the prisoner has been taken, shall be liable in the sum of $10,000 to the family of the prisoner lynched, or if he have no family, to the United States. Marketing S. 2012 by Mr. McNary, and H. R. 5563 by Mr. Haugen are companion bills providing for the creation, as an emergency measure, of the United States Agricultural Export Commission and the Agricultural Export Corporation. The purpose of these organizations is to determine the "ratio price"-that is, the present commodity price which, in relation to the average for all present commodity prices, has the same ratio which prevailed between the average price of that commodity and the average of all the commodity prices between 1905 and 1914, inclusive-and to maintain that "ratio price" for basic agricultural commodities by buying for export when the price does down and selling in the domestic market if the price goes up. For this purpose the corporation is to have a capital stock of $200,000,000, all subscribed by Uncle Sam. S. 1642 by Mr. Norris, and H. R. 5092 by Mr. Tillman proposes the creation of "The Farmers' and Consumers' Financing Corporation," to buy and sell agricultural products. It shall have only $100,000,000 capital, all subscribed by Uncle Sam. The subscription is to be returned out of net profits. Railroads S. 1945 by Mr. Norris proposes the creation of "the Federal Transportation Company," a government corporation to build or take over and operate the railroads of the United States. In short, it is a plan to nationalize the railroads. Railroad Labor Board H. R. 4797 by Mr. Shallenberger proposes the repeal of the Transportation Act of 1920. H. R. 4798, also by Mr. Shallenberger, proposes the repeal of so much of title three of that Act as creates the Railroad Labor Board. Retail Price Control H. R. 5088 by Mr. Wyant provides for the control of retail prices by producers and manufacturers, under certain prescribed regulations. Russia H. Res. 145 by Mr. Fish proposes a commission to establish trade relations with Russia, but with the express understanding that this does not propose diplomatic relations with the existing Soviet Government. Strikes H. R. 5338 by Mr. Wolff provides: "That it shall be unlawful on and after the passage of this Act, except as hereinafter provided, for any person to import, transport, or induce, or to cause to be imported, transported, or induced, labor to any point where a labor disturbance or strike is then in progress unless said labor shall then and there be made acquainted with all conditions affecting labor as they then exist at said point of disturbance or strike. "SEC. 2. That the term 'person' when used in this Act includes labor agents, labor agencies, individuals, partnerships, corporations, associations, and their officers and agents. "SEC. 3. That said labor when imported, transported, or induced, or caused to be imported, transported, or induced, as herein provided, to any point where a labor disturbance or strike is then in progress, shall receive, during the period of said labor disturbance or strike, the same compensation and no more than the amount offered the labor on strike. "SEC. 4. That any board, lodging, or other consideration of any nature whatsoever shall be considered as compensation within the meaning of this Act. "SEC. 5. That each individual imported, transported, or induced, or caused to be imported, transported or induced, except as herein provided, to any point where a labor disturbance or strike is then in progress, and each day thereafter that each individual is permitted to remain at said point of disturbance or strike, constitutes a separate and distinct violation under the term of this Act. "SEC. 6. Any person who violates any of the provisions of this Act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be fined not less than $100 nor more than $1,000 for each violation." Treason H. J. Res. 130 by Mr. Edmonds proposes an amendment to the Constitution of the United States amending the definition therein contained of treason to make it include an attempt "to incite by word or deed, the establishment of any new form of government except by amendment to this Constitution as provided herein.” Unemployment H. R. 4455 by Mr. Zihlman proposes the creation of a Commission of Unemployment to ascertain the opportunity for public work in road building, afforestation, and drainage and irrigation, and to make plans and surveys for such work to be undertaken when the next business depression occurs. DISCUSSION OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS Amid the rapidly shifting scenes of industrial and social life of today, uniformity of ideas is neither to be desired nor expected, and the cause of truth will be best served by placing before men of industry any important discussion of industrial relations. It is in this spirit that our association intends to publish information under this title, without advocacy of the ideas therein contained. Supervision and Discipline Under Employe Representation With the growing tendency in industry toward a more general recognition of the right of the worker to have a voice in determining the conditions of his employment, there develops a new anxiety on the part of the executives of large operations as to the effect this more liberal regime may have upon supervision and discipline of the working forces, and upon the attitude of the minor supervisory officers toward these functions of their duties. Out of our experience, I think I can assure them that such change as has taken place, or may be expected from the new industrial relations, is an improvement over anything we have had in the past. By some, this new relation in industrial management is mistakenly called "industrial democracy." Sometimes