Executive Order 9555—Creating An Emergency Board to Investigate a Dispute Between the Illinois Central Railroad Company and Its Employees

WHEREAS a dispute exists between the Illinois Central Railroad Company, a carrier, and certain of its employees represented by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, a labor organization; and

WHEREAS this dispute has not heretofore been adjusted under the provisions of the Railway Labor Act, as amended; and

WHEREAS this dispute, in the judgment of the National Mediation Board, threatens substantially to interrupt interstate commerce within the states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana to a degree such as to deprive those states of essential transportation services:

NOW, THEREFORE, by virtue of the authority vested in me by section 10 of the Railway Labor Act, as amended (45 U.S.C. 160), I hereby create a board of three members, to be appointed by me, to investigate the said dispute. No member of the said board shall be pecuniarily or otherwise interested in any organization of railway employees or any carrier.

The board shall report its findings to the President with respect to the said dispute within thirty days from the date of this order.

As provided by section 10 of the Railway Labor Act, as amended, from this date and for thirty days after the board has made its report to the President, no change, except by agreement, shall be made by the Illinois Central Railroad Company or its employees in the conditions out of which the said dispute arose.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

THE WHITE HOUSE,

May 24, 1945