Following major expansion of American railways after the American Civil War, labor disputes increasingly became a focus of turmoil between employers and employees, first evidenced at a large, multi-state scale during the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. With the continued functioning of the railways seen as a vital public interest, Congress had attempted to solve wage disputes through legislation as early as 1888, when an initial mechanism for voluntary arbitration was created.United States. Arbitration Act of 1888, , October 1, 1888. Such voluntary arbitration had lacked an enforcement mechanism, however, and labor unrest continued unabated.