it is called a "company union." Again it is called "Letting the workman help you manage." But to us on the Pennsylvania Railroad, it is known as "Employe Representation," and it is just that very thing, with all that the words imply. Management has not abdicated its right to promulgate any orders or instructions or to impose discipline in its best judgment, and management transmits the decisions of reviewing committees, which it is in good faith bound to obey. As far back as 1907 the management realized that a carefully considered treatment of labor questions was necessary if the company wished to thrive as a successful institution. As an initial effort there was organized a committee of officers of the railroad, to sit as an appeal body in cases filed with the General Manager by the employe, and to act as counsel in advising the General Manager as to the merits or demerits of any particular case. This was done in the desire to avoid, so far as possible, individualistic control of labor matters through decisions made by the General Manager, and also to bring some of the line and staff officers into a more intimate contact with labor questions as presented by committees to the General Manager; affording them a chance to become more fully acquainted with all labor questions arising affecting the operation of the property. About 1912 the employes in one branch of the service raised questions regarding the kind of examination given them in order to determine their fitness and ability to serve in various positions. After considerable discussion, the management offered to form a committee consisting of an equal number of representatives of the management and of the employes, to investigate the subject thoroughly and recommend a plan of examinations to be followed. We have, in the last three years, put in effect a comprehensive plan, the keystone of which is a joint committee for each general class of employes, which is the highest authority on the railroad in the determination of all questions affecting wages, working conditions, discipline, and discharge of employes. These committees are composed of an equal number of representatives of the employes, elected by secret ballot, and of the management. A two-thirds vote of the committee is necessary to a decision on any question. If this two-thirds vote cannot be had, the committee itself decides how a final determination shall be reached. No executive officer of the Company, or the Board of Directors even, has veto power over the decisions of these joint committees. Our general plan is to have on each Division a board of inquiry, called the Discipline Committee, consisting of heads of departments on the division, the individuals being also members of the Division Superintendent's staff, in other words, Division staff officers. This Discipline Committee reviews every case that involves a question of reprimand, suspension, or dismissal, before any action is taken whatever toward disciplining the individual, except that, in major cases, the employe is held off duty until the matter is decided. This treatment of the discipline question has brought about greater discretion in the imposition of discipline and has impressed the employes with its general degree of fairness, because the individual personal element has been entirely removed. This new relationship between the management and the men on the Pennsylvania Railroad System has not meant abdication of purely managerial functions. It does mean that our employes, by slow, short steps, taken over a considerable period of time, beginning as early as 1907, have been given an increasingly larger voice in determining those questions which arise in the course of their daily work which involve differences of opinion between the management and the employes. The employes themselves must be broad-minded enough, experienced enough, and well enough balanced to recognize their responsibility in the management of the property. Before the employes and their representatives could assume the burden of such responsibility, it was felt that they must be competent to become co-arbiters of labor questions arising between the management and men and affecting not only their own interest but also that of the Company, its stockholders, and the public, for the management not only has a duty to perform to its employes, but also a duty to render prompt, efficient, and safe service to the traveling and shipping public, and to render a satisfactory accounting of its stewardship to the stockholders of the railroad. How successfully this method is operating in the everyday conduct of affairs may be illustrated by the number of cases involving discipline which have come before the Reviewing Committee for the Engine and Train Service. There have been but twenty-nine of these cases submitted to the Reviewing Committee upon appeal, and this constitutes all the cases that have been appealed by the employes to the final reviewing committee out of 1,725 discipline cases which were submitted to the Superintendent, General Superintendents, or General Managers under the present plan. These cases involve both major and minor infractions of the rules. Of the cases so appealed to the Joint Reviewing Committee, two were decided in favor of the employes, which means that the Division Superintendent who had imposed the discipline was reversed, and twenty-three were decided in favor of the management, which means that the Division Superintendent was upheld; four cases were withdrawn or referred back for additional information. It will be noticed that out of the twenty-nine cases only two were decided in favor of the employes' contention by a tribunal in which they have equal representation with the manage that there