wn Erdman Act, which prescribed rules
for mediation and voluntary arbitration.
[63] Concerted movements began in 1907 as joint demands upon all
railways in a single section of the country, like the East or the West,
by a single group of employes; after 1912 two or more brotherhoods
initiated common concerted movements, first in one section only, and at
last covering all the railways of the country.
[64] See below, 230-233.
[65] Long before this, about the middle of the nineties, the first
system federations were initiated by the brotherhoods and were confined
to them only; they took up adjustment of grievances and related matters.
[66] The International Brotherhood of Blacksmiths, the Brotherhood of
Boilermakers and Iron Shipbuilders, the Pattern Makers' League, the
International Union of Stove Mounters, the International Union of Metal
Polishers, Platers, Brass and Silver Workers, the International
Federation of Draftsmen's Unions, and the International Brotherhood of
Foundry Employes.
[67] Professor Barnett attributes the failure of these agreements
chiefly to faulty agreement machinery. The working rules, he points out,
are rules made by the national union and therefore can be changed by the
national union only. At the same time the agreements were national only
in so far as they provided for national conciliation machinery; the
fixing of wages was left to local bodies. Consequently, the national
employers' associations lacked the power to offer the unions an
indispensable _quid pro quo_ in higher wages for a compromise on working
rules. ("National and District Systems of Collective Bargaining in the
United States," in _Quarterly Journal of Economics_, May, 1912, pp. 425
ff.)
[68] The following account is taken from Chapter X of the _Steel
Workers_ by John A. Fitch, published by the Russell Sage Foundation.
[69] See above, 133-135.
[70] The opposition of the Steel Corporation to unionism was an
important factor in the disruption of the agreement systems in the
structural iron-erecting industry in 1905 and in the carrying industry
on the Great Lakes in 1908; in each of these industries the Corporation
holds a place of considerable control.
[71] See above, 47-49.
[72] Loewe _v._ Lawlor, 208 U.S. 274 (1908).
[73] Adair _v._ U.S., 208 U.S. 161 (1908).
[74] 36 Wash. Law Rep. 436 (1909). Gompers was finally sentenced to
imprisonment for thirty days and the other two defendants were fined
$500 ea
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