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Show 1? 1 f ECWEI TO Railroad General Managers Insist on Conference Con-ference Under Erdman Law, Which Provides for Naming Commission of Three Hen; Trainmen Meeting Today ; "Whether 45,000 Trainmen on Western railroads will . stride probably will be determined today. The trainmen , are conferring in Chicago. . Meanwhile the railroad managers, propose to force a resort to arbitration under the Erdman law, which provides pro-vides for the settlement of wage disputes by a board of five members. Both sides, however, are hopeful of a friendly settlement settle-ment and indications point that way. conference j'esterday between the reiv resentatives of the men and the railroad rail-road officials lasted four hours, but was a failure as far as bringing about a solution so-lution of the trouble. - The railroads offered the men increases in-creases of 7 per cent to passenger conductors con-ductors and 10 per cent to the minor employees, including brakemen, fireman, baggegemen and allied workers. Thf men had demanded an increase of 12 . per cent and a nine-hour workday, and when the officials declared their offer was the best that conld bo made, the conference ended, as the men by a referendum ref-erendum vote taken last week had decided de-cided not to accept anything short of their original demands. . , Don't Want Arbitration. The sub-committees of the Brotherhood Brother-hood of Railway Trainmen and the Order Or-der of Railroad Conductors held a spirited meeting to discuss the move for arbitration made by the managers. After a heated discussion, it was de-rMel-to persist in the regular' procedure proced-ure already outlined in arranging for a strike. It was the nnaniMous vote of the meeting that no attention should be paid to' the arbitration proposition as made by the-general-managers. P. H. Morripsey, grand master of the Brotherhood" of " Railroad Conductors, said after the meeting today that Seth Low, the chairman of the conciliatory committee of the National Civic federation, federa-tion, had communicated with him regarding re-garding the issues of the conferences with the general managers. There was nothing in this direction, Morrissey said, that could be done immediately. Further meetings of the men will bef held tonight. " '(BULLETIN, 2 O'CLOCK) . CHICAGO, March 28. The representatives repre-sentatives of the trainmen and conductors conduc-tors decided today that they will ignore the proposition of the general managers of the Western railroads looking to arbitration ar-bitration under the Erdman act, and voted! to persist in theri preparations for a strike. The declare that a walkout walk-out it imminent unless the managers make some further concessions. CHICAGO. MARCH 28. LABOR LEADERS IN THE CONFERENCES WHICH WERE INTERRUPTED YESTERDAY YES-TERDAY BY THE REFUSAL OF THE ,MEN TO ACCEPT THE OFFER OF THE GENERAL MANAGERS OF THE I WESTERN RAILROADS, MET TODAY TO , CONSIDER THE MOVE THREATENED BY TID3 MANAGERS TO AVOID'A" STRIKE. THE MANAGERS. HAVE ANNOUNCED AN-NOUNCED THAT THEY WILL INVOKE IN-VOKE THE AID OF THE ERDMAN ACT OF CONGRESS, WHICH PROVIDES PRO-VIDES FOR ARBITRATION . OF SUCH QUESTIONS. THE LEADERS OF (THE LABOR INTERESTS WOULD NOT DISCUSS THIS PHASE OF THE SITUATION TODAY, AND DECLARED THAT THEY WERE AS YET UNABLE TO SAY WHAT THEY WILL DO IN REGARD TO IT. Thel Erdman law provides for a board of arbitration to consist of three members, of which the railroads are to choose one, the men the second, and these! two. a third. Tf no third arbitrator arbi-trator is selected within three days, the chairman of the Interstate Coin-mere Coin-mere commission is to name him( with the approval of the Labor commission. The; men have repeatedly declared that they will not arbitrate the question ques-tion Bt issue in the present controversy contro-versy The meeting of rhe representatives representa-tives I of the conductors and of the trainmen, which began early today, was expected to continue until evening. Th 45,000 trainmen of the Western railroads seemed nearer a strike last night than at any time Rinoe the negotiations nego-tiations with the general managers for an increase in wages and a shorter work day were started two months ago. The |