United States Conciliation Service

[3] The service was initially slow to build up because little money was budgeted for it, but by 1917, it had a directorship position and was clearly functioning as its own unit with the department.

[3] Mediation cases were handled by people appointed as Commissioners of Conciliation,[2] who vowed to act impartially.

[5] The conciliation process could be brought into play for both strike actions and lockouts and for any other type of industrial and labor relations matter.

[4] During the interwar period, the service's workload expanded and contracted with the fortunes of unions in the labor history of the United States.

[6] Those cases that the service could not solve, which overall was about a quarter of them,[4] would typically get sent to a new instantiation of the National War Labor Board.

Hugh L. Kerwin (right), the first Director of the U.S. Conciliation Service, dining in 1924
Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins and Director of the U.S. Conciliation Service John R. Steelman in 1939, after ordering to a representative of the service to Harlan County, Kentucky, in an effort to assist settlement of the struggle between mine workers and coal companies there