INDIANA.

[CHAPTER LXXXVIII.]

An Act providing for the creation of a Labor Commission, and defining its duties and powers, and providing for arbitrations and investigations of labor troubles. Approved March 4, 1897.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, That there shall be, and is hereby, created a commission to be composed of two electors of the State, which shall be designated the Labor Commission, and which shall be charged with the duties and vested with the powers hereinafter enumerated.

SEC. 2. The members of said Commission shall be appointed by the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and shall hold office for two years and until their successors shall have been appointed and qualified. One of said Commissioners shall have been for not less than ten years of his life an employe for wages in some department of industry in which it is usual to employ a number of persons under single direction and control, and shall be at the time of his appointment affiliated with the labor interest as distinguished from the capitalist or employing interest. The other of said Commissioners shall have been for not less than ten years an employer of labor for wages in some department of industry in which it is usual to employ a number of persons under single direction and control, and shall be at the time of his appointment affiliated with the employing interest as distinguished from the labor interest. Neither of said Commissioners shall be less than forty years of age; they shall not be members of the same political party, and neither of them shall hold any other State, county, or city office in Indiana during the term for which he shall be appointed. Each of said Commissioners shall take and subscribe an oath, to be endorsed upon his commission, to the effect that he will punctually, honestly, and faithfully discharge his duties as such Commissioner.

SEC. 3. Said Commission shall have a seal and shall be provided with an office at Indianapolis, and may appoint a Secretary who shall be a skillful stenographer and typewriter, and shall receive a salary of six hundred dollars per annum and his

traveling expenses for every day spent by him in the discharge of duty away from Indianapolis.

SEC. 4. It shall be the duty of said Commissioners upon receiving creditable information in any manner of the existence of any strike, lockout, boycott, or other labor complication in this State affecting the labor or employment of fifty persons or more to go to the place where such complication exists, put themselves into communication with the parties to the controversy and offer their services as mediators between them. If they shall not succeed in effecting an amicable adjustment of the controversy in that way they shall endeavor to induce the parties to submit their differences to arbitration, either under the provisions of this act or otherwise, as they may elect.

SEC. 5. For the purpose of arbitration under this act, the Labor Commissioners and the Judge of the Circuit Court, of the county in which the business in relation to which the controversy shall arise, shall have been carried on shall constitute a Board of Arbitrators, to which may be added, if the parties so agree, two other members, one to be named by the employer and the other by the employes in the arbitration agreement. If the parties to the controversy are a railroad company and employes of the company engaged in the running of trains, any terminal within this State, of the road, or of any division thereof, may be taken and treated as the location of the business within the terms of this section for the purpose of giving jurisdiction to the Judge of the Circuit Court to act as a member of the Board of Arbitration.

SEC. 6. An agreement to enter into arbitration under this act shall be in writing and shall state the issue to be submitted and decided and shall have the effect of an agreement by the parties to abide by and perform the award. Such agreement may be signed by the employer as an individual, firm or corporation, as the case may be, and execution of the agreement in the name of the employer by any agent or representative of such employer then and theretofore in control or management of the business or department of business in relation to which the controversy shall have arisen shall bind the employer. On the part of the employes, the agreement may be signed by them in their own person, not less than two-thirds of those concerned in the controversy signing, or it may be signed by a committee

by them appointed. Such committee may be created by election at a meeting of the employes concerned in the controversy at which not less than two-thirds of all such employes shall be present, which election and the fact of the presence of the required number of employes at the meeting shall be evidenced by the affidavit of the chairman and secretary of such meeting attached to the arbitration agreement. If the employes concerned in the controversy, or any of them, shall be members of any labor union or workingmen's society, they may be represented in the execution of said arbitration agreement by officers or committeemen of the union or society designated by it in any manner conformable to its usual methods of transacting business, and others of the employes represented by committee as hereinbefore provided.

SEC. 7. If upon any occasion calling for the presence and intervention of the Labor Commissioners under the provisions of this act, one of said Commissioners shall be present and the other absent, the Judge of the Circuit Court of the county in which the dispute shall have arisen, as defined in section 5, shall upon the application of the Commissioners present, appoint a Commissioner pro tem. in the place of the absent Commissioner, and such Commissioner pro tem. shall exercise all the powers of a Commissioner under this act until the termination of the duties of the Commission with respect to the particular controversy upon the occasion of which the appointment shall have been made, and shall receive the same pay and allowances provided by this act for the other Commissioners. Such Commissioner pro tem. shall represent and be affiliated with the same interests as the absent Commissioner.

