The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-06-01
Is
 THE LAST RESORT Geofgi9S 'Iroad Mudd|e Will
 gZ5S, to MedIatoIs NJ SETTLEMENT REACHED
Contention Is Still to Throw Out the Negroes By the White Bremen But Terminal Company
 Would Not Yield.

Atlanta, May 31-Tfnable to agree upon the terms of settlement. the officials of the Georgia railroad and of the Brother hood of Bremen have invoked arbitra- ton under the Erdman law. It was near ly ' o'clock tonight when Commissioner of Labor Neill and Chairman Knapp of the interstate commerce commission re- luctantly gave up the battle to bring the warning clements together.
 Commissioner Neill notified both parties to the dispute to select an arbitrator within five days These two men will select third. The Erdman act provides that should the two arbitrators be un- able to agree upon the third member of the commission he should be named by Knapp and Neill. The decision of the arbitrators is made binding upon both parties by law.
 As expected, the disagreement came over the retention of negroes. The fire men first demanded the dismissal of all negroes. This was refused fiatly by the railroad. After considerable labor on the part of MessIs. Neill and Knapp, the firemen submitted another proposition. They agreed that those negroes now em- ployed or who were employed prior to April 10 should be retained on their pres- ent footing. Recent promotions of ne- groes had been cancelled before the men returned to work. They demanded that all white firemen should have seniority over all negroes. That Is, if a white man was employed today he would rank ahead of all negroes, no matter how long they were in the service, when 1t came to promotion to better runs. In addition, they asked that at no time should the total number of negroes employed ex- ceed 9 per cent of the white f1remen on the company's payroll. If at any time the number of negroes employed dropped below 25 per cent, no more were to be employed. It is said that the Georgia railroad might have consented to this were It not for tine opposition of the Ter minal company. When 1t was seen that agreement was impossible the federal of ficials gave up the fight and ordered that the dispute go to arbitration.
 When the men returned to work Satur- day afternoon the road agreed that the status of April 10 should be restored It was on that day the trouble began The company had then promoted several ne- groes to good runs and removed white firemen to make room for them. Already the company has restored the white fire men to the runs they held upon April 10. All other disputed points and demands were conceded except the seniority of white men and the limitation as to the number of negroes employed.
 The white firemen claim that negroes are not held to strict enforcement of the rules the whites and they intimate that the policy of the road seemed to be to discharge whites at every opportunity and replace them with ne- groes who get less wages. General Man ager Scott denies this and declared his willingness to agree to a strict enforce ment of all rules against the negroes
 The failure of the parties to the dis pute to settle it themselves will not af- feet the status quo. The men will con- tinue at work and say they are conf- dent they will win in the end.