APPENDIX L

[Public-No. 6]

(s. 2517.]

AN ACT providing for mediation, conciliation, and arbitration in controversies between certain employers and their employees. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the provisions of this act shall apply to any common carrier or carriers and their officers, agents, and employees, except masters of vessels and seamen, as defined in section forty-six hundred and twelve, Revised Statutes of the United States, engaged in the transportation of passengers or property wholly by railroad, or partly by railroad and partly by water, for a continuous carriage or shipment from one state or territory of the United States or the District of Columbia to any other state or territory of the United States or the District of Columbia, or from any place in the United States to an adjacent foreign country, or from any place in the United States through a foreign country to any other place in the United States.

The term "railroad" as used in this act shall include all bridges and ferries used or operated in connection with any railroad, and also all the road in use by any corporation operating a railroad, whether owned or operated under a contract, agreement, or lease; and the term "transportation" shall include all instrumentalities of shipment or carriage.

The term "employees' as used in this act shall include all persons actually engaged in any capacity in train operation or train service of any description, and notwithstanding that the cars upon or in which they are employed may be held and operated by the carrier under lease or other contract: Provided, however, That this act shall not be held to apply to employees of street railroads and shall apply only to employees engaged in railroad train service. In every such case the carrier shall be responsible for the acts and defaults of such employees in the same manner and to the same extent as if said cars were owned by it and said employees directly employed by it, and any provisions to the contrary of any such lease or other contract shall be

binding only as between the parties thereto and shall not affect the obligations of said carrier either to the public or to the private parties concerned.

A common carrier subject to the provisions of this act is hereinafter referred to as an "employer," and the employees of one or more of such carriers are hereinafter referred to as "employees."

Sec. 2. That whenever a controversy concerning wages, hours of labor, or conditions of employment shall arise between an employer or employers and employees subject to this act interrupting or threatening to interrupt the business of said employer or employers to the serious detriment of the public interest, either party to such controversy may apply to the Board of Mediation and Conciliation created by this act and invoke its services for the purpose of bringing about an amicable adjustment of the controversy; and upon the request of either party the said board shall with all practicable expedition put itself in communication with the parties to such controversy and shall use its best efforts, by mediation and conciliation, to bring them to an agreement; and if such efforts to bring about an amicable adjustment through mediation and conciliation shall be unsuccessful, the said board shall at once endeavor to induce the parties to submit their controversy to arbitration in accordance with the provisions of this

act.

In any case in which an interruption of traffic is imminent and fraught with serious detriment to the public interest, the Board of Mediation and Conciliation may, if in its judgment such action seems desirable, proffer its services to the respective parties to the controversy.

In any case in which a controversy arises over the meaning or the application of any agreement reached through mediation under the provisions of this act either party to the said agreement may apply to the Board of Mediation and Conciliation for an expression of opinion from such board as to the meaning or application of such agreement and the said board shall upon receipt of such request give its opinion as soon as may be practicable.

Sec. 3. That whenever a controversy shall arise between an employer or employers and employees subject to this act, which can not be settled through mediation and conciliation in the manner provided in the preceding section, such con

troversy may be submitted to the arbitration of a board of six, or, if the parties to the controversy prefer so to stipulate, to a board of three persons, which board shall be chosen in the following manner: In the case of a board of three the employer or employers and the employees, parties respectively to the agree ment to arbitrate, shall each name one arbitrator; and the two arbitrators thus chosen shall select the third arbitrator; but in the event of their failure to name the third arbitrator within five days after their first meeting, such third arbitrator shall be named by the Board of Mediation and Conciliation. In the case of a board of six, the employer or employers and the employees, parties respectively to the agreement to arbitrate, shall each name two arbitrators, and the four arbitrators thus chosen shall, by a majority vote, select the remaining two arbitrators; but in the event of their failure to name the two arbitrators within fifteen days after their first meeting the said two arbitrators, or as many of them as have not been named, shall be named by the Board of Mediation and Conciliation.

In the event that the employees engaged in any given controversy are not members of a labor organization, such employees may select a committee which shall have the right to name the arbitrator, or the arbitrators, who are to be named by the employees as provided above in this' section.

