Fourth. In case of a dispute between a carrier and its employees, arising out of grievances or out of the interpretation or application of agreements concerning rates of pay, rules, or working conditions, it shall be the duty of the designated representative or representatives of such carrier and of such employees, within ten days after the receipt of notice of a desire on the part of either party to confer in respect to such dispute, to specify a time and place at which such conference shall be held: Provided, (1) That the place so specified shall be situated upon the railroad line of the carrier involved unless otherwise mutually agreed upon; and (2) that the time so specified shall allow the designated conferees reasonable opportunity to reach such place of conference, but shall not exceed twenty days from the receipt of such notice: And provided further, That nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to supersede the provisions of any agreement (as to conferences) then in effect between the parties.

Fifth. Disputes concerning changes in rates of pay, rules, or working conditions shall be dealt with as provided in section 6 and in other provisions of this act relating thereto.

BOARDS OF ADJUSTMENT GRIEVANCES--INTERPRETATION OF AGREEMENTS

SEC. 3. First. Boards of adjustment shall be created by agreement between any carrier or group of carriers, or the carriers as a whole, and its or their employees.

The agreement

(a) Shall be in writing;

(b)_Shall state the group or groups of employees covered by such adjustment board;

(c) Shall provide that disputes between an employee or group of employees and a carrier, growing out of grievances or out of the interpretation or application of agreements concerning rates of pay, rules, or working conditions, shall be handled in the usual manner up to and including the chief operating officer of the carrier designated to handle such disputes; but, failing to reach an adjustment in this manner, that the dispute shall be referred to the designated adjustment board by the parties, or by either party, with a full statement of the facts and all supporting data bearing upon the dispute;

(d) Shall provide that the parties may be heard either in person, by counsel, or by other representative, as they may respectively elect, and that adjustment boards shall hear and, if possible, decide promptly all disputes referred to them as provided in paragraph (c). Adjustment boards shall give due notice of all hearings to the employee or employees and the carrier or carriers involved in the dispute;

(e) Shall stipulate that decisions of adjustment boards shall be final and binding on both parties to the dispute; and it shall be the duty of both to abide by such decisions;

(f) Shall state the number of representatives of the employees and the number of representatives of the carrier or carriers on the adjustment board, which number of representatives, respectively, shall be equal;

(g) Shall provide for the method of selecting members and filling vacancies; (h) Shall provide for the portion of expenses to be assumed by the respective parties;

(i) Shall stipulate that a majority of the adjustment board members shall be competent to make an award, unless otherwise mutually agreed;

(j) Shall stipulate that adjustment boards shall meet regularly at such times and places as designated; and

(k) Shall provide for the method of advising the employees and carrier or carriers of the decisions of the board.

Second. Nothing in this act shall be construed to prohibit an individual carrier and its employees from agreeing upon the settlement of disputes through such machinery of contract and adjustment as they may mutually establish.

BOARD OF MEDIATION

SEC. 4. First. There is hereby established, as an independent agency in the executive branch of the Government, a board to be known as the Board of Mediation and to be composed of five members appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The terms of office of the members first taking office shall expire, as designated by the President at the time of nomination, one at the end of the first year, one at the end of the second year, one

at the end of the third year, one at the end of the fourth year, and one at the end of the fifth year, after January 1, 1926. The terms of office of all successors shall expire five years after the expiration of the terms for which their predecessors were appointed; but any member appointed to fill a vacancy occurring prior to the expiration of the term for which his predecessor was appointed shall be appointed only for the unexpired term of his predecessor. Vacancies in the board shall not impair the powers nor affect the duties of the board nor of the remaining members of the board. A majority of the members in office shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of the business of the board. Each member of the board shall receive a salary at the rate of $12,000 per annum, together with necessary traveling expenses and subsistence expenses, or per diem allowance in lieu thereof, subject to the provisions of law applicable thereto, while away from the principal office of the board on business required by this act. No person in the employment of or who is pecuniarily or otherwise interested in any organization of employees or any carrier shall enter upon the duties of or continue to be a member of the board.

A member of the board may be removed by the President for inefficiency, neglect of duty, malfeasance in office, or ineligibility, but for no other cause.

Second. The board shall annually designate a member to act as chairman. The board shall maintain its principal office in the District of Columbia, but it may meet at any other place whenever it deems it necessary. The board may

designate one or more of its members to exercise the functions of the board in mediation proceedings. Each member of the board shall have power to administer oaths and affirmations. The board shall have a seal which shall be judicially noticed. The board shall make an annual report to Congress..

