Evening star., 1938-10-07
History Of Passage Of
Railway Labor Act.

To the Editor OF The Star:
IN APPOINTING an emergency fact
finding board looking toward averting
the Nationwide strike of railroad en-
ployes scheduled to begin December J.,
President Roosevelt acted in accord with
law, the Railway Labor Act of 1925.
But in the light Of the circumstances
which attended the passage of that act
through the Sixty-eighth Congress. the
situation leaving the President no alter
native than to name the strike prevents
ing" board is, indeed, anomalous.
It may be recalled, and can certainly
be ascertained, that this 1926 rail labor
law was the joint brain-child of the
allied rail management and big-time rail
union groups, which combine literally
pushed 1t through Congress with their
pooled commercial and political inf1u-
ences.
Conceived by the late great President
w. w. Atterbury of the Pennsylvania
Railroad System and the late good w. N.
Doak, vice grand president and ma
tional legislative agent Of the Brother
hood of Railroad Trainmen-biggest Of
the rail unions not affiliated with the
American Federation of Labor, and,
finally, Mr.. HOover's Secretary of Labor,
the avowed magma charta" of the joint
rail managers-rail workers organizations
was Jointly authored into form for sub
mission to Congress by the general coun-
sci Of the railroad presidents association
and the chief attorney for what later
became and are now known as the
standard railroad labor organizations"
The latter was Mr.. Donald A. Richberg,
former law partner of Secretary Of the
Interior Ickes, later attorney general
of the defunct N. r. A.
The proposed law was passed on to
Congress and offered, in the upper
chamber by Senator Watson of Indiana,
to the House by Representative Parker
of New York, each being chairman Of
the committee on interstate commerce in
his sphere Of congressional duty.
1t, therefore. became known as the
"Watson-Parker" bill. 1t soon was passed
by the House, with an amendment, how
ever, by Representative Hoch of Kansas,
said to have been the first cause Of
schism among the allies and to which
many now attribute the primal cause of
the present impasse, requiring services
of the fact-finding board. But, as not
infrequently happens in case Of meas
ures that are not delayed Of enactment
in the House, the Watson Parker bill
got stalled" in the Senate for four or
five months, thus causing much concern
to its proponents, owing to the stiff oppo-
sition encountered from independent en-
ploye groups and the National Associa-
ton Of Manufacturers in that period.
Finally, in desperation. the allies had
thirteen leading railroad presidents,
headed by Mr.. Atterbury, meet Presi-
dent Coolidge at the White House, where
they assured" him Of peace forever in
the rail management-rail union sphere
II the Senate should pass and Mr..
Coolidge would approve the Watson
Parker bill. So the bill became law
the, Railway, Labor, Act, of, 1926. Yet,
twelve years afterward the former allies
are 50 viciously at each others throats
that the President Of the United States
must intervene to seek to avert war"
on our domestic front that would, In
some respects, be ~ disastrous Is war
With another state.
RIENZI B. LEMU9.