Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-05-12
LABOR A FOR COAL
INDUSTRY PROPOSED
Daily Letter by Frederic j.. Haskln

| substantially to interrupt COM
NERVE" The board may thus act
in any dispute with respect to
wages. hours of labor and other
working conditions.
The board, once it has taken jul
risdiction in a case, must render its
decision within sixty days, unless
this period is extended by agree
ment of the parties and there can
be no decision by the board except
by the concurrence of at least five
of the nine members, and at least
enc member of the public group
must join in the decision.
No Penalty 10 Enforce Decisions.
No penalties are provided for vio-
,ationS Of the decisions of the Ia
Dor board. When the transportation
act was under consideration in con-
gress this question of creating a
board without giving it power to
enforce its DEGREES vas debated at
length, but in the end il was de-
cided wisest to leave such persons
as would not abide by the decisions
of such a tribunal subject only to
the condemnation and opprobrium
hal would be visited upon them
by public opinion. In the expert
ence of the Railroad Labor Board
only one or two of it's DEGREES have
been evaded or defied. and it is be-
lieved that public opinion can be
as efficacious in enforcing a labor
boards decision as any penalties in
the form of fines that might be pro-
vided.
The board. however, docs have au-
vhaai4xr 60 49, ~ "a
witnesses and the production of pa
pers and documents. Any mem
Der may require by subpoena the
attendance of any witness and the
production of any book, paper doc
ument or other evidence from any
place in the United States at any
designated place of hearing, and in
case of failure to comply with any
subpoena, or in case of the contu-
macy of any witness appearing be-
fore it, the board my invoke the aid
of any United States district court.
Such court may thereupon order the
witness to comply with the require
ments of the subpoena, or to testify,
and any failure to obey such an or
der may be punished as contempt of
court in the usual n Wit
nesses are also liable to prosecu-
ton and punishment for perjury
committed in testifying before the
board.
Any person who upon demand Of
any member or duly authorized rep
resentative of the board snail refuse
access TO and the right to copy any
book, account, record, paper or cor
respondence relating to any matter
which the board is investigating is
subject to a penalty of SOC. fine for
each such offense.
. In addition to the settling of dis
putes the Kenyon bill gives the
proposed labor board the following
additional broad functions:
Shall investigate and study the
relations between operators and
their employees, particularly ques-
tons relating TO wages, hours of
labor. and conditions and regular
ity of employment; shall gather.
compile, classify, digest, and pub
lish, from time to time, data and
information relating to such ques-
tons to the end that the labor board
may be properly equipped to per-
form its duties under this act and
THAT the public may be properly in
formed; and shall institute meas
ures to stabilize the industry and
r~egularize employment"
If the bill should become a law
with this provision in it. the Ma
tional Coal Mining Board would
have a bigger job on its hands than
has ever been turned over to any
similar tribunal, and more power
and latitude to act than has ever
been entrusted to any group of men
dealing with industrial relations. II
would be possible for the board
to make a complete survey of the
coal industry and give the public all
the facts that are so essential to
the formation of an intelligent pub
lie opinion as to what should be
done in crisis like the one precip-
itated by the strike on April /.
1t would also be possible for the
board to institute measures that
would revoiutionize the entire in
dustry which is admittedly in a
bad way as a result of being over
manned and over-mined and in a
constant state of turmoil over the
~unionization problem.