The Washington herald., 1907-04-08
MONDAY. APRIL s, 1857.
A Successful Mediation.

What Chairman Knapp, Of the Inter
state Commerce Commission, regards as
a distinct triumph for government
mediation has been Won by the settle
ment of the differences between forty or
more Western railroads and certain of
their employees as 10 wages and hours of
labor. a threatened strike, which would
have been more disastrous 10 railway
finances and more unsettling TO general
business conditions than hostile legisla-
tion, has thus been happily averted
1t is worth while to inquire into the
method. by which this settlement was eff
fected. as it is the first instance of an
adjustment of differences between COM
mon carriers and their employees under an
act of Congress which has been on the
statute books since 1898. That act pro-
vides that the mediation Of the Chairman
OF the Interstate Commerce Commission
and the Commissioner of Labor may be
invoked by either party, whereupon it
shall be the duty of those officials 70 put
themselves in communication with the par
ties 10 the controversy. 10 use their best
efforts, by mediation and Cancellation. TO
amicably settle the dispute. and. if un-
successful. 10 endeavor to bring about
arbitration in the manner prescribed by
law. Such arbitration however. is wholly
voluntary, as the mediators have no more
power TO bring about arbitration than
they have 10 compel a settlement by mu~
tuaI agreement In the present instance
the negotiations succeeded before the
arbitration stage was reached, the rail-
way employees preferring 10 yield one or
two minor points rather than submit their
case to arbitration
The agreement finally reached is a COM
promise arrived at by the familiar method
Of splitting the difference. The railway
managers had offered their employees a
certain advance IN wages, which was not
al that the men wanted. In addition TO a
higher wage scale than was offered, the
men asked for a nine-hOur day for some
classes of trainmen and a ten-hour day
for others. The terms Of settlement pro-
vide for wage scale somewhere between
that proposed by the railroads and that
asked for by the men, and the request
for a nine-hoUr day was waived by the
employees, though men on work trains get
a teu-hour day with no reduction in
wages. The agreement will add S6000O0G
10 the yearly pay rolls Of The railway
companies, or about $4,000 more than
was originally contemplated in the offer
made TO their employees.
But would the task Of mediation have
been so easy IF the railroads had been in
q financial condition which would not
have permitted the voluntary concession
of considerable advance in wages?
Would il have been successful, in other
words, if the terms of agreement pro-
posed by the mediators had not been IA
Vorable 10 the employees as well as within
the financial competence Of the employ
ers? The efficacy OF government media
ton will not be severely tested until the
conditions are quite otherwise than those
presented TO the mediators at Chicago
Yet we would not minimize the value of
their mediatory efforts, for they brought
disagrceing elements together on COM
promise which the controversialists
themselves could not reach unaided. In
that sense, the result is. as Chairman
Knapp said, a triumph for government
mediation.