad distinction between the two railroads. I thank you. The Chairman. The committee will now hear Mr. Cowles. STATEMENT OF MR. JAMES I. COWLES. Mr. CowLES. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the" committee, I want to call your attention to an act that was passed by the Congress of 1862, on March 31. That was on an occasion which threatened, 128 THREATENED STEIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. and which had gone further than this situation has gone to-day. The Congress of the United States passed an act empowering the President of the United States when, in his judgment the public safety required and demanded it, to take possession of any or all "of the telegraph lines and railroad Unes of the United States and their rolling stock, their offices, shops, buildings, and all their append- ages and appurtenances; to prescribe rules and regulations for the holding, usmg, and maintaining of the aforesaid telephone, telegraph, and railroad lines, and to extend, repair, and complete the same in the maimer most conducive to the safety and interest of the Govern- ment; to place under miUtary control all the officers, agents, and employees belonging to the telegraph and railroad lines, tiius taken possession of by the President, so that they shall be considered as a post road and a part of the military estabhshment of the United States, subject to all the restrictions imposed by the rules and articles of war. Then it went on to state: And be it further enacted that any attempt by any party or parties whatsoever, in any State or district in which the laws of the United States are opposed, or the execution thereof obstructed by insurgents and rebels against the United States too powerful to be surpressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, to resist or interfere with the unrestrained use by the Government of the property described in the preceding section, or any attempt to injure or destroy the property aforesaid, shall be punished as a military oflense by death, or such other penalty as a court-martial may impose. Gentlemen, I believe some law of this kind should be passed to-day. I tiiink my friends are whoUy and altogether wrong when they say that having gone into this work they have the ri^t and privilege to quit this work. If I enlist, as men must enlist, as a con- ductor of a railroad train of the United States, I thereby take upon myself an obligation to work for that service and to continue in that service, and if I am to seek for any higher wages or any better con- ditions, then my place is to go before the people and be elected — secure election to the Congress of the United States ; and that is the position I say for my friends, my dear old friends here, to take; not to endeavor to strike, to quit the service, but to secure by ballots the power that they demand. That is the place for everyone of us. Take the men in my own State, as my friends will stand by me and say. I have gone before my friends in Connecticut and asked them never to strike except by the ballot. That is the position to take. That is the position, if I were connected with these men, that I would advise them to take. I would say to them, "An election is ahead of us. Send all you can of your members into the Congress of the United' States, and then you will have the right to ask for their support." Now, gentlemen, the point about this biU is this: This 'biU was enacted after careful consideration by the Congress of the United States in 1862. Lincoln had already taken possession of the Phila- delphia, Baltimore & Wilmington Railroad. I hope, gentlemen, you will get hold of this bill. I am going to present it to you to consider. Then I want to say one word lurther : Great Britain, when the war came on, when the me of the nation was threatened, took possession of all the railroads of Great Britain, and I have here a statement made by the editor of the London Daily Chronicle, which I have just about time enough to read. He says: THREATENED STKIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 129 THE NATIONALIZATION (JF RAILWAYS. On the outbreak of the war, writes Robert Donald, editor of the London Daily Chronicle, the British railways were nationalized. The Government agreed to guar- antee the dividends of the railroad corporations. The management of the roads waa placed in the hands of a railway executive board, composed of the chief officers 6t aU the railway companies. These men hold daily meetings just like a great American railroad corporation, and control the whole railroad and transportation system of the country. The national government not only took over the railroads, but also the docks belonging to the railroad companies, their harbors and steamships, engineer- ing works, etc. The first duties of the railroads in war time are to carry troops, next to carry supplies for the troops ajid the navy, and to distribute foodstuffs for the general community. All this has been a prodigious traffic in itself, but the railroads have been quite equal to it. There have been no complaints about the State management of the railroads. It has worked so well that every one hopes that the State control will remain after the war. There has been no wastage from useless competition, or overlapping; and in spite of the fact that over 150,000 railroad men have joined the forces, the service, while somewhat curtailed, has caused the general public no great inconvenience. From an administrative and financial point of view the State control has been so successful that the Government is able to pay the railroad dividends, as guaranteed, and at the same time has been able to carry all of the troops free. Free travel has also been granted to relatives of wounded soldiers and for the conveyance of the wounded to convalescent homes all over the country. The traffic in connection with the Red Cross work, hospitals, and convalescent homes has also been a big part of the free business. These are only some of the great business undertakings which the war has forced upon the British Government. Except in the case of sugar, all have been carried out by the board of trade, whose president, Walter Runciman, is one of the ablest men in the Government and a man of great business capacity. The subject which perhaps has giveifthe board of trade more labor and anxiety than anything else is the problem of shipping and freights. There are several committees at work handling various departments of the mercantile marine problem. Just one word more. On the 14th of August, gentlemen, I attended a hearing before the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. To consider what? To secure, if possible, a report from that court that shall require the president of the Lpuisville & Nashville Kail- road to answer the Interstate Commerce Commission as to how it had been using its funds-; as to whether it had been using them for political purposes, and I heard the president of that road, when he was being asked questions on that subject down at the Willard, reply: Legislators are a menace and their continuance a calamity. I think the attitude of mind, gentlemen, on the part of my friends over yonder, and the attitude of the men here, and with the results that occurred from the action of taking possession of the railroads in the Civil War — ^^and I want to say that the records show that the construction and transportation corps, which was given control of the railways at that time — ^that to their action was largely due the success of the Union forces. I think it is not worth while for me to say another word than this: I always sympathize with the working men throughout the length and breadth of this country. I think I may say that nobody in this land has given more time and more thought to the study of this freat question than myself. Away back in 1906, when I came down ere, one of my daughters threw her arms around me. I had been fighting long and lost a fortune and used much in the discussion of this matter — she threw her arms around me and said, "We wUl stand back of you, papa." When I went back she was dead. Many 60341°— S. Doc. 549, 64^1 9 130 THREATENED STRIKE. OP RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. a death has followed this awful strike, and will follow if it comes about. Mr. Gompers-and Mr. Garretson, I beg you call off this strike, and then go into this campaign, go and support the splendid President who is doing this wonderful work to prevent this strike, and put yourself in the Congress, and then we will get all we ought to have and all we want. Mr. GoMPEKS. I have been called a public nuisance. Mr. CowLES. Get in Congress. That is the proper place to be a public nuisance. The Chairman. We will now hear from Mr. Eobinson. Mr. Robinson. I fear the chairman has not understood my request. I am not going into the merits of the proposition, but just how this will apply to the companies I represent. The Chairman. Is there anyone else who wishes to be heard in behalf of the shippers ? (No response.) The Chairman. Mr. Garretson, are you ready to go on ? Mr. Garretson. May I ask this, that this hst of roads will be fur- nished, so we may find whom Mr. Robinson represents, and whether there are hues in that hst upon which demands have been presented, so wo can review it ? (The list referred to appears on page 153 of this record.) Mr. Garretson. I wish to introduce Mr. W. S. Carter, president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Enguiemen and Firanen. The Chairman. Mr. Carter, you may proceed. STATEMENT OF ME, W. S. CASTEE, PEESIDEUT OF THE BEOTHEEHOOD OF LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEMEN AND FIEE- MEN, Mr. Carter. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I have been reminded repeatedljr that I have but 15 minutes in which to say that which should require an hour. I understand that the chairman stated at the opening of this hearing that three hours would be granted to the employees, three hours to the railroads, and three hours to the shippers. I want to suggest that the reporter should carefully show the line of demarca- tion between the time granted the railroads and shippers, for the casual reader would understand that the railroad had six hours and the employees but three. The Chairman. I can not understand how ,that can be. ' Senator Brandegee. He is suggesting that as a joke. Mr. Carter. I mean they are united in decidmg we should not have the eight-hour day. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, so much has been said here to-day, and the scope of the hearing has boon so extended, that in justice to the men I represent much should be said concerning the original request of the men for the eight-hour day, and inasmuch as it will be impossible for me to even give you a synopsis of that matter in 15 minutes, I am going to ask the privilege of having printed in the record at this point an article prepared by myself, entitled "Why the eight-hour day is right," and you will find that it answers a great many of the arguments presented by the railroads and shippers. (The paper referred to is' here pi-inted in full, as follows:) THREATENED STRIKE OP EAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 131 Why the Eight-Houb Work Day is Right. (By W. S. Carter, piesideat Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen.| THE LONGEST DAY AND THE LOWEST PAY. We were told many years ago that "little drops of water and little grains of sand make the mighty ocean and the beauteous land," and upon the same principle certain manufacturers of clothing have demonstrated that at 15 cents a dozen shirts a sweat, shop girl can do certain work thereon and earn $9 per week. Nothing is said , however, of the fact that the girl worked an average of 15 hours for each of the seven days to make the week for which she was paid $9. Eight and one-half cents for each of these hours were the drops that made her ocean of pay. It is hardly credible that a locomotive fireman made $116.74 in 28 days while receiv- ing only 28i cents per hour, but by being able to prove that he did ih, the neutral arbitrators in the last western arbitration decided that 28J cents an hour was too much for a switch-engine fireman and, therefore, fixed the rate at~27J cents per hour on that same ei^ine. The "saving clause" in the arbitration agreement prevented •an actual reduction in existing rates of pay, but the award fixed the standard rate at 10 cents leas than this fireman was receiving. At an arbitration the railroads presented names of switch engineers, one of whom earned $172.90 in "26 days." A. subsequent investigation demonstrated that this man worked an average of 14 hours and 18 minutes per day for 26 days, an equivalent of 46i days of Siours each. This investigation demonstrated that in order to make the $172.90 he was not only paid for all of these hours that he actually worked, but $5.85 in addition thereto as 26 penalties for working this engineer 14 hours and 1^ minutes on each of these 26 days without at any time permitting him to stop to eat. Thg same investigation proved that to earn the sum of $116.74 in "28 days" a fire- man worked an average of 14 hours and 11 minutes each and every one of these 28 days and with no stop to eat on any day. This switch-engine fireman's 28 days were made up of 397 hours, or an equivalent of 49f days of 8 hours each. An average of 99^ hours per week. At this rate for 12 months this switch- engine fireman would work the equivalent of 595i days of 8 hours each. An employee in the building trades in this same city of Chicagff worked only 44 hours a week, or an equivalent of 286 days of 8 hours each during a year. Thus this switch-engine fireman works as many hours in one year as an employee in the building industries works in two years and one month. A true wage index is the rate per hour. Let us compare the wages per hour of rail- way employees in Chicago switching districts with those of the building trades in Chicago. Any other city would do as well. Chicago comparisons are typical of them all. The standard rates of wages per hour now paid in Chicago are a!s follows: Building employees: , Cents. Bricklayers, portable and hoisting engineers, inside wiremen, plasterers, plumbers and gas fitters, steam fitters, stonemasons, and tile layers 75 Lathers and marble setters 71. 9 Carpenters, painters, and slate and tile roofers , 70 Elevator constructors 6S8 Structural iron workers 68 Composition roofers 65 Laborers in tunnels, wells, and caissons 57. 5 Laborers on windlass, trench and scaffold work 50 Plaster laborers 50 Composition roofer's helpers 45 Elevator constructor helpers and tile-layer helpers 43. 8 Marble-setter helpers s, 42. 5 Excavating laborers, hod carriers, and steam fitters' helpers 40 Eailway employees: Locomotive engineers in Chicago railroad yards 42. 5-44 Switching foremen ,- 38 Switchmen 35 Locomotive firemen in Chicago railroad yards 27-27. 5 It will be noted that an arbitration board has fixed the wages of locomotive engineers at less than most building laborers are paid and only about two-thirds as much as is paid to many building employees. This same Federal arbitration board fixed the wages of locomotive firemen on the larger engines at about half of what helpers and laborers are paid. Notwithstanding that night rates are higher in all of the other 132 THEEATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES, clMses of labor tHa Federal arbitration board said that engineers and firemen- niust work at tbe same rate at night as they work in the day, and when locomotive hostlers aflked that they work not to exceed 10 hours per day, this same arbitration fixed their working day at 12 hours. j ,. i -n What do you think these engineers, firemen, switchmen^ and hostlers will now have to do in order to secure an 8-hour day? VROtn SHARING IN STBIKB8. At a probable expense of a possible million-dollar publicity campaign since the first of the year, let ua presume that the railroads have created a public opinion that (1) to concede the present demands of railway employees will cost the railroads $100,000,000, (2) that this $100,000,000 must be collected from the public in increased freight rates, and (3) a strike must take place. Now, let us reverse the analogy. (1) If the railroads force this strike by refusing their employees' demands, and (2) the eight-hour day is secured through a strike by these rai&oad employees, (3) public opinion has been educated to expect to contribute $100,000,000 more in freight rates. This process is so simple and the public has been its victim so often that one would think that some day the public would wake up to the situation. With strident cries of "Help I Help! " echoing from coast to coast the American railroads have managed to keep the public mind in continual ferment during wage movements of the last few years and methodically have secured increased freight and passenger rates. While their figure juggler is expertly tossing his "cents" and "per cents" in a bewildering manner before his amazed American audience, the latter seem uncon- scious of the fact that for every dollar that is taken out of the public's pocket, pre- sumably for increased wages,- another dollar or two is taken by the railroads for their commissions on the transaction. While the "increased efficiency in train operation" is conceded to have more than offset the wage increase of train eraployees on many rail- roads, and the increased freight rates coupled with increased freight business has been far greater than increases in wages of these employees, the Amencan public are living in an age of "make-believe" that they owe the railroads more money on account of wage increases. What a pity all of us are not able to look into this intricate financial machine, watch the wheels go around and then comprehend what it's all about. The anthra(;ite coal operators and their Wall Street mentors are the " Bdisons " of this wonderful, quick-action profit extractor that soothes the public into a twilight sleep during the