CONTENTS National Legislation on Settlement of Industrial Disputes of UNIV. OF THE DIVISION OF CONCILIATION ITS HISTORY, ACTIVITIES, AND ORGANIZATION CHAPTER I HISTORY The Division of Conciliation, a branch of the office of the Secretary of Labor, is engaged in promoting industrial peace through conciliation and mediation ' of controversies arising between employers and employees in industry except common carriers by railroad, express companies, and sleeping car companies subject to the Interstate Commerce Act.' The history of the activities of the national government in providing means for amicable adjustment of labor disputes began with the enactment of the law of October 1, 1888 (25 Stat. L., 501), which dealt with disputes arising on railroads or other transportation companies engaged in interstate commerce. It was thus at a comparatively early date that the attention of Congress was directed to the necessity for promoting industrial peace on the railroads because of "the importance of 1 See p. 18, for distinction between these terms in so far as the work of the Department of Labor is concerned. 'The Railroad Labor Board, a quasi-judicial body, created by Title III of the Transportation Act (Act of Feb. 28, 1920; 41 Stat. L., 469) has the general function of maintaining industrial peace for the carriers by railroad, express companies, or sleeping car companies, subject to the Interstate Commerce Act, except street, interurban, or suburban electric railways not operating as parts of a general steam railroad system of transportation. strikes occurring on railroads, and their far-reaching effects, upon the majority of the community which was in no way concerned in the points at issue." National Legislation on Settlement of Industrial Disputes of Certain Carriers in Interstate Commerce, 1888-1913. The full history of national mediation conciliation, and arbitration in disputes originating on the carriers engaged in interstate commerce has been given in another monograph of this series. Reviewing briefly the course of events there described in detail, the first law was never utilized except during the great railroad strike of 1894, when President Cleveland appointed a special commission under authority of Section 6 of the act, to investigate the controversy and to report the best means for adjustment. While the work of that commission was futile in so far as settlement of the dispute was intended, many of its recommendations were embodied in the so-called Erdman Act of June 1, 1898 (30 Stat. L., 424), which applying only to employees engaged in actual train operation or service, supplanted the earlier law. The first attempt to utilize this second act not only resulted in failure to bring about a settlement in the specific controversy at issue but also brought repudiation of the underlying principle of the law by the chief railroad companies involved in the dispute. After a lapse of eight and one-half years, the provisions of the law were again invoked, this time successfully, and thereafter as its possibilities were more fully realized, there was practically continuous utilization of its provisions. In the six years between the first successful utilization of the act and its repeal in 1913, sixty-one cases 'The Railroad Labor Board, Its History, Activities, and Organization. were settled amicably, either by mediation or arbitration." Although the greatest portion of the law dealt with the subject of arbitration which, at the time of its enactment, was deemed far more important than mediation, in actual practice the mediation provisions proved more efficacious. Only four disputes were settled solely by arbitration out of the sixty-one cases which came under the Erdman Law during the fourteen years of its existence. Twenty-eight cases were settled by mediation alone, eight were settled by mediation and arbitration, and in the remaining twenty-one cases, the services of the mediators, requested by one of the parties, were refused by the other party or direct agreements were reached after the services of the mediators had been requested, without the necessity of utilizing them or having recourse to arbitration. Only one strike occurred in transportation service in the six-year period here considered and even this strike was not of sufficient magnitude to inconvenience the public significantly. The marked degree of success thus attending mediation under the Erdman Act in maintaining industrial peace on the railroads, the growing recognition by the public of the utility of various forms of collective bargaining, and the long experience in the interval with state boards of mediation, conciliation, or arbitration led to a demand for the establishment of national machinery for conciliation to apply to such labor disputes in industrial fields outside the transportation agencies in interstate commerce as were not peaceably settled by private trade 4 See table p. 77 of Report of Commissioner of Mediation and Conciliation, 1913-1919, for complete list of cases under the act and p. 96 for digest of arbitrations. Board of Mediation and Conciliation, Railway strikes and lockouts, p. 136. |