Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 273, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 November 1916 — RAILROAD STRIKE LOOMS UP AGAIN [ARTICLE]

RAILROAD STRIKE LOOMS UP AGAIN

Managers and Brotherhoods Fail to Agree On Application of the Adamson Law.

New York, Nov. 13.—Danger of a nation-wide railroad strike, which was believed to have been averted by the passage of the Adamson eight hour law, has not entirely disappeared, it developed here today when representatives of the railroads and the four brotherhoods, compirsing 400,000 employes, failed to reach an agreement as to the proper application of the new law. The stumbling block, both sides admitted, was the existing mileage system of compensation. William G. Lee, president of the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen, spokesman for the employes in Jhe absence of A. B. Garretson of the Order of Railway Conductors, declared in a statement that in the event of evasion by the railroads of the Adamson law, summary action would be taken by the brotherhoods. He said that the strike order, which was directly responsible for the law, was still in effect and the brotherhoods would not hesitate to enforce it if the occasion demanded.

The mileage system of compensation, the basis of which is the number of miles traversed by a train crew and not the actual hours of work, is the crux of the new problem that, a railroad authority said, may result in the development of a situation similar to the one which brought into being the Adamson law. The trouble lies in the fact that neither the railroads nor the m#n know definitely how the law should be applied. Chairman Lee said that negotiations might be resumed by calling another conference. Arbitration proceedings looking toward the settlement of the demands made by the Switchmen’s Union of North America on thirteen railroads east of the Mississippi river for an eight hour day and time and a half pay for overtime, began here today. What was said to be the first action against the operation of the Adamson eight hour law brought in the western district of Missouri whs filed Monday in the federal court at Kansas City, Mo., by the Chicago, Great Western railroad company.