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18 Tenn. L. Rev. 359 (1943-1945)
Railway Labor Legislation

handle is hein.journals/tenn18 and id is 375 raw text is: RAILWAY LABOR LEGISLATION . By EDITH INGLE* Sevierville, Tennessee ABOR ORGANIZATIONS IN AMERICA were, for many years, persecuted, misunderstood, and, at every show of increased power, suppressed. While the courts recognized the right of labor to organize, they unduly restricted unionization in various ways.' In 1863 the locomotive engineers (Brotherhood of the Footboard) organized. One year later this organization tried to secure a closed-shop agreement with the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, but the railroad company prevented this.2 The Order of Railway Conductors was formed in 1868, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen in 1873, and the Brother- hood of Railroad Trainmen in 1883. The efforts of the brotherhoods were at first devoted primarily to life insurance for the members and improving their character instead of job security.3 Seniority came into practice on the railroads in the 1880's.4 This gave the brotherhoods more security than they had ever had before. Congress passed the first law dealing with railway labor in 1888. This was the Arbitration Act.5 It provided two methods of adjusting disputes: (1) voluntary arbitration, and (2) investigation. At the request of either party, and if the other party consented, a dispute was to be submitted for decision to a board of three arbitrators, but no provision was made for the enforcement of any award rendered by the board. Although the arbitration provisions were the subject of long debate in Congress,6 they were never used. The investigation provisions of the act were used during the famous Pullman strike out of which the case of In re Debs7 arose in May 1894. Debs, an officer of the American Railway Union, and three other officers of this union were active in the strike. A circuit court of the United States enjoined them from interfering with the carrying of the United States mail or with the movement of interstate commerce, and from interfering in any way with the employees of the company. They failed to comply with the terms of the court's order, and the circuit court adjudged them guilty of contempt and sentenced them *Miss Ingle is now employed by the Department of Justice, Washington, D. C. 'Day, Organized Labor (Nov. 11, 1943) THE RAILROAD TRAINMEN. 2McNEILL, THE LABOR MOVEMENT (1891) 317. EHARURs, AMERICAN LABOR (1939) 226. 4Comment, Seniority Rights in Labor Relations (1937) 47 YALE L.J. 73. For a gen- eral discussion of the history of the organization and development of the railroad brother- hoods see TONER, THE CLOSED SHOP, c. 4, pp. 93-114 passim. 525 STAT. 501 (1888). *H.R.REP. No. 4147, 50th Cong., 2d Sess. (1888). T158 U.S. 564 (1894).

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