It was the first appointed board of this
description which was to pass on the clamorous demands by the railway
employes for higher wages.[92]
No sooner had the roads been returned under the new law, and before the
board was even appointed, than a strike broke out among the switchmen
and yardmen, whose patience had apparently been exhausted. The strike
was an "outlaw" strike, undertaken against the wishes of national
leaders and organized and led by "rebel" leaders risen up for the
occasion. For a time it threatened not only to paralyze the country's
railway system but to wreck the railway men's organizations as well. It
was finally brought to an end through the efforts of the national
leaders, and a telling effect on the situation was produced by an
announcement by the newly constituted Railroad Labor Board that no
"outlaw" organization would have standing before it. The Board issued an
award on July 20, retroactive to May 1, increasing the total annual wage
bill of the railways by $600,000,000. The award failed to satisfy the
union, but they acquiesced.
When the increase in wages was granted to the railway employes, industry
in general and the railways in particular were already entering a period
of slump.
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