WORK OF THE DEPARTMENT.

MEDIATION IN LABOR DISPUTES.

First among the duties of the Secretary of Labor are those with reference to the new Federal function of mediation in labor disputes. This function, as yet incompletely organized from lack of appropriations applicable by law to its systematic execution, rests upon that part of the organic act which provides:

SEC. 8. That the Secretary of Labor shall have power to act as mediator and to appoint commissioners of conciliation in labor disputes whenever in his judgment the interests of industrial peace may require it to be done; *

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No suitable provision having yet been made by Congress for the organization within the Department of a bureau or division equipped for administering the power thus created and conferred, it has been administered by the Secretary with only such assistance as could be drawn temporarily from bureaus organized for other purposes. Notwithstanding this handicap, however, in addition to difficulties of a kind that usually obstruct the development in practice of novel administrative functions, appreciable progress has been made by the Department in conserving the interests of industrial peace.

MEDIATIONS.

Under the law quoted above, the Secretary of Labor has acted officially as mediator in several labor disputes which have consequently been adjusted to the satisfaction of both sides, to the advantage of their respective industrial interests, and to the benefit of their respective communities.

NEW YORK, NEW HAVEN & HARTFORD RAILROAD CLERKS.

The first of these disputes was between the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Co. on one side and its clerks (members of the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks) on the other. After several conferences between the two had failed to bring about a satisfactory adjustment, they made a joint request, May 24, 1913, for mediation by the Secretary of Labor.

Mr. G. W. W. Hanger (then chief statistician of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Acting Commissioner of Labor) having been thereupon detailed as commissioner of conciliation, the matters at issue were taken up by him in conference with each of the parties at New Haven, Conn. These conferences continued until June 2, 1913, when a satisfactory adjustment was secured, covering all points at

issue. The controversy hinged mainly on different interpretations of a prior agreement as to rules governing wages, seniority rights, and other conditions of employment which had been made by the clerks' organization with a previous general manager of the railroad in January, 1913.

In evidence of the adjustment secured through Mr. Hanger as commissioner of conciliation, a formal joint agreement was signed June 2, 1913, by the general manager in behalf of the railroad and by the vice grand president of the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks in behalf of the clerks.

ERIE FORGE CO.

Another of the labor disputes adjusted satisfactorily by conciliation through this Department arose in the works of the Erie Forge Co. at Erie, Pa. A strike had begun before the president of the company knew it was brewing or suspected any grievances. Requests for mediation were made to the Department of Labor on the 17th of June, 1913. As in the first case noted above, these requests came from both sides. In response, the Secretary of Labor appointed the Assistant Secretary as commissioner of conciliation, and on the 20th of June cordial relations were restored.

This dispute having been caused by friction between wage earners and foremen, the resulting strike was apparently due to the fact that no contractual arrangement of a responsible kind existed with the employer, under which friction might be abated and grievances adjusted before a strike had excited hot blood. An agreement guarding against such contingencies in future was the principal characteristic of the settlement secured.

Under this settlement the Erie establishment, which seems to have been liberally conducted as to wages and working conditions, was thereafter to be managed with reference to wage earners about as before except in one particular. A plan was established for bringing disturbing grievances to the personal attention of the president of the company by providing definitely for appeals from foremen to superintendent and from superintendent to president. Up to this point the agreement inures to the benefit of all wage earners in the establishment regardless of union membership. Such of them as do not belong to a union are now guaranteed a hearing by their court of last resort, the responsible employer. Those who do belong to unions, while they also are guaranteed this primary appeal to the head of the employing establishment, have the further right of appeal from him to their national labor organizations. Meanwhile, as the agreement is signed jointly by the employer and the national officers of the organized wage earners, the employer is reasonably secure from strikes which he may wish to avert. No dispute can very likely expand into a strike unless, with knowledge of all the circumstances,

both the responsible employer and the national officials of the labor organization concerned deliberately conclude that the strike can not be averted.

READING RAILROAD CAR WORKERS.

A strike or lockout in the shops of the Philadelphia & Reading and the Lehigh Valley railroads had been in progress since the fall of 1912, and the department of labor and industry of Pennsylvania had been called upon to mediate. At the request of that department, this Department offered its good offices also, naming Mr. Hanger as commissioner of conciliation. A satisfactory agreement was consequently signed at Reading, Pa., July 12, 1913, by the general manager of the company, the representative of the International Association of Car Workers, the Pennsylvania commissioner of labor, and the commissioner of conciliation for this Department.

Subsequently unexpected friction arose which delayed final settlement. But the department of labor and industry of Pennsylvania informed this Department, by letter of July 17, 1913, that the conditions causing the friction were not within the control of the representatives of either department, and that the work of the two representatives had "done much toward bringing the management and employees together."

READING HARDWARE CO.

While Mr. Hanger was acting as commissioner of conciliation for this Department in connection with the Reading Railroad dispute reported above, a request for mediation by the Secretary of Labor in a factory strike in Reading, Pa., reached the Department. This was about June 17, 1913. The request came from the wage-earning side, but the employers acquiesced in the proffered mediation.

