COMMISSION ON INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS. WASHINGTON, D. C., Tuesday, May 4, 1915–10 a. m. Present: Chairman Walsh; Commissioners Garretson, Harriman, Weinstock, Lennon, O'Connell, and Aishton. Chairman WALSH. We will please be in order. I might make an announcement that these hearings will open at 10 o'clock each morning and continue until 12.30; adjourn for luncheon until 2; resume and continue until 4.30. Those hours may be relied upon. Mr. Perham, take the chair, please. TESTIMONY OF MR. H. B. PERHAM. Chairman WALSH. Your name is H. B. Perham? Mr. PERHAM. Yes, sir. Chairman WALSH. What is your business, please? Mr. PERHAM. I am president of the Order of Railroad Telegraphers. Mr. PERHAM. Since the year 1901. Chairman WALSH. I wish you would sketch briefly your business experience, beginning at the time that you engaged in the telegraph business and down to the present time, assuming that you are a telegrapher. Mr. PERHAM. I am a telegrapher; yes. I commenced in the telegraph business in 1871 and worked on various railroads throughout the United States and Canada until the year 1895. My positions in the railroad service were from call boy in the train service, as telegrapher, station agent, signalman, and, for a short time, train dispatcher. Chairman WALSH. Train dispatcher for what railroad? Mr. PERHAM. For the International & Great Northern Railroad of Texas. Chairman WALSH. Have you occupied any other position with this labor organization? Mr. PERHAM. From the year 1889 to 1895 I was general chairman representing the telegraphers on the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. In the year 1897May, 1897, to be more correct-I was elected grand secretary and treasurer of the Order of Railroad Telegraphers, an international position. I held that position until the year 1901, when I was elected as its president. Chairman WALSH. Are there any other organizations of your calling in the United States? I desire to bring out what connection, if any, you had or have with the commercial telegraphers' organization, a hearing upon which was held in Chicago. Mr. PERHAM. The commercial telegraphers have a union-an international union-and that organization represents that class. Chairman WALSH. Well, have you any affiliation with them? Mr. PERHAM. I am a member of that organization in good standing. Chairman WALSH. Has your organization any affiliation with them? Mr. PERHAM. A working agreement; that is, an agreement with several articles in it expressly stating where our jurisdiction begins and ends-that is, for both organizations-and what we shall do under certain circumstances, where we find a commercial telegrapher working in the railroad service or a railroad telegrapher working in the commercial service. Chairman WALSH. Have you a copy of that agreement? Mr. PERHAM. I have not with me. Chairman WALSH. Would you be kind enough to transmit one to us, please, so that we may make it a part of our record? Mr. PERHAM. I will take pleasure in doing so. Chairman WALSH. Now, I understand you have prepared a statement on the particular subject of your own organization, Mr. Perham, in writing, which you desire to read. Mr. PERHAM. That is true. Chairman WALSH. You may submit it now, then, in your own way; and i there are any questions the commissioners wish to ask you afterwards, they will do so. Mr. PERHAM (reading): "The act creating the United States Commission on Industrial Relations, among other matters, provides that the commission shall inquire into existing relations between employers and employees, into methods for avoiding or adjusting labor disputes through peaceful and conciliatory mediation and nego tiations, and also that it shall seek to discover the underlying causes of dissatisfaction in the industrial situation. "The Order of Railroad Telegraphers, in requesting an investigation of labor conditions on the Pennsylvania Railroad lines east of Pittsburgh and Erie, avers, through its president, that the present attitude of the managers of that company toward its employees and the policies of that company toward organizations of labor constitute a menace to the peace and progress of the people. "From the great strike of 1887 to the present time, with trouble pending throughout the ranks of the telegraphers, station agents, signalmen, and other classes of employees, its officials have assumed an attitude of arrogance and harshness that inevitably leads to strikes and other disturbances inimical to public welfare and ill befitting a corporation so richly endowed by the people. Reference is made to the Third Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, 1887, page 1072, and succeeding pages, for an account of the strike that took place in July, 1887, on that company's lines. The arbitrary and unfair actions of the officials at that time brought on the strike and other troubles, and the same attitude is being assumed by them at the present day. "This company not only controls its own employees in a manner that constantly tends toward strikes and general dissatisfaction, but being one of the foremost companies of its kind in the United States, its example is often followed by other railroads. Its policies not only affect the conditions of the people in the States traversed