The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-08-13
WAR LABOR
 BOARD QUITS
 FUNDS LACKING
Body Which Arbitrated La Dor Dispute During War
 Terminates Its Existence.
HAD NO MONEY
 SINCE JUNE 30
Body Continued Its Activi- ties After Arn1istice at Re
 quest of President.

New York, Aug. 13.-The War La | Dor Board, meeting at the Hotel Me 1 Alpin yesterday. formally ended its ex- istence after granting increases of F | per cent. in wages in 10 different trac- | ton cases affecting companies in terri l tory extending from New England to | the Pacific and as far south as the | Ohio river. Ex-President William H. | Taft and Basil M. Manly, joint chair i men, announced the adoption of a resolution which terminated the boards activities
 In each decision made yesterday the complainant for the men affected by the increase was the Amalgamated Association of Street and IIecrric Railway Employees, represented by James II. Nahey of Boston.
 The Eastern Massac chusetts Street Railway Co, formerly the Bay State Street Railway Co.,, was one of the corporations ordered to pay the in crease. The question before the Board was a proposed reopening of an award dated Dec. 1918, in which l cents minimum and 45 cents max mum for m otormen and conductors was made by the Board for the period of the war. In June the employees | had the case reopened and the com pany agreed to submit the question to the Board. The high cost of liv- ing was given as the basis for this and all the other applications. The | award dates back to June 3, and the employees will receive the increase as from that time. The awards in all cases were retroactive
 Other cases decided were:
 Cleveland, Painesville X Eastern Railway Company and the Cleveland, Gainesville G Ashtabula Railway Com pany, as of June 12.
 Cleveland & Chagrin Falls Railway Company and the Cleveland & East ern Traction Company. as Of June 12-
 Pittsburgh Railway Company, in the hands of a receiver, as of May l. This case first will have to be sub rnitted to the court in which the re- ceivership is vested.
 Beaver Valley Traction Company and the Pittsburgh & Beaver Valley Street. Railway Company, as of June IF.
 Portland (ore) Railway, Light and Power Company, as of June 25.
 East St. Louis. Columbus & Water loo Railway Company, as of June 25.
 Alton, Granite & St. Louis Traction Company and East St. Louis & Subur- ban Railway Company, as of May 1.
 East St. Louis Railway Company and East St. Louis & Suburban Rail- way Company, as of May l.
 The case of the Holders Union of Buffalo against P. J. Devine .s e. and the Buffalo Founders As5Ocia- ton resulted, in an award Of E4 1-2 cents an hour since last September. T~wenty-eight iron molding fi1n,s in Buffalo are involved. In these cases the board could no- come to q deci- sion, and MT. Tafc sat as umpiFe and made he award.
 In the case of the patternmakers of Cincinnati against six employers, MT. Taft also decided the award. In this case the men had returned to work on the verbal agreement of the employers. When it came before the board the employers raised the ques- ton of a bonafide joint agreement between employer and employees. MT. Taft found the men had returned to work in good faith and that this bound the employers. He decided by awarding the men back pay to Sept 30 with time and a half for holidays and Sundays The patternmakers wanted a forty-four hour week, but this was denied.
 The board refused to abrOgate the decision of April 10 by making a A
  son, N J. effective immediately in stead of Oct. l. A committee repre- 'sentine the employees of more than 800 textile factories asked the board to advance the date. The Bethlehem Steel ernployes' case is the only ques- tion which the board leaves undecid- ed. This was placed in the hands of an administrator. It was said that back pay amounting to about $1,5OO,- 900 is being paid to Bethlehem em- ployes by the War Department Ord nance Bureau. . The War Labor Board was created by an act of the President early in 1918. It was said that though he had created the board the President had had no hand in the termination of it's existence. The expenses of the board were paid out of 2 war emergency appropriation, and it was said that its end was brought about more through lack of funds than anything else.'' When the armiStice was signed many employers thought the board should dissolve, but in January the President cabled from Paris his wish that it continue to function during the period of reconstruction. Since June 30 the board has been acting !, without compensation After some correspondence with Secretary of La bor William B. Wilson it decided to dissolve and a resolution to that eff feet was unanimously adopted yester-