operation. We all remember the great anthracite coal strike in 1902 and the strike commission that was appointed by the President and the increase in wages and prices of anthracite coal that followed, and the 1912 settlement, resulting in another increase in wages and the price of anthracite coal. But before the strike of 1902 miners' wages had been increased voluntarily with a consequent increase in the price of coal. Dr. Scott Nearing, who knew too much to hold his job in a great State imiversity, says: "This increase in the labor costs was converted into higher prices. Further- more it was used as a pretext for additional advance in coal prices." But "the anthra- cite strike of 1902 gave the operators the real opportunity to advance coal prices. At the beginning of the strike, coal, with the regular discount ofi, was selling at $4.02. By the end of the strike the price was $4.95. "During four years the labor cost of the coal increased 37 cents (32 per cent), the entire cost of mining increased 53 cents (37 per cent), and the price received for all sizes of coal increased 90 cents (27 per cent). On the facexjf things the operators were modest — ^raising the price only 27 per cent, as compared with an increase in the total cost of mining of 37 per cent. Actually, the increase in cost was 53 cents and the in- crease in price 90 cents, leaving for the operator on each ton of coal sold a net advantage of 37 cents. "Labor disturbances have been very successfully employed in late years by the anthracite operators as a means of increasing coal pnces. Public sympathy is won for the transaction by a simple, psychological trick. Wages were increased 10 per cent in 1902. Is it not just and right that the operator should be able to make good this extra cost by an addition in price of, let us say, 10 per cent? * * » the amount on which the percentage is taken varies so much in the two caa^ that more than three times as much money, on each ton of coal, is taken by the operS^or from the consumer as is given by the operator in the increased wages of the workers." The 1912 agreement is said to have added $13,000,000 to the cost of anthracite coal purchased by the public and "oddly enough, and public opinion notwithsUnding, the mine worker seems to have gained comparatively little by the 1912 agreement THBEATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 133 The railroads now proclaim that there is to be a nation-wide strike by their em- ployees in train and yard service, and they proclaimed this six months before a single conference was held with the representative committees of such employees, and before it was known that an agreement could not he reached without a strike. Evidently the railroads are determined that there shall be a strike. They are assur- ing the public that if these employees are granted an eight-hour day it will cost the people of this country $100,000,000. Let U8 hope that one-fourth of this amount will filter through the fingers of these railroad financial experts to the men below. Perhaps 25 cents out of every dollar thtis contributed by the big-hearted American public to railroad men will actually reach the spot. BASIS OF WAGES OP HAILWAT EMPLOYEES IN TRAIN SERVICE. The making of railway wage schedules dates back more than 30 years, when there was no basis of pay other i£sji the variable generosity of the men who owned and operated the railroads. When wage agreements were first entered into between the railroads and the em- ?loyees in train service these agreements usually supplanted monthly rates of pay. hese first wage schedules were usually fixed on the mileage basis" and piecework plan, wherein the men were paid so inuch per mile or hundred miles for tamig trains over the road. As in all piecework wage schemes a premium was thus placed on fast work arfti long hours of employment. A train crew by extra exertion and abnormal physical endur- ance were able to buUd up large pay checks by the end of the month. In these early days, in fact not so long ago, me theory on which railway traffic men solicited and secured business was to assure the shipper prompt service. It was a matter of pride with some railroads to mark their freight cars in bold letters with "Fast freight," "Quick dispatch," and other terms signflying that freight moved fast on that p£^icular railroad. Then came the new school of railroad economy, the exponents of "increased oper- ating efficiency" (by which was meant "haul more frei^t with the same wage ex- pense"), took chaj^e of the situation. The theory of quick service gave way to an effort to transport "ton-miles" at the "least wage cost." It reqiiires no expert to un- derstand that with the same locomotive increased loading inevitably reduces train speed, and exert themselves as they could, men in train service found their monthly mileage sind earnings decreased. By the usual agitation and strenuous means these men succeeded in securing dight advances in wages per hundred miles, and then found more cars added to their trains and usual decrease in speed. Larger locomotives were then placed in service, on which higher rates were paid, more coal waa burned, and to which still more cars were added. The process of increasing the wages per hundred miles did not keep pace with the decreasing train speed. In many instances it required the larger portion of a 24-hour day to transport a freight train 100 miles. Then the men in train service, believing that the problem would be solved in an equitable manner, secured a wage agreement which gave them an optional double basis of pay. By this double basis if they could not transport the train 100 miles in 10 hours, thereafter they would be paid by the hour in addition to their mileage. This double standard fixed the pay for the trip on the mileage basis so long as the speed of the train equalled or exceeded 10 miles per hour, but when the speed of the train fell below 10 miles per hour they were paid in addition to mileage, such "over- time" as they were required to make. - Thus was established the schedule definition that "100 miles or less, 10 hours or less, shall constitute a day's work." And since the adoption of the double standard, through all of these years, this bonus or premuim of paying a full day's pay when the 100 miles were made in less than 10 hoiuB has been willingly granted by the railroads. It requires no further explanation to show that gradually men in freight service are ceasing to be paid under the mileage clause of this double basis; that increased tonnage has decreased the speed of freight trains to such an extent that men in such service are usually paid "by the hour" and no longer are paid the premiums and bonuses tiirough more than 100 miles made in 10 hours. At all times the wages per hour of employees in railway train service have been find themselves with a low hourly wage rate and without the premium or bonus they 134 THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. once could make under the mileage provision of the double basis of pay. But by working 12 to Ifi^hours per day probably every day in the month their earnings are yet above normal. ... These men realize that it is not practicable to change the length of divisions; that railway terminals can not be moved; that they can not afford to be relieved at the end of eight hours after leaving a terminal. To retjuire the railroads to carry an extra crew on each freight train for the purpose of relieving the first crew at the end of eight hours would almost double the expense of train operation. To relieve the first crew at the end of eight hours, leaving them to seek rest and food at some intermediate station and to find their way back home as beat they can, would coat the men addi- ' tional living expense and reduce their earning capacity. To secure an eight-hour working day, or as near thereto as is practicable, so that these railroad men may have rest and Tecuperation, engineers, firemen, conductors, and brakemen now insist that whenever the speed of a train falls below an average of 12^ miles an hour for all hours required to be on duty, overtime will be paid at a rate 50 per cent greater than the regular hourly rate. When complaint was made at a past arbitration against this loss of earning power through decrease in train speed, the railroads in reply thereto introduced sworn testimony that the average speed of through freight trains was only about 12^ miles per hour. If this sworn evidence was true, the granting of the demands of the .men for an eight-hour day in freight service (which is, in fact, a speed basis of 100 miles to eight hours on duty), the railroads may grant this request at absolutely no expense. If their evidence was untrue and they now claim that freight- train speed is much lower than 12 J miles per hour, they profited by the falsification and at the expense of their employees. Let us assume that their sworn statements were true and that the average speed of trains in through freight service varies but little from the 12J-niile basis requested by their employees, then what becomes of their bewailing cry that "to concede the demands of the men it will cost the railroads $100,000,000"? THE BUSS OF IGNOKANCE. Just suppose you are snugly cuddled up in a sleeping-car berth, speedinjg across the prairies, up hills and down hills, through tunnels and over bridges, without :a disturbing thought. But not being accustomed to so strange a bed, your mind refuses to lapse and you find yourself taking stock of the possible causes of accident to your swiftly flying train. The splendid reputation, so liberally advertised, of the railroad on which you travel has assured you of the safety of the track and bridges. One of the first things you noticed when the porter assisted you up the steps was that the car was made of steel. Before dark you observed the numerous automatic aignajs as they flashed by your window with unexpected frequency. The oft-repeated crossing signals sounded on the locomotive whistle aje eyidenceof the alertness of the engineer. Tiring of these assurances of perfect safety, sleep overcomes you. But you didn't know that between you and your journey's end an army of sleepless men are employed in jreight and switching service, many of whom have had less thaji 5 hours in bed within the past 24. You didn't know that perhaps 20 miles ahead of you a crew of five tired men labored with a heavily-ladened freight train on the very same track on which you were running toward them at a rate of 60 miles an hour.. You didn't know that these same five exhausted men had probably left j^esterday morning the last terminal through which you had just passed; had labored with that same freight train 16 long hours and then were tied up for 10 hours on a sidetrack with no place to rest or slgep, except on the engine, or in the caboose. You didn't know that they were now struggling with that same freight train for another 7 hours, with possibly the terminal yet 10 milea ahead. "What you don't know won't hurt you" applies with ironical effect to you so sound asleep on "that magnificent all-steel train run over a hundred-pound steel rail with only two stops in a hundred miles. " Any one of many possibilities may put you and yOur steel sleeper down a steep embankment, or stand it on end, so that you and your fellow travelers will rattle around like dry peas in a pod. A trivial cause may delay that freight train; the rear brakeman may start back to flag" your i train and he may drop asleep by the side of track through complete exhaustion. The engineer and fiareman, almost mummied with physical exertion and lack of rest, may forget about you and your magnificent passenger train. The conductor may be no more capable of properly performing his duty than you, had you gone through his experience. THEEATENED STHIKE" OF EAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 135 The next railroad trip you make in thie palatial train just count the freight trains you meet and pass and aay to yourself as you meet and pass each one : ' ' The chances are that the fellows on that train are absolutely unfit for duty through lack of rest. There should be a law to prevent such a dangerous practice." A Federal law presumably hasbeen in force for more than nine years that presum- ably prevents any employee in train service "to remain on duty for a longer period than 16 consecutive hours, and whenever such employee of such common carrier shall have been continuously on duty for 16 hours, he shall be relieved and not required or permitted to again go on duty until he has at least 10 consecutive hours oft duty, and no such employee who has been on duty 16 hours in the aggregate in any 24-hour period shall be required or permitted to continue or again go on duty without having had at lea^t eight consecutive hours off duty."- Of coiu-ee, there are enough loopholes in the law to run your entire passenger train through without scraping off the varnish. It is especially provided that "this act shall not apply in any case of casulty or unavoidable accident, or the act of God, nor where the delay was the result of a cause not known to the carrier or its officers or agents in charge of such employee at the time such employee left a terminal and which could not have been foreseen." Between "the acts of God," the ignorance of officers and agents, and their lack of forethought, the hours of service are oftimes unlimited. Nothing is said in the law about "sleep " or "rest." That is something not required by law. A train may reach a blind siding, where no habitation is visible, and acting under instructions received from the train dispatcher at the last station the train crew will "tie up," pulling into the siding to clear the main line. The five men of this train crew are technically "relieved from duty." An iron engine deck and two short seat cushions are probably the bed of the engineer and fireman, or there may be room in the caboose for all five men. They majr stay there the full 10 hours, or at the end of 3 hours another crew may come to relieve them and after the Usual noise and jars incidental to ewitchirg a freight train onto another caboose, the new crew proceeds to pull them to the next terminal, which they majr reach within 5 hours after the tie up and the men who were tied up may reach their homes and actually sleep in bed 3 homs, when they will be called to make another trip, as they have been "relieved from duty "10 hours since first tied up away back at the blind siding. This is actual practice under the law, although humane railroad officials endeavor to tie Tip crews where they may have rest and food. With no consideration for the hundreds of thousands of freight trains that annually are tied up between terminals under an observance of the law, and the freight trains that reach their terminals within less than 16 hours and after 12 and 14 hours on duty, there have been reported to the Interstate Commerce Commission actual violations of this law, 301,743 in 1913-; 165,305 in 1914; and 78,940 in 1915. The Federal law requires no investigation; these are the number of violations reported by the railroads themselves / The number of violations are decreasing. The courts have imposed many penal- ties for these violations, but so long aa-the profit to the railroads of additional cars in a freight train exceeds the expense of the penalties, it is cheaper for raihoads to pay the penalties rather than forego the profits of overloading trains. Congress has recently enacted and the President has approved an act which amends this Federal law so as to provide that the minimum penalty for these violations shall be $100 and that the maxi-num penalty shall be $500. In one of the cases where a penalty was imposed, Judge Amidon said, "We are stiU more or less under the spell of the old idea that care is wholly a matter of the will. No truth of science, however, is better established than that fatigue is not simply a matter of muscles, but that it involves nerves and brain as well, and extends to all the faculties of the mind itself. It produces physiological changes which deaden the will and im- pair the sense of sight and of hearing. It is 'as truly a physical cause of accident as are open switches and broken rails." . But the engineers, firemen, conductors, and brakemen are going to find a remedyior this dangerous evil. When they secure for themselves rest and recuperation through their present eight-hour movement, they will incidentally secure increased safety for the traveling pubUc. PIECEWORK, TRAIN SPEED, AND SENIORITY. Rates of wages of locomotive engineers and firemen in road service being usually fixed upon a "piecework" basis at a certain rate "per hundred miles," it follows that the higher the average speed of a train between terminals the greater the earmngs in a ^' When the mileage basis was adopted freight locomotives were not taxed to the utmost hauling capacity and trains were not usually delayed en route by congestion 136 THEEATENED STEIKE OP EAILWAY EMPLOYEES. of traffic. Subsequently it was demonstrated that a higher operating efficiency WM attainable by increasing the tannage of trains to the limit of the hauling power of the locomotive. This change of operating policy and the growing congestion of traffic reduced the average speed of trains, and therefore, reduced the earning capacity of locomotive engineers and ftremen for a given period of time. To partially compensate for this loss of earning power, rates of wages were increased per "piece" or per hundred miles and a "day" was established, usually described as *' 100 miles or less, 10 hours or lesp. " Thus, when, because of overtaxing the capacity of locomotives, or because of delays en route incidental to increased traffic, the average speed of a train was reduced to less than 10 miles per hour, additional compensation was paid "pro rata. " On several western railroads and a majority of the southern railroads this "overtime " is paid after eight homs' work, but on no railroad in train service has a day's