The editor of a leading newspaper has recently written: "The
impelling power behind every one of these organizations is the
membership. I say this without detracting from the executive or
administrative abilities of the men who have been at the head of
these organizations, for their influence has been most potent in
carrying out the will of their several organizations. But
whatever is done is first decided upon by the men and it is then
put up to their chief executive officers for their direction."
With a membership of 375,000 uniformly clean and competent, so
well captained and so well fortified financially by insurance,
benefit, and other funds, it is little wonder that the
Brotherhoods have reached a permanent place in the railroad
industry. Their progressive power can be discerned in Federal
legislation pertaining to arbitration and labor conditions in
interstate carriers. In 1888 an act was passed providing that, in
cases of railway labor disputes, the President might appoint two
investigators who, with the United States Commission of Labor,
should form a board to investigate the controversy and recommend
"the best means for adjusting it." But as they were empowered to
produce only findings and not to render decisions, the law
remained a dead letter, without having a single case brought up
under it. It was superseded in 1898 by the Erdman Act, which
provided that certain Federal officials should act as mediators
and that, in case they failed, a Board of Arbitrators was to be
appointed whose word should be binding for a certain period of
time and from whose decisions appeal could be taken to the
Federal courts.
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