Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1916-07-05
ATTITUDE OF men
ON ARBITRATION
Statement from Brotherhoods
Gives Their Side Of Proposed
Reference to Commission.
Cleveland, Ohio, July 3, 1916.


In an effort to make their position
clear to the public, the Transportation
Brotherhoods have issued the follow
ing statement relative to the confer
ence between the Employees Commit
tee and the Railway Managers, re-
Gently held in New York City.
The Employees Committee met the
Railway Managers Committee and
presented their demands for an eight
hour work day with penalty for over
time, of time and a half pay.
The Managers Committee refused
to grant these demands and did not
submit any definite counter-proposi-
ton to the employees.
The Managers did discuss what they
termed tentative proposal" which
did not take into consideration the
plain fact that freight train crews are
piece workers and they are paid to
perform a certain definite service of
moving train from one end of a div
ision to the other and when they have
performed this piece work, they have
done what they were paid to do re-
CARELESS Of whether it was done in
less than eight hours.
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 II to
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
to naught, for the reason that the
Commission has no power to settle
the matter.
Under the Newlands Arbitration
Law, it is distinctly provided that ar
bitration can be set in operation
when strike is threatened
No man has a right say that al
'strike is threatened" until the result
of the strike vote, now being taken,
is ascertained. The will Of the en-
ployes must be known before a strike
can be threatened.
If the Interstate Commerce Com.
mission would assume the RESPONSE
bility of agreeing that the demands of
the men should be met, It would clear
ly be up to the Commission to pro-
vide the means for meeting any IN.
creased 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 for the
freight train employees to go into an
arbitration as to whether they shall
be worked excessive hours and as to
what they shall sell their labor for,
then it would only be consistent for
the the railway car and engine build
ers and railway supply dealers to
agree to arbitrate with the railroads
as to the price the railroads should
pay for these things.
The principal objection however, of
the employees to arbitration, would be
on the ground of the inability to Sc
cure impartial arbitrators who were
sufficiently acquainted with the tech
nicalities of a problem of this kind.
In previous arbitration between
the employees and the companies, the
man who was acting as neutral arbi-
traitor was a corporation lawyer re-
presenting large vested interests,
owners of railroad securities and who
had appeared in numerous cases as
Attorney of Record for the Standard
Oil Company.