mbership 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 It was superseded in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. Of the hundreds of disputes which occurred during
the first eight years of the existence of this statute, only one was
brought under the mechanism of the law. Federal arbitration was
not popular. In 1905, however, a rather sudden change came over the
situation. Over sixty cases were brought under the Erdman Act in
about eight years. In 1913 the Newlands Law was passed providing for
a permanent Board of Mediation and Conciliation, by which over sixty
controversies have been adjusted.

The increase of brotherhood influence which such legislation represents
was accompanied by a consolidation in power. At first the Brotherhoods
operated by railway systems or as individual orders. Later on they
united into districts, all the Brotherhoods of a given district
cooperating in their demands. Finally the cooperation of all the
Brotherhoods in the United States on all the railway systems was
effected. This larger organization came clearly to light in 1912, when
the Brotherhoods submitted their disputes to the board of arbitration.
This step was hailed by the public as going a long way towards the
settlement of labor disputes by arbitral boards.

The latest victory of the Brotherhoods, however, has shaken public
confidence and has ushered in a new era of brotherhood influence and
Federal interference in railroad matters. In