When such commissions to be in effect. Pay and allowances. Status in Kegular Army or Navy not to be prejudiced.

SEC. 27. Volunteer officers.-Volunteers passing examinations may be commissioned as officers in Reserve Citizen Army and Navy. Eligibility for admittance to examinations. Such officers may be required to serve in training corps at least two months in each of three succeeding years. Pay and allow

ances.

SEC. 28. Promotion and retirement of volunteer officers.

SEC. 29. Discharge of volunteer officers.

SEC. 30. Organization of Reserve Citizen Army and Navy.

SEC. 31. Cooperation, etc.-President may use other departments and agencies of United States for purposes of act.

SEC. 32. Use of Regular Army.-President may use personnel and equipment of Regular Army and Navy for purposes of act. If necessary to secure officers he may suspend organization of units of Regular Army. Purchase of equipment.

SEC. 33. Grounds.-Secretary of War to purchase or lease real estate and construct and maintain buildings or cantonments.

SEC. 34. Notices to be given by proclamation posted conspicuously in post offices and consular offices.

SEC. 35. Pension laws applicable to members of Reserve Citizen Army or Navy while in training or service.

SEC. 36. Leave of absence for Government employees.

SEC. 37. Employer not to prejudice or penalize employee because of training or annual report.

SEC. 38. False registration, etc., forbidden.

SEC. 39. No intoxicating liquor or tobacco to be sold, supplied, or possessed at any military station, etc., being used at the time for training.

SEC. 40. No intoxicating liquor to be sold or supplied to any member of military or naval forces while in uniform.

SEC. 41. Any violation of act to be a misdemeanor and, if not punishable under Articles of War or Articles for Government of Navy, to be punishable by fine of not more than $1,000, imprisonment of not more than 12 months, or both. Suspension of statute of limitations.

SEC. 42. President may make necessary regulations.

SEC. 43. Provisions relating to training to take effect January 1 of year fol lowing passage of act.

SEC. 44. Inconsistent laws repealed.

AMENDING THE ACT PROVIDING MEDIATION, CONCILIATION, ETC.

FEBRUARY 10, 1917.-Ordered to be printed.

Mr. NEWLANDS, from the Committee on Interstate Commerce, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany S. 8201.]

The Committee on Interstate Commerce, to which was referred the bill (S. 8201) to amend an act providing mediation, conciliation, and so forth, approved July 15, 1913; to authorize the President to protect the operation of trains in time of peace, and to take possession of the common carriers and draft their crews and officials in time of war, and for other purposes, having considered the same, reports it back without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass.

The President at the last session submitted to Congress six recommendations with reference to the threatened railway strike. Congress immediately acted upon two of these recommendations, but postponed the consideration of the remaining recommendations. Of the two recommendations adopted by Congress one (the second) provided for the establishment of an eight-hour day as a basis of work and of wages in the employment of all railway employees actually engaged in the work of operating trains in interstate transportation, and the other (the third) provided for the appointment by the President of a commission to observe the actual results in experience of the adoption of the eight-hour day in railway transportation alike for the men and for the railroads. The commission authorized by it has been appointed and is now engaged in an investigation of the subject. The eight-hour law is being tested in the courts. Regarding the measures previously recommended by the President, but not acted upon by Congress, the President in an address delivered at a joint session of the two Houses of Congress December 5, 1916, spoke as follows:

I realize the limitations of time under which you necessarily act at this session and shall make my suggestions as few as possible; but there were some things left undone at the last session which there will now be time to complete and which it seems necessary in the interest of the public to do at once.

In the first place, it seems to me imperatively necessary that the earliest possible consideration and action should be accorded the remaining measures of the program of settlement and regulation which I had occasion to recommend to you at the close of your last session in view of the public dangers disclosed by the unaccommodated difficulties which then existed, and which still unhappily continue to exist, between the railroads of the country and their locomotive engineers, conductors, and trainmen. I then recommended:

First, immediate provision for the enlargement and administrative reorganization of the Interstate Commerce Commission along the lines embodied in the bill recently passed by the House of Representatives and now awaiting action by the Senate; in order that the commission may be enabled to deal with the many great and various duties now devolving upon it with a promptness and thoroughness which are, with its present constitution and means of action, practically impossible.