Third. The board may (1) appoint such experts and assistants to act in a confidential capacity and, subject to the provisions of the civil-service laws such other officers and employees, and (2) in accordance with the classification act of 1923 fix the salary of such experts, assistants, officers, and employees, and (3) make such expenditures (including expenditures for rent and personal services at the seat of government and elsewhere, for law books, periodicals, and books of reference, and for printing and binding, and including expenditures for salaries and compensation, necessary traveling expenses, and expenses actually incurred for subsistence, and other necessary expenses of boards of arbitration, in accordance with the provisions of section 7) as may be necessary for the execution of the functions vested in the board, or in the boards of arbitration, and as may be provided for by the Congress from time to time. All expenditures of the board shall be allowed and paid on the presentation of itemized vouchers therefor approved by the chairman.

FUNCTIONS OF BOARD OF MEDIATION

SEC. 5. First. The parties, or either party, to a dispute between an employee or group of employees and a carrier may invoke the services of the Board of Mediation created by this act, or the Board of Mediation may proffer its services, in any of the following cases:

(a) A dispute arising out of grievances or out of the interpretation or application of agreements concerning rates of pay, rules, or working conditions not adjusted by the parties in conference and not decided by the appropriate adjustment board; (b) A dispute which is not settled in conference between the parties, in respect to changes in rates of pay, rules, or working conditions:

(c) Any other dispute not decided in conference between the parties.

In either event the said board shall promptly put itself in communication with the parties to such controversy, and shall use its best efforts, by mediation, to bring them to agreement. If such efforts to bring about an amicable adjustment through mediation shall be unsuccessful, the said board shall at once endeavor as its final required action (except as provided in paragraph third of this section and in section 10 of this act), to induce the parties to submit their controversy to arbitration in accordance with the provisions of this act.

Second. In any case in which a controversy arises over the meaning or the application of any agreement reached through mediation under the provisions of this act, either party to the said agreement, or both, may apply to the Board of Mediation for an interpretation as to the meaning or application of such agreement. The said board shall upon receipt of such request notify the parties to the controversy, and after a hearing of both sides give its interpretation within thirty days.

Third. The Board of Mediation shall have the following duties with respect to the arbitration of disputes under section 7 of this act:

(a) On failure of the arbitrators named by the parties to agree on the remaining arbitrator or arbitrators within the time set by section 7 of this act, it shall be the duty of the Board of Mediation to name such remaining arbitrator or arbitrators. It shall be the duty of the board in naming such arbitrator or arbitrators to appoint only those whom the board shall deem wholly disinterested in the controversy to be arbitrated and impartial and without bias as between the parties to such arbitration. Should, however, the board name an arbitrator or arbitrators not so disinterested and impartial, then, upon proper investigation and presentation of the facts, the board shall promptly remove such arbitrator.

If an arbitrator named by the Board of Mediation, in accordance with the provisions of this act, shall be removed by such board as provided by this act, or if such an arbitrator refuses or is unable to serve, it shall be the duty of the Board of Mediation, promptly, to select another arbitrator, in the same manner as provided in this act for an original appointment by the Board of Mediation.

(b) Any member of the Board of Mediation is authorized to take the acknowledgment of an agreement of arbitration under this act. When so acknowledged, or when acknowledged by the parties before a notary public or the clerk of a district court or a circuit court of appeals of the United States, such agreement to arbitrate shall be delivered to a member of said board, or transmitted to said board, to be filed in its office.

(c) When an agreement to arbitrate has been filed with the Board of Mediation, or with one of its members, as provided by this section, and when the said board, or a member thereof, has been furnished the names of the arbitrators chosen by the parties to the controversy, it shall be the duty of the Board of Mediation to cause a notice in writing to be served upon said arbitrators, notifying them of their appointment, requesting them to meet promptly to name the remaining arbitrator or arbitrators necessary to complete the board of arbitration, and advising them of the period within which, as provided by the agreement to arbitrate, they are empowered to name such arbitrator or arbitrators.

