within three weeks of the date of filing said application. When an application is signed by an agent claiming to represent a majority of such employees, the board shall satisfy itself that such agent is duly authorized in writing to represent such employees, but the names of the employees giving such authority shall be kept secret by said board. As soon as may be after the receipt of said application the secretary of said board shall cause public notice to be given for the time and place for the hearing thereon; but public notice need not be given when both parties to the controversy join in the application and present therewith a written request that no public notice be given. When such request is made, notice shall be given to the parties interested in such manner as the board may order; and the board may, at any stage of the proceedings, cause public notice to be given, notwithstanding such request.

When notice has been given as aforesaid, each of the parties to the controversy, the employer on the one side, and the employees interested on the other side, may in writing nominate, and the board may appoint, one person to act in the case as expert assistant to the board. The two persons so appointed shall be skilled in and conversant with the business or trade concerning which the dispute has arisen. It shall be their duty, under the direction of the board, to obtain and report to the board information concerning the wages paid and the methods and grades of work prevailing in manufacturing establishments within the Commonwealth of a character similar to that in which the matters in dispute have arisen. Said expert assistants shall be sworn to the faithful discharge of their duty; such oath to be administered by any member of the board, and a record thereof shall be preserved with the record of the proceedings in the case. They shall be entitled to receive from the treasury of the Commonwealth such compensation as shall be allowed and certified by the board, together with all necessary travelling expenses. Nothing in this act shall be construed to prevent the board from appointing such other additional expert assistant or assistants as it may deem necessary. Should the petitioner or petitioners fail to perform the promise made in said application, the board shall proceed no further thereupon without the written consent of the adverse party. The board shall have

* See further as to experts, their duties and compensation, St. 1892, c. 382, post.

power to summon as witness any operative in the departments of business affected and any person who keeps the records of wages earned in those departments, and to examine them under oath, and to require the production of books containing the record of wages paid. Summonses may be signed and oaths administered by any member of the board.

SECT. 5. Upon the receipt of such application and after such notice, the board shall proceed as before provided, and render a written decision, which shall be open to public inspection, shall be recorded upon the records of the board, and published at the discretion of the same in an annual report to be made to the general court on or before the first day of February in each year.

SECT. 6. Said decision shall be binding upon the parties who join in said application for six months, or until either party has given the other notice in writing of his intention not to be bound by the same at the expiration of sixty days there from. Said notice may be given to said employees by posting the same in three conspicuous places in the shop or factory where they work.

SECT. 7. The parties to any controversy or difference as described in section three of this act may submit the matters in dispute, in writing, to a local board of arbitration and conciliation; such board may either be mutually agreed upon, or the employer may designate one of the arbitrators, the employees or their duly authorized agent another, and the two arbitrators so designated may choose a third, who shall be chairman of the board. Such board shall, in respect to the matters referred to it, have and exercise all the powers which the state board might have and exercise, and its decision shall have whatever binding effect may be agreed by the parties to the controversy in the written submission. The jurisdiction of such board shall be exclusive in respect to the matters submitted to it, but it may ask and receive the advice and assistance of the state board. The decision of such board shall be rendered within ten days of the close of any hearing held by it; such decision shall at once be filed with the clerk of the city or town in which the controversy or difference arose, and a copy thereof shall be forwarded to the state board. Each of such arbitrators shall be entitled to receive from the treasury of the city or town in which the controversy or difference that is the subject of the arbitration exists, if such payment is approved in writing by the mayor of

such city or the board of selectmen of such town, the sum of three dollars for each day of actual service, not exceeding ten days for any one arbitration. Whenever it is made to appear to the mayor of a city or the board of selectmen of a town that a strike or lock-out such as described in section eight of this act is seriously threatened or actually occurs, the mayor of such city or the board of selectmen of such town shall at once notify the state board of the facts.

