The taking over of the railways by the government revolutionized the railway labor situation.  Under private management, as was seen, the four brotherhoods alone, the engineers, firemen, conductors, and trainmen enjoyed universal recognition, the basic eight-hour day (since 1916), and high wages.  The other organizations of the railway workers, the shopmen, the yardmen, the maintenance of way men, the clerks, and the telegraphers were, at best, tolerated rather than recognized.  Under the government administration the eight-hour day was extended to all grades of workers, and wages were brought up to a minimum of 68 cents per hour, with a considerable though not corresponding increase in the wages of the higher grades of labor.  All discrimination against union men was done away with, so that within a year labor organization on the railways was nearing the hundred percent mark.

The policies of the national railway administration of the open door to trade unionism and of recognition of union standards were successfully pressed upon other employments by the National War Labor Board.  On March 29, 1918, a National War Labor Conference Board, composed of five representatives of the Federation of Labor, five representatives of employers’ associations and two joint chairmen, William H. Taft for the employers and Frank P. Walsh for the employes, reported to the Secretary of Labor on “Principles and Policies to govern Relations between Workers and Employers in War Industries for the Duration of the War.”  These “principles and policies,” which were to be enforced by a permanent War Labor Board organized upon the identical principle as the reporting board, included a voluntary relinquishment of the right to strike and lockout by employes and employers, respectively, upon the following conditions:  First, there was a recognition of the equal right of employes and employers to organize into associations and trade unions and to bargain collectively.  This carried an undertaking by the employers not to discharge workers for membership in trade unions or for legitimate trade union activities, and was balanced by an undertaking of the workers, “in the exercise of their right to organize,” not to “use coercive measures of any kind to induce persons to join their organizations, nor to induce employers to bargain or deal therewith.”  Second, both sides agreed upon the observance of the status quo ante bellum as to union or open shop in a given establishment and as to union standards of wages, hours, and other conditions of employment.  This carried the express stipulation that the right to organize was not to be curtailed under any condition and that the War Labor Board could grant improvement in labor conditions as the situation warranted.  Third, the understanding was that if women should be brought into industry, they must be allowed equal pay for equal work.  Fourth, it was agreed that “the basic eight-hour day was to be recognized as applying