Evening star., 1926-02-07
BY JOSEPH A. FOX.

Compulsion founded on agreement
This is the basic principle of the
new legislation sought by the great
railroads Of the country and their EN-
ployes to preserve peaceful relations
and guarantee uninterrupted trans
portation throughout the United
States.
With the single exception of the
Southern, which declined to join ir
the movement, all the class-1 lines
those having gross operating revenue
OF S1,O00,0O0 or more yearly-have
been pledged through their officials tC
the pact embodied in the Watson
Parker bill, now pending in Congress
and shoulder to shoulder with the
rail executives are the representatives
of 1000. 600 workers. Passage of the
measure, which in principle has the
backing of President Coolidge, vii
set up adjustment machinery or
23l 900 out of the 100000 miles OF
trackage linking the Nation, and, its
sponsors point out, start off employer
and employe under an equal obliga
ton before the law to exert every eff
fort to preserve harmony and crush
the menace OF recurrent strikes.
Means End of Railroad Board
If the new plan comes into being. il
will mean the end of the Railroad La
Dor Board. created untaar the trans
portation act of 1920, and in it's short
span of life, the object of repeated at
tacks, which it has failed TO withstand
adverse decisions of the Supreme
Court having stripped this tribunal OF
| its principal powers.
The Labor Board was oStenSibly an
agency empowered to force disputants
to bring before it their troubles fol
adjustment; to review wage agree
| ments, and, in general, TO supervise
conditions of employment. Three
! years ago, however, the Supreme
Court, in n case instituted by the
Pennsylvania system, struck directly
at the board, ruling it was created
not as a tribunal to determine the
legal rights Of railroad employers anC
employees, nor to protect and enforce
these, but to decide how such rights
ought to be exercised for cooperation
| in running a railroad; its decision.
have no other sanction than that Of
public opinion
Boards Sole Duty.
In other words, all the board coulC
do was to go into any disputed issues
attach the blame, and publish it:
| findings. that the public might know
where the fault rested Last March
blow, when it held that railroads die
not have to submit disputes for ar
| bitration to the board. This also wa:
| in Il case instituted by the Pennsyl
vania, which has been unwaVering il
| its opposition to the board.
In the. meantime, the Labor Board
also has been under fire on Capito
| Hill, "a determined effort having beer
made to get rid of it in the Sixty
eighth Congress, when labor organiZa
tionS put up a strong fight for the
lHowell-Barkley bin which would have
established another form of adjust
ment. The railroads. while also favor
able to putting the board out of exist
ence, holding it was impotent and {
| troublemaker, fought the Howell
Barkley bill, which they contendeC
would give the workers the upper
hand, and this was the status wher
the mana gementS and workers got to
gether on the present legislation.
-Four measures have been drawn OF
| in drafting the Watson-Parker bill
namely. the Erdman and Newland:
acts of 1898 and 1918, respectively
which provided mediation, cancellation
and voluntary arbitration, and repre-
| sented the only efforts of the Govern
| ment, prior to 1920. to solve the raj
| problem; the Howell-Barkley bill. an,
! the transportation act of 1920: in ef
| feet. it is described as a compromis,
/ of the latter two.