(d) Either party to an arbitration desiring the reconvening of a board of arbitration to pass upon any controversy arising over the meaning or application of an award may so notify the Board of Mediation in writing, stating in such notice the question or questions to be submitted to such reconvened board. The Board of Mediation shall thereupon promptly communicate with the members of the board of arbitration, or a subcommittee of such board appointed for such purpose pursuant to a provision in the agreement to arbitrate, and arrange for the reconvening of said board or subcommittee, and shall notify the respective parties to the controversy of the time and place at which the board, or the subcommittee, will meet for hearings upon the matters in controversy to be submitted to it. No evidence other than that contained in the record filed with the original award shall be received or considered by such reconvened board or subcommittee, except such evidence as may be necessary to illustrate the interpretations suggested by the parties. If any member of the original board is unable or unwilling to serve on such reconvened board or subcommittee thereof, another arbitrator shall be named in the same manner and with the same powers and duties as such original arbitrator.

(e) The Interstate Commerce Commission, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the custodian of the records, respectively, of the Railroad Labor Board, of the mediators designated in the act approved June 1, 1898, providing for mediation and arbitration, known as the Erdman Act, and of the Board of Mediation and Conciliation created by the act approved July 15, 1913, providing for mediation, conciliation, and arbitration, known as the Newlands Act, are hereby authorized and directed to transfer and deliver to the Board of Mediation created by this act any and all papers and documents heretofore filed with or transferred to them, respectively, bearing upon the settlement, adiustment, or determination of disputes between carriers and their employees or upon mediation or arbitration proceedings held under or pursuant to the provisions of any act of Congress in respect to such disputes; and the President is authorized to require the transfer and delivery to the Board of Mediation, created by this act, of any and all such papers and documents filed with or in the possession of any agency of the Government. The President is authorized to designate a custodian of the records and property of the Railroad Labor Board, until the transfer and delivery of such records to the Board of Mediation and the disposition of such property in such manner as the President may direct.

PROCEDURE IN CHANGING RATES OF PAY, RULES, AND WORKING CONDITIONS SEC. 6. Carriers and the representatives of the employees shall give at least thirty days' written notice of an intended change affecting rates of pay, rules, or working conditions, and the time and place for conference between the representatives of the parties interested in such intended changes shall be agreed upon within ten days after the receipt of said notice and said time shall be within the thirty days provided in the notice. Should changes be requested from more than one class or associated classes at approximately the same time, this date for the conference shall be understood to apply only to the first conference for each class; it being the intent that subsequent conferences in respect to each request shall be held in the order of its receipt and shall follow each other with reasonable promptness. In every case where such notice of intended change has been given, or conferences are being held with reference thereto, or the services of the Board of Mediation have been requested by either party, or said board has proffered its services, rates of pay, rules, or working conditions shall not be altered by the carrier until the controversy has been finally acted upon, as required by section 5 of this act, by the Board of Mediation, unless a period of ten days has elapsed after termination of conferences without request for or proffer of the services of the Board of Mediation.

ARBITRATION

SEC. 7. First. Whenever a controversy shall arise between a carrier or carriers and its or their employees which is not settled either in conference between representatives of the parties or by the appropriate adjustment board or through mediation, in the manner provided in the preceding sections, such controversy may, by agreement of the parties to such controversy, be submitted to the arbitration of a board of three (or, if the parties to the controversy so stipulate, of six) persons: Provided, however, That the failure or refusal of either party to submit a controversy to arbitration shall not be construed as a violation of any legal obligation imposed upon such party by the terms of this act or otherwise.

Second. Such board of arbitration shall be chosen in the following manner: (a) In the case of a board of three the carrier or carriers and the representatives of the employees, parties respectively to the agreement to arbitrate, shall each name one arbitrator; the two arbitrators thus chosen shall select a third arbitrator. If the arbitrators chosen by the parties shall fail to name the third arbitrator within five days after their first meeting, such third arbitrator shall be named by the Board of Mediation.

(b) In the case of a board of six the carrier or carriers and the representatives of the employees, parties respectively to the agreement to arbitrate, shall each name two arbitrators; the four arbitrators thus chosen shall, by a majority vote, select the remaining two arbitrators. If the arbitrators chosen by the parties shall fail to name the two arbitrators within fifteen days after their first meeting, the said two arbitrators, or as many of them as have not been named, shall be named by the Board of Mediation.

Third. (a) When the arbitrators selected by the respective parties have agreed upon the remaining arbitrator or arbitrators, they shall notify the Board of Mediation; and, in the event of their failure to agree upon any or upon all of the necessary arbitrators within the period fixed by this act, they shall, at the expiration of such period, notify the Board of Mediation of the arbitrators selected, if any, or of their failure to make or to complete such selection.

