Newlands Labor Act

Martin Augustine Knapp, William Lea Chambers and George Wallace William Hanger in 1913

The Newlands Labor Act, was sponsored by Senator Francis G. Newlands of Nevada and drafted by Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Charles Patrick Neill. It created the Board of Mediation and Conciliation (BMC).

History

The BMC under U.S. Commerce and District Court Judge Martin Augustine Knapp and assisted by U.S. Alabama District Court Judge and Commissioner William Lea Chambers adjusted and arbitrated disputes between railroad companies and their operating employees, where those disputes threatened to interrupt operation of the carriers to the “serious detriment of the public interest." Voluntary arbitration was also provided for those disputes that could not be settled by mediation.

The BMC was the precursor to today’s National Mediation Board (NMB). It was functionally replaced on December 26, 1917, by the creation of the Railroad Administration, though it continued to exist with its activities restricted to short-line railroads. It was technically replaced by the Railroad Labor Board created by the Esch-Cummins Transportation Act of February 28, 1920, and its activities ceased after the agency’s failure to secure necessary money in the Appropriations bill of June 30, 1921. On May 20, 1926, the Newlands Labor Act was repealed and the BMC was formally replaced with the Railroad Labor Act and its Board of Mediation.