Morning journal and courier., 1886-03-09
ARBITRATION

Many people of this country are turning toward arbitration as the best method of set ting disagreements between employees and employers, and there is 0 bill before the legislature of Massachusetts providing fer State board of arbitration. Arbitration has had long trial in England and it's working there is full of instruction for the people of this country. A writer who is contributing to the Providence Journal a series of able articles concerning the labor problem gives in his last article an account of the rise and progresssof industrial arbitration in England, and the facts he presents are well worth at tention.
 According to this writer, the first great suc- cess of arbitration was inaugurated by MT. Mundella in the hosiery trade at Notting ham. in 1860. But already before that date the unions had been preparing the way for its introduction, and making tentative ad- vances toward it's adoption as substitute for strikes. MT. Mundella, a master in the hosiery trade at Nottingham, had ob served with much anxiety and regret the dis astrous results constantly brought upon the trade by the mutual oppression of masters and men by fierce and bitter strikes. He de- termined to make trial of system of arbi- tration. Securing representatives of the em- ployers, he proposed to the trades unions that they elect an equal number of represen- tatives of the workmen. The unions prompt ly complied, and the two bodies, meeting as board of adjustment, found it 50 necessary matter, after all, to reach an amicable under standing in regard to matters in dispute, that the board was at once made permanent method of communication between work room and office; and it continues in active service to-day. The board consisted of seven employers and seven workmen, elected by the employers association and the unions respectively; they meet regularly once 6 quarter, or oftener if necessary, to discuss in friendly way the rate of wages and other an amicable agreement.
 Within a few years after MT. Mundellas move arbitration became principal rule of all the leading trades unions of England, and remains so. According to the rules of the Society of Operative Stonemasons, when the members in any locality desire to obtain better terms from their employers, the rules require that they shall use "their utmost en- deavors, by correspondence, interviews or conference" to arrive at 'san amicahle agree ment;" and ''only after all such means have failed shall they be justified in suspending work" In the Miners association all differ ences with employers referred for settle ment to standing committee of six employ CTS and six workmen; and with various modi- fcations similar rules govern the action of all the more important unions. And the writer from whom we have quoted declares that arbitration has been an undoubted success in England. He says: This increased facility of communication between capital and labor has inevitably resulted in the diminution of the number and length of industrial risings. We no longer find strikes in England of such severity and length as that of the Ranches ter cotton spinners in 1929, which lasted six months; or of the Glasgow spinners in 1886, lasting twenty nine weeks; or the great Pres ton strike of 1853, which lasted seven months. And whereas these strikes seldom secured for the work man his demands bitration usually awards him some measure of advancement. Every year hundreds of strikes, as proved by the records before us, are prevented or settled in their in- cipience by the unanimity and persistence with which the trades unions insist on ar bitration.
 There is no reason why arbitration should not work as we'll in this country ss in Eng land. We hope to see it thoroughly tried