Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-08-20
~. TIE st..,.lies rsI.tiue 10 Boards Of

L |
arbitration IN France, Belgium aud Eng
land are very interesting, but cannot be
into at this time. Some instruc-
tive reports on the subject have been msde
to the Legislatures of Pennsylvania aud |
Massachusetts. No one has ever con-
tended, or will do so in this country, that |
any man shall be compelled to labor for an
other for wages less than he deems Eutfi-
cient, nor that an employer shall be COM
PEELED to pay any man for labor more than
he is willing to offer. But the arbitration
principle is not affected by these consider
ations. It deals with facts without senti-
mental emotion it is as nearly exact in
method as can be hoped for in any volun-
tary effort to bring two minds to common
agreement. It furnishes areiiable medium
for informing the public mind as to the re-
lations of labor employment, labor wages
and employers rights, in all csses where
there is q disagreement. In Pennsylvania
bill lately passed the Legislature recog-
nizing the value of this principle, and pro-
viding for industrial arbitration by volun-
tary submission under legal procedure and
awards. Experience alone can determine
the wisdom of this latter provision, but
the recent test of the law by the ceal op-
orators was highly successful. In France
all auch arbitration is partly judicial. Here
the question is comparatively new, but it
Is receiving profound attention, and the
recent strike, as we have said. viii con.
tribute greatly to its study and thorough
consideration, with view of removing as
remotely as is possible to be done the ex-
ercise of the right. of the wOrkingman to
strike.
Again, it viii be well for the companies
to remember that we have arrived ali Pc
Rod when it is claimed that the question
of the interference of Government author
ity in tie regulation of the great businesses
which are intimately related to the public
comfort and advantage has been closed /;
and whether this is true or not, and in the
| face of the fact that such Governmental
interference is often to the injury of the
commerce of the country and subversive of
the rights and equities of the business in
terfered with, it is true that the law making
power does exercise it. while the Courts
are as yet torn with the legal problems in
volved.
One of the tasks Of interference
which will unquestionablY be undertaken
by Government, is that of establishing
postal telegraph lines, and the strike just
closed has advanced the work by sew
eral years. In considering the province Of
Government, and how far it may safely en-.
gage in works that compete with the citi.
zen in business, Professor Amos, the latest
writer on political economy, comes to the
conclusion, after a full debate of the mat.
ter in every conceivable light, that it must
be admitted in the present day that the
management of post and telegraph com.
munication satisfies all the requirements
that wisdom exacts as necessary to justify
the entry Of Government upon any class Of
business. It ia one of the sort of tasks
which will, he holds, profit most from be.
ing undertaken by Government, as it is
one Of those in which uniformity, certain
4 ty, puncsuality and chespness in a business
where there is no temptation to use it for
profit or private advancement, are such
important considerations as to outweigh all
the general objections against Government
interference. He is, indeed, short-sighted
who does not realize that the writer quoted
simply reflects the belief and doctrine of a
majority of the people of the country, who
hold that the Government is justified by
all considerations in entering upon the
work of establishing postal telegraph
lline. This much, then, the strike just
lclosed has accomplished has brought
the postal telegraph question before the
lpeople more prominently than it could 9th.
erwise have been, and has advanced its SO.
luton by a decade. But it is undeniable,
also, that it has widened the breach be.
tween capital and labor and intensified
preiudices against associated capital, and
for this capital has to thank the several tel
egraph companies, but chiefly the Western
Union Company.