The Washington herald., 1913-06-21
GENERAL STRIKE
IS PREDICTED
President Of Brotherhood Of
Firenen and Enginemen
So Testi6es.
ATTACKS ERDMAN ACT
Excessive Heat Affects Delegates, and
Little Work Is Accomplished
During Day.

A general strike, which will paralyze
the railroads Of this country. unless some
plan is devised to broaden the Erdman
mediation act, was predicted yesterday
by W. S. Carter. president of the Broth
edhood Of Locomotive Fireman and En-
ginemen. in his testimony given at a
joint hearing of the Senate and House
ter. whose organization is one of the
largest railroad organizations in the
world, and which is holding its conven-
ton in the Arcade building. was invited
to appear before the joint session of the
Congressional committees and express his
views on the Newlands bill.
Mr.. Carter declared himself in favor of
the Newlands bill as a compromise meas
ure, but stated that he would prefer to
have the provision relating to the re-
ferring back to the mediation board of
disputes over its award made manda-
tory rather than discretionary. The bill
is intended to increase the membership
of the arbitration board provided in the
Erdman act for. settlement of railroad
strikes from three to nine members.
Unless something is done very quick
ly,'' declared Mr.. Carter. ''the country
is likely to see the greatest strike in the
world. as the trainmen and conductors
are now balloting upon a strike. Such
strike would also be most novel, because
the So men involved are threatening
a strike because the railroad managers
have absolutely refused to arbitrate points
in dispute. A larger arbitration board. l
believe, might solve the difficulty"
Heat Affects Delegates.
The excessive heat of yesterday greatly
affected the delegates, and little of i'm
portance was accomplished in the revi-
sion of the constitution and bylaws.
Discussion of a standard of light pre-
ception, TO determine degrees of blind
ness on which TO base beneficiary claims.
occupied the entire morning session. Fol-
lowing the discussion of When Is a
Man Blind?' the convention determined
TO add blindness to the list of disabili
ties for which disability claims might
be based. The completion of insurance
features Of the revision of the constitu-
tion practically winds up the important
work on the report of the constitution
committee. 1t is expected that work
on the revision of the constitution will
be completed by next Wednesday. There
still remains a number of technical ques-
tions which must be disposed of.
Immediately after the work on the con-
stitution is completed a number of other
committees will submit their reports to
the convention. Il is expected that this
will require at least three days, and will
leave the last week entirely open to the
selection of a convention city and to
the election of officers.
Each succeeding day is adding to the
intensity of the fight being waged by
Oakland, Denver, st. Louis. and Cleve-
land to gain the next convention AS yet
there are no definite indications as to
which will be the choice of the dele
gates. The general impression seems TO
he that the convention will go to the |
Middle West St Louis and Cleveland |
are both in the race, and while up to |
the present they have not been as active |
as either Oakland or Denver. their sup
porters claim that they are holding |
hack and letting the other fellows shoot |
their bolt"
1t is expected that at least three days |
will be required to determine upon the |
next convention city. Hundreds of dele |
gates will want to address the conven- |
tion in favor of their respective cities. |
and the debate probably will last one
day. II is possible that in case the work |
on the revision of the constitution is
not completed by the middle of next
week the sessions of the convention will
be prolonged until after June 2s. the date
originally set for final adjournment.