SECT. 8. Whenever it shall come to the knowledge of the state board, either by notice from the mayor of a city or the board of selectmen of a town, as provided in the preceding section or otherwise, that a strike or lock-out is seriously threatened or has actually occurred in any city or town of the Commonwealth, involving an employer and his present or past employees, if at the time he is employing, or up to the occurrence of the strike or lock-out was employing, not less than twenty-five persons in the same general line of business in any city or town in the Commonwealth, it shall be the duty of the state board to put itself in communication as soon as may be with such employer and employees, and endeavor by mediation to effect an amicable settlement between them, or to endeavor to persuade them, provided that a strike or lock-out has not actually occurred or is not then continuing, to submit the matters in dispute to a local board of arbitration and conciliation, as above provided, or to the state board; and said state board may, if it deems it advisable, investigate the cause or causes of such controversy, and ascertain which party thereto is mainly responsible or blameworthy for the existence or continuance of the same, and may make and publish a report finding such cause or causes, and assigning such responsibility or blame. The board shall have the same powers for the foregoing purposes as are given it by section three of this act.

SECT. 9. Witnesses summoned by the state board shall be allowed the sum of fifty cents for each attendance, and the further sum of twenty-five cents for each hour of attendance in excess of two hours, and shall be allowed five cents a mile for travel each way from their respective places of employment or business to the place where the board is in session. Each witness shall certify in writing the amount of his travel and attendance, and the amount due him shall be paid forthwith by the board, and for such purpose the board shall be entitled to

draw from the treasury of the Commonwealth, as provided for in chapter one hundred and seventy-nine of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and eighty-four.

SECT. 10. The members of said state board shall until the first day of July in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-seven be paid five dollars a day each for each day of actual service; and on and after said date they shall each receive a salary at the rate of two thousand dollars a year, to be paid out of the treasury of the Commonwealth; and both before and after said date they shall be allowed their necessary travelling and other expenses, which shall be paid out of the treasury of the Commonwealth.

[ST. 1892, CHAPTER 382.]

An Act relating to the duties and compensation of expert assistants appointed by the state board of arbitration and conciliation.

Be it enacted, etc., as follows:

SECTION 1. In all controversies between an employer and his employees in which application is made to the state board of arbitration and conciliation, as provided by section four of chapter two hundred and sixty-three of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and eighty-six as amended by section three of chapter two hundred and sixty-nine of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, and by section one of chapter three hundred and eighty-five of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and ninety, said board shall appoint a fit person to act in the case as expert assistant to the board. Said expert assistants shall attend the sessions of said board when required, and no conclusion shall be announced as a decision of said board, in any case where such assistants have acted, until after notice given to them, by mail or otherwise, appointing a time and place for a final conference between said board and expert assistant on the matters included in the proposed decision. Said expert assistants shall be privileged to submit to the board, at any time before a final decision shall be determined upon and published, any facts, advice, arguments or suggestions which they may deem applicable to the case. They shall be sworn to the faithful discharge of their duties by any member of said board, and a record thereof shall be preserved with

the record of the proceedings in the case. They shall be entitled to receive for their services from the treasury of the Commonwealth the sum of seven dollars for each day of actual service, together with all their necessary travelling expenses. SECT. 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [Approved June 15, 1892.

NEW YORK.

[CHAPTER 63.]

An Act to provide for the amicable adjustment of grievances and disputes that may arise between employers and employes, and to authorize the creation of a State Board of Mediation and Arbitration. [Passed March 10, 1887; three-fifths being present.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows :

SECTION 1. Whenever any grievance or dispute of any nature shall arise between any employer and his employes, it shall be lawful to submit the same, in writing, to a board of arbitrators for hearing and settlement. Said board shall consist of three persons. When the employes concerned are members in good standing of any labor organization, which is represented by one or more delegates in a central body, the said body shall have power to designate one of said arbitrators, and the employer shall have power to designate one other of said arbitrators, and the said two arbitrators shall designate a third. person, as arbitrator, who shall be chairman of the board. In case the employes concerned in any grievance or dispute are members in good standing of a labor organization which is not represented in a central body, then the organization of which they are members shall have the power to select and designate one arbitrator for said board, and said board shall be organized as herein before provided. And in case the employes concerned in any grievance or dispute are not members of any labor organization, then a majority of said employes, at a meeting duly held for that purpose, shall designate one arbitrator for said board, and the said board shall be organized as hereinbefore provided. In all cases of arbitration the grievance or matter of dispute shall be succinctly and clearly stated in