The Portland daily press., 1886-04-03
ARBITRATION
Speech of the Hon, T. 3. Reed on
the O'NeiII Bill.

The following is the full text of Mr..
Reeds speech on the O'Neill bill delivered in
the House on Wednesday,
Mr. Chairman One of the greatest delu-
sions in the world is the hope that the evils
in this world are to be cured by legislation.
| am happy in the belief that the solution of
are in better hands even than that of this
body, which respect very much.
More than hundred years ago Lord Mans
field. name great in English jurisprudence,
was at the head of the English Judiciary at
time when England was Just beginning to
be the great commercial nation of the world.
Its laws which had grown up under the old
feudal system were not adapted to the free
transaction of business. such as the growth
of modern life demanded. That wise man
when called upon to administer the laws
selected special juries of men conversant
with the custom of merchants to decide the
questions resulting from the new laws of
trade, and the result was an expansion of
English law which made it fit that England
should become the great commercial nation
Of the world. That idea of following the
proceedings of great bodies of men and
transmitting them into laws and statutes is
the only safe thing for court or Tor legis-
lative body.
ming of what may be failure, or what may
be a great expansion of true liberty ana
fraternity, which may be the beginning OF
great era giving larger freedom, giving falrer
treatment both to the humble ana the great
1t becomes us as representatives OF the pe0-
pie, in the midst of whom these TRANSACTIONS
are going on, to give to them our careful at
tention, to give them our best thought, to
give them our best assistance. But 1t Will
be in vain for us to attempt to evolve out Of
our own consciousness the solutions of these
labor problems. We must do it by watching
the workings of great bodies of men. Why
do they come to their conclusions, and how?
1t is by reasoning, by trial, by experience,
and by discussion among themselves.
The laboring men of this country are
starting in upon the problem how they shall
obtain their fair share of the joint results of
capital and of labor; and | say to you as the
gentleman from Cleveland (Mr. Foranl has
SO well said, this is question the complica-
tion of which has no parallel upon the face
of the earth. 1t is the great problem, not
only of today, but of all times. 1t has been
struggled with, and will be struggled with,
from day to day. Capital can not be depriv-
cease to have an incentive to accumulate, and
if capital is not accumulated, labor can not
be set to work.
The gentleman who preceded me (Mr.
Weaver of Iowa. says there are more people
who want work than can get work. The
more capital you destroy the more of such
workless people there will be.
Mr. Weaver of lowa-I agree to that.
Mr. Reed of Maine-So that capital must
be justly treated, and on the other hand the
men whose work makes out Of capMi prof.
its must be fairly treated also.
Now, how shall we solve this question? Is
the solution to be found placarded on every
fence? That is wild dream. The prob
lem is full of all manner of difficulties. 1t
can only be settled from day to day. 1t can
only be settled by discussion on the part of
both parties concerned, and settled with
fair disposition of both parties to look at all
the facts. If it shall prove that the present
uprising on the part of the industrious peo-
pie of the country shall afford better ia
cllities for comparison of views between en-
ployers and employed, then there will be
laid foundation, broad and comprehensive,
for full and true understanding For, If
men know alike they are sure to act alike.
And one thing which has separated industry
and capital is because neither has fully un-
derstoOd the other. The apparent tendency
of the line of action of great bodies of men
today is to create such associations as will
facilitate an examination of the state of
trade on the part of great corporations and
of small corporations, so as to decide what is
a fair division between capital and labor,
and to so marshal labor that it shall be on
equal footing with capital. Is that utterly
new thing? In its vast extent it is new;
My friend the gentleman from New York
Mr.. Farquharl could tell us from his own
experience that that has been going on among
the printers for long time, and noticed
that in the appearance Of worklngmen be-
fore the committee of ways and means the
only thing which they asked of us was to
pass such law with reference to imports as
they desired, and then they said. Leave it
to us to get our fair share" How do they
get it? They get it by combining together,
by keeping careful account of the state Of
the trade, by knowing what the business can
bear, and asking and demanding their fair
share of the profits. Now | believe what
the workingmen in Pennsylvania have done,
what the workingmen of the printers typo
graphical unions have done, can be done by
the laborers all over the country, and be-
lieve they will settle that question advan-
tageously among themselves. What they
need and desire is that there should be that
careful examination of the questions aris-
ing between employers and employees which
will lead to an agreement, and.if, by reason
of the unreasonableness of certain men, this
can not be done, then to have some method
of arbitration.
But now what must an arbitration be in
order to be successful? An affair between
man and man you can bring cOmpulsorily
before the courts, and say to the parties,
"You do thus and so, or we will mulct you !;
we will make you pay. But how are you
going to mulct the ten thousand employees of
great railroad corporation? How are you
going to bring them all within such an ar
rangement as that? Because you are bound
to consider, if you have compulsory arbitra-
tion, that it works both ways, and ii you pro-
pose that the court shall appoint an arbitra-
tor on the request of one side, when the 9TH
er side refuses it, you have got to suppose
that it is going to be done in behalf OF the
workingmen, and how long would they
stand or endure that? And after you have
got the result of an arbitration, what then?
Can you enforce it? You can not enforce
the arbitrations that are going on every day
between employer and employees. What
does enforce them?
Why, that ultimate tribunal which is the
master of us ALL the public sense po pf io s.; s.0
human beings Of the cSpRFttd q It today that is hav-
inc ne ,Se--sscst influence in controversies
tbsse are going on within our knowledge? is
it the one side or the other? No; it is the
general community and their feeling that
one side is right and that the other side is
bitrate. And that public sentiment ulti-
mately will govern the matter. Now. what
does this bill propose? So far as
it proclaims itself to be panacea
it deserves the reputation Of my
friend from Pennsylvania (Mr. Kelley; but
taking it for just what it is, refusing to adj
vertise it as anything more, may we not say
TO the community: "You yourselves have
not reasoned this question out so thoroughly
that you know just what is fair between man
and man. You Lave gone no farther than
this bill We offer to 1egalize your enuncia-
tions so far as they have gone because they
seem to us to be fair, and we will give you
an opportunity, if you are both willing, to
put the results of your arbitration before
that great tribunal, the common sense OF
the people, which must finally decide i.
Now it may turn out that this legislation
will amount to but little. 1t may turn out
that it will amount to much. Suppose we
try it, and when we learn more do more is
not that the wise course?
ruE 0UEcrIoN SALVAGE