Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-26
COMPULSORY ARBITRATION.

COMPULSORY ARBITRATION.
The strike on the New York Central has
evoked, in various parts of the country,
call for a compulsory arbitration law. The
logic on which the demand is based is
simple enough. 1t is virtually that because
we have strike which hampers travel and
traffic, and throws labor out of employment,
which might have been settled if arbitrated,
therefore the need of compulsory arbitration
is evident.
The exact significance of the proposed
remedy might be clearer If its character
were more clearly defined. Whether the
advocates of compulsory arbitration mean
that the law shall force the parties in q
wages dispute to submit their case to official
arbitrators, leaving them at liberty to abide
by the decision or moi, or that it shall be
compulsory on them to submit to arbitration
and do exactly what the arbitrators de-
eide, is something that at present
is left to individual ideas on
the subject of compulsory arbitra-
tion. If one degree of compulsion is
meant, one class of manifest objections arise.
If the fullest stretch of legal compulsion.
compelling men to obey the decision of the
arbitrator is contemplated, the objections
would be Of "a different class, but still more
manifest.
Supposing the idea to be the simpler one
of enacting that when employers and en-
ployed get into dispute they must submit
to arbitration, the principal objections d.
vide themselves into two branches The
first is the difficulty of making a horse
drink after you lead him to water; the Sec
ond is the utter futility of taking that trouble
without any assurance that the decision
will be binding on any party. Suppose
that one of the parties appears before arbi-
tration, makes merely formal plea and
stops there. He puts himself in the wrong,
it may be, and lets his case 60 by default;
but not whit more than by refusing vol
untary arbitration. If a man is determined
not to arbitrate, the mere enactment of a
law that he has got to appear before an ar
bitrstion board and put in some plea or
other, cannot in any material respect
force him to change that position.
And, on the supposition that there is no
legal enforcement OF the findings of the
arbitration board, of what use would be this
effort to make the parties go through the
motions of pleading? The value of arbitra-
ton is that honor and good faith require the
parties to adhere to the verdict of an arbi-
tration. This is usually the case where the
arbitration is voluntary; but not always. 1t
is only couple of years ago that the coke
workers of the Connellsville district struck
against the finding of an arbitration, and
carried their point in the works of the larg-
est employers. As rule, however, people
will abide by the result of voluntary arbi-
tration, because the very essence of that pro-
ceeding is the free agreement of both parties
that they will do SO. But the moment that
arbitration is made compulsory by law, that
basis of free agreement is destroyed, and the
moral obligation to abide by a decision to
which the parties do not consent, is taken
away.
To imagine that the compulsion of law ex-
tends to making people obey the arbitration.
is very different thing; but involves no
less vital objections. Besides the difficulty
presented by the question what the law
would do when 10, 900 men refuse to abide
by an arbitration, as they did in the Con-
nellsville case, there is the further objection
that it would be the most radical invasion
of individual liberty known since the days
of slavery. The workingman could no
longer accept or reject the wages offered him
as be deemed best: nor could the employer
conduct his business for himself Upon the
appearance of the slightest dispute each
would be liable to be called before the arbi-
its decision. the freedom of individual con-
tract would be gone. Consider the case of
the coke workers if they had been ordered
by the courts two years ago to continue
at work at wages which subsequent
events proved to be inadequate. If the
order is to be binding they could
not leave their work for any pretext, during
its continuance; and in that case any of
them could neither go into other industries
or take a journey or exercise individual
liberty as to work, until the order had ex-
pired, and, fresh dispute arising. a new
arbitration would renew the condition of
legal tutelage.
Arbitration, in its present voluntary form,
is a commendable method of settling labor
disputes, because it must necessarily be pre-
ceded by that reasonable attitude on both
SIDES which agrees to submit the case TO un-
prejudiced adjustment and to abide by the
result. That sensible spirit often enables a
settlement to be made without arbitration,
as in this city for two years past. But the
moment that the compulsion of law is
placed upon either party, that moment the
voluntary value of arbitration is destroyed,
and the Government enters upon a course
which can accomplish nothing short OF q
complete destruction of individual freedom
of action.
PIIJMR IN THE WAY