by it, but they effect the conditions of people in numerous other States who receive and forward freight and travel over its lines. "The company recognizes members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, Order of Railway Conductors, and Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, but these transportation brotherhoods are the only regular labor organizations thus recognized. "It does not recognize the regular organizations of the telegraphers, signalmen, signal maintainers, linemen, station agents, section foreman, trackmen, machinists, boiler makers, blacksmiths, car repairers, clerks, and others. "At one time the Order of Railroad Telegraphers had a certain kind of standing with the company. It succeeded in getting its committees into conference with some of the subordinate officials of the company and in inducing them to formulate and publish general notices governing working conditions. "These general notices were usually posted at division points where employees could see them, and they were to be considered as a proclamation from headquarters for the guidance of employees. The main objection to the general notices is that the officials of the company were at liberty to cancel or amend them at any time, that such action suited their convenience or met with the approval of those higher up. They were not contracts such as usually govern the relation between employees and employer. "After 1907 the Pennsylvania Railroad refused to meet or have any dealings with the regular telegraphers' organization. In 1909 and again in 1912 there was intense dissatisfaction among the employees of the telegraph department. A strike vote was taken in the latter year after the company had refused to see the general committee of the telegraphers to discuss with them wages and working conditions, and had furthermore discharged from their employ the telegraphers who were regularly elected to serve on this committee. "Realizing the economic waste caused by strikes, the O. R. T. decided, after its members had voted in favor of going on strike, that they would appeal for mediation under the so-called Erdman Act. This mediation the company refused to accept, and opened a recruiting office in Philadelphia for the employment of telegraphers and also equipped its main-line offices with telephones intending to put inexperienced men in charge of those towers. This procedure would have endangered public safety. "After the refusal of mediation by the company, the employees still desired if possible to attain their ends by peaceable methods, and as a last resort of that character concluded to place the facts before this honorable commission." I desire to read for the benefit of the record copies of the general notices mentioned, which were issued by the company and took the place of schedules, wage scales, contracts, and things usually made by employees with employer. This is one of the general notices-No. 232-dated Baltimore, Md., August 24, 1908: The following regulations are for the information of all interested officers and employees, and are to govern telephone-block operators: “1. Ability, fitness, and seniority entitle a telephone-block operator to promotion as opportunity may offer. The superintendent shall decide whether the candidate or applicant is qualified therefor. 2. New positions and permanent vacancies will be bulletined to the various offices and towers, for a period of 10 days, by circular letter (or by telephone message when it can be done without burdening the wires), and at the expiration of that period given to the telephone-block operator making application in writing, if, in the judgment of the superintendent, he is qualified therefor and eligible by reason of seniority rights. 3. A telephone-block operator failing to make application for a position forfeits to the man who accepts that position such senior rights as the position may carry with it, but will be given the opportunity to make application for the position when a vacancy occurs. 4. In reduction of force, the services of the youngest employee (according to his seniority rights) will be dispensed with first; in reemployment, the oldest employee (according to his seniority rights) will be given employment first. Regulation No. 1 to govern in both cases. 5. Employees transferred from one division to another, at the instance of the company, shall, when a vacancy occurs, be given seniority rights on the division to which transferred. An employee transferred from one division to another, at his own request, shall have seniority rights only from date of transfer. 