The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-09-05
ARBITRATION.

The following article was cOntribut-
ed by President John Bascom, of Will
Jams college, to the Kingdom, a weekly
paper, published in this city. 1t is a
significant fact that almost if not
quite all the leading educators of the
land take similar position:
The great need of workmen, in their
contests with capital, is legal foot
ing. a legal method of redress. 1t is a
maxim of law that where there is a
right there is remedy. Hence, where
there is no remedy, there is no ac-
knowledged legal right, and the ready
inference is that there is no moral
right The transformation urgently
called for is the turning of the work
mans claim into legal one. 1t
is the absence of a legal remedy that
gives occasion to violence. There is
no redress except through violence,
and violence, as in all revolutions, JUS
titles itself by the necessity'Of the case.
Is there Il moral right which ought
to be turned into legal one? Is there
moral right which can be turned in
to a legal one? When business was
greatly sub-divided, and almost eX-
clusivcly in the hands of individuals,
the employer and the employe stood
on much more equal terms than now
If either was dissatisfied, there were
MANY directions in which to turn
There was thus no great hardship in
the doctrine that each man was It lib
erty. and must be left at liberty to
make his own terms of labor. There
were numerous and independent pos
sibilities of contract which made this
liberty real and approximately equal
one. The growth of civilization, and
of law uniting itself to new demands,
has wholly altered this relation, while
it finds us still clinging to the princi
is largely, in many occupations almost
exclusively, in the hands Of great cor
porations that control villages and
even cities in an absolute way. Not
to secure the favor of such corpora
ton is to be cast off from the means
of subsistence in a given community;
it is to be sent adrift in search of food.
The elements of personal response
bility, personal preference and person
al sympathy have disappeared in these
corporations. Their managers are inn
personal representatives. Of eXacting
claims. There is no dealing man with
man. A neighbours good will affords
no refuge from the hard hand of an
agent.
These corporations have, under law,
obtained an economic, social and even
municipal control by which they can
settle with word where man shall
live, and at times, whether he shall
have any open opportunity for liveli-
hood. Mr.. Frick. at Homestead, Mr.
Dbl Oil,
as much power in determining the well
fare Of their employees as fell to lord
of the middle ages. Under principle
once sound but no longer of unlimited
application, they exercise this control
in the most arbitrary fashion, and in
woke the entire judicial and military
power of the community to sustain
them in it. The workmen have no
legal means Of resistance: the COM
munity, nothing to say as to the inDer
rightfulneSS Of the strife in which it
finds itself involved.
Corporations tend to fall into the
hands of men Of great executive force,
whose stubborn wills yield to nothing.
1t is prepoSterouS in free state that
large communities should thus come
under the unchecked and disastrous
domination of one man.
A change of circumstances brings
with it new social claims. The civil
law, having itself destroyed the bal
ance between the employer and en-
plOye, ought to restore it. There is
here moral right which may well be-
come legal right.
Can it become legal right? The OBJ
viouS answer is, enforced arbitrati
The community through it's judicial
officers should be made a party, first
hand, to contention that concerns
society deeply and widely. But the re-
rponse comes: 1.-THE awards of arbi-
tration can not be enforced. We can
not compel one man to work for an
other, nor one man to employ anOth-
err" Very we'll. We can lay one man
open to legal claims for not working
for another, or for not giving occupa-
stantly in law equivalent to this. We
subject men to damage for actions
which we do not undertake to guide.
Let each of the two parties have
right to summon the other into court.
Make it impossible for a Pullman to
say. "There is nothing to arbitrate."
Assume, as we have right to assume,
that the award of arbitration will be a
lust one. Leave it as the undeniable
ground of legal claim, IT either
party suffers from the refusal of the
other to comply with it lay him open to
damages. Let it be impossible for the
agent of a corporation to dismiss
thousand men, improve IRISH thousand
families, and leave the injurious re