Morning journal and courier., 1881-08-06
Saturday Morning, August 6, 1881.
A HOPEFUL EXPERIMENT.


 An experiment in arbitration which has been in successful progress for two and 8 half years in New York city is attracting some attention and is likely to attract more. Straiten & Storm, manufacturers of cigars, have in their employ 1,5o0 persons. Soon after the strikes of 1876 the firm suggested arbitration as means of avoiding future differences and disputes, and the men met the suggestion in the spirit in which it was made. stMutual confidence and desire on each side for justice only" said a member of the firm to reporter, sswere the conditions necessary to success, and those conditions existed.'' A Board of Arbitration composed of nine members was foEmed, and the ex- pertinent is all the more interesting from the Tact that five of the nine members, majority of the board, represent the employees. From the beginning, says writer in the New York Sun, the Board of Arbitration has been regarded as above suspicion, and it's decisions have been unmurmuringly accepted. The confidence in the; fairness of their employees that was expressed by the firm In allowing the majority of the board to be composed of workingmen has never once been abused. No case has yet come up in which the line has been drawn between the two interests so sharply as to give vote of 5 to 4. There have been instances where the employees rep resentatives in the board, acting with ju- dicial impartiality. have decided that less pay should be accepted for certain kinds of work. On the other hand, the arbiters in behalf of the firm, after hearing arguments, have determined by their votes that the firm should pay a requested advance This is in the spirit of the pre- amble to the constitution of the board, which says: 'sIn order to secure this object and insure it's permanent existence, it is absolute ly necessary that inconsiderate and fierce passions heretofore resorted to must give way to wise counsel, and, above all, peaceful deliberations. We therefore now propose to leave hereafter all matters of difference as to wages, or of any other kind and nature, to court of arbitration
 The cigarmakers are very particular to have their best and truest men on the board. The character of candidates is closely in quired into. Fifteen good representative men are chosen and these choose five of their own number to serve on the board. The firm is represented by one of it's mem bers and three foremen. Everybody con- nected with the factory seems to have con- hdenee in the continued success of the plan. The employees united short time ago in letter to the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics expressing their satisfaction with it, and the Messrs Straton & Storm say s'We think that the principle of arbi- tration has worked to the benefit of both ourselves and our employees, and we think that the moral effect upon the trade in gen. era1 has been beneficial.
 It is stated that within 8 few months hun dreds of employers have visited the factory in person or sent letters inquiring how the system works. It is not, however, probable that it will be extensively adopted, nor is it certain that it would always or usually work as well as it does in the present case. Still, the fact that one such experiment is appar- ently successful is hopeful one.