§ 8. As soon as may be after the receipt of said application, the secretary of said board shall cause public notice to be given of the time and place for the hearing thereon, but public notice need not be given when both parties 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. Should the petitioner or petitioners fail to perform the promise made in said application, the board shall proceed no further therein until said petitioner or petitioners have complied with every order and requirement of the board.

§ 9. The board shall have power to summon as witnesses any operative in the department of the business affected, and any person who keeps the records of wages earned in those departments, and examine them under oath, and to require the production of books and papers containing the record of wages earned or paid. Summons may be signed and oaths administered by any member of the board. The board shall have the right to compel the attendance of witnesses or the production of papers.

§ 10. Whenever it is made to appear to the mayor of a city or the judge of any district court in any parish, other than the parish of Orleans, that a strike or lockout is seriously threatened or actually occurs, the mayor of such city or judge of the district court of such parish shall at once notify the state board of the fact. Wherever it shall come to the knowledge of the state board, either by the notice of the mayor of a city or the judge of the district court of the parish, as provided in the preceding part of this section, or otherwise, that a lockout or strike is seriously threatened or has actually occurred in any city or parish of this state, involving an employer and his present or past employees, if at the time he is employing or up to the occurrence of a strike or lockout was employing not less than twenty persons in the same general line of business in any city or parish in

the state, it shall be the duty of the state board to put itself in communication as soon as may be with such employer and employees.

§ 11. It shall be the duty of the state board in the abovedescribed cases to endeavor, by mediation or conciliation, to effect an amicable settlement between them, and to endeavor to persuade them, provided a strike or lockout has not actually occurred or is not then continuing, to submit the matters in dispute to the State Board of Arbitration and Conciliation; and the state board shall, whether the same be mutually submitted to them or not, 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 shall 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 9 of this act.

§ 12. The said state board shall make a biennial report to the governor and legislature, and shall include therein such statements, facts and explanations as will disclose the actual workings of the board, and such suggestions as to legislation as may seem to the members of the board conducive to the relations of and disputes between employers and employees.

§ 13. The members of said State Board of Arbitration and Conciliation, hereby created, shall each be paid five dollars a day for each day of actual service, and their necessary traveling and other expenses. The chairman of the board shall quarterly certify the amount due each member, and, on presentation of his certificate, the auditor of the state shall draw his warrant on the treasury of the state for the amount.

§ 14. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.

Approved July 12 1894.

MARYLAND.

[Act of April 1, 1878. See Code of Public Laws, Article 7.]

An Act to provide for the reference of disputes between employers and employees to arbitration.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland:

Section 1. That whenever any controversy shall arise between any corporation incorporated by the state in which this state may be interested as a stockholder or creditor, and any, persons in the employment or service of such corporation, which, in the opinion of the Board of Public Works, shall tend to impair the usefulness or prosperity of such corporation, the said. Board of Public Works shall have power to demand and receive a statement of the grounds of said controversy from the parties to the same; and if, in their judgment, there shall be occasion so to do, they shall have the right to propose to the parties to said controversy, or to any of them, that the same shall be settled by arbitration; and if the opposing parties to said controversy shall consent and agree to said arbitration, it shall be the duty of said Board of Public Works to provide in due form for the submission of the said controversy to arbitration, in such manner that the same may be finally settled and determined; but if the said corporation or the said person in its employment or service, so engaged in controversy with the said corporation, shall refuse to submit to such arbitration, it shall be the duty of the said Board of Public Works to examine into and ascertain the cause of said controversy, and report the same to the next general assembly.

§ 2. And be it enacted, That all subjects of dispute arising between corporations, and any person in their employment or service, and all subjects of dispute between employers and employees, employed by them in any trade or manufacture, may be settled and adjusted in the manner heretofore mentioned.

§ 3. And be it further enacted, That whenever such subjects of dispute shall arise as aforesaid, it shall be lawful for either party to the same to demand and have an arbitration or reference thereof in the manner following, that is to say: Where the

party complaining and the party complained of shall come before, or agree by any writing under their hands, to abide by the determination of any judge or justice of the peace, it shall and may be lawful for such judge or justice of the peace to hear and finally determine in a summary manner the matter in dispute between such parties; but if such parties shall not come before, or so agree to abide by the determination of such judge or justice of the peace, but shall agree to submit their said cause of dispute to arbitrators appointed under the provisions of this act, then it shall be lawful for any such judge or justice of the peace, and such judge or justice of the peace is hereby required, on complaint made before him, and proof that such agreement for arbitration has been entered into, to appoint arbitrators for settling the matters in dispute, and such judge or justice of the peace shall then and there propose not less than two nor more than four persons, one-half of whom shall be employers and the other half employees, acceptable to the parties to the dispute, respectively, who, together with such judge or justice of the peace, shall have full power finally to hear and determine such dispute.

§ 4. And be it further enacted, That in all such cases of dispute as aforesaid, as in all other cases, if the parties mutually agree that the matter in dispute shall be arbitrated and determined in a different mode to the one hereby prescribed, such agreement shall be valid, and the award and determination thereon by either mode of arbitration shall be final and conclusive between the parties.

§ 5. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful in all cases for an employer or employee, by writing under his hand, to authorize any person to act for him in submitting to arbitration and attending the same.

§ 6. And be it further enacted, That every determination of dispute by any judge or justice of the peace shall be given as a judgment of the court over which said judge presides, and of the justice of the peace determining the same; and the said judge or justice of the peace shall award execution thereon as upon verdict, confession or nonsuit; and every award made by

arbitrators appointed by any judge or justice of the peace under these provisions of this statute, shall be returned by said arbitrator to the judge or justice of the peace by whom they were appointed; and said judge or justice of the peace shall enter the same as an amicable action between the parties to the same in the court presided over by said judge or justice of the peace, with the same effect as if said action had been regularly commenced in said court by due process of law, and shall thereupon 'become a judgment of said court, and execution thereon shall be awarded as upon verdict, confession or nonsuit; in the manner provided in article seven of the public general laws of Maryland; and in all proceedings under this act, whether before a judge or justice of the peace, or arbitrators, costs shall be taxed as are now allowed by law in similar proceedings, and the same shall be paid equally by the parties to the dispute; such award shall remain four days in court during its sitting, after the return thereof, before any judgment shall be entered thereon; and if it shall appear to the court within that time that the same was obtained by fraud or malpractice in or by surprise, imposition or deception of the arbitrators, or without due notice to the parties or their attorneys, the court may set aside such award and refuse to give judgment thereon.

Approved April 1, 1878.

MASSACHUSETTS.

Acts of 1886, Chapter 263, as amended by St. 1887, Chapter 269; St. 1888, Chapter 261; St. 1890, Chapter 385; St. 1892, Chapter 382; and constituting Chapter 106 of the Revised Laws of 1901, as amended by St. 1902, Chapter 446.]

State Board of Conciliation and Arbitration. Section 1. There shall be a State Board of Conciliation and Arbitration consisting of three persons, one of whom shall annually, in June, be appointed by the governor, with the advice and consent of the council, for a term of three years from the first day of July following. One member of said board shall be an employer or shall be selected from an association represent