SEC. 8. Before entering upon their duties the arbitrators shall take and subscribe an oath or affirmation to the effect that they will honestly and impartially perform their duties as arbitrators and a just and fair award render to the best of their ability. The sittings of the arbitrators shall be in the court room of the Circuit Court, or such other place as shall be provided by the County Commissioners of the county in which the hearing is had. The Circuit Judge shall be the presiding member of the Board. He shall have power to issue subpoenas for witnesses who do not appear voluntarily, directed to the Sheriff of the county, whose duty it shall be to serve the same without

delay. He shall have power to administer oaths and affirmations to witnesses, enforce order, and direct and control the examinations. The proceedings shall be informal in character, but in general accordance with the practice governing the Circuit Courts in the trial of civil causes. All questions of practice, or questions relating to the admission of evidence shall be decided by the presiding member of the Board summarily and without extended argument. The sittings shall be open and public, or with closed doors, as the Board shall direct. If five members are sitting as such Board three members of the Board agreeing shall have power to make an award, otherwise, two. The Secretary of the Commission shall attend the sittings and make a record of the proceedings in shorthand, but shall transcribe so much thereof only as the Commission shall direct.

SEC. 9. The arbitrators shall make their award in writing and deliver the same with the arbitration agreement and their oath as arbitrators to the Clerk of the Circuit Court of the county in which the hearing was had, and deliver a copy of the award to the employer, and a copy to the first signer of the arbitration agreement on the part of the employes. A copy of all the papers shall also be preserved in the office of the Commission at Indianapolis.

SEC. 10. The Clerk of the Circuit Court shall record the papers delivered to him as directed in the last preceding section, in the order book of the Circuit Court. Any person who was a party to the arbitration proceedings may present to the Circuit Court of the county in which the hearing was had, or the Judge thereof in vacation, a verified petition referring to the proceedings and the record of them in the order book and showing that said award has not been complied with, stating by whom and in what respect it has been disobeyed. And thereupon the Court or Judge thereof in vacation shall grant a rule against the party or parties so charged, to show cause within five days why said award has not been obeyed, which shall be served by the Sheriff as other process. Upon return made to the rule the Judge or Court if in session, shall hear and determine the questions presented and make such order or orders directed to the parties before him in personam, as shall give just effect to the award. Disobedience by any party to such proceedings of any order so made shall be deemed a contempt of the court and may be pun

ished accordingly. But such punishment shall not extend to imprisonment except in case of wilful and contumacious disobedience. In all proceedings under this section the award shall be regarded as presumptively binding upon the employer and all employes who were parties to the controversy submitted to arbitration, which presumption shall be overcome only by proof of dissent from the submission delivered to the arbitrators, or one of them, in writing before the commencement of the hearing.

SEC. 11. The Labor Commission, with the advise and assistance of the Attorney-General of the State, which he is hereby required to render, may make rules and regulations respecting proceedings in arbitrations under this act not inconsistant with this act or the law, including forms, and cause the same to be printed and furnished to all persons applying therefor, and all arbitration proceedings under this act shall thereafter conform to such rules and regulations.

SEC. 12. Any employer and his employes, not less than twenty-five in number, between whom differences exist which have not resulted in any open rupture or strike, may of their own motion apply to the Labor Commission for arbitration of their differences, and upon the execution of an arbitration agreement as hereinbefore provided, a Board of Arbitrators shall be organized in the manner hereinbefore provided, and the arbitration shall take place and the award be rendered, recorded and enforced in the same manner as in arbitrations under the provisions found in the preceding sections of this act.

SEC. 13. In all cases arising under this act requiring the attendance of a Judge of the Circuit Court as a member of an Arbitration Board, such duty shall have precedence over any other business pending in his court, and if necessary for the prompt transaction of such other business it shall be his duty to appoint some other Circuit Judge, or Judge of a Superior or the Appellate or Supreme Court to sit in the Circuit Court in his place during the pendency of such arbitration, and such appointee shall receive the same compensation for his services as is now allowed by law to Judges appointed to sit in case of change of Judge in civil actions. In case the Judge of the Circuit Court, whose duty it shall become under this act to sit upon any Board of Arbitrators, shall be at the time actually engaged in a trial which can not be interrupted without loss and