(b) The board of arbitration shall organize and select its own chairman and make all necessary rules for conducting its hearings: Provided, however, That the board of arbitration shall be bound to give the parties to the controversy a full and fair hearing, which shall include an opportunity to present evidence in support of their claims, and an opportunity to present their case in person, by counsel, or by other representative as they may respectively elect.

(c) Upon notice from the Board of Mediation that the parties, or either party, to an arbitration desire the reconvening of the board of arbitration (or a subcommittee of such board of arbitration appointed for such purpose pursuant to the agreement to arbitrate) to pass upon any controversy over the meaning or application of their award, the board, or its subcommittee, shall at once reconvene. No question other than, or in addition to, the questions relating to the meaning or application of the award, submitted by the party or parties in writing, shall be considered by the reconvened board of arbitration or its subcommittee.

Such rulings shall be acknowledged by such board or subcommittee thereof in the same manner, and filed in the same district court clerk's office, as the original award and become a part thereof.

(d) No arbitrator, except those chosen by the Board of Mediation, shall be incompetent to act as an arbitrator because of his interest in the controversy to be arbitrated, or because of his connection with or partiality to either of the parties to the arbitration.

(e) Each member of any board of arbitration created under the provisions of this act named by either party to the arbitration shall be compensated by the party naming him. Each arbitrator selected by the arbitrators or named by the Board of Mediation shall receive from the Board of Mediation such compensation as the Board of Mediation may fix, together with his necessary traveling expenses and expenses actually incurred for subsistence, while serving as an arbitrator.

(f) The board of arbitration shall furnish a certified copy of its award to the respective parties to the controversy, and shall transmit the original, together with the papers and proceedings and a transcript of the evidence taken at the hearings, certified under the hands of at least a majority of the arbitrators, to the clerk of the district court of the United States for the district wherein the controversy arose or the arbitration is entered into, to be filed in said clerk's office as hereinafter provided. The said board shall also furnish a certified copy of its award, and the papers and proceedings, including testimony relating thereto, to the Board of Mediation, to be filed in its office; and in addition a certified copy of its award shall be filed in the office of the Interstate Commerce Commission: Provided, however, That such award shall not be construed to diminish or extinguish any of the powers or duties of the Interstate Commerce Commission, under the interstate commerce act, as amended.

(g) A board of arbitration may, subject to the approval of the Board of Mediation, employ and fix the compensation of such assistants as it deems necessary in carrying on the arbitration proceedings. The compensation of such employees, together with their necessary traveling expenses and expenses actually incurred for subsistence, while so employed, and the necessary expenses of boards of arbitration, shall be paid by the Board of Mediation.

Whenever practicable, the board shall be supplied with suitable quarters in any Federal building located at its place of meeting or at any place where the board may conduct its proceedings or deliberations.

(h) All testimony before said board shall be given under oath or affirmation, and any member of the board shall have the power to administer oaths or affirmations. The board of arbitration, or any member thereof, shall have the power to require the attendance of witnesses and the production of such books, papers, contracts, agreements, and documents as may be deemed by the board of arbitration material to a just determination of the matters submitted to its arbitration, and may for that purpose request the clerk of the district court of the United States for the district wherein said arbitration is being conducted to issue the necessary subpoenas, and upon such request the said clerk or his duly authorized deputy shall be, and he hereby is, authorized, and it shall be his duty, to issue such subpoenas. In the event of the failure of any person to comply with any such subpoena, or in the event of the contumacy of any witness appearing before the board of arbitration, the board may invoke the aid of the United States courts to compel witnesses to attend and testify and to produce such books, papers, contracts, agreements, and documents to the same extent and under the same conditions and penalties as provided for in the act to regulate commerce approved February 4, 1887, and the amendments thereto.

Any witness appearing before a board of arbitration shall receive the same fees and mileage as witnesses in courts of the United States, to be paid by the party securing the subpoena.

SEC. 8. The agreement to arbitrate

(a) Shall be in writing;

(b) Shall stipulate that the arbitration is had under the provisions of this act; (c) Shall state whether the board of arbitration is to consist of three or of six members;

(d) Shall be signed by the duly accredited representatives of the carrier or carriers and the employees, parties respectively to the agreement to arbitrate, and shall be acknowledged by said parties before a notary public, the clerk of a district court or circuit court of appeals of the United States, or before a member of the Board of Mediation, and, when so acknowledged, shall be filed in the office of the Board of Mediation;