The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-08-10
LABOR AND Arbitration.

1
the Boston Transcript that Congress
is very likely to take steps that will
compel arbitration in all important
differences between the managers of
railroads and those employed in their
operation" an exchange objects that
! Congress may devise a means of ar
bitration and may compel its accep-
tance. But Congress, with the United
| States at its back. cannot compel en-
ployer or employee to accept the deci-
sion of the arbitrators, only as they
can compel a prisoner to accept the
| handouts if it is not to their interest
| to accept it.
That is very true and in that lies
the weakness of all arbitration meth
DDS that have ever been adopted. Yet
the need of something by which the
relations between employers and en-
ployees can be regulated, and the diff
ferences between capital and labor
may be adjusted, is felt so keenly and
arbitration at first sight seems such a
reasonable way of arriving at right
conclusions. that it is ardently advo-
Gated as the one great remedy. But it
/
is nothing to compel compliance with
Ia decision is powerfully weak" and
compulsory arbitration is a contradic-
ton of terms, for the very nature of
arbitration is voluntary submission
of grievances to a tribunal selected by
the parties, and thus essentially diff
ferent from a court empowered to give
judgment which can be enforced.
But the paper referred to goes on to
say:
There is a certain percentage of all
earnings that belongs to labor. Let a
commission be appointed, half employ
ers and half employees to determine
what that percentage is. This once de-
| termined, all strikes will cease, and the
contests, if any, will become one of
figures, to get at and keep at the pro-
per percentage of labor's earnings. Let
a difference arise in a case of this kind
and arbitration will be accepted, be-
cause it would then be a matter of cor
rect accounting only. We can never
govern the human senses by compul-
sion. We find this in attempted pro
hibition; in compulsion to respect the
seventh day as a day of worship. What
we cannot teach a child to do, we can
not, when he is grown up, compel him
to do.
1t is remarkable that the writer, who
sees the weakness of the compulsory
arbitration theory and recognizes the
fact that even an army could not force
the disputing parties to accept the de-
cision given, cannot perceive that the
same lack of power would attend the
determinations of his percentage com
ccin A 10 Of
arranged by such commission, but
what power would compel either the
employer, who found himself unable
to pay wages according to the sched-
ule. or the employees, who are dissat-
isfied with the rate, to stand by the
arrangement in case of a difficulty
about it?
The idea that it would prevent
strikes. is, in our view, fallacious
Why would such an arrangement of
prices be of more force than a deci-
sion by arbitrators? Disputes would
be likely to arise, not only as to
whether the scale was being complied
with but in regard to the scale itself
It could not be made either permanent
or binding. Changes are constantly
taking place in the cost of production,
the price of goods in the market. and
consequently in the percentage which
belongs to labor. And whatever chan
ges might be provided for by action
of such a commission, as we have said,
they could not be enforced if either of
the parties refused to comply.
If a system could be devised by
which the relations of employers and
employees were cooperative, all par
ties being mutually interested and
bound by legal contract as well as per-
sonal interest, a remedy might be
found for the troubles in the world OF