work been established as in other industries. If it requires 15 hotirs or less to make 150 miles on the 10-hour railroads, "mileage" is paid for at the established rate, but no additional compensation is paid for the time worked in excess of 10 hours. "When the speed of a train falls below 10 miles per hour on 10-hour railroads, the basis of engineers' and firemen's wages changes from piece work to the hourly basis; thus, if it requires 16 hours to pull a train 125 miles, the mUes run are disregarded and the engineer and fireman are paid for 16 hours' work. The rate per hour for overtime is usually the rate for 10 miles; that is, no excess or punitive rate is- payable as in other industries.' , As in all industries where rates of wages are based upon the piecework systgm, a .comparatively few locomotive engineers and firemen earn high wages, and the high wages of these few are accepted by the public as typical of the earnings of all. Because oi this misunderstanding of the real earning power of all raiboad employees under their piecework system great injustice has been suffered by its victims. With regard to the high earnings possible under the present system of compensating engi- neers and firemen, no thought is given by the uninformed to the ambitious, if not selfish struggle of these employees to "make miles" while the opportunity is pre- sented to add to earnings. Thus, an engineer or fireman may work 20 hours con- tinuously and thereby can earn two days' pay in one day, wim the knpwledge that he may earn nothing the next day. As with days so with months; an engineer or fireman may earn in one busy month twice as much as in a dull month. Many firemen with memories of a few months of high earnings often find themselves with no work at all — ^no income, and their average earnings for all months not sufficient to keep their family from hjinger and want. , The piecework system makes the "seniority" system, essential, if favoritism and unfairness is to be avoided. It is far more equitable that all firemen and engineers ^ould be required to wait for their turn in their seniority order to acquire these highly paid runs than to have all the good runs given to relatives or personal friends of those having authority to assign them. A combination of piecework and seniority assures high wages to the comparatively few whose fortunes nave led them~ safely through years of exposure to the rigors of railway discipline and tne ever-present hazard to life and Umb, and who have pos- sessed the mental courage and physical stamina indispensable to years of railway service and such advancement. An engineer, because of seniority, may be entitled to a passenger run, which on the piecework basis makes it possiTjle for him to earn what may be considered a very ■ idgii wage; but this very combination o.' systems that have made that high wage Sossible has caused him to struggle through many years of life against adverse con- itions. His is a typical case of the survival of the fittest. An army of men have entered the service since he did, and many were already employed when he entered the service, but nearly all have fallen by the wayside, killed or disabled in railway accidents,^succumbed to mental or physical overstrain, or have made just one of the mistakes that cost engineers and firemen the right to work at their chosen vocation. A great proportion of freight service is paid on the "hourly" basis, and switch engineers, switch firemen, and hostlers are all paid on the hourly basis. Hourly rates of wages of these men in engine service are far below the hourly rate paid in most of the organized industries. For instance, the standard rates paid to locomotive engineers working in and out of the city of Chicago vary from as low as 42^ cents per hour to as hi^h as 65 cents, the average probably being less than 55 cents per hour, so long as he is working on the hourly basis. Bricklayers, plasterers, plumbers; and other building workers in Chicago recejve 75 cents per hour. Firemen on the huge Mikado and "2-10-2" types of locomotives in heavy freight service are paid 37* cents an hour, while building laborers receive from 40 cents to 50 cents per hour in the same city. Many firemen receive 27J cents an hour and less. THEEATENED STRIKE OP EAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 137 _ No demand is made for these high wages by engineers firemen, and switchmen in yard service. They are asking only for a present day's pay for 8 hours' work and time and one-half for all hours worked in excess of 8 hours iii any 24-hour period. Engineers, conductors, firemen, and brakemen in all train service, except pas- senger service, are requesting that the present 10-hour rates and rules be modified to the extent that 8 hours will be substituted for 10 hours. This changes the day's work from 10 hours per 100 miles to 8 hours per 100 miles. If trains are operated so that the average speed is equal to or exceeds 12J miles for every hour that these train-service employees are required to be on duty, their requests add nothing to the operating expenses of railroads. They are asking for a present day's pay for their first 8 hours' work, and where the speed of trains averages less than 12^ miles per hour for the hours on duty, an overtime rate 50 per cent greater than the regular rate is requested. EXPENSE OF RAILROAD WRECKS. A charge for depreciation in value of locomotives, cars, rails, bridges, etc., is recog- nized as a legitimate charge against the operating expense of railroads. In the granting of increases in rates the Interstate Commerce Commission has regard for this con- siderable, constant, and unavoidable loss. By this method provisions are made from the profits of the business for replacement of property worn out or destroyed in the conduct of the business. But who pays for the depreciation in human life, the result of railwajr operation? When a car or locomotive is smasked. up a fund has been provided for its renewal, but when in that same wreck an engineer, fireman, conductor, or brakeman has been crushed out of all semblance of his former self, the other 'employees of these classes whose time has not yet come go down into their pockets and pay for this rail- road wreckage. Thomas Nast, in one of his cartoons published during the early days of railroads, pictured raUway officials riding on the ttont of locomotives as a preventive of railway accidents. But accidents have happened and will continue to happen regardless of every effort of railway officials and railway employees to prevent them. The common law doctrine. of "assumed risk" has been forced on railway employees as a part of their compensation. To use a western expression, they have been educated to expect "to die with their boots on. " During a recent arbitration of wages of locomotive engineers, firemen, and hostlers on western railroads it was testified that during a 10-year period approximately 47 per cent of all deaths of members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Engine- men were the direct result of railway accidents. In no other industry is the occupational hazard so great as in the making up and transportation of railway trains. The railroad industry, however, reflects no recogni- tion of this hazard in the wages of its employees. The records of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen show that since its institution $18,189,167.75 has been paid for deaths and disabilities of its members. Of this amount, $9,445,751.95 has been paid within the past 10 years. The experience of the organization shows that more than 60 per cent of all deaths and disabihties are caused by railroad accidents. Thus, it may be shown that during the past 10 years almost $6,000,000 has been paid by the members of this orgainization for the human wreckage of railroads. The Brotherhood of Eailroad Trainmen has paid as much or more; the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers has paid almost as much and the Order of Eailway Conduc- tors is not far behind in contributing their share to this "operating expense" of railroads. Should not the wages of railway employees be abnormally high or, anyhow, almost as high as is paid in other organized trades, so they could better afford to meet these losses of the business? It is certain that a reduction in the hours of labor, with proper rest and recupera- tion, will better fortify the human mind and body against accidents of a personal nature; and with this belief, men in freight-train service are now determined to have a shorter workday. They realize that it is not practicable to shorten a railroad division, or to change its terminals, or to relieve train crews between terminals at the end of 8 hours. They are demanding the nearest approach to an 8-hour day in train service obtainable. They demand that they remain not more than 1 hour on duty for every 12J miles run. If a hundred-mile division requires more than 8 hours, or a hundred-and-fifty-mile division requires more than 12 hours, they demand that they be paid a day's pay for the first 8 hours, the same rate of pay per hour for all worked in excess of 8 when the speed of a train averages 12^ miles an hour, and a rate of pay per hour 50 per cent greater for all hours worked thereafter. 138 THREATENED STRIKE OP RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. Thus, upon a hundred-mile division this demand will cost the railroads nothing so long as the men are not kept on duty more than 8 hours; on a hundred-and-flfty-mile division this demand will cost the railroads nothing so long aa the men are not kept on duty more than 12 hours. Where trains are now or hereafter operated so t^at men will not be required to be on duty more than 1 hour to each 12 J miles of the division over which they are required to operate the train, there will be no change in either the conditions or cost to the railroads. REDUCE THE HOURS OR SHARE THE PROFITS. Men engaged in railway train operation demand that their periods of service be reduced. They recognize that trips oetween terminals can not be decreased in miles without great expense to both the railroads and themselves. They do not demand that terminals be changed and they positively refuse to be relieved somewhere between terminals, to deadhead home at their own expense, or seek food and bed at some neighboring farm' house. Men in railway train service are piling up pro.lts for railroads a,s never before. For every dollar of increased wages these railway employees are adding hundreds of -dollars to the railroads' income. "With additional rail traffic reflected in an increase of $15,000,000 on gross earnings, transportation expenses were reduced $2,902,499," says Wall Street Journal, com- menting upon the experience of the New York Central for 1915, and continues, "To put it roughly, this was done by increasing the average freight-train loading and by cutting out the least useful passenger trains." For $176,988 less in the cost of engineers and firemen and $229,981 less in the cost "•of conductors and brakemen, the New York Central Railroad increased its "ton-miles" 16.28 per cent and increased its passenger mileage 3.46 per cent in 1915 compared with 1914- This is no novel experience. For many years labor costs to railroads of engineers, firemen, conductors, and brakemen have been rapidly decreasing. As long ago as 1912, Mr. B. F. Yoakum, then chairman of the board of directors of the Frisco Railroad, said , ' ' Up to the present time there has been a constant saving in actual cost of moving freight and passengers — ^through the constant advance in the weight and power of locomotives, through larger cars, and through the resulting larger train loads that have been possible." "The locomotive engineer is now hauling nearly 400 net tons per locomotive aa against 200 net tons 10 years ago, an increase of 100 per cent in efficiency * ' * * the larger locomotive and the heavier trains have put more exacting work on the employ- ees," said Vice President Park of the Illinois Central Railroad away back in 1911, and in 1913 he said, "The modern locomotive is about as intricate as the battleship of a few years ago. It requires a skilled man to operate it and a skilled man to supervise its operation, and this is becoming more the condition every day." "During the past 20 years in this country locomotive development in capacity and in efficiency, particularly during the past five years with respect to efficiency, has been remarkable, ' ' says a committee report in 1914 to the American Society of Mechan- ical Engineers. "It is a long time since leading railroad motive-power designers insisted that the modern locomotive had reached the safe weight to b^ carried on a 4-foot 8i-inch track, but still the increase goes on, year alter year, and there is no indication when the in- crease will stop," says Railway and Locomotive Engineering. Speaking of the increased burdens placed on locomotive firemen, Railway and Locomotive Engineering says, "The limit of human endurance in shovel firing has surely been reached," and the Railway Age Gazette says, "Large engines with cylin- ders of 25-inch diameter or over can do a great deal of work it t£ey are properly fired, but they must be supplied with large quantities of fuel and this means heavy labor for a man if the locomotive is to be worked to capacity." While engineers, ^conductors, brakemen, and firemen have, with but slight protest, staggered under this rapidly increasing burden, they now demand that the speed of such trains do not fall below an average of 12^ miles an hour between terminals, and if the overloading decreases the speed of the train below this point, overtime shall be paid at the rate of time and one-half. They demand that the existing rates of wages per 10-hour day be maintained tor an 8-houif day. No change of whatever character is demanded where trains are so operated that the time on duty averages 12i miles or more per horn-. Thus, if engine and train employees are not kept on duty more than 8 hours for 100 miles pay, or more than 12 hours for 150 mile's pay, the present demands will cost the railroads nothing. If the train is loaded down so that these employees are on duty more than 8 hours for each 100 THREATENED STRIKE OP RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 139 miles run, they will be paid for each additional hour a rate 50 per cent greater than for each hour of the first 8 hours. If it requires more than 12 hours to run 150 miles, they will receive 150 miles pay, or one day and a half for the first 12 hours, and for every ^ hour thereafter the rate per hour will be 50 per cent greater than the rate per hour for * the first 12 hours. These demands of the men in engine and train service will result in a higher speed of trains and a consequent reduction of hours of service per trip, or else they will acquire a share in the profits resulting from unfair and unsafe k)ng periods of con- tinuous service. ' ARISTOCRATS OF THE LABOR WORLD. I have before me as I write one of the more than a million attempts of the railroads to prejudice the public mind against certain railroad employees in their present efforts to secure a reduction in their hours of service. It is printed in bold type; in glaring red and sombre black. It is entitled "The Aristocrats of the Labor World." Per- haps you have seen it. . , ' It purports to show the monthly earnings of engineers and firemen employed on western railroads, concealing the fact that the statement is based on the month of Oc- tober, 1913, a month in which approximately 10 per cent of the entire year's business 'was done; a year surpassing all its predecessors in traffic handled; a period during which the demands upon the men were greater than ever before. It states the number of men who earned large amounls'during this exceptional month, ' including therein all of the highly paid passenger men. No mention is made of the fact that in the present demands of engineers, firemen, conductor.s, and brakemen for an eight-hour day men engaged in passenger service are expressly exempted therefrom. To give emphasis to the assumed unreasonableness of the freight men's demands for an eight-hour day it names 17 engineers and their earnings for the year ending June 30, 1914, every one of whom are in passenger service. There being no legal restrictions on the-length of continuous service of employees on Canadian railways 18 and 20 hours a day are often exacted with consequent increased compensEition. All of these engineers and firemen on western Canadian railways are included in producing these high earnings. The unsuspecting reader is not presumed to know that no Canadian railroads are included in the present eight-hour movement. If all men in passenger service were excluded from these earnings; if earnings of Canadians, who work from 15 to 24 hours in a day, were omitted; if the statement was baBediOn general experience, taking the good years with the bad; if the extra men who • have noj-regular assignment were included, the public would know the truth. Eegularly assigned men in freight service habitually earn large amounts in busy months, but they earn these amounts by the .many hours worked instead of by the high rates of wages. Let us take some of these freight men who did work during the month of October, 1913, and whose earnings are included in this statement but whose names are not published for the edification of the public: E.J. Hayden, engineer. Great Northern, earned $212.95, worked 395 hours, an equiv- alent to 49.3 days of 8 hours each. His wages equaled 53.9 cents per hour, or $4.12 per day of eight hours. L. N. Snyder, engineer. Rock Island, earned $176.45, worked 405 hours, an equiv- alent of 50.6 days of 8 hours each. His wages equaled 43.6 cents per hour, or $3.49 per day of 8 hours. S. T. Evans, fixeman, Canadian Pacific, earned $183.31, worked 481 hours, an equivalent of 60.1 days of 8 hours each. His wages equaled 38.1 cents per hour, or $3.05 per dav of 8 hours. G. McElniurry, fireman, Chicago & Northwestern, earned $135.29, worked 412.7 hours, an equivalent of 51.6 days of 8 hours. His wages equaled 32.8 cents per hour, or $2.62 per day of 8 hours. . . , Pages could be filled with examples like the foregoing. If employees in other 'industries would work like this, they would be called slaves or serfs. Railroads work their engineers and fireipen in this manner, and then, to discredit them in the minds of the public, have slurringly referred to them as the "aristocrats of the labor world " If the traveling public but realized that a vast majority of the passenger trains are constantly confronted with men in freight service who are an actual menace to them, the eight-hour day would be won by railroad employees. ., j r But these men do not cause wrecks, it is stoutly protested by the railroads. It can be demonstrated that these engine and train men properly perform theu duties, year after year, with but little sleep or rest, and yet avoid accidents. What won- derful men they must be! Should engineers of such capacity be required to work 140 THREATENED STRIKE OP RAILWAY EMPLOYEES, almost continuouBly at from 20 to 30 per cent less wages per hour than skilled employ- ees in the building trades?' Should locomotive firemen work 50 and 60 eight-hour days in 1 month and receive less per'day.than laborers and helpers in other crafts? Tlus is the attitude of the railroads toward their employees. Engineers, firemen, conductors, brakemen, switchmen, and hostlers now say that they are goin§ to get the eight-hour day, even though it greatly reduces their earnings, and they say it as though they meant it. Will the American people not interfere? Just look on and say nothing? WHY LOCOMOTIVE HOSTLERS WILL STRIKE. Locomotive hostlers plead guilty to their part in the present demand for an eight- hour day in railway service. They are not only willing to quit their jobs in a stnko for ah eight-hour day, but many of them are offering to accept a reduction of wages equal to 16f per cent of their present daily pay to accomplish this purpose. They demand that eight hours or less at present ten hours' pay will constitute a day's work in hostling service, and that all over eight hours within any 24-hour period be paid for at the rate of time and one-half. Let us take the western hostlers, all of whom now work 12 hours per day and a vast majority of whom are paid $3 for this 12 hours' work. Let us take one job of day and night work," where two hostlers are now continuously employed for 24 hours. These 24 hours' work now costs the railroads $6, each man receiving $3 for 12 hours' work. With the ei§ht-hour day, the same 24 hours' work may be performed each day, but it should require three men at eight hours each instead of two at 12 hours each. Each hostler would then receive "present 10 hours' pay" or $2.50 for his eight hours' work and the railroad would be required to pay three men $7.50 for 24 hours work. - Each hostler will sacrifice 50 cents of his present pay to gain the eight-hour day. It will cost the railroad just $1.50 more for three men working 24 hours than it does now for two men working 24 hours. Of course the railroads may avoid payment of this additional $1.50 for a 24-hour period." They may so arrange the work of hostlers as to place the eight-hour day in effect with an actual saving in cost to the railroads. The railroads may so arrange the work of these hostlers, that instead of requiring a group of three men to perform 24 hours' continuous service at a cost of $7.50, the work may be done by two hostlers working only 16 hours at a cost to the company of only $5. If railroads do not con- centrate the work and actually reduce the expense, it will be a departure from past experience, wherein railroads have often made wage reductions out of presumed wage increases. Testimony presented in the recent western arbitration showed that in order that 12 hours of service may be rendered, the hostler must begin work at 6 o'clock with no relief until 6 o'clock. A witness testified that he was away from home 14 hours and 20 minutes each day; that he never saw his two children, except when they were in bed asleep, for more than one hour in the evening. Another witness testified that he worked 12 hours a day for 31 days a month. ' ' I think I have been off about three days in three years," he said. • Upon the gkill and faithfiilness of the hostler the railroads depend for the proper care of locomotives, and upon him the engineers and firemen depend for their jobs, if not for their lives, for a crown sheet scorched either through ignorance or neglect of a hostler may remain concealed until later discovered and the engineer dismissed for incompetency, or until it lets go and two men are cooked alive. Road hostlers, in addition to their usual duties, are required to operate locomotives on the main track, where the safety of the traveling public requires a thorough knowl- edge of train operation, signal system, and book of rules. These road hostlers are now required to work 10 hours a day at 32J cents an hour on eastern railroads, and 12 hours a day at 35 cents an hour on western railroads. Thus it is seen that a man, who, for public safety, should have every qualification of an engineer is able to earn from $3.90 to $4.20 by working 12 hours a day. It is the excessive hours that railroad employees are required to work that makes it possible for railroads to report through their publicity agencies high annual earn- ings on very low rates of wages. At their present rate of wages, if hostlers work only 44 hours a week, as in the build- ing trades and many other industries, a vast majority of them would receive only $11 per week, and the comparatively few road hostlers would be paid $15.40 per week THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 141 ARBITRATION A GAME OF CHANCE. Can you call to mind a single instance in wHch workers at any trade have secured the eight-hour day through arbitration? The mine workers were forced to inconvenience the public for many months by a great strike before they secured the eight-hour day. Of course, now the public is glad that they were inconvenienced, for it was their sacrifice that thus helped to make this a better country to live in. The printers, bricklayers, carpenters, and all the rest of thgm secured an eight- hour day through long and repeated strikes, but who of you now regrets your incon- venience? All mothers of liberty and human rights have suffered labor pains. If the railroads may judge of the future by experiences of the past, they perhaps feel safe in submittii^ the present eight-hour question to an arbitration board. The railroads have already secured the cooperation of all chambers of commerce and other employers' associations in their proposal that railway employes be now forced to submit their eight-hour jiroposition to arbitration. In the last western arbitration locomotive hostlers, 'who have always been required to work 12 hours every day in the year, asked for a 10-hour day and the arbitration board decided that they should continue to work 12 hours. But, in fairness to the board, it should be said that it was not believed by anyone that hostlers could support their families in decency on 25 cents per hour unless they did work 12 hours per day. Alter having refused to reduce a 12-hour day to a 10-hour a day, it would be radical to expect another arbitration board to reduce these same hostlers to an eight-hour day. What coiirts are ever radical? And aside from this, railway employes have lost faith in the justice of arbitration boards. They believe arbitration justice is as fickle as chance. Long before gambling with dice was prohibited by law, it was not considered profit- able to go against loaded dice. Polite people would have nothing to do with such unfair methods. Arbitration is a gambling game, even when the dice are not loaded. With the rules of the game observed in every detail, it is a fifty-fifty chance with the usual percentage to the house. Eailway employes once thought that an arbitration decision depended almost entirely on the evidence that they were able to present and in bUssftu delusion took upon themselves credit for every arbitration victory — the railroads angrily protesting that they had been jobbed in the appointment of the neutral arbitrators; that they "did not understand the question;" that this award proved their "lack of knowledge of the subject." And then it was discovered that most of the awards began to go against the employees, regardless of the evidence. In cases where the justice of their contention was most apparent to them and where the preponderance of evidence was believed to be on their side, they lost decision after decision. In an engineer's arbitration they foimd the neutral arbitrator to be a retired rail- road attorney, afflicted with old age, bad digestion, and acute prejudice to such an .^extent that he did not attempt to conceal his antipathy to the engineers. The rail- roads' representative in this arbitration was so much fairer than the neutral arbitrator that he conceded more than the so-called neutral arbitrator wanted to give. In an arbitration of mattersconceming conductors and trainmen ex-ofBceholders, or "lame ducks," rendered a decision that made the victims say, as though they meant it, "Never again." In the last arbitration of wages and working conditions of western engineers, fire- men, and hostlers the board was dominated by a man who, as director or trustee, was directly concerned in the result of the award. Aside from many millions of dollars of other railroad holdings, much of which would be affected by the award, he was direc- tor of a trust company that owned one block of approximately $12,500,000 of first- morlgage bonds of one of the railroads parties to the arbitration. When his- railway financial connections were discovered and oflicial protest made against his contin- uance on the board, the employees were officially advised that while it had not been known that he was thus connected, a "knowledge of that fact would have been favor- able rather than otherwie(e to his appointment," and that "nothing has been bfought to our knowledge since his appointment as an arbitrator which m our opinion dis- qualifies Mm as an arbitrator. But, ignoring. past experiences, let us presume that there b an arbitration of this present eight-hour demand of railway employees and that in picking the jury every effort is made to appoint neutrals entirely free of prejudices. In such an event, it is but tossing pennies to decide the question. If the mental attitude of the men ap- pointed is favorable to railway employees at the time of th.:ir appointment, it is a two- to-one chance that the employees wiU win. If the neutrals' past environment has 142 THEEATENED STEIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. been such tliat it would require much evidence to convince them of the justice of the men's demands, no ei^t-hour day will be awarded. If the president of the American Federation of Labor is selected as a neutral arbitrator, he will with perfect honesty and sincerity award railroad men the eight-houi' day. If a president, directo^ or an attorney of some great employing corporation is appointed, with ]ust as much honesty of purpose he will .deny the eight-hour day. If some one is appointed who, presumably,, has no mental' bias, it will be nothing more or less than betting on the red against the black. , , , n n- Why has not the suggestion been made that the entire matter be settled by pulling straws" and thus relieve everybody of the bother? Mr. Carter. I want to, say, first, in my 15 minutes, that some of the railroads now working on an eight-hour day, the roads that would hardly be affected by this bill, or by our demands or rather by the recommendation of the President, are some of the most prosperous. I mean by that, that nothwithstanding what the first speaker for the railroads has said, one of the roads over which he once had supervision already has in effect the law which you propose here to enact, the request which we demand, and the recommendation of the President of the United States, and it has not wrecked that road yet; It is true that on that road the switch-engine and yard men are not on the eight-hour day, but so far as the freight .service is concerned it is on the eight-hour day, and this bill or the recbmmendation of the President would not affect it one iota. I have had prepared here a brief statement as to the labor costs of the engineers and firemen under the present operation of the 10-hour roads as compared with the eight-hour roads. I fmd that the cost of the engineers and fitremen in the year 1913 per 1,000 ton-miles was as follows on the iovi roads named : ^ The Illinois Central Eailroad, a 10-hour road, 33 cents. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, a 10-hour railroad, 34.3 cents. The Southern Pacific Co., an eight-hour railroad, 30.3 cents. The Missouri Pacific Railroad, a 10-hour road, 38.9 cents. The cheapest operated road, so far as wages of engineers and fire- men are concerned, is the road that will not be affected by the recom- mendation of the President or by the bill which you have before you for consideration. If, under present practice, the 8-hour roads are operated at a lower cost than the 10-hour roadsj then I submit, gentlemen, that all of this talk about $60,000,000 is simply to scare you and to prevent you from enacting legislation that should be enacted if the men we represent are to have their rights and their i'ustice, without a strike. I have here another statement that I have lad prepared to-day, showing the mileage of the roads already oper- ated on the 8-hour basis, none of which are yet wrecked financially. (The statement referred to is here printed in full, as follows :) EIGHT-HOUR BOADS — ENGINEERS AND FIREMEN. Western territory: Miles. El Paso & Southwestern 456 Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio 1, 347 Texas & New Orleans. 462 Morgan's Louisiana & Texas R. R. & Steamship Co 404 ■ Louisiana Western ; 207 Houston & Texas Central 895 Houston East & West Texas 231 Houston & Shreveport - , THBEATENED STEIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 143 Southeastern territory; Miles. Atlanta, Birmingham & Atlantic 638 Atlantic Coast Line 4 ggy Central of Georgia ..'..'.'.'. 1, 924 Charlestown & Western Carolina ' 340 Florida & East Coast ....'. 746 Georgia Railroad ] . ' 307 Louisville & Nashville 5 034 Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis '.'.'....'.... Norfolk Southern " g07 Seaboard Air Line , 3, 123 Alabama & Vicksbuig. 142 Georgia & Florida 307 Georgia Southern & Florida 350 Gulf & Ship Island 307 New Orleans & Great Northern 282 New Orleans & Northeastern • 196 Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac; 89 Tennessee Central 293 Vicksbuig, Shreveport & Pacific 171 San Antonio & Aransas Pass , 724 St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico 528 Southern Pacific 6, 928 Total 32, 035 These roads, as they appear there, show that over 32,000 miles of the roads represented by the railroad officials and by ourselves already have the eight-hour day in freight service, and none of them are yet wrecked. I want to read, and make it a part of the record, what the general manager of the Staten Island Railroad Co. said to his employees concerning the present movement : While the requests which have been made by the four organizations on the majority of the railroads in the United States may, if granted, result in freight train, engine, and yard men receiving each year the same or greater pay than at present received because of the peculiar operating conditions on Staten Island, it is absolutely certain that by far the larger percentage of the men would, instead of receiving more money, actually receive less. For example: A yard engineer now working 11 hours, at 41 cents an hour, receives $4.51, or, assuming he works every day in the year, .