must always be at least two employe representatives voting with the management, or at least two representatives of the management voting with the employes, and in only one case has the vote been as low as this. In some cases it has been unanimous. * Looking at things fairly and squarely, and considering the effect employe representation has had upon disciplinary control, one familiar with the facts must declare that employe representation has not only reduced the disciplinary control by supervising officers over the employes, but that on the contrary, disciplinary control has been strengthened. But the results of the plan do not stop here there is a constructive co-operation on the part of employes and their representatives which is helping to bring about greater efficiency, greater production, the elimination of waste and the elimination of the need for discipline, by making each employe feel that he is a responsible unit in the organization. * * Withal there has developed a deeper-rooted feeling of respect for the officer on the part of the employe, and as well for the employe by the officer. And out of this mutual respect better esprit-de-corps prevails than under previous methods The employes have been brought face to face with managerial problems such as they never dreamed existed-problems that they now recognize have to be met and solved by management-consequently their respect for management has increased as they have come to know that such problems not alone concern management success but employe happiness as well. And with this respect came a clearer recognition on the part of the employes of the need of just disciplinary control. * * * Only last month I had the pleasure of hearing a representative of our train and engine service employes, in a frank talk to his own men, urge them to see to it that nobody loafed along the road with a trainload of freight. In the last year, the committee representing the freight handlers and station forces has conducted, on its own ini tiative, a vigorous campaign to prevent loss and damage in the handling of freight and to bring about greater efficiency and economy in station operations. We feel that there should be in the future no cause for strike or lockout in our service. There is no problem in employe relations that cannot be solved across the table under the agreements we have with our men. A Monthly Periodical on the Law of the Labor Problem Vol. 6 LEAGUE FOR INDUSTRIAL RIGHTS 42 Broadway, New York City New York, March, 1924 No. 3 TH Character HERE are ten thousand questions of business that no outsider can settle, upon which any suggestion of his would deserve nothing but contempt; but the great principles with which I started, the eternal obligations of honesty and integrity and decency; the responsibility of the individual; the supremacy of moral character; the universal application of the ten commandments, in industry as well as in private life, these are principles that apply everywhere, to the business and professional man alike; to the man who plans the work and pays for it, and to the man whose hands execute the plans and receive the pay. We are human beings before we are founders or workmen. We are all responsible to a higher than human tribunal. No one of us can at last deceive or defeat eternal justice. And we do well to remember that, after all is said and done, in the final roundup, character is the only thing that counts. That we must strengthen and not weaken! The debt of strength is to help turn weakness into strength! Our salvation as a people lies not in increased dividends or larger wages, but in a new sense of personal honor and in a quickened conscience. Not in newfashioned machinery, but in old-fashioned virtues, lies our salvation as a people!-virtues as old as humanity, as lasting as God! -REV. MARION D. SHUTTER, D.D. 53 THE LEAGUE FOR INDUSTRIAL RIGHTS To Preserve constitutional rights in industrial disputes. Protect employer and employe against illegal strikes and conspiracies. Safeguard industrial liberty. Create a public policy on industrial warfare. PUBLISHERS OF Law and Labor SUBSCRIPTION $5.00 THE YEAR MURRAY T. QUIGG, Editor 50 CENTS THE COPY THE LEAGUE WILL APPRECIATE THE COURTESY IF DUE CREDIT IS GIVEN WHEN REPUBLISHING MATERIAL FROM LAW AND LABOR A CANDELIGHT IN THE DARKNESS OF DEFIANCE. A comment on new methods appearing in the activities of trade unions, with special reference to the American Federation of Labor's Legal Information Service THE NEW ATTACK UPON THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE JUDICIARY 55 56 IMMIGRATION. Excerpts from the House Report on the proposed Immigration Legislation and comment on the merit of basing the quota on the 1890 census ENFORCEMENT OF "AMERICAN PLAN" by restraints upon interstate Commerce in building materials, enjoined 63 64 THE RIGHTS OF ORGANIZED LABOR during a strike discussed, and violence and coercion enjoined 66 CONTEMPT OF COURT for violation of injunction protecting particular employes cannot be found on a newspaper article making a general attack on strikebreakers .. 67 ORDINANCE FORBIDDING CIRCULATION OF LITERATURE OF THE I. W. W. held invalid as a violation of freedom of speech and class legislation 68 ... SHOP CRAFTS EMPLOYES PLEAD GUILTY of violation of Sherman Act by sabotage on railroad engines ... 69 THE CLOSED SHOP WITH AN OPEN UNION is not unlawful in England 70 ALABAMA STATUTE providing for suits by and against unincorporated associations upheld. Placing country above union does not justify expulsion .. 71 KENTUCKY CO-OPERATIVE MARKETING ACT upheld and business and economic conditions which justify the Act discussed 73 THE JUDICIAL POWER OF THE STATE may not be infringed by the Legislature ... 74 |