Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1916-07-05
WHY RAILROADS
 WANT 1. t. t. TO BE THE ARb|TEB
Railroad Men Assert Sug- gestion Is Scheme to Get
 Freight Raise.

[ o'SfSioHu, ouiy II tti' SAiS'N '' make their position clear to the pub lie, the transportation brothe. hoods have issued the following statem mt relb tive to the conference between the employees committee and the rail- way managers, recently held in New York City:
 The employees committee met the railway managers committee and pre- scented their demands for an eight hour work day with penalty for overtime. of time and a half pay
 The managers committee refused to grant these demands and did nos submit any definite counter-propo- sition to the employees.
 The managers did discuss what they termed a tentative proposal, which did not take into conside~ ~ation the plain fact that freight train crews are piece workers and they are paid to petfcrm a certain definite service of moving a train from one end of division to tle other and when they have performed this piece work. they have done what they were raid 10 do rogardle ss of whether 1t ! NGC ut DP III lCSS llitlll ti>ht t'oui'. What the men want, is a chance to perform this piece work in all cases, in eight hours or less.
 Having no penalty for the use Of overtime. the railroad companies now use the men continuously from 12 to l 20 hours.
 | The interstate commerce commits sion has no authority under the law, to regulate wages of employees any more than it has to regulate the price of steel rails and other supplies pur- chased by the railroad companies. Therefore, any investigation made by the interstate commerce commission into the subject of wages would come l to naught. for the j:eason that the commission has no power to settle the matter.
 Under the Newlands arbitration law it is distinctly provided that arbitration can be set in operation "when a strike is threatened" | No man has a right to say that a "st, ike is threatened" until the result 1 of the strike vote. now being taken, is ascertained. The will of the em- ployes must be known before a strike can DC tnIealened.
 If the interstate commerce commits sion would assume the responsibility | of agreeing that the demands of t1c i men should he met. it would clearly be up to the commission to provide l the means fo- meeting any increased cost of operation.
 The railways of course, would like to put the interstate commerce com mission under this obligation to grant | increased freight rates.
 If it is right and proper fo" the freight train employes to go into an arbitration as to whether they shall be worked excessive hours and as to what they shall sell tieir labor for, then it would only be cinsistent for the railway car and engine builders and railway supply de3lers 10 agree to arbitrate with the railroads as fo the price the railroads should pay fo' these things.
 1 The principle objection, however, of the employees to arbitration, would be on the ground of the inability to se- cure impartial arbitratcrs who were sufficiently acquainted with the tech nicalit:es of a problem of this kind.
 In previous arbitration betwe en the employees and the companies. the man who was acting as neutral arbl trator was a corporation lawyer rep resentiAg large vested interests, owners of railroad securities and who lad appeared ill numerous cases as attorney of record for the Standard Oil company.