The Washington times., 1923-11-14

leaders Favor Board Of Adj
iustment Having No Pub
Tic Representative"
By WILLIAM HARD.

The seventeen standard repre-.
sentative railroad trade unions o1
the United States assembled here
today and went at once into a dis
eussion Of the labor clauses OF the
existing Federal Esch- Cummins
railroad transportation law with
the following prospects of action:
Favor Cummins Idea.
These trade unions, representing
the overwhelming weight of railroad
labor opinion, win vote in favor of
the total abolishment OF the Rail.
road Labor Board as at present con
stituted.
They win vote in favor of substi-
ttIting for IL q board Of adjust.
Ment.R consisting OF equal numbers
o. representatives from the railroad
managementss and from the organi-
cations of railroad employees, with
no representatives of the public /"
They will consent to mediation
and sconcfliationp by authorized
epokeEmen of the Federal Govern
ment Il, and when, the adjustment
hoard may have failed to reach an
agreement.
At this point their course will
come into partial harmony with the
course which will be followed by
Senator Cummfns of Iowa, chair
man of the Interstate Commerce
Committee of the Senate.
Senator Cummins states that he
Il in favor of getting rid of the
Railroad Labor Board and of con-
filming the Federal Government to
esFFa = r 4 4 n ,oifs,ka<-..s
through authorized Federal spokes-
men.
The present Railroad Labor Board.
under the existing Esch-C ummins
transportation law, consists Of rep
resentatives of the railroad manage
ments, representatives of the rail-
road employees, and representatives
Of "the public" appointed by the
President Of the United States: and
It Is endowed with powers which
80 beyond mediation" and econ
Citation" and which approach the
vague verge of some sort Of hazy
scompulsion.
Legacy From Harding.
That sort Of board today seems
doomed beyond recall. President
Harding at one time wanted to re-
tain that sort of board and to make
IL. He stirred the country with
the idea OF putting further teeth"
into the Railroad Labor Board as at
present constituted. That idea Of
his is a Harding legacy" but to-
day it seems to have no shance OF
being respected in principle or ac-
complished In practice. The existing
sort Of Railroad Labor Board, in
stead of being strengthened. seems
today to be destined to the grave,
and the arising question Is:
What viii be put in its place?
The leaders Of the railroad trade
unions contend that they do not
wish to be only destructive and
negative in their attitude toward
this problem. They claim that they
wish also to be constructive and
positive. They are insistent in
maintaining that a board of ad-
justmeat," in which employers and
employees could meet face to face
with no outsiders" present, would
be q great deal more effective than
the existing Railroad Labor Board;
and In support of their view they
narrate and allege as follows:
As soon as outsiders" are pres
ent. as in the existing Railroad
Labor Board, the representatives of
capital and the representatives. OK
labor at once cease to try to COM
pose their differences and at once
start In to argue those differences
unfortunately to the Outsiders"
They at once cease TO try to adjust
their family quarrel and at once ne
gin to argue a law case against
each other with the outsiders as
judges. Then, when the. "out-
siders'' make the decision. the re-
suit is that one side or the other
is outraged.
The railroad trade unions believe
that Congress would do well to es-
tablish a body in which the railroad
family would be-as it were-locked
into a room by itself with compul-
sorry attendance by authorized repre-
eentatives from both sides of the
family and with moral mandate to
1t from the country to come to an
agreement by its own exertions.
The railroad trade unions claim
that those exertions would seldom
fail. If they should fail, then the
unions would welcome the efforts Of
Senator Cummins' 'mediators" and
"conciliators. /"
Senator Cummins has given no