New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-04-24
aederaI Officials to Begin Work
TO-DAY Of Settling Differ
ences Between Them
and Engineers.
s1RIKENo LONGER PROBABLE
u Is Believed Managers Are
Ready to Make q Concession
and That Even Though 1t
BE a Slight One the
Men Will Accept It.

rhA threatened strike OF the railway
..-,raars throughout the entire East
seotion Of the country, which
.r,od inevitable Monday, is now on
,-.iv remote and almost impossible.
ri. change IN A ticklish labor situation,
,.,i,b vas effected Yesterday afternoon,
q. due solely 20 the good Offices OF
r,or,es 2 NAill. United States Labor
commissioner. and Judge Martin J."
vnann. Of the United States Court Of
Commerce.
These two government officials. who
,r,eryened on Monday, received yester-
6o,. formal acc~ptances Of their offer Of
-osd,a,jor from both engineers and rail
rcad managers.
Ju4cc Knapp. who returned 70 Wash
,re,pn Monday night will be back IN
Nsu. York again by noon to-day. Com
missioner Neill will go over the situa-
oon with the conferenc" committee OF
r,arag,rs this morning and get their
,.-.,i7o;rarv basis FOR dealing With the
d,yoand. ~ the engineers. The COM
missioner. With Judge Knapp, will con
sc,, the ohsirmAn's association Of the
P-o,hor1ocd ~ Locomotive Engineers
,bis afternoon and The mediation will
Re started.
The engineers ~cted 20 accept the offer
~ mediation Nordal night. a few min
u,as after thev received g. TIL" confer
,rce committed cf mgragers held back
until Yesterday morning. and then de-
ravea their answer until al" in the az
,erroor. When II was finally given out
9, wss noted that the managers had
studious'y avoided the word mediation
and had agreed only "to confer b1t Mr
Neir was satisfied
Provisions Of Er6ran Act.
+ vas explained that under the Erd-
man act the government labor authori-
les could offer to mediate between par
ties 10 = laHor dispute which concerned
interstate commerce. but that If media
ton werA accepted by one party or both
parties. and later became useless by rea-
son of The disagreement of one or both
70 the dispute the medators would then
he empowered to submit the questions
At issue 10 arbitration.
Thus il was that when the engineers
had so promptly accepted the offer OF
mediation. the railroad managers. by
refusing IT, made it impossible. and could
then advance the claim that arbitration
should Immediately follow This step, II
vas said ~ the supporters of Grand
Chirf stone Of the engineers organiza-
ZION. would have allowed the railroads
20 90 into an arbitration conference
without having committed themselves tC
any concessions during the progress OF
t1c attempted mediation.
The story that was circulated yester-
DAY Was that though the conference
committee Of managers had been quicf
10 seize upon whatever advantage th@
situation offered, the committee Of rai!'
road presidents disapproved Of the ac'
ton of their suDordinatcs, and practi
csuy instructed the conference commit
tee Of managers to accept the offer OF
mediation without qualifications.
In any event that was the final out
come. The method followed will nov
le that Commissioner Neill and Judge
Knapp will ascertain from the railroad
managers just how much. II any. Of the
demanded increase in wages they viii
grant the engineers. Following that
they will ascertain from the engineers
.ust how much. If any, percentage Of re-
dgcUou IN their demands the engineers
VII accept With these two figures as
basis for their work the two officials
VIII then endeacor 10 bring the two par
tlcs 90 al compromise. II the railroad
manager should stand absolutely un-
moved ou their previous position that
hoy could not grant anything IL the
way q concession TO the engineers, tht
mediation would fail IT would then W
question whether both sides would
egres 90 arti'rate.