$1,645.15. On the basis proposed by you this engineer would receive 10 hours' pay at present rates, or $4.10, or $1,495.50. This means, therefore, that this engineer would receive practically $150 less per year than he is now getting, the equivalent of nearly a month and a quarter pay. The same thing would be true to a greater or lesser extent of the pay of firemen, conductors, and brakemen in yard and freight service. I want to read from the Wall Street Journal concerning the labor cost under the present practice. It will be filed in the statement which I shall file at the end of my address. Now, with regard to arbitration, compulsory and otherwise: I state the facts when I say that I have long been an advocate of arbitration. When the Erdmann Act was first up for discussion, I favored that and urged our members to favor it. Our organization assisted in having it enacted. When the Newlands Act was up, I appeared before this committee when some of you gentlemen here were personally present and favored the Newlands Act. But I have had a change of heart. After years of experience under arbitration I have reached the con- clusion that a labor question is not arbitrable if the working man hope to secure justice in the results. I have discovered that anything that pertains to workingmen's wages or working conditions is purely a class question, a question on which there is an alignment hard and fast, and 144 THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. I submit that what has been said in this meeting to-day is conclusive proof that whenever a man rises tathat stage of industry where he has the abihty to hire another man, he loses all sympathy for the working people. If we were to submit to arbitration the eight-hour day before any one of the gentlemen who have spoken, or any one of the men who belong to their class, no evidence could change their minds that the eight-hour day was economically wrong, because it takes from their profits. So far as the workers are concerned, it_ is_ already conceded that a member of one of these organizations is ineligible as a neutral arbitrator, and I think we have demonstrated that most of the public, because of their environments, have fast and strong conclusions upon the subject of the eight-hour day, and before an arbitration is held they have made up theii- minds either' for or against it, and we may" turn to the colleges for material for neutral arbitrators, and there we find that between the endowments and pension funds of the colleges, the professors are now in the ranks of the employers. Who is there left to act as a neutral arbitrator in the true sense of the word "neuttahty"? In 1913 the engineers and firemen submitted the matter to arbi- tration, and presimiably one of the leading citizens of the United States was selected as a neutral arbitrator, a most estimable gentle- man, a man whose honor one can not question, but we found that he was against us from the beginning of the arbitration; we found later, upon investigation, that as trustee or otherwise, he was cus- todian of millions and millions of the railroad securities of the rail- roads that were actually participating in the arbitration. In one instance alone we found that the trust company of which he was director held $12,500,000 of first-mortgage bonds of one of the rail- roads whose wage question we were arbitrating. Now, when we discovered that we thought he had disqualified himself as an arbitrator. We protested against his continuance on the board. Now, here is the standard of neutraUty fixed by those who appoint the neutral arbitrators. Senator Pomeeene. Did -the man continue on the board after the protest ? Mr. Carter. Yes, sir; and I will read why. In reply to our protest about this man's connections we have this communication from the representatives of the Government: A knowledge of that fact would have been favorable rather than otherwise to his/ appomtment, and nothing has been brought to our notice since his appointment as an arbitrator which, in our opinion, disqualifies him as an arbitrator. Senator Pomeeene. May I ask who that man was ? Mr. Carter. The Hon. Mr. Nagel. Mr., PoMERENE. Was that fact known when he was appointed as an arbitrator? Mr. Carter. No, sir; I do not think it was known by anybody. Senator Pomerene. Do you mean to say that you believe that if the appointing power had had that knowledge he would have been appointed ? Mr. Carter. They said so; they stated it better qualified him as an arbitrator, and that they had heard nothing to give us a reason for the protest. XJa.KJ!iAXJ!iJNjiL» oxJiiJVJS ur BAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 145 The fact of the matter is, gentlemen of the conmiittee, that arbi- trators are necessarily selected from the master class, from that class which either takes ita profit from the labor of others or else is employed by corporations in the capacity of officer or attorney. I have said you may as well select Mr. Gompers as a neutral arbitrator as select people usually selected as arbitrators. Mr. Gompers could honorably, and would honorably, grant us the eight-hour day, just as the men who are selected would honorably refuse it. It is purely a class question, and these questions are not arbitrable. Mr. Chairman, the Divinity of our Savior has been in question for twenty centuries. Suppose we arbitrate that and place on the board a Christian. Id there any doubt as to what the diecision would be 1 Let us put on the board, instead of the Christian, a Hebrew. Is there any question as to what the award would be ? Having found both are Erejudiced, let us suppose we appoint a Mohanunedan. What would e know about it, anyhow ? When we try to avoid unneutrality, we find men who have no grasp of the question. that is presented to them. As in the instance Mr. Garretson quoted, we find men who are obviously not prejudiced. Why, they do not know what they are talking about, and although perhaps the best writers of EngHsh to-day they have agreed what they wrote did not mean what they Latended to mean, and the men lost their decision. If what has been said by men in this audience — I am advised my time is up — ^but I want to say that I consider it an outrage that six haurs should be devoted to an attack on the eight-hour day and we have only three. My time is up. The Ghaieman. Mr. Stone, you may proceed. STATEMENT OF MR. WARREBT S. STONE, GRAND CHIEF OF THE BROTHERHOOD OF LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEERS. Mr. Stone. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, after listening to all these topliners from the American bar, I presume it is presumptuous for a man who has put in 25 years in the cab of a locomotive to undertake to talk on this question. I have been engaged in the wage movement fcir a series of years, and I have heard this same plea of poverty throughout every movement we have ever had. I never yet, as a representative of the men, have asked for better wages or better working conditions that I have not heard the same plea of poverty; the great cost, and the assertion that they are just on the rocks, or about to go into the hands of receivers, and if they grant our request, they are sure to go there before the next moon. So I take all those statements about receivers with a grain of salt. I agree with the learned counsel on the other side that a proper return on the actual investment should be granted, but I do not agree that in addition to that they~ should have a fair return on more water than flows down the Potomac River. Neither do I agree that the millions of investments that are still standing out, worthless as the paper they are printed on, and put out for the sole purpose of taking up the productive efficiency of the future, should nrst receive their reward before organized labor can have what it is justly entitled to. TTie time-and-a-half principle on overtime is nothing new. These representatives of the railroads sitting here have recognized that in their shop trades. They pay time and a half; they pay double time for Sundays and after midnight for a day shift. They pay a 60341°— S. Doc. 549, 64-1 ^10 146 THREATENED STRIKE OE RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. man double time from the time he leaves the terminal to go to a wreck and comes back on many of these roads; so the principle is not new. You have heard talk about long hours, and they all talk in per- centages, and they say it is three-eighths of 1 per cent. Gentlemen, I have been in the cab of a locomotive many hours. I knoAV the infinitesimal fraction of a second that spells the difference between safety and disaster. I know what it means for a man working under stress of long hours. I have stood on the deck of a locomotive 60 and 70 hours, and I know the condition I was in, and I know I was not safe, and yet you are told that only three-eighths of 1 per cent exceed 16 hours. Here [exhibiting] is the .record of the Interstate Cominerce Com- mission. I take it for granted it is correct, because it is sworn to under oath by the carriers themselves. This is one of their own- reports, and it shows 59,915 violations of the 16-hour law in, the last 12 months for the fiscal year ending November, 1915. In this report, upon which the Government of the United States has placed its stamp^-so it must be official — you will find that hours between 16 and 20 are common; 20 to 3D quite frequent; .30 to 40 not unusual; and 60, 60, and 65 hours appear there on the records themselves. If thi^ Ajnerican people could know the true facts they would not tolerate them for a single day." You heard one or two of these gentlemen tell you what a fast run they made from Chicago to Washington to get here. Some of the fentlemen represented the shippers. This was the first time that I ave been apprised of the fact that the public are made up entirely of shippers. If our records are correct, however, we have about 1,000,000 shippers and 104,000,000 of ordinary people. Yet we hear only one man talk for the common people. If this man came here last night in 12 or 14 hours, he rode behind one of the men I repre- sent, and that man was taking up a signal every 30 seconds through the night, and when you compare that man with the. man working in the shops and other trades and back of that the load of responsi- bility, it is not to be compared. They say he had plenty of rest before he went out and only works three or four hours. That is true, but between Chicago and here last night it is safe to say 100 freight men who had been on duty anywhere from 12 to 25 hours were struggling to clear the way for the hmited, so he might have a safe run. The American people are more interested in these long runs of these men than any other class in the world, because every one of you travel, and the whole world travels. We handle all the com- merce of America and all you hold deai* on earth, and if you knew, as we in the game know, the long hours these men put in, it would not be necessary to stand here asKing for legislation, that these gentle- men have refused, for shorter hours. You have heard of men going over the roaJ in three or four hours. That is true on some fast runs. These men are pieceworkers, and all they do in the freight service is to turn out ton-miles, or, in the pas- senger service, passenger-miles. If they pull those freight trains over the road in 4 hours, the company gets the revenue for 100 miles, just the, same as if he had taken 8 hours or had taken 20 hours, and why nbt pay for that ? They have delivered the goods and the company THREATENED STRIKE OE RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 147 has received tlie revenue for it. Few of you gentlemen realize the fact that the men engaged in the freight traffic are practically slaves. I may have come in this morning off of a run and have been 25 hours out, yet I can not take my family out without first asking permission at the roundhouse. I can not leave my own home without telling where I am going, whether it be to the barber shop, the grocery store, the drug store, or anywhere else. You have got to be on tap every minute, where the caller can find you, and if he fails to get you the first time, you get disciplined, and if he fails to get you the second time you are dis- charged. That is the condition we work under in the freight service. We are not asking anything unreasonable. We are asking simply for the right of the men to live and to have some of the enjoyments of life the men are entitled to — a little home life and recreation. One- half of the time when he is off duty he is away from home in the termi- nal and at his own expense. It is different from any other class of service in the world. You have been told that the railroads will keep their books and have them ready whenever called upon and will do such and such a thing. I should hke to go into the question of railroad bookkeeping. It is in a class by itself. If I have any gift at all, it is that I can juggle a few figures, and the man who handles the railroads' bookkeeping is an expert in figures. It is true, gentlemen, that I urged in the Chicago conference, where my learned opponent and I battled for 81 days, the hard, arduous work of these. men. What did he do? He filed, under oath, these two exhibits, which I desire to call to the^ attention of the com- mittee. , He said, "In the first place, long hours do not exist. We have prepared for 98 railroads west of Chicago an exhibit, No. 10," which was filed with the conference committee and consented to as correct, "showing that in October, 1913, 38.17 (?) per cent of all freight trains run were run at a speed greater than 10 miles per hour." If that is true, then this enormous amount of overtime does not exist, except in somebody's imagixiation working overtime. He also filed this exhibit, which is Exhibit No. 10, sheet 2, and the summary at the bottom shows for October, 1913, the highest peak in the tonnage of this country at any one time in the last several years; that the average mileage of all freight trains run was 112.6 miles, and that the average time on duty was 9 hours and 31 min- utes. If that is true, under that same theory a man on a 100-mile division would have been on duty 8.31 hours, or 8 hours and 20 minutes. So there is aU the overtime they would have paid, if their figures are correct, and they must be, because they defeated us in the last arbitration on these figures. I simply want to call attention to those, gentlemen, to show you they argue differently at different times. Just one more word, and I have done, and Mr. Garretson wiU con- clude. The Chief Executive has said we are right in our claim for the eight-hour day and we are entitled to it, and we have asked these gentlemen, who, as representatives of great wealth — they are the ones who hold the Nation in their grasp, and not we four executives, as referred to by the other side — to grant us this eight-hour day, and they having refused, has asked you gentlemen to pass this biU; and, gentlemen, I hope you wiU realize the seriousness of the situation. 148 THKEATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. One gentleman has said we have played the bluff game of poker. I have not played poker for a great many years, having been too busy to indulge in the game, but I have seen games of poker where if a man bluffed long enough they called him. There is no bluff in the proposition we are putting up here. These are hard, cold facts, and we mean every word. Senator Brandegee. Do you agree with the statement made by Mr. Garretson this morning that it would be impossible for you to stop the strike order if you wanted to, because it would occtir automatically on the orders already out; that you can only stop it by telegraphing a code word, which would indicate that you had acquired as good^ terms as those offered by the President ? Mr. Stone. If you insist I wiU answer that, but I should prefer not, because Mr Garretson will answer in detail, and our laws are exactly the same. Senator Brandegee. I do not insist, but I asked if you agree with tliat suggestion, because I do not know whether I understood him. Mr. wroNE. Mr. Garretson will reply to that in his answer. STATEMENT IN REPLY OF ME. A. B. GARRETSON, PRESIDENT BROTHERHOOD OF RAILWAY CONDUCTORS. Mr. Garretson. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, there is one thing that impresses me in connection with this gathering and with the discussion of this subject. Many years ago I ran a train down in the country below the Rio Grande, where the vulture is, a sacred bird. When we struck a cow with the pilot of the engine, and conducted her to her eternal resting place, you would see specks appear. They were gathering where the carcass was. The public is the carcass and there seems to be an assertion here of an inalienable right of everybody represented — and I will take our share — ^to pluck the carcass. We are putting it into them on the basis of an increased wage for our men. The raiboads are putting it into them on the basis of increased freight rates, and the shipper is saying in one breath that he could not pass it on to the public, and having spasms on account of it, and in the next breath saying in the last analysis the public will have to .bear it, which is absoliitely true. The entire assemblage reminds me of the bu-th of Achilles and what followed — ^when Thetis, his mother, held him in the river Styx to make him invulnerable against the weapons of man. Being so fastidious, she did not desire to wet her fingers, and she held him by the heel and his heel did not go into the water, leaving him vulnerable at that point. Present-day men, when they were held in the Styx by their mothers, I think, were held by their pockets, because tliat is the vulnerable spot with most of ttem in the discussion of this question. We are protecting the pockets of our men, the railroads are pro- tecting the pockets of the stockholders, and the shipper is protecting his own pocket, for he has no real interest in it except what he passes on. Therefore, each and every one of us is trying to place a guard over that venerable spot. I have listened with very considerable interest to the ideas ad- vanced by mjr legal friend across the table, the one nearest me. We are told that it is a sacred duty on our part to conduct ourselves so that we shall establish the credit of these railways, so that the stocks THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 149 can be sold to the public, and, I suppose, bring a return, although I do noc think the concern goes further than to sell them to the public. It that is the case, why is it not a sacred duty for us all to buy gasoline and establish the credit of the Standard Oil ptock? Buy United Steel products and establish the credit of that stock, and go on and establish the credit of every industry in the country, for if we must establish the credit of these railroads, regardless of whether they pay a living wage to their laborers, let us make it universal. "What kind of prosperity is it in the countn^ that filk up a few men's pocketbooks and leaves the body of the people poor ? Some years ago when a distinguished statesman was advancing in the earlier paths of public attention and in public life, he made an investigation of a sister country to the south. He came back and reported that under the monetary system that prevailed in that coimtry they were prosperous. I was a little like the man who got converted. He was illiterate. This was a Methodist revival, and as he could not read, they commenced his oral education. They told him all the Bible stories we learn when children; about the creation and the flood, and, I expect, they men- tioned Noah getting drimk, and told about Jonah and the whale. After each of these stories he would say, "Is that in the book?" They would tell him it was, and he would say, "I beheve it." Then when he was told about the fiery furnace, he knew something about it. He said, "Seven times as hot as I can heat my forge?" They said, "Yes." He said, "That is a damn lie, and I do not believe that feh story