Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1894-07-21
Arbitration Out of the Question.


exploded issue.
In the first place, disputants, two or
many, cannot be compelled to agree
to arbitration, nor abide by called
arbitration's findings.
If arbitration could be enforced
there would be danger in esery case of
an intolerable injustice to one side or
the other.
|. 1t would compel employers-to
use their language-to run their bust
ness at loss, and eventually into
bankruptcy. Or
>, 1t would compel workingmen-to
use their language-to labor for less
than living wages, and eventually re-
duce them to beggary.
An employer with no orders to fill,
in prison for not running his mine, or
an employee in Jail for not working at
less than living wages, is equally
unthinkable.
And the case is not helped in the
slightest degree by so-called ''organ-
ization," that huge modern entity
which assumes to be labor's proxy in
every situation.
reorganization" can no more decree
a demand for single mans work than
it can confscate nations earnings.
The whole discussion, therefore,
comes back at last to the individual,
upon whose "inalienaJle rights to life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"
the whole superstructure Of social,
moral, political, equitable and eco
nomicI protection rests.
Knowing his own needs, his own
aspirations and his own desires-in
short, knowing his own business better
than anybody or bodies can know it
for him, he is the constitutional arbiter
of his own fate just as he is the natural
architect of his own fortune.
The Organization" may pretend to
secure higher wages, redress griev-
ances and build other atmospheric
castles for him, but it will never and
can never take fathers place for
him at the head of his family.
1t may pretend to confirm to him
patent of nobility founded upon false
senses of honor and pride, but 1t can
no more save him from the moral
blight and inevitable poverty of high
strung idleness than it can attend to
his duties in church or suffer for him
in Jail.
The Elasticity of Human Endurance.
At the opening of the first quadren-
NAL convention of the American Rail
way Union in Chicago. held before
the railroad strike period, Mr.. Debs,
president, is reported as
endorsing the coal miners strike and
saying the time will come, if it is not here
already, when the union will refuse to handle
pound of coal mined by non union men.
Mr.. Debs' plan has within its scope
the seeds of a great deal of temporary
distress for many people.
But the suffering capacity of con-
sumers is almost illimitable.
In proof whereof we revert to the ex
perience of millions in the South dur
ing the war, where and when, the sup
plies diminishing from bad to worse
for four years, the people were re-
duced to a minimum of food and that,
in thousands of cases, without salt
That was time when the soldier
and non-combatant alike faced death
the one a foe on the field, the other
holding his own sis a-ois starvation.
That was time when the soldier
ate his three days rations within
twelve hours and families survived on
invariable corn pone and creamless
rye Coffee" sweetened with sorghum.
1t will be against the people as con-
sumers, then, that Mr.. Debs will wage
his war.
AS consumers we say, for even
every producer who stops work to re-
dress real or supposed injustice begins
campaign against himself Gas
consumer"
1t were better. therefore, for Mr..
Debs, the typical carrier-if he really
wishes to subjugate himself as Il con,
sumer-to refuse 10 haul wheat and
corn, for even though people can live,
and live, and live without bread, they
can live still longer without fuel.
Only These.
The special from Washington concerning
the action of the conference committee with