The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1920-02-06
Recommendation for Continuance
of Government Control of Railroads

troll of the railroads, either by groups
or districts, operating officials lost all
authority over the labor policies upon
the respective railroads with the re-
suit that it was alleged that the OPP
Grating officials of a railroad were no
longer permitted to exercise their own
judgment in disposing of these mat
tiers.
"With the creation of general man.
ayers associations, covering com
paratively large territory, came dis
trict movements by employees for the
adjustment Of wage matters,
During the two or three years an
tcdating Federal control Of the rail.
roads an alarming situation was ere
ated in that the employees organiZa-
tions. as d whole and through fedora.
tions, found themselves confronted
with similar declarations on the part
of the railroads, the roads being rep
resented by conference committee
and the conference committees being
subordinate to advisory committees.
1t was alleged by employees that
these conference committees of all of
the principal railroads in a district
were not permitted to grant the de.
mands Of employees, or even to make
favorable compromises, without a
consent of the advisory committee.
The advisory committee it is alleged
was the agent of the great banking
institutions that controlled the finan-
cial policy Of all the railroads.
"Arbitrations have been Tesorted to
in the later years in these district
movements, with the result that en-
ployees reached the conclusion that
an arbitration award depended en-
tirely upon the frame Of mind of the
neutral arbitrator. Persons selected
to perform this function were liberal
in their awards, in accordance with
the liberality of their minds when APP
! pointed upon such arbitration boards.
"Thcre seems to have been a public
! opinion that any man, even indirectly
connected with labor, would be un-
qualified to act as a neutral arbitrator,
with the result that most estimable
gentlemen who had never had any con-
nection with, and who had little knowl-
edge Of, labor conditions were called
upon to act as umpires in these great
contests. 1t was alleged by the en-
ployees that usually these arbitrat~
ors, having no technical knowledge Of
wage schedules, often made awards
that were difficult of Interpretation,
if they did not, in fact, bring about
conditions tire very opposite to that in
tended by the neutral arbitrator. 1t
also became apparent that in the ap-
plication of the arbitration award the
officials Of a railroad were the sole
administrators thereof, with the result
that after employees had been led to
believe that an arbitration award
brought them much relief it was ap-
| piled in a manner that took away
from them more than had been given
/ them
Later, provisions were made for
! submitting controversies over the ap-
| plication Of an arbitration award back
to the arbitration board or to some
other umpire, but this resulted in the
continuation of controversies over a
period of two or three years.
at may be truthfully said that at
the time the railroads passed under
| Federal control, because of these veX-
atious conditions, the morale of rail-
way employees had sunk to low de-
gree. In many instances there was an
entire absence of esprit de corps, so
necessary for efficient operation.
at was with the knowledge of. this
alarming situation, and with a deter
mination to restore harmonious rela-
tions between employees and the rail
roads and thereby increase the eff
cheney of the railroads, that the d.
vision of Labor of the Railroad Admin
istration was created"
Discussing the unauthorized strikes
which have occurred during 1919 on
railroads, Mr.. Carter said:
During the year 1919 a considera-
BILE number of minor strikes occurred
practically all of which were not au-
thorized by the organization of which
the employees were members. A ma
jor proportion Of these strikes was ad-
justed through the initiative of the
Division of Labor. In some instances
the representatives of this division
used their good offices to bring about
a financial adjustment, but in other in
stances activities of the representa-
| lives VI tHe ulNlSlOH ceased WHeH JHe
strikers returned to work and the
original controversy was referred by
mutual consent back to the officials
and employees of the railroads to ad-
| lust.
at is believed that a vast majority
of these unauthorized strikes arose
out of the fact that the employees at
these local points did not fully under
stand that a proper tribunal had been
created by the Railroad Administra-
ton to which all controversies should
be refereed and that equitable de-
cisions would be reahced by such trib-
unal."
An interesting point IN the report
of Board of Adjustment No. included
in Mr.. Carter's report was the state
ment that of the decisions rendered
by that Board the average cost per de-
cision during the last six months of
1919 was $10.74, which represented a
reduction in cost per decision Of $1,000,
or 1929 per cent, as compared with
the cost per decision during 1918.
Board of Adjustment No. 2 reported
that an average of four and one-half
controversies had been passed upon at
each meeting of the Board. As of De-