Thereupon this Department arranged for cooperation with the State department of labor and industry of Pennsylvania, Mr. Hanger representing this Department as commissioner of conciliation. He and his coadjutor of the Pennsylvania department were received in a conciliatory spirit by the employers concerned, and the strike was brought to an end by mutual agreement on the 17th of June-one month after the request for mediation.

BALTIMORE & OHIO RAILROAD SHOPS.

Another labor dispute in which the request for mediation was made by representatives of the wage earners and acquiesced in by the employers came to the Department on the 21st of July, 1913. It had arisen in the shops of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad system, where a "strike vote" was then in progress over a question of objectionable working conditions. The Secretary responded to the request for mediation by appointing John A. Moffitt as commis

sioner of conciliation, detailing him from the Immigration Service. Upon Mr. Moffitt's tender of the good offices of this Department, the appropriate officials of the railroad company took the dispute into consideration. As a result of the mutual concessions that followed, each side animated by conciliatory impulses, a satisfactory settlement was made, whereby an impending strike that must have been prejudicial to both parties and to the public was averted.

WESTERN MARYLAND RAILROAD SHOPS.

Another railroad-shop strike, averted through the mediation of the Department of Labor, was impending in November, 1913, in the shops of the Western Maryland Railroad.

Owing to a labor dispute in one shop a small strike began there; but in consequence of efforts promptly made by the national officers of the wage-earners' organizations affected, an understanding was reached. In effect, it was understood that the striking wage earners should on their part return to work and that on the part of the employer their grievances should be immediately considered for adjustment. Upon their return to work, however, some of their number (so they averred) were refused reemployment.

This situation was rapidly developing a strike in all the shops of the railroad system when mediation by the Secretary of Labor was requested by national representatives of the wage earners' organizations concerned. Communication between the Department and the president of the railroad having thereupon been opened, and the president having responded courteously and favorably to the Department's suggestions, the dispute was adjusted by mutual arrangement between the parties and without any of the bitterness or losses of an industrial conflict.

CHICAGO & ALTON RAILROAD SHOPS.

A settlement has been similarly effected in another dispute in railroad shops-the machine shops of the Chicago & Alton Railroad. There was a strike impending when a request for mediation was made by the wage earners concerned, October 28, 1913. Upon their petition the Secretary of Labor appointed James Hogan, of the Immigration Service, as commissioner of conciliation. His overtures being accepted by the railroad, the disputed points involved in the controversy--37 in all-were adjusted in December by mutual concessions and agreement. A full settlement was thus secured and the strike averted.

Both sides to those amicably settled labor disputes may be congratulated upon their enlightened self-interest. They promoted their own prosperity the better by preferring friendly mediation to embittered strife. And both deserve praise for enlightened patriot35862°-14- -2

ism. Instead of challenging the miseries and perils of an industrial warfare which is waged by fighting methods peculiar to the different economic advantages possessed by each combatant, and in which unconditional surrender is the irreducible demand of each upon the other and destruction of the just interests of one or both the probable finality—instead of clinging to this unpatriotic policy, the disputants in those cases settled their disputes pursuant to a policy that harmonizes with the best ideals of American citizenship. By resisting the temptations that usually harass both sides in labor disputes, they have promoted the interests of industrial peace.

INDIANAPOLIS STREET CAR STRIKE.

A labor dispute in which a sensational strike might have been averted by the conciliatory spirit that characterized the settlement of the disputes described above, but which for lack of that spirit went to the extreme, arose in October in connection with the electric street railway system in Indianapolis.

Mediation by the Secretary of Labor having been requested by the wage-earning side of the dispute which preceded that strike, Mr. Ethelbert Stewart, chief statistician of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, was detailed October 27, 1913, to act as commissioner of conciliation. Local employers' organizations at first obstructed his conciliatory efforts, taking the untenable position that there was nothing to mediate because no labor dispute existed. As the employers involved in the dispute refused to consider proposals for conciliation, the impending strike broke out-to the injury of the employers, of the wage earners directly concerned, and of the city. Great expense also was incurred by the State for military intervention. All this might have been prevented, with fairness to every interest, by the prompt arbitration by unbiased arbitrators which this Department proposed and which the wage earners' organizations accepted but which the employers refused to consider. After the strike had begun it was settled by the arbitration method previously declined.

The governor of Indiana having ordered troops to Indianapolis to preserve the peace, they were withdrawn upon the termination of the strike by means of an arbitration agreement. This agreement was secured largely through intercessions by the Department both at Indianapolis and with eastern capitalists interested in the street car property.

INDIANAPOLIS TEAMSTERS' STRIKE.

Hardly had the Indianapolis street-railway dispute been put in the way of arbitral adjustment when mediation of the Department was solicited in connection with a teamsters' strike in the same city.

The request in this case came also from the wage earners and the Department's offer of mediation was also at first rejected by the em