The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1892-09-15
Railway Problem.
BY A RAILROAD MAN.

Railway managers of the present day
have to face two distinct problems
With those who use the roads there are
disputes about rates and facilities; with
those who operate the roads there are
disputes about wages and Organiza-
tions.
The question of railroad rates is con-
stantly under discussion and there has
been a decided though slow progress
towards it's solution. No such pro-
greSS can be observed in the relations
between the railroads and their en-
ployes. A period of labor troubles
comes and directs public attention to
to this matter. But when the strikes
are over the public and the railroad
managers forget all about them, and
go on in the same needless way as be-
fore.
Yet railroad strikes involve more
vital problem than disputes about rates.
The question, what we are to pay for a
given service is less serious than the
question whether we are to have that
service at all, and it is in this last form
that the matter comes before the pub
lie in the event of wide spread rail
road strike.
A railroad corporation must perform
without serious interruption the work
for which it is chartered. Whatever re-
servatiOn the courts may make, the pub
lie demands continuous service. If the
present system does not secure such Serv-
ice, there will be demand too power
full to be resisted for change of system
But may the wOrkmen be allowed to
take advantage of this necessity and
thus impose upon the corporation what
ever terms they please? Obviously not.
Such cause would make people justly
unwilling to invest their money in rail
roads. 1t wddld interfere with the sup
ply of capital necessary for the develop
ment of the country. 1t would actually
injure the employees themselves, by
diminishing the chance for employment.
The case would be parallel to that of
the granger legislation with regard to
rates, fifteen years ago, when the ship
pers, by depriving the railroads of all
chance for profit, deprived themselves
of the railroad facilities which they
needed for conducting their own busi-
ness.
The problem we have to face is this:
How shall we enforce upon the cOrpO-
ratiOns the necessity of performing
continuous service without, at the same
time, enabling the employees to take an
unfair and destructive advantage of
this necessity? Some say by stricter
laws with regard to combinations. The
difficulty cannot be overcome in that
way. 1t has often been tried, and has
as often failed. While it is not true
that thousand men have right to do
what one man has right to do, it is
generally true that the attempt to sup
press the thousand men by sheer force
proves worse than useless. There is
reason to hope that combination laws
may be improved, and that the mutual
responsibilities of employer and en-
plOyed under the labor contract may be
better defined. Others hope to see the
difficulty solved by system of COM
pulSOry arbitration, unfortunately no
general solution is likely to be attained
in that way. There are certain rather
narrow limits within which arbitration
is useful, when trouble arises from
misunderstanding rather than from
controversy over vital point, the mere
chance to talk things over calmly may
prevent conflict. The French courts
of arbitration about whose success so
much has been written, are not COM
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