Second, the establishment of an eight-hour day as the legal basis alike of work and of wages in the employment of all railway employees who are actually engaged in the work of operating trains in interstate transportation.

Third, the authorization of the appointment by the President of a small body of men to observe the actual results in experience of the adoption of the eight-hour day in railway transportation alike for the men and for the railroads.

Fourth, explicit approval by the Congress of the consideration by the Interstate Commerce Commission of an increase of freight rates to meet such additional expenditures by the railroads as may have been rendered necessary by the adoption of the eight-hour day and which have not been offset by administrative readjustments and economies, should the facts disclosed justify the increase.

Fifth, an amendment of the existing Federal statute which provides for the mediation, conciliation, and arbitration of such controversies as the present by adding to it a provision that, in case the methods of accommodation now provided for should fail, a full public investigation of the merits of every such dispute shall be instituted and completed before a strike or lockout may lawfully be attempted.

And, sixth, the lodgment in the hands of the Executive of the power, in case of military necessity, to take control of such portions and such rolling stock of the railways of the country as may be required for military use and to operate them for military purposes, with authority to draft into the military service of the United States such train crews and administrative officials as the circumstances require for their safe and efficient use.

The second and third of these recommendations the Congress immediately acted on; it established the eight-hour day as the legal basis of work and wages in train service and it authorized the appointment of a commission to observe and report upon the practical results, deeming these the measures most immediately needed; but it postponed action upon the other suggestions until an opportunity should be offered for a more deliberate consideration of them. The fourth recommendation I do not deem it necessary to renew. The power of the Interstate Commerce Commission to grant an increase of rates on the ground referred to is indisputably clear and a recommendation by the Congress with regard to such a matter might seem to draw in question the scope of the commission's authority or its inclination to do justice when there is no reason to doubt either.

The other suggestions the increase in the Interstate Commerce Commission's membership and in its facilities for performing its manifold duties, the provision for full public investigation and assessment of industrial disputes, and the grant to the Executive of the power to control and operate the railways when necessary in time of war or other like public necessity-I now very earnestly renew.

The necessity for such legislation is manifest and pressing. Those who have intrusted us with the responsibility and duty of serving and safeguarding them in such matters would find it hard, I believe, to excuse a failure to act upon these grave matters or any unnecessary postponement of action upon them..

Not only does the Interstate Commerce Commission now find it practically impossi ble, with its present membership and organization, to perform its great functions promptly and thoroughly but it is not unlikely that it may presently be found advisable to add to its duties still others equally heavy and exacting. It must first be perfected as an administrative instrument.

The country can not and should not consent to remain any longer exposed to profound industrial disturbances for lack of additional means of arbitration and conciliation which the Congress can easily and promptly supply. And all will agree that there must be no doubt as to the power of the Executive to make immediate and uninterrupted use of the railroads for the concentration of the military forces of the Nation wherever they are needed and whenever they are needed.

This is a program of regulation, prevention, and administrative efficiency which argues its own case in the mere statement of it. With regard to one of its items, the

increase in the efficiency of the Interstate Commerce Commission, the House of Representatives has already acted; its action needs only the concurrence of the Senate. I would hesitate to recommend, and I dare say the Congress would hesitate to act upon the suggestion should I make it, that any man in any occupation should be obliged by law to continue in an employment which he desired to leave. To pass a law which forbade or prevented the individual workman to leave his work before receiving the approval of society in doing so would be to adopt a new principle into our jurisprudence which I take it for granted we are not prepared to introduce. But the proposal that the operation of the railways of the country shall not be stopped or interrupted by the concerted action of organized bodies of men until a public investigation shall have been instituted which shall make the whole question at issue plain for the judgment of the opinion of the Nation is not to propose any such principle. It is based upon the very different principle that the concerted action of powerful bodies of men shall not be permitted to stop the industrial processes of the Nation, at any rate before the Nation shall have had an opportunity to acquaint itself with the merits of the case as between employee and employer, time to form its opinion upon an impartial statement of the merits, and opportunity to consider all practicable means of conciliation or arbitration. I can see nothing in that proposition but the justifiable safeguarding by society of the necessary processes of its very life. There is nothing arbitrary or unjust in it unless it be arbitrarily and unjustly done. It can and should be done with a full and scrupulous regard for the interests and liberties of all concerned as well as for the permanent interests of society itself.

