APPENDIX. Twenty-four states in the union have made constitutional or statutory provision for mediation of one kind or another in the settlement of industrial disputes. Of these the statutes of the following sixteen contemplate the administration of conciliation and arbitration laws through permanent state boards: Massachusetts, New York, Montana, Michigan, California, New Jersey, Ohio, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Connecticut, Illinois, Utah, Indiana, Idaho and Colorado. The constitution of Wyoming directs the legislature to establish courts of arbitration to determine all differences between associations of laborers and their employers, and provides for appeals to the supreme court of the state from the decisions of compulsory boards of arbitration. The laws of Iowa, Kansas, Pennsylvania and Texas authorize the law courts to appoint tribunals of voluntary arbitration; and such is the law of Maryland also, which, moreover, empowers the Board of Public Works to investigate industrial controversies when the employer is a corporation, indebted to, or incorporated by, that state; to propose arbitration to the opposing parties, and if the proposition is accepted, to provide in due form for referring the case; but if either party refuse to submit to arbitration, it becomes the duty of the Board of Public Works to ascertain the cause of the controversy and report the same to the next legislature. The law of Missouri authorizes the Commissioner of Labor Statistics to form local boards of arbitration, and, as in North Dakota, to mediate between employer and employed, if requested to do so by either, whenever a difference exists which results or threatens to result in a strike or lockout. In Nebraska it is the duty of such officer to examine into the causes of strikes and lockouts. MASSACHUSETTS. The law of the state concerning arbitration is as follows, being chapter 263 of the Acts of 1886, approved June 2, entitled, "An Act to provide for a State Board of Arbitration, for the settlement of differences between employers and their employees," as amended by St. 1887, chapter 269; St. 1888, chapter 261; and St. 1890, chapter 385; also St. 1892, chapter 382. SECTION 1. The governor, with the advice and consent of the council, shall, on or before the first day of July in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-six, appoint three competent persons to serve as a state board of arbitration and conciliation in the manner hereinafter provided. One of them shall be an employer or selected from some association representing employers of labor, one of them shall be selected from some labor organization and not an employer of labor, the third shall be appointed upon the recommendation of the other two: provided, however, that if the two appointed do not agree on the third man at the expiration of thirty days, he shall then be appointed by the governor. They shall hold office for one year or until their successors are appointed. On the first day of July in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-seven the governor, with the advice and consent of the council, shall appoint three members of said board in the manner above provided, one to serve for three years, one for two years and one for one year, or until their respective successors are appointed; and on the first day of July in each year thereafter the governor shall in the same manner appoint one member of said board to succeed the member whose term then expires, and to serve for the term of three years or until his successor is appointed. If a vacancy occurs at any time, the governor shall in the same manner appoint some one to serve out the unexpired term; and he may in like manner remove any member of said board. Each member of said board shall, before entering upon the duties of his office, be sworn to a faithful discharge thereof. They shall at once organize by the choice of one of their number as chairman. Said board may appoint and remove a clerk of the board, who shall receive such salary as may be allowed by the board, but not exceeding twelve hundred dollars a year. SECT. 2. The board shall, as soon as possible after its organization, establish such rules of procedure as shall be approved by the governor and council. SECT. 3. Whenever any controversy or difference not involving questions which may be the subject of a suit at law or bill in equity, exists between an employer, whether an individual, copartnership or corporation, and his employees, if at the time he employs not less than twenty-five persons in the same general line of business in any city or town in this Commonwealth, the board shall, upon application as hereinafter provided, and as soon as practicable thereafter, visit the locality of the dispute and make careful inquiry into the cause thereof, hear all persons interested therein who may come before them, advise the respective parties what, if anything, ought to be done or submitted to by either or both to adjust said dispute, and make a written decision thereof. This decision shall at once be made public, shall be recorded upon proper books of record to be kept by the secretary of said board, and a short statement thereof published in the annual report hereinafter provided for, and the said board shall cause a copy thereof to be filed with the clerk of the city or town where said business is carried on. SECT. 4. Said application shall be signed by said employer or by a majority of his employees in the department of the business in which the controversy or difference exists, or their duly authorized agent, or by both parties, and shall contain a concise statement of the grievances complained of, and a promise to continue on in business or at work without any lock-out or strike until the decision of said board, if it shall be made 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 |