6. Employees who have received leave of absence shall not lose their seniority rights. "G. LATROBE, "Acting General Agent and Superintendent." Another such notice, dated Baltimore, Md., April 13, 1910. No. 99, referring to Regulation No. 2 of the general notice for the government of telegraph operators, dated August 12, 1905, which reads as follows: "New positions and permanent vacancies will be bulletined to the various offices and towers, for a period of 10 days, by circular letter (or by '23' message when it can be done without burdening the wires)-I might explain that a '23' message is a message to all concerned-and at the expiration of that period given to the telegraph operator making application in writing if, in the judgment of the superintendent, he is qualified therefor and eligible by reason of seniority rights." Because of the fact that operators on some of the divisions have obtained positions through advertisement and in a few days made application for the positions which they had just vacated, the following is issued as a supplement to this regulation: "An operator can not make application for a position he has just vacated, but if the position is vacated by the man who fills his vacancy he may then make application and his application will be considered." There are two other such notices, showing amendments to the original notices that are issued, which I would like to file with the commission [reads:] "BALTIMORE, MD., May 9, 1910. "GENERAL NOTICE No. 127. "The following additions to the regulations for the government of telegraph operators are authorized: 66 SUPPLEMENT TO REGULATION NO. 2. "All temporary and prolonged vacancies (of six months or more duration) will be bulletined in the same manner as new positions and permanent vacancies and filled by the senior operator making application in writing, Regulation No. 1 to govern. "When an office is closed or a reduction of force is made, seniority on the division entitles the employee affected to ask for any position held by another whose seniority is less than his own; and the employee affected shall have this right regardless of the rate of pay he formerly received or the rate of pay of the position to which his senior rights entitle him-Regulation No. 1 to govern. Such senior rights, however, shall not apply to offices where priority exists." "The following regulation for the government of telephone operators has been authorized: "Effective December 1, 1910, telephone operators who handle train orders or messages, block or report trains by telephone in lieu of telegraph, will be given equal rights with telegraph operators, based upon the time of their entering the service as either telegraph or telephone operators, and the same regulations as now in effect governing telegraph operators will apply to telephone operators. "When a telegraph office is changed to a telephone office, it will not be considered a reduction in force and be open to advertisement unless the rate of pay or hours are changed. "It is understood that in filling new positions and permanent vacancies, either telegraph or telephone, in accordance with present Regulation No. 2, both telegraph and telephone operators will be given an opportunity to make application for such positions. In case no applications for telephone positions are received from either telegraph or telephone operators, such positions to be filled by the selection of the superintendent.'" Relating to charges Nos. 1 and 2 in our petition: The company in the last few years has officially recognized the four transportation brotherhoods, as before stated, and has entered into contractual relations with them. It has, however, persistently made war upon all other regular labor organizations for the purpose of breaking up existing organizations and of preventing the establishment of new ones. In accordance with this policy it broke up the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks by the simple expedient of discharging those members of the brotherhood who would not withdraw from it. It has persistently discriminated against the members of the Order of Railroad Telegraphers by refusing them promotion and by discharging and intimidating its members. When an attempt was made to organize the shopmen in 1911 it discharged all men as soon as their connection with the new organization was established. The same thing happened in the attempt to organize the shopmen in 1914. As soon as the organization made any headway the company began its old policy of laying off the men who were interested in the movement. The methods used were not always so crude that the employee was told directly he was laid off on account of his union connections, but the general reason given was slackness of work, but the men affected were, in all cases, those interested with the union movement. In quite a few instances the company foreman very frankly told workmen that they were discharged for their labor activities, although they further told them some technical charge would be given officially as the reason for their dismissal. In support of this we desire to submit a report from Third Vice President J. F. Riley, covering in detail the discrimination of that company against the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks, as follows [reads]: "Mr. WILBUR BRAGGINS, Grand President: "I hereby make my report covering the period during which I was assigned to duty on the lines of the Pennsylvania Railroad east of Pittsburgh and Erie. "When I commenced work on that system no trouble was anticipated, and so far as I knew no opposition to our organization existed among its officials. In fact, there was no reason to believe that anything but the most amiable and harmonious relations existed between that company and the brotherhood and that they would be perpetuated. "Early in May I went to Philadelphia and attended an open meeting given under the auspices of Philadelphia Lodge No. 200. A large number of non |