Morning journal and courier., 1883-09-25
sSournaI xr0 Gultriier.
Tuesday. September 25, 1888.
HOW TO PREvEnT STRIKES.

HOW TO PREvEAT STRIKES.
 The Senate committee which is investiga- ting the labor problem has listened or pre- tended to listen to great deal of useless and foolish talk. Rich men have appeared be- fore it and recounted the history of their prayers, struggles and triumphs and intima. ted that anybody could do what they have done. Theorists have presented wild theories, and friends of labor' have shown how un- friendly they could be to the true interests of the workingman. Mir. George Storm, who appeared before the committee Saturday, is one of the very few who have said anything worth hearing, and what he said deserves the careful attention and consideration of all in- terestsd
 Mir. Storm is member of 6 firm of cigar manufacturers doing business in New York city. The firm employs 9,2Oo people. and a peculiarity of it's business is that 1t has had no strikes and no labor disturbances of any kind since 1879 This is due to the fact that the firm settles any difficulty which may arise between it and it's employees by system of arbitration. Differences are adjusted by the submission of all questions to board of ar bitration composed equally of representatives of the workmen and the employers, with the odd member selected from class of work men not directly affected by the question at issue, except in so far as cessation of labor in one branch would cause stoppage in the other departments Employers and. employ ed abide by the decision of the board, in which both have confdence-the workmen because it's decisions have at times been ad- vantageous to them and the employers for the same reason. Upon it's decisions wages have been both raised and lowered.
 Another thing which helps those who work for this firm is mutual benefit fund. To this the firm contributes twenty-five dollars monthly and the employees five cents each weekly When sick. members are allowed to draw $5 each week, and $1oO in the case of death goes to the employees family. In case of the discharge of a workman fifty per cent of the entire amount which he has paid to the fund is returned if he has received no benefit and in the event of strike which shall con tinue over three months there is 8 provision for the division of the fund pro rata. The fund was established in 1879. Since then $14, ,s3I.49 has been collected, $9. .O74.77 paid out, and there is balance of $5, ,756. 72 on hand. Instead of dischsrging men when bus mess is dull, all are retained in service, but the hours of labor are lessened, and so there is no over production. Since the establish ment of the system there has not been the loss of an hours time in the factory as the result of any difference between employers and employees. Freedom from outside inter ference has resulted, and the trades-unions know that any attempt to interfere would prove futile. The workmen employed in the factory. the witness said, were better class than those in any other factory in the country, and they are all happy and contented and unwilling to go back to the old system. This, he explained, was wholly due to the fact that they under stand the employers. who, they also know, understand them. So fearful are they of having the state of affairs disturbed that once, when they found a professional agita- tor at work in the factory, they came to the foreman. and through him asked the witness that he misht be discharged. Their wishes were complied with and there was no trouble.
 Such testimony as this is well worth hear ing Would that more like it might be giv- en. Mir. Storm said that if arbitration was fairly understood and properly applied there was no reason why it should not work as well in any other business as in his own. This is undoubtedly true. Arbitration is the great and the only remedy for strikes. It is ger haps not strange that employers have not more generally adopted it through unselish motives, but it is strange that an enlightened selfshness has not pron ounced more general ly and emphatically in it's favor.