either." There you have the idea I got of the prosperity of the sister Republic. There were a few rich men, and the body of the people were as poor as poverty could make them, and if that is prosperity, pros- perity is a damnable thing in the country. Real prosperity is that which divides among all the citizens the power to procure a decent share of the comforts as well as the necessities of life, and an economic belief that preaches prosperity without the means of giving to those by whose efforts that prosperity was brought about a share thereof is a thing we should pray for the termination of instead of striving for the continuation of. They talk of the omnipotence of four men. Do you know if the sensations of Alexander when he entered Babylon, or Caesar when he conquered Britain — they could not feel half the sense of power that is ascribed to these four men on this side of the table. What have these four men done? They have stood consistently for the expressed will of nearly 400,000 men behind, them. So far they have refused to do nothing. They have only insisted that unless some- body did do somethmg, they would do nothing. Passive action. Does that establish responsibility ? My other legal friend seemed to gather the idea, which is gath- ered, I will admit, among many circles, that all the primeval man, in his savage nature, is represented on this side of the table. Oh, no! What is the difference between the president of a railroad and the president of a labor union, except salary? I know presidents of railways that in the vordinary attainments — well, I am in the same class. I know others that are far ahead of me, and frankly, I think I know a few that — well, by the eight-hour standard, they might measure bigger than I, but by some others they would not. It is 150 THREATENED STEIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOTEES. not the occupation a man follows that changes a man's nature. If God made ham respectable and decent, he will be decent in any walk of hfe, and if He made him incompetent and imreliable, he will be unreliable in any form of life. What did priineval man do when the earth itself was young under him ? He clutched his half -gnawed bone and snarled when another cave man tried to take it from him, and had physical appeal to his club. The difference to-day is instead of appealing to the club when what represents the half-gnawed bone is threatened by sonie other fellow, who wants that bone or the equivalent, he hires a lawyer, and just as in ths old days when he took the best club he could to defend that which was his, he hires the best lawyer he can find in the business, and there was just that difference in clubs then as there is in lawyers now. The question was raised by one of the gentlemen as to what agency fixed standards. I have been under the impression that the United States Government authorized standards of weights and measures. If so, is not the fact that the United States Government has estab- lished the eight-hour day for its own eibployees the establishment of a standard? We are unwise enough to believe at least that it may be. The statement was made here that arbitration Was established by these schedules. I want to say about that that there has never been a general arbitration for organized labor in the eiitire western portion of the United States. There have been a few individual arbitrations. The same is true in the southeastern territory, and the only arbi- tration general in its character that ever established these standards or these schedules by any such means is in the eastern territory. The statement was made here that nobody had refused to act for these smaller lines. I do not know whether they have or not. But the President of the United States told us that it was understood that any settlement that might be reached apphed only to the lines represented by the conference committee of managers and the con- ference committee of managers absolutely are on record declaring that they only represent those properties that they have a power of attorney from. If they have received authority to represent any- body eke the statement of their attorney to-day is the first notice of it that has ever been publicly given, and imtil such notice is for- mally given in accordance with the methods of that committee, I think we are justified in assuming that any settlement — bear in mind, I am not speaking of a legislative settlement — does only apply where they have said that they have authority to act. Now, I want to cover for a moment the practical statements that were niade by my friend the chairman of the conference committee, and it is even true. We do have friendly spells between rows. There never was any- offer made, nor can any record of it be produced — and every official word that passed betwen us is the subject of a stenographic record, and in accordance with oiu- promise, copies of it will be furnished here including, if necessarv, the notices, as we procured a stenographic copy of all conferences that took place—, there never was any definite form of an offer made in any shape whatever except the 6ffer to arbitrate all pending matters, including the companies' yardstick. THEEATENED, STRIKE OF EAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 151 ' As to the men not being represented, exercising this quality of selection, it being a voluntary matter, I think the only variation is that the engineers on two roads declined to enter the movement — two roads of any size. In every other direction as to aU the roads for which the conference committee held authority two or more of the organizations were represented. The interpretations that were read into the record, if read with the context that accompanied them, will show that a majority of thesa instances are extreme illustrations. That did not occur on the average railroad — weU, not oftener than the moon changes at least; they are. the extremes. We took our examples from extreme cases just as the conference committee made examples from extreme cases, because each was attempting to develop the utmost hmits to which we could go in the application, &st of Form 35 ; and, secondly, in the application of the tentative proposals pre- sented by the railroad companies. In regard to the statement that lightening tonnage wiU not expe- dite business, I just want to put one fact on record. I was never general manager of a railroad; I was never superintendent of trans- portation, but I have been on the edges of the game for 40 years — m it for over 12, and in exact touch with every one of its conditions. When a railroad gets blocked its first act is to lighten tonnage and lift the string. That is the way they break blockades on a railroad, but it is costly if kept up. In regard to the quotation made from a- letter written by one of the presidents or vice presidents of one of these brotherhoods, the vice president of one of these brotherhoods is in this movemeiit as well qualified to speak for the attitude of the four organizations as a whole on the eight-hour day as a wandering member down the street or the clerk of the president of the railway is authorized to speak for the body when he speaks of his own vohtion. The expression of the attitude of the brotherhoods on this question is given out in regular form through their heads. Stress is laid on how much reduction there has been in the number of cases where the 16-hour service has existed. A few years ago those figures were two, three, and four times what they are now. It might be worth while for this Committee on Interstate Commerce to learn from the Interstate Commerce Commission how many thou- sand doUars in fines and how many lawsuits have worked a reforma- tion in that direction. In other words, fines have made it uneco- nonuc to engage men in violatio^ of that law, and that has reduced the percentage. But have you ever thought that if three-tenths of 1 per cent of the men run these ungodly hours the doctrine of averages is not a subject of comfort to the man who has held out ? It is just as great a hardship to him as if every other man on the road was raised. You can not eat averages and you can not sleep in them. I have been told about the careful studies that haVe been made in regard to the pohcy of the companies to reduce the amount of pay. Let me tell you something about careful studies. No doubt some of you remember when the 16-hour law was under consideration by Congress back in 1906. The representatives now present in this room came before you and told you that it was an utter impossibihty to operate a railroad under any such provision, and numbers of' them made careful studies, and to coerce by moral force their employees into opposing the 152 THREATENED STEIKE OP RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. enactment of such a law, presented to them blue prints showmg where the new division stations would necessarily be under such a process, and there has never been a division station moved since the law became effective, and to show you how the wires wiU get crossed in this representation, the very day that a hearing was held in this city, when ttie representatives of a large number of railways are on record as testifying that a railroad could not be operated under such a law, a committee of 10 general managers in Chicago, representing all the western roads, made a flat offer to P. H. Morrisey and myself — ^he then being a president of the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen and had to sign up the agreement— ^positively agreeing to run no train after 16 hours if we would withdraw our support of the matters here. They failed to confer with each other; they ought to have done so; they ought to have told it on different days. This talk about a great number of trains interfering with the swift moyement of traffic is true in a degree on single-track roads. On double trafl&c it is not a factor, except for the purpose of getting passenger trains by them, and it can be largely overcome; and pos- sibly the credit of these roads is also sustained if the human instead of the economic feature enters into it in a single degree. It was stated here to-day what the early attitude of the railroads was, and that it had been wholly outgrown. My memory of the rail- ways and my memory of the Congressmen that I see here goes back to what the early attitude of the railway was toward regulations. What was the attitude of the railways ? When the safety-appliance act, through the influence almost wholly of these organizations, began to be pressed in Congress, what was the attitude of the railroad ? Did the slaughter lines exercise any influence on their attitude ? Oh, no. It was uneconomic to put on safety apphances. They could kill them and hire them cheaper than they could equip. Hours of service is the saipe thing as to their old attitude. In those days discretion had not developed. Tlightly or wrongly one of the great exponents of the railway conductors is charged with having given out the exjjression, "The public be damned,", and it fairly expresses many attitudes. It is stated that there is no more watering of stock, there is no more cutting of melons. A moral bill of health has been issued to every man who sits on a board of directors, but it is worth while considering what the charter application of the Frisco Railway down in St. Loms the other day means, whether or not there is some issue above actual value, and that actual value fixed by a railway expert on behalf of a banking house. Are rebate's and stock issues a thing of the past, or are they not? Congress has dug up some recent history on that subject, and J do not believe it is prepared to issue bills of health in every case upon the subject. It is stated that the public in the last analysis will pav. That is what they will. They always have paid, and their burden will not be for increased wage — it will be for paying interest through 30 generations of overcapitalization. The public has paid it and will continue to pay it. It is like a Mexican judge used to say down in the country where I worked: "Americans are all the same as cow. Drive them up pay day and milk them," and they did; and that peculiarity is not confined to Mexicans. Now, I want to define the eight-hour day in one sentence. , You have heard all kinds of charges that we did not want the eight-houT day. THEEATENED STEIKE OF EAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 153 Why don't we? Because the ordinary man works right in front of his door, so far as access is concerned. When his day's work is done he has all the comforts that his home may possess. The railway man starts from the terminal and something unexpected happens and eight hours finds him on' some of those roads in a semidesert far from food and water, nohody to reUeve him, but because of that fact and because of the fact that his business requires him to work unreason- able hours to perform his regular assignments and because ia many instances the company can not supply water in the arid regions, long distances apart-^is that man to be depriyed of the benefits that come to the man who keeps his feet on the ground ? Consequently all our agreements provide that the eight-hour day and a hundred miles interchangeably are precisely as the eight-hour day or 100 hundred miles are interchangeable. They are required to work on that basis of speed, and if it is 100 miles they give 8 hours, and if it is 150 miles they give 12, and if, as in a few cases, it is 200 nules, the company can use us 16 hours lacking 1 minute, and pay therefor, but not a cent of punitive overtime. It is only after the expiration of the period that the mileage, the rate of speed used as a divisor, would brme a quotient larger than the eight-hour average that overtime would accrue. As to the estimate of this cost of $100,000, you have heard a statement that this was made on the basis of last year's business and one oi the speakers let the cat out of the bag and the other had to confirm him. It is cheaper to work them unhuman hours — I say unhuman — than it is to shorten up even with the piinitive overtime, and you do not see any sign that the humanitarian idea has entered in. "We are going to do it and pay it if we have to.'^ That is the attitude. Although controllable if you can make it uneconomic to do it — and now I am convinced we made an error; we ought to have made it double time. That takes some of the economy out of it and if that did not it ought to be put high enough so that it wo^ild, if you have to purchase human consideration. They took last year's business; they estimated on that and left out the controllable factor. That statem«nt was made to me in the year 1885 by the then manager of the biggest system on the continent and he was then arranging for the payment of the first overtime that any agreement ever had in it for conductors on this continent. I have lived the history of overtime. He put up exactly the argument that was put up here against overtime. The charge was made that a train woidd never get in on time and if it did the citizens would come down to see it come in. There was an impugning of the motives of every railway employee on the continent in asserting that he could be bought for one-half of the price of an hour of overtime, and for a conductor that is 20 cents. If it costs 20 cents to buy conductors, what does it cost to buy a raUroad president? That is worthy of consideration. That statement was made here. Where does this money go ? One of the witnesses told you about the amount of money here. You will remember that I prompted him on the figures. Those figures were taken from a statement issued by the publicity campaign of the railroad companies. Mr. Cnairman, I have four minutes left and I can give you four facts in that time. This total sum of money ie $1,381,000,000. How is it divided? You heard the great sympathy expressed as to the 154 THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. trusteeship, that it generally included everythingon earth except us four looking after the interests of all of them. There are 309,000 trainmen accounted for there and they get $387,000,000—1 am not going to put it below the millions. The clerical force amounts to 300,000, and they get $216,000,000. All the other employees of the railways, except the official force, get $413,000,000. There are only 52,000 railway officials on this continent. They get $364,000,000, and they do not cut it down and put it on to this 80 per cent that are so illy paid. Their average is $7,000, and over half of them do not draw any more money than passenger condlictors. So you see that it raises those that are above the average. Charity does not begin at home. Now, as to the question I said I would answer. Let me tell you why a refusal has been made to put off the time for this strike. , I told you I would answer it openly and fairly. Some of my associates are under a httle different rule than I am myself. I am free to defer that date but I am between Scylla and Charybdis. Senator Lewis. You mean you have the power? Mr. Garretson. I have the power in my own organization, but here is where I stand : I told you this morning that for years I have served those men; that for years they have given me everything that men can give to their leader. When the President of the United States said to me, in common with my associates, "Can this be done ?" I found my Gethsemane. What are the two^ paths before me ? On one side the condemnation of every element that controls the pub- licity and the pubHc sentiment of a large class of the people of this continent, radical, unorganized, no term of opprobrium too condemna- tory can be invented to heap upon our heads if it becomes necessary to stop the commerce of the Nation. Do we feel that responsibility ? Are we not human? Has there been any evidence in the fives of these men that they place less value upon the regard of their fellow- men than other men ? But the man who has been the recipient of all these things from his men, does he owe them a first obUgation, or does he not? I can say to my men, "Put it off." What do I put up to them? Treachery to their comrades; and when they find out that I did it without having attained the object which they mstructed me to attain, across the fair record of 30 years is written the word "traitor." Can I face it? I thank you, gentlemen. Mr. Thom. Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the privilege for Mr. Elisha Lee to file as part of his statement a statement showing the roads having service other than 10 miles per hour. The Chairman. That privilege wiU be granted. (The tables referred to are here printed in full, as follows:) Strike. protection for the public. The threatened railway strike on Labor Day makes the time opportune to present constructive plana for the settlement of labor disputes. The following suggestions are made on their merits. STRIKE INSURANCE. The Constitution- requires Congress to protect interstate commerce and suppress insurrections. A compulsory strike insurance tax on all business has been suggested as an aid toward the maintenance of order. In cases like the present the funds would Roadi having lervinM that vary from 100 miU$ or Um or tO houn or Itt* per doj/. BOUTHKA8TERN TKRRITORV. Roail. AtlanUt Blrmlnc- luun A AUanllc^ Atlantic raait I.tnc> AUnntn it Wtwt I'niiit mul Wmi- rm UtUlway o( Alabama.' Centiol of Ooorgia ■ Cboaipeoko & Ohio. Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Horinc < Alabama aroat Southom). Florida Eoitt Coast >. OcorRia Southern & KUirldn. fioorKi » Loufivillo & Nosh- vUlo. Mobile A: Ohio. Soiithorn Rall«-ay In Misulssippl. Niisbvllle, I h.iHa- noogn ttiSt. l«iils New Orleans A Nort h c a .s 1 r n (AllKimaA Vieks- bur« and Vlcks- burg, Shrcvc- port & l^cidc). Norfolk & Western. Seaboard Air Mne >. Macon, Publin & .«av«nnah. Soul hern (VbrRlnia -ertlme alter 12 hours: engine- men, branch lines, onrtlme after 12 hours. Trainmen, specified runs, ow- time afto- 8 and 10 hours, based on mileage of run; engine men, spedfled runs, overtime varies from S hours 30 minutes to M hours, based on mileage of run. Knglnemen, brunch lilies, over- tiine after 12 hours, except on Okolona branch. Englnemen, branch lines, over- time after 12 hours. Tr.iinmen, brinrh-llne runs, over- time after 12 hours; englnemen, speolflcd runs, overtime after 13 and II hours and alter schedule has been exceeded .30 minutes. Trainmen, New (>rleuas-rini>-uiie run, overtime after schedule has been exrecded 1 hour: engine- men, when moro than one trip Is made, above rule applies. Trainmen, specified branch runs, overtime after 10 hours; encine- men, specified ruus, overtime after 11 hours and 31 minutes; branch-line runs, overtime alter 10 hours and 31 minutes. Branch lines, ovvrttme after 12 hours, except trainmen on Besse- mer branch; overtime after 10 hours. Specified runs, overtime after 10, 11, and 12 hours; trainmen, specl- Acd runs, overtime after 10 hours. Trainmen, branch lines, overtime alter 12 hours: englnemen, branch lines, overtime after 10 and 12 hours. Trainmen, unless otherwise speci- fied, ovortime on branch lines alter 10 hours. Engtnemen, branch lines, overtime after 12 hours. Between Uoulton and Potomac vards, ov-ertimo alter S hours; Detwe«n Clopton and Potomac yard, overtime after hours. 60341°— 16. (To face page l.M.) No. 1. Digitized^FyVl!cF6soft® Roadt having tervicu that vary from 100 mile* or leu 10 houn or lt*» per day. WK8TKKN TKRRITOKY. Roul. Alclilaon, Topaka and Santa F» (rwwt llnw). Cotomdo and 8oulh«m. iXBvar li Rio GriDde. £1 1'aao it 8outhw«stern . Sm Antonio & Aransas Vta» St. Loiils, Ilrownsvlllo li Urxieo. Sunset Central Lines, Includ- ing Oalveslon, Ilnrrislmrg & San Antonio; Tcxn.4 A: New Orleans; LoiiisianA West- em; Moi^nn's Ixxilslnna & Texas Kailraod A: Steam- ship Co.; Iberia k VermU- llon. Houston & Texas Central Bouston SlBt & West Texas . Southern Paeiflo (PacUlo Sys- tem). Through fralghl. Trabnnan. 12 mllpx per hour. 10 mile* per hour. Colorado lines— First division— 8 hours and 30 minutes per day. Other divi- sions 10 hours per day (tabulated runs excepted). Utah lines— 10 miles per hour (tabulated rims e.xoepted). 12) miles per hour. .do., .do.. Minimum speed 12 miles per hour. Schedule o( train U Umlt of trip or day. Englnemen. 10 miles per hour. 10 miles per hour ex- cept Ssuth Park di- vision, overtime after 8 hours. Colorado lines— 10 miles per hour (tab- ulated nms cxcept- edl. UUih lines— 12 miles per hour (tal>- ulaled runs e.xcept- ed). 12i miles per hour. .do., .do.. 12) miles per hrur. ....do Minimum speed 13^ mites per hour. Schedule of train Is limit of trip or day. 13} miles per hour. ....do I«ml freight. Trainmen. 100 miles or leas. Regu- lar trains based on time card .si-hedide. Irregular trains on aversee of laai;est and shortest si-hed- nle In direction go- ing. Tum-arounds lOboura per day. Minimum speed 124 miles per hour (Val- ley districts) .lOrailes per hour (motmtain districts) schedule uf train is limit of day or trip. 10 hours per day (monthly basU). 10 miles per hour Kort Collins district (month ly basis), overtime after V hoius. Colorado lines— First division— 8 hours and 20 minutes per dov. Other divi- sions 10 hours per day (tubulated runs excejited). I'tah lines— 10 miles per hour (tabulated runs excepted). 12) miles per hour. . 10 miles per hour 10 hours per day (monthly liasls). Minimum speed 10 miles per hour. Schedule of train is limit ol trip or day. in hours per day (monthly basis). do lOOmOesorless. Regu- lar trains ba.<>ed on time «»rd .schedule. Irrepilfir trains on average of longest and shonest sched- ule in dire- ulated runs except- ed). Vtah lines— 12 miles per hour (tat>- ulated runs except- ed). 12) miles per hour. 10 miles per hour. do Minimum speed 13) miles per hour. Schedule of train Is limit of trip or day. 12) miles per hour. .do. Other road .«en-ice except poswnger. Traiimien. 10 miles per hour. .do. Colorado lines— First division — 8 hours and X minutes per day. other divi- sions 10 hours per day (tabulated runs ex- c e p t e d ) . Utah lines — 10 miles per hour < lubulutcer hour. Other services 10 miles per hour. Mixed trains 12) miles per hour. Other servtees 10 miles per hoiv. Mixed trains 12i mile* per hour. Other services 10 mllea per hour. Mixed trains on same basis as freight trains. Other serA- Ices 10 miles per hour except Are trains are on a 12- hour basis. ]0haur<. .do. 10 hours. (At Leadvillp ihaiin cnnstliuti>s a day on Stindays and holMuys.) 10 hnins. . .do.. .do.. .do.. .do.. .do. in houn. . .do. ..do. .do. .do., .do.. .do.. .do.. .do. 10 hours except second - clius yards 11 hours (e.xcludlng Dual hour). 11 hours (Includ- ing meal nonr). Remarks. 13 miles per hour sn^ie^l lin.s|s Applies onl> to trainmen in through freiuht senrlcc on Albuquerque and Arizona diTtekms. Eoflnemsn— IrrMular trln on Clear Creek district paid on liai>is of tun mllesforK.lmile^, except work tniltw, on South I'nrk •llviilon M vnllev milRi or 44 mountain miles conttl- tutesaday. Certain runs tabulate)] In schedule with arbitrary tlmellmlta (or lbs day or trip. Branch runs have arbitrary time Um- lls. Trainmen, II and 12 houn; *n> glnemen,ll to 14 houn per day. Trainmen In branch aervln governed by schedule ol train and arbitrary tune limits (or the day. F nginemen on basis of 10 mlicB per hour. Train men huve special speed basis of 13) miles |>er hmir in freight ser>-ice on Morgan division. Englnemen In mixed, through, and local freight iiervlce paid on schedule of train with a minimum speed basis as shown. Irregular mixed service baaed on 18 miles per hour. voTt— other Western roads renresented by the naUonal conlerence committee of the railways are on the basis of 10 hours, or 10 miles per hoiu for road service: en certohi of which rinds there era specUed. excepted, or branch line runs that haf* •rhib^v i^Mltalts for the day or ttip. The ciiadian Paciflc (trainmen only), Canadian Northern, and Grand Trunk Pacific (not repreeentwl by this committee) have 9-hour day or U mUes per hour speed basis, llostlers on aU roads on basis of 12 houni, except the Terminal Railroad AssociaUon of St. Ix>uis, which is on a 10-hour basis. N'arlations from 10-hour day in yard service other than those shown above are on attached sheet. N. Y., AOOUBT 10, 1916. «a341*— 16. (To face page 154.) Ho. 3. Digitized by Microsoft® THREATENED STEIKE OF BAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 155 be used to protect the sufferers. The losses could be determined by adjusters the same as with fire insurance. The premiums would naturally be lower to employers who treat their employees better than the average. Employees who are faithful should receive greater benefits than trouble makers. Habitual agitators should lose their insurance except where agitation is justified by the conditions. Professional organizers who resort to deception in order to create disagreements between good managers and satisfied employees merely to advance their own fortunes as leaders in the cause of labor should be punished. DEPARTMENT OF LA,BOB. Two separate bureaus are suggested in the Departrnent of Labor: 1. To represent organized labor; 2. To protect unorganized labor. The Secretary of Labor to be neutral. Membership in labor organizations might be made compulsory. The uplift could then be equal and fail' to all classes of labor. Unless the growing battles between rival unions can be prevented otherwise it would seem profitable to charter a single national labor organization under laws made for proper supervision of the election of officers. If all labor were thoroughly organized it would control the Government. As long as it is not, the uplift will be unequal and unfair. Is it not the principal function of government to insure equal opportunity to all and to protect the individual against all combinations? STANDARDIZING HOURS AND WAGES. An alternative to collective bargaining and arbitration wap proposed in 1910. It was suggested that a self-supporting organization of less than 5 per cent of the work- ing people would be sufficient to steady business, insure continuous epaployment, and establish, a standard living wage. It was necessary to start a small organization. Once started, and properly regu- lated, it was believed that it would grow and develop automatically. All the profits go to- the workers. They bid for the jobs that they prefer. ;Each must perform his task as well as anyone else who stands ready to take his job for the same pay. Those who prefer the easier tasks and shorter hours naturally bid low to get them. Those who are more ambitious, work longer hours and favor the piece-rate system. The managers work under the same competitive method. Complaints and disagree- ments are met by transferring those who can not get along, to other departments, until they discover the employment that is most satisfactory to themselves, or that they can not get along with anybody. The surplus is divided pro rata with wages and salaries. DEMOCRATIC SELF-CONTROL. Everyone thus controls his own hours and wages or salary. Each determines what his share in the distributions of profits shall be. If dissatisfied, he works harder or longer hours or both. If ambitious he studies how to increase liis own value to the community. If he fails he has no one to blame but himself. When a railway or independent business concern bids for his services, he looks up the cost of living in the new position and if he finds a better living offered, he accepts. The profits of independent concerns depend entirely on the ability of their managers. Wages, salaries, and profits are thus automatically standardized and all reason for disagreement eliminated. ARBITRATION FAILS. "Manchester, England, Octover 1, Wis. "An announcement was made to-day that the cotton mills in the Manchester district will closi down October 15, owing to the inability of a commission of arbitration to settle differences between the owners and the operatives." _ Arbitration comes from the- same root as "arbitrary." It involves a contest or dis- pute and submission to the will of another, whose decision is often unsatisfactory to both sides It seems extremely improbable that any human plan will ever be so satisfactory, or permanently replace, entire freedom of contract between employers and t^orkmen.' If it could be made as easy for a workman to find employment as it is for an employer to dispense with his services, they would thereby be placed on an equal footing, and both would be more reasonable than they often are in labor disputes. If workmen could know what sort of living they were capable of producing in a social- btic state or by cooperative organization, they would be better satisfied to serve under a capable manager who paid them a better living. 156 ' THREATENED STRIKE OP MIL WAY EMPLOYEES. STRIKE LOSSES. The average loss in wages, assistance to strikers and loss to employers from strikes and lockouts for the 20 years from 1881 to 1900 was if;24,000,000 annually. To this must be added cost of defense, police protection, property damage, personal injury, cost of arbitrations, disturbance to business and trade of others. Also reduction m discipline, efficiency, and output. Strikes Waste Hundred Millions a Year. unions battle fob supremacy. The Baltimore papers reported on Saturday, August 26, that a bloody battle occurred in a factory between the American Federation of Labor and a local union. Women were locked in, and knives were used. One man tried to cut oft the arm of another wiOi a 3-foot pair of shears. DESTRUCTIVE PRACTICES. [From Lefax, June, 1918.] One of the latest disturbances has just occurred in the plant of the John B. Stetson Co. It is located near the business center of Philadelphia, and furnishes employment to nearly 5,000people. The buildings are large, fine, and roomy, there is a magmficent auditorium, with seats for all the employees, and one of the best hospitals in the city. Each year at Christmas time the Stetson Co. distributes about $300,000 in gifts to its employees. The Stetson employees are among the best paid and best treated in the city. They are well satisfied, and any complaints are promptly met and remedied. There had been no labor trouble in the Stetson works for many years. UNDERMINING GOOD MANAGEMENT. Last winter some of the soft-hat finishers complained that the gas from a producer installed by the Stetson Co. made them ill. According to the usual practice, this would have been investigated and remedied promptly. The case, however, for some peculiar reason, led to a strike. The sworn statement of the strike leader was published complete in the June issue. It was taken verbatim from a twp-page weekly newspaper called the News-Post, devoted to the cause of labor. This paper was started with the Stetson strike. The national labor leaders appear to have financed the News-Post and made the strike leader its business manager. A 'reporter who was discharged by a daily newspaper for taking an active part in the strike was employed as editor. A traveling representative of the American Federation of Labor appeared at a meeting with benefit funds for the strikers. He vidously attacked the firm and management, belittled their gifts and efforts for the comfort of their employees, charged them with ulterior motives, claimed that employers' efforts to improve working conditions tended to enslave the working people, advocated fighting for their rights, advanced collective bargaining as a con- structive principle to uplift labor, and advised enlistment under the union banner. The editor bought several copies of the paper, and visited the strike leader at his home, with the papers, which he had not yet read carefully, in his overcoat pocket. The lurid style of the paper was remarked as injurious to the cause of labor. The strike leader appeared to agree with this view, and intimated that he did not agree with many of the actions of the strikers or with the management of the paper. In answer to a question, he appeared willing to efface himself in order to prove his disin- terestedness to the factory management and to induce the men to go back to work. The editor carried away a strong impression of the sincerity of the strike leader, and accepted the invitation to attend their daily meeting and address the strikers, which -he did. In looking over the copies of the News-Post afterward, his confidence was rudely shocked by the discovery that the strike leader himself had been the business manager of the publication from the beginning. ANALYSIS OF THE SWORN STATEMENT OV THE STRIKE LEADER. Careful analysis of the sworn statement discloses that it is calculated to give the men the impression of disinterested sincerity that the editor gained from his interview with the strike leader. THBEATENED STKIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 157 He seemed friendly to the maBagement, appeared to consider the intereBts of the firm, opposed a strike, kept himself in the background, and cultivated the impression in the nunds of the men that he was opposed to a strike, and was forced to become the leader against his will and in the interest of harmony. Assuming that he gave the management some cause to discharge him, no more perfect plan could be devised to drive employers and employees apart and lead the working people into the fighting camp of tihe union-labor leaders. Both managers and men value good principles. Millions are enduring the utmost hardships, facing starvation, and sacrificing their lives for principle in Europe to-day. The Stetson management and the strikers stood apart solidly on principle. There was nothing but principle between them from the beginning. ' The concrete foujida- tion for the strike was remedied before it started. After the complaint was fixed suspicions were cultivated. As a result of these, the leader was discharged. He went quietly home and allowed the men to find it out. He offered to efface himself, but the men would not have it. They struck on principle. Such methods would disrupt the most perfect organization in the world. Similar methods cause rebellions and revolutions, disrupt friendly relations between nations, and lead their peoples into warfare, just as the Stetson strikers were led. John Clinton Parker, Engineer. If yoii desire to support this movement for strike and employment insurance, your cooperation will be appreciated. Address: Pennsylvania Building, Philadelphia, Pa. August 30, 1916. The Chairmam. The Committee will now listen to Mr. Rohinson. STATEMENT OF ME. BIRD M. ROBINSON. Mr. Robinson. I shall not midertake to discuss the merits of this case, Mr. Chairman. I appear before you without any preparation and without any papers. 