Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-11
AGAINST ARBITRATION
Of the Compulsory Kind as a Return
to the Middle Ages.
THE INPRAOTICABLE FEATURES
Which Would Surely Be Injurious to Both
Labor and Capital.
VIEWS ADVANCED BY JAMES VI. BREEN

VIEWS ADVANCED BY JAMES ". BREEN
To the Editor of The Dispatch:
These are the days of nostrums and
and ''cure alls' for labor troubles. All, or
nearly all, the pretended remedies sug-
gested are the merest "makeshitts, and in
no proper sense meet the difficulties of the
situation. "More legislation" is the tav-
orite fad. This craze for remedial legisla-
tion is not confined to amateur political
economists or everyday harmless cranks,
but doctrinaires, Congressman, judges, and
must it be said, well informed editors have
been more or less smitten with the craze.
If mob disregards the relations of meum
and tuum and defes the posse (don't)
come at sS, the cry goes up from the multi
tude: 'Give us more stringent legislation
against mobs." II corporation is insolent
in the assertion of its rights, and trifes with
the peace of the community, '1aw and or
der" representatives. demand more legisla-
tion to curb these bloated monopolies
If lather slugs the destroyer of his
daughters honor there is quick demand
for legislation that will prevent people tax
acquits the aforesaid there is an urgent
call for ''remodeling of the jury system.
When labor seems to be getting the worst
of it in the ''scale," there is a cry for more
legislation in the interest of the 'wurrick-
ingman." If bad candidate is elected let
us have a new ballot law. even if it be so
complex and Baker-hke that few under
stand it Now, it is well, of course, to have
lust laws and to have them justly admins
tered, in which event there would be
neither riots, nor need of rioters. Many of
these alleged remedies are the merest 'bun-
combe." As ''cure-alls" you might as we'll
offer man who is collapsing with the
cramps an unripe cucumber. The remedy
only aggravates the disorder.
The Latest Curs-Au Offered.
And now that the land has been given
over temporarily to mobs of various kinds,
arbitration is suggested-not the old
fashioned d''go-as-you-please-accept-if-you-
will" kind, but new copper-riveted arti-
Gle dubbed Compulsory Arbitration"
The only trouble with it is that, like
like Grandfather's clock with the pendulum
out, it will not work. Such legislation
would not only, to put it mildly, be of
doubtful constitutionality, but in its very
nature it would be imperative and
unjust, and calculated to smash
things As mere exercise of
sovereignty, the Legislature might pass such
law, just as it might pass a law declaring
that six inches make foot, but that would
be the end of it. In this part of the nine
teenth century you can't, even if Henry
George or Jack Cade Legislature should
= L. Al I -
ual right and (2) industrial freedom, and
reverse the Jurisprudence of centuries. 1
will select two Hypothetical cases of
an employer and employe under such an
act: Suppose the compulsory" tribunal
decides that the employer must paw St per
ton for pudding
The employer may say: 'This is a per-
version of law and an Infringement on my
individual freedom. 1 have an equal
right to get labor on the same terms as other
employers, but if must pay Sc where my
Eastern competitor pays but "a, the consti-
tutional equality disappears. If 1 pay Sc
L will lose money. Is it the function of
legislation to compel Its citizens to lose
money on investments they cannot control?
In Justice to me, the State that fixes the
wages should at least guarantee me fair
profit If its interference causes me a loss
should it not make good that loss or can
the Commonwealth say, like Louis XIV,
I am the State'-wlthout any response
bility? Instead of being protector or a
guarantor the State becomes a tyrant and a
promoter of panics and, industrial revolu-
tions
Sure to Alarm Capital.
'eNo capital would engage in enterprises
under such conditions. When the State
can compel me to run nv business at a loss,
it is in fair way to be ruined itself If
people cannot conduct business at a profit
they will go out OF it, and when capital
does that there will be 'vociierous' but
not 'halcyon' time of it. The award of
such tribunal in any event would be one
sided, and therefore uni ust 1 would be
held to the award largely because 1 have
some tangible assets, but labor in nine cases
out of ten could tear the award to tatters
and walk out of the shop, with no liability
with none to molest him or make him
afraid In other words, the compulsory
feature would not 'compulse.
Now suppose on the other side that this |
august tribunal fixed the puddlers wages at
81 per ton. He NAV say with much 1orce: |
'My labor is my birthright, and it cannot |
be taken from me without my consent. NV |
labor being my capital 1 have right TO sell
it to the best advantage or to refuse to sell |
it at all at the dictates of any tribunal. Ii L |
am q party TO an agreement OF
course 1 will abide by it's provisions
If not, and it is mere substitu-
tion of governmental might for monopoly |
might, might as we'll accept one as the |
other. If 1 must take "a when can get So.
am slave. Not an owned slave as in the |
South pli ior to the war, but hired slave of
the modern style. My understanding is
that the Emancipation Proclamation by
Lincoln is fact. Ifonly the colored man was
emancipated then that is quite another thing.
However, L have something to say about it,
and that something is this: 1 will not ac-
cept the decision of this compulsory |
tribunal, and in tine expressive phrase of |
one VIM. Tweed what are you going to do |
about it?'
What is the answer to all this? Is there |
any reasonable answer. Unless the decree |
had
Cannon in front of it, 4
Cannon behind il,
Cannon to right of ii,
Cannon to left of 1t,
and was as bristling with bayonets and |
penalties as an Irish penal statute, it never \
could be enforced. Il is the old, old story
of one man bringing a horse to the water, |
but hundred cannot make him drink.
Back TO The Middle Ages.
The right ''compulsorily" to fix a wage
turns back the hand on the dial of Anglo |
Saxon progress 500 years and brings Us back |
to the days when the act of Edward I'LL |
(135O) fixed the rate of wages as follows:
Common labor, pence day or $3.50 year