ANNUAL REPORT

For the Year ending December 1, 1909

To His Excellency Frank B. Weeks, Governor of Connecticut:

SIR:-Complying with statutory requirement the State Board of Mediation and Arbitration herewith submits its report on the first day of December, 1909.

The persons appointed as members of the Board from the first day of July last, to wit: George A. Coles of Middletown, George Hurst of Hartford, and Philip Pond of New Haven, met at the Capitol July 22, 1909, for the purposes of organization.

Mr. George A. Coles was elected president of the Board and Mr. Philip Pond its secretary. An attempt was made by the Board to outline a policy for the government of its action and a general discussion had thereon.

The Board felt that it should avail itself as completely as possible of the excellent work of its predecessor and hence postponed until some later time, when the members of the Board shall have absorbed the things done heretofore by the State Board of Mediation and Arbitration in Connecticut, the adoption of any definite policy as a guide for future action.

Since July 1, when the present Board came into existence, the industrial situation in Connecticut has been unusually harmonious. There have been some minor conflicts between employer and employee, but none that has called for the offices. of this Board.

There was in New Haven, in the fall, a determined strike upon the part of the hod carriers and masons' helpers, crippling

for a time building operations in that city, and for some days bringing about a complete standstill in the construction of many new buildings. Neither side to the contest, however, appeared to think that the services of the State Board were needed or desirable. By the importation of strike breakers the master builders were, in time, able to break the strike and the situation was eventually entirely resolved favorably to the master builders.

The clerks in the employ of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad, in the fall, became uneasy and a strike of somewhat threatening proportions seemed imminent, but happily just before the outbreak of hostilities an agreement was reached between the parties.

So little industrial unrest has there been that the Board feels it has, in the short time of its existence, acquired no experience and consequently no first hand information upon which it would be justified in attempting to make any recommendations.

It is looking forward, however, during the coming year, to an opportunity to inquire into the laws of other jurisdictions governing matters of the sort that are within the authority of this Board and of investigating the practice of handling such matters in such other jurisdictions.

Respectfully submitted,

GEORGE HURST,

PHILIP POND,

Board of Mediation and Arbitration.

ANNUAL REPORT

For the Year ending September 30, 1910

To His Excellency Frank B. Weeks, Governor of Connecticut:

SIR: The Board of Mediation and Arbitration presents briefly its report for the year ending September 30, 1910, as follows:

Upon the appointment of Mr. Whiton as a member of the Board to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Mr. Coles, its president, the Board in February reorganized by electing Mr. Hurst its president. The Board as now organized, in consideration of revised statutes, sections 4709 to 4712 inclusive, has considered its duties to be dependent upon official notice of strikes, either actual or impending.

During the year such notice of a strike at the factory of the Hartford Rubber Works Company was presented to the Board and, in pursuance of the statute, effort was made to bring about a settlement.

In this instance, however, both the employers and employees officially declined to submit the matter to the Board with power in the manner contemplated by sections 4709 and 4710.

Members of the Board called at the office of the Hartford Rubber Works Company and afterward received from the company a statement of its position in writing.

The Board also held a public hearing in the Capitol at Hartford and members of the tire-workers organization were present, but the facts were presented only in a general way, and neither employers nor employees definitely submitted the matter to the Board, and indeed both refused to do so.