1 was at Knoxyille,Tenn., yesterday and took up a newspaper and learned of the situation, and being a hun- dred miles away from my office I came on here and am here without any preparation whatever. The gentlemen who have discussed the subject before you have given it great consideration and I will avoid trying to go into the merits of the matter. I will discuss solely the question of the effect of the proposed act as it affects the short lines or nontrunk railroads. There are some seven to nine hundred of such roads in this Country running from 25 to 350 miles. I understand that there are about 175 roads upon which this eight-hour demand has been made, and that the whole controversy is between that number of roads and the brotherhoods, so that the remaining roads, running probably to 700 companies, have not been involved; their employees have not made any demand upon them. The great majority of them have been constructed by local capital. They serve local communities. They have special conditions. Those men are not away from their homes at night, as has been so fervently described here; they merely run out in the morning and come back again— whatever their service may be. The great majority of them are engineers, firemen, and condug- tors who have not had experience. They do not possess the knowl- edge that is required upon these trunk lines. They are not worth the. standard railway rate scale of pay, and they do not receive that, nor do they demand it. .„ . . , ■„ ^ If this act as it is drawn is passed it will mcidentally place every one of those short-line roads under the control of this law. Then- employees, who are not now asking anything, will be placed upon an eight-hour basis. Their wages will be raised to what is'called a standard wage and the companies themselves will incidentally be 158 THKEATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. mider the penalty of from $100 to $500 for each offense or each failure to pay each employee the amomit fixed by this -act. ~ Now, I am president of the Short Line Railway Association of the South. We have about 125 members. Ishouldsay that 110 of those members are owned absplutely independently of any other railroad. They are not iavolved in this controversy; they have not been con- sulted and it is unfair and unjust to pass any act that wiU witii the mere swing of the wheel bring them in here and impose hardships upon them that they can not stand. There has been constant talk about receiverships. I should say that 95 per cent of these sHort-line railroads never pay a dividend of any character or description, and a very large percentage of them are not able to pay fuU interest on the bonds that they have issued, and if this act is made apphcable to them it will at once bankrupt, I should say, 50 if not 75 per cent of them. Gentlemen of the committee, we have had no opportunity to be heard. We did not know that we were involved. I think we have the right to ask the opportunity to go into the subject and to present facts to the committee instead, of generalities, and we insist that if the law is to be passed it be made applicable to the lines involved, if that can be done. If not, it should be so framed that the rule applies to the standard of wages fixed as paid now by the respective companies so that they will not be subject to what is called a standard wage when they do not now pay it and their employees do not now demand it. The Chaieman. Have you put your views in the shape of a formal amendment ? Mr. Robinson. I have not, because I only arrived here this morn- ing after this meeting was opened. I have been here all day with a view of absorbing and learnmg something of the situation because I was absolutely ignorant with respect to it. The Chairman. Do the men on these roads of which you speak belong to the brotherhoods ? Mr. Robinson. Some of them do and some do not. I could ascertain those facts in due time, but I do not now know the facts be- cause we have not been^involved. The Chairman. Mr. Garretson, do I understand that your conten- tion covers these short Hnes and the electric hues ? Mr. Garretson. Mr. Chairman, as to these lines we hold agree- ments with a large number of electric hnes and on these smaller prop- erties likewise — a very considerable number. Wherever a man per- forms the work that is required of another man he ought to have the other man's pay, and we shah contend for it. Senator Pomerene. Let me ask you a question or two. Do you claim that your roads can, or that they ought to, buy their coal or iron or equipment cheaper than any other roads ? Mr. Robinson. We claim that we should buy everything that we consume at the best available price. I can get the coal to-day at $1 a ton because I used to have a coal territory. Senator Pomerene. That does not answer my question. Mr. Robinson. I wiU answer it if I may. We buy everything at the best price we can and when it comes to labor we employ a class of men as a rule who do not measm-e up to the standard. A great many of them could not under any circumstances get employment on the THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 159 trunk lines .and when any of tli^m go out of our service they become trainmen. Often an engineer has to go in as a fireman. Therefore we emplpy a class of labor and pay a price for the service and we pay every dollar for that service that the companies can stand.' Senator Pomeeene. You have to pay at the same rate for your material and equipment that the other roads do ? Mr. Robinson. No doubt we do. Senator Pomeeene. Now, let me ask another question. This act apphes to transportation of "persons or property on railroads, from any State or Territory of the United States or the District of Columbia to any other State or Territory of the United States or the District of Columbia, or from any place in a Territory to another place in the same Territory, or from any place in the United States to an adjacent foreign coimtry, or from any place in the United States through a foreign coimtry to any other place in the United States." Do you consider that to be broad enough to include aU of these short lines where they run from one State into another ? Mr. Robinson. I construe it to cover every railroad that handles either a car or a part of a car that has interstate traffic in it. The Supreme Court of the United States has settled that definitely, that even a man' working on a road within any county, wholly within any county of a State, a man who carries up bUlets to put into a trestle is in interstate commerce notwithstanding the road is entirely within one county of the State. -There are no intrastate railroads; they are aU interstate. Senator Pomeeene. Well, it is not quite as broad as that. Mr. Robinson. I think the court went that far. Senator Pomeeene. No ; you have in mind a rule in the safety- appliance case and some others. Senator Lewis. You have the Shreveport case in mind, have you not? Mr. Robinson. I have a good maay of them in mind, and in all of them they have gone so far as to determine that the Interstate Com- merce Commission has full, final, and complete control of every one of them that handles any interstate commerce. Now, just one moment more. I want to repeat that as to these short-line railroads, at least 500 of them have had no demands made on them. Their employees have not asked anything arid they have not been given any notice. They do not know that this matter is pending now, and this act as proposed will incidentally change aU conditions, change the hours of service and change the compensation to be paid and make it more burdensome than to any other class of properties and we therefore insist that any act . that is drawn shall make at least exceptions to go- to the extent that there shall be no change in the status quo as to any line or employee until this inves- tigation shall have been completed, and I will ask the chairman's permission to attempt to formulate some amendment and submit it for the consideration of the committee. The Chaieman. You will have to do it before 8.30 o'clock this evening. Mr. Gareetson. Mr. Chairman, wiU you require a ust of these companies before accepting these amendments so that we can see them? The list of roads that he represents we would like to see. He says some of them are 300 miles in extent. 160 THREATENED STRIKE OF BAILWAX J!im±-i.uxjiijio. The Chairman. Have you a list of the raUroads you represent ? Mr. Robinson. I have not a hst because I was not at my place. I have a Ust of the railroads that were represented at the last meeting of my association. I have that here. The Chairman. Can you put that in the record ? Mr. Robinson. I will turn it over to the stenographer with great pleasure. Later on I could supply a full and complete hst. The Chairman. Without objection the list referred to will be printed in the record. (The hst referred to is here printed in full, as follows:) Phoceedings op the Short Line Kailboad Association of the South, in •Convention, New Orleans, La., Mat 10-11, 1916. The following representativeB were present: Alabama, Tennessee & Northern Eailway, Russell Houston, traffic manager. Mobile, Ala. Birmingham & Northwestern Railroad, C. P. Morgan, general manager, Jac'ison, Tenn. Birmingham & Southeastern Railway, W. M. Blount, president and general man- ager. Union Springs, Ala. Carolina & Northwestern Railway, L. T. Nichols, general manager, Chester, S. C. Fort Smith & Western Railroad, >A. L. Mills^ receiver and general manager, Fort Smith, Ark.; G. L. Oliver, assistant general freight and passenger agent. Fort Smith, Ark.; F. G. Haxdwick, traveUnig freight agent. New Orleans, La. Fernwood & Gulf Railroad, G. H. MeBlroy, general freight and passenger agent, Fernwood, Miss. Gainesville & Northwestern Railroad, B. S. Barker, vice president and general manager, Gainesville, Ga. Georgia,~Southwestern & Gulf Railroad, W. M. Legg, president and general man- ager, Albany, Ga. Liberty Wnite Railroad, J. J. White, receiver, McComb, Miss.; W. W. Baugh, auditor, McComb, Miss.; A. H. Proudfoot, general freight and passenger agent. Mo Comb, Miss. Little River Railroad, J. P. Murphy, superintendent, Townsend, Tenn. Madison County Railway Co., A. W. Betts, president, Stackhouse, N. C. North Louisiana & Gulf Railroad, O. E. Hodge, president, Hodge, La. Natchez, Columbia & Mobile Railroad, W. B. Reimers, superintendent, Norfield, La. New Orleans, Southern & Grand Isle Railway, H. D. Emerson, general manager. New Orleans, La. ; Harold H. Gibson, chief engineer. New Orleans, La. ; E. W. Burgis, superintendent, Algiers, La. Oneida & Western Railroad Co., C. N. Baker, superintendent, Oneida, Tenn. Roanoke Railway, P. R. Camp, general manager, Franklin, Va. Sardis & Delta Railroad, G. M. Lee, auditor, Sardis, Miss. Tremont & Gulf Railway and G. L. & N. Railway, R. B. Fowler, vice president and general manager, Winfield, La. Tennessee, Alabama & Georgia Railroad, A. B. Eaine, assistant general manager, Chattanooga, Tenn. Tennessee Railway, Bird M. Robinson, receiver. New York; T. F. Whittelsey, general manager, Oneida, Tenn.; F. P. Robinson, general agent, Oneida, Tenn. Warren & Ouachita Valley Railway, W. S. Hobbs, general manager, Warren, Ark. The following visitors were present: Arkansas & Louisiana Midland Railway, J. M. Parker, general manager, Crossett, Ark. Durham & Southern Railway Co., A. B. Cauthen, auditor, Durham, N. 0. Franklin & Abbeville Railway, A. G. Lobdell, general freight and passenger agent, Franklin, La. Gould Southwestern Railway, W. H. Roberts, Receiver, Star City, Ark.; A. J. Johnson, attorney. Star City, Aik. Louisiana Southern Railway, Herman Hall, general superintendent, New Orleans, La. ■ Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co., John Lister, Pensacola, Fla. Lumber Trade Journal, L. Palmer, export and transportation editor, New Orleans, La. THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. 161 Louisiana Kailway & NaviOT.tioii Co., H. B. Helm, vice president, Shieveport, La. Louisiana & Northwestern Railioad, S. S. Senne, manager. Homer, La. Mobile & Ohio Railroad, H. S. Jones, special enmieer, Mobile, Ala. New Orleans, Mobile & Chicago Railroad, L. L. Lawrence, Mobile, Ala. New Orleans Great Northern Railroad, W. F. Farris, vice president and general manager. New 0»leans, La.; M. J. McMahon, traffic manager. New Orleans, La.; G. B. Auburtin, assistant general freight and passenger agent, New Orleans, La. Norfolk & Western Railway, G. E. Cassel, publicity agent, East Radford, Va. Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railwav, H. H. Trabue, assistant chief engineer, Nashville, Tenn. Northern Pacific Railway, L. J. Bricker, general insurance agent, St. Paul. Minn. Public Belt Railroad of North Orleans, A. S. Phelps, superintendent. New Orle iis, La. The Lawyer-Banker and Southern Bench & Bar Review, Chas. E. George, editor, New Orleans, La. Texas & Pacific Railway Co., H. W. Bechtell, district freight agent. New Orleans, La.; E. P. Gueymard, interstate agent. New Orleans, La. The Long Island Raihoad Co., Hal. B. Fullerton, director agricultural develop- ment, Medford, Long Island, N. Y.' Underwood Typewriter Co., C. R. Urquhart, agent. New Orleans, La. The following members expressing regrets at inability to be present: Alabama, Florida & Southern, W. S. Wilson, vice president and general manager, Malone, Fla. Alcolu Railroad, R. J. Alderman, president, Alcolu, -S. C. Atlantic & Western Railroad, H. P. Edwards, general superintendent, Sanford, N. C. Columbia, Newberry & Laurens, J. F. Livingston, president, Columbia, S. C. Eastern KentScky Railway, Sturgis G. Bates, vice president, Riverton, Ky. East Tennessee & Western North Carolina, Geo. W. Hardin, vice president, Johnson City, Tenn. Flint River & Northeastern Railroad, F. R. Pidcock, general manager, Moultrie, Ga. Gainesville Midland, W. E. Beaupne, general manager, Gainesville, Ga. Georgia & Florida, D. F. Kirkland, general manager, Augusta, Ga. Georgia Coast & Piedmont, A. de Sola Mendes, vice president and general manager, Brunswick, Ga. « Georgia, Florida & Alabama, R. B. Coleman, general manager, Bainbridge, Ga. Georgia Northern Railway, C. W. Pidcock, president, Moultrie, Ga, Knoxville, Sevierville & Eastern, T. A. Wright, general counsel, Knoxville, Tenn. Live Oak, Perry & Gulf, W. T. Hargrett, general manager, Live Oak, Fla. Morgan & Fentress Railway, H. Hagemeyer, traffic manager, Cincinnati, Ohio. Natchez, Columbia & Mobile, F. W. Reimers, general manager, Hammond, La. Northampton & Hertford, W. W. Robertson, general manager, Norfolk, Va. Pelham & Havana Railroad, C. S. Roe, general manager, Cairo, Ga. Pickens Railroad, J. T. Taylor, general manager, Pickens, S. C. Pickens Railroad, J. McD. Bruce, secretary and treasurer, Pickens, S. C. Roaring Fork Railroad, 0. J. Creveling, general manager, Blackwood, Va. Rockingham Railroad, J. L. Hawley, superintendent, Rockingham, N. C. -4 Savannah & Statesboro, S. T. Grimshaw, superintendent, Statesboro, Ga. Shearwood Railway, J. N. Shearouse, president. Brooklet, Ga. Shearwood Railway, W. S. Saffold, superintendent. Brooklet, Ga. Tennessee, Kentucky & Northern, T. C. McCampbell, vice president, Nashville, Tenn. Wadley Southern, H. A. Jordan, general freight and passenger agent, Swainsboro, Ga. Ware Shoals Railroad, J. F. McEnroe, vice president and treasurer, Ware Shoals, S.C ■ Watauga & Yadkin River, H. C. Landon, general manager. North Wilkesboro, N. C Wrightsville & Tennille, H. D. Pollard, president, Teimille, Ga. The following nonmembers expressing regrets at inability to be present: Arkansas Central, J. H. Wright, president. Fort Smith, Ark. Blytheville, B. & Mississippi Railway, M, B, Cooper, traffic manager, Memphis, Tenn, Carolina Railroad, C, I, Millard, president, Norfolk, Va, CarroUton & Worthville, James Gayle, president and general manager, Carroll- ton, Ky. 60341°— S. Doc. 549, 64-1 ^11 162 THREATENED STRIKE OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES. Central Railway of Arkaiisas, C. W. Jones, general manager, Plainview, Ark. Central of Geoigia Railroad and Illinois Central Railroad, H. L. Fairfield, superin- tendent mail traffic, Chicago, 111. Clinton & Oklahoma Western, F. Kell, president, Wichita Falls, Tex. Charleston lans of campai^. The President's rebommendationa include a practicable measure for the accommo- dation of future differences which threaten to interrupt interstate commerce. This is the only feature of the suggested legislation which offers a possible remedy for future difficulties, and it would be most unfortunate if it should not receive present con- sideration. The willingness of the railways to arbitrate all the demands made upon them by the trainmen is a matter of public record and proof of their confidence in the justice of their position. They have at all times been ready to arbitrate under the Federal statute (the Newlands Act), enacted in part upon the request of the trainmen, or before the Interstate Commerce Commission, or a special tribunal appointed by the President, or otherwise. Tbe refusal of the trainmen to arbitrate was absolute, and it was this lefusal which brought about the situation which Congress is now attempting to relieve. The Chairman. That concludes the hearmg, so the committee will stand adjourned. (Thereupon, at 7 o'clock and 35 minutes p. m., the committee adjourned subject to the call of the chairman.)