Regarding the first recommendation referred to in the President's address relating to the enlargement and administrative reorganization of the Interstate Commerce Commission, your committee reports that a bill passed the House of Representatives at the last session providing for an increase in the membership of the Interstate Commerce Commission from seven to nine and providing for the division of the commission into divisions, each of which shall have the same jurisdiction as the commission itself. This bill was reported favorably by the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce and is now on the calendar. (H. R. 308, calendar No. 406.) Particular attention is called to the report on this bill which gives the statement of Commissioner Clark regarding its imperative necessity. It may be added. that the questions of possible readjustment of rates following the possible increase in operating expenses as the result of a diminution of hours and increase of wages will add to the present burthen of work now resting upon the Interstate Commerce Commission. Your committee therefore urges the immediate consideration and disposition of this bill.

Regarding the other phases of the railway disputes referred to in the President's message, your committee favorably reports Senate bill No. 8201, "To amend an act providing mediation, concilation, etc., approved July 15, 1913; to authorize the President to protect the operation of trains in time of peace, and to take possession of the common carriers and draft their crews and officials in time of war, and for other purposes."

Section 1 of this bill adds to the existing mediation and conciliation act an additional section, designated as section 12, which provides that whenever a controversy shall arise which can not be settled through mediation and conciliation or voluntary arbitration, the President shall be notified by the Board of Mediation and Conciliation and thereupon shall add to such board two members, one from representatives of employees and one from representatives of railroad officials, and to such board as thus temporarily constituted the controversy shall be immediately referred. This board is required within three months to submit to the President a full report of its findings of fact, including its findings as to the cause of the controversy, together with

a recommendation for a settlement according to the merits and substantial justice of the case. This report is to be forthwith published. A minority report may be made and published so that both sides of the controversy may be fully presented both to the disputants and to the public with the view of creating a sound public opinion which will insure a peaceful adjustment.

The committee was divided upon the subject of suspending the right of strike and lockout during the period of investigation and a reasonable time thereafter. A majority of the committee took the view that in the many controversies heretofore existing between employers and employees the right of concerted action upon the part of the employees in giving up employment has been a potent factor in the betterment of the wages and conditions of labor and that, notwithstanding the inconvenience connected with a strike, it would not be wise, for the present at least, to modify or suspend the right of strike.

Whilst a minority of the committee, including the chairman, realize that the strike is the only effective weapon which labor has thus far had in enforcing its just claims and that it has been useful and effective in accomplishing needed reforms as to the hours, wages, and conditions of labor, they feel that the advance of civilization requires the substitution of reason for force in all contentions between the State and the individual and between man and man, as well as between nations. Viewed in this light, the strike, whilst thus far and under existing conditions needed in order to secure for labor a just consideration of its rights, has been a process resulting in serious economic losses to both employers and employees, and in the last analysis, a resort to violence, it would appear to be the duty of Congress in its control of interstate commerce to see that a fair tribunal shall be created for the adjustment of labor disputes, and that when that tribunal is secured, the right of strike, as well as the right of lockout, should be suspended.

They feel that this is particularly true regarding the conduct of interstate transportation, a great public service, intrusted by the Government to quasi-public corporations, of such a nature that any suspension in its operations for a time, however short, inflicts grievous and insupportable wrongs upon society at large, involving the paralysis of production and trade, and ultimately suffering, distress, and starvation. They feel that the public interest requires that such a public service should not be subject to interruptions, and that whatever may be said in favor of the right of strike in other activities, no excuse can be presented for the negligence of civilized society in permitting for a moment the great highways of transportation to be obstructed. As, therefore, the governmental investigation provided for by the reported bill is intended, first, to ascertain the facts; second, to ascertain the cause of the difficulty; and, third, to suggest a remedy with the view of producing an enlightened public sentiment both among the disputants and the community at large which would result in a peaceful adjustment of the dispute, they believe that the right of strike and lockout ought to be suspended during this period of investigation and for a reasonable time thereafter. In this view, however, they have been overruled by their associates.

Having thus provided for a Government investigation of labor disputes, and having decided that this investigation should not