Byron White

“ Congress has long concerned itself [7] with minimizing interruptions in the Nation's transportation services by strikes and labor disputes and has made successive attempts to establish effective machinery to resolve disputes not only as to wages, hours, and working conditions, the so-called major disputes connected with a negotiation of contracts or alterations in them, but also as to the interpretation and application of existing contracts, the minor disputes of the type involved in this case. ”

“ This provision is applicable both to rail (§ 3, Second) and air (§ 204) carriers.
In view of the clearly stated purposes of the Act and of its history, reflecting as it does a steady congressional intent to move toward a reliable and effective system for the settlement of grievances, we believe Congress intended no hiatus in the statutory scheme when it postponed the establishment of a National Air Transport Adjustment Board and instead provided for compulsory system, group, or regional boards. ”

“ Implementing such goals, § 2 First, 45 U.S.C. § 152 First, made it 'the duty of all carriers, their officers, agents, and employees to exert every reasonable effort to make and maintain agreements * * * and to settle all disputes, whether arising out of the application of such agreements or otherwise, in order to avoid any interruption to commerce.' The statute directed that minor disputes be handled on the property in the usual manner, but failing adjustment either party could take the matter to the adjustment board, which was to hear and decide it. ”

“ The same rule that federal law applies to federal contracts has been applied, in a choice of substantive law rather than jurisdictional context, in cases involving rights and obligations arising on commercial paper issued by the United States. ”