Sec. 4. That the agreement to arbitrate

First. Shall be in writing;

Second. Shall stipulate that the arbitration is had under the provisions of this act;

Third. Shall state whether the board of arbitration is to consist of three or six members;

Fourth. Shatt be signed by duly accredited representatives of the employer or employers and of the employees;

Fifth. Shall state specifically the questions to be submitted to the said board for decision;

Sixth. Shall stipulate that a majority of said board shall be competent to make a valid and binding award;

Seventh. Shall fix a period from the date of the appointment of the arbitrator or arbitrators necessary to complete the board, as provided for in the agreement, within which the said board shall commence its hearings;

Eighth. Shall fix a period from the beginning of the hearings within which the said board shall make and file its award: Provided, That this period shall be thirty days unless a different period be agreed to;

Ninth. Shall provide for the date from which the award shall become effective and shall fix the period during which the said award shall continue in force;

Tenth. Shall provide that the respective parties to the award will each faithfully execute the same;

Eleventh. Shall provide that the award and the papers and proceedings, including the testimony relating thereto, certified under the hands of the arbitrators, and which shall have the force and effect of a bill of exceptions, shall be filed in the clerk's office of the district court of the United States for the district wherein the controversy arises or the arbitration is entered into, and shall be final and conclusive upon the parties to the agreement unless set aside for error of law apparent on the record;

Twelfth. May also provide that any difference arising as to the meaning or the application of the provisions of an award made by a board of arbitration shall be referred back to the same board or to a subcommittee of such board for a ruling, which ruling shall have the same force and effect as the original award; and if any member of the original board is unable or unwilling to serve another arbitrator shall be named in the same manner as such original member was named,

Sec. 5. That for the purposes of this act the arbitrators herein provided for, or either of them, shall have power to administer oaths and affirmations, sign subpoenas, require the attendance and testimony of witnesses, and the production of such books, papers, contracts, agreements, and documents material to a just determination of the matters under investigation as may be ordered by the court; and may invoke the aid of the United States courts to compel witnesses to attend and testify and to produce such books, papers, contracts, agreements, and documents to the same extent and under the same conditions and penalties as is provided for in the act to regulate commerce, approved February fourth, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, and the amendments thereto.

Sec. 6. That every agreement of arbitration under this act shall be acknowledged by the parties thereto before a notary

public or a clerk of the district or the circuit court of appeals of the United States, or before a member of the Board of Mediation and Conciliation, the members of which are hereby authorized to take such acknowledgements; and when so acknowledged shall be delivered to a member of said board or transmitted to said board to be filed in its office.

When such agreement of arbitration has been filed with the said board, or one of its members, and when the said board, or a member thereof, has been furnished the names of the arbitrators chosen by the respective parties to the controversy, the board, or a member thereof, shall cause a notice in writing to be served upon the said arbitrators, notifying them of their appointment, requesting them to meet promptly to name the remaining arbitrator or arbitrators necessary to complete the board, and advising them of the period within which, as provided in the agreement of arbitration, they are empowered to name such arbitrator or arbitrators.

When the arbitrators selected by the respective parties have, agreed upon the remaining arbitrator or arbitrators, they shall notify the Board of Mediation and Conciliation; and in the event of their failure to agree upon any or upon all of the necessary arbitrators withhin the period fixed by this act they shall, at the expiration of such period, notify the Board of Mediation and Conciliation of the arbitrators selected, if any, or of their failure to make or to complete such selection.

If the parties to an arbitration desire the reconvening of a board to pass upon any controversy arising over the meaning or application of an award they shall jointly so notify the Board of Mediation and Conciliation, and shall state in such written notice the question or questions to be submitted to such reconvened board. The Board of Mediation and Conciliation shall thereupon promptly communicate with the members of the board of arbitration or a subcommittee of such board appointed for such purpose pursuant to the provisions of the agreement of arbitration, and arrange for the reconvening of said board or subcommittee, and shall notify the respective parties to the controversy of the time and place at which the board will meet for hearings upon the matters in controversy to be submitted to it.

Sec. 7. That the board of arbitration shall organize and select its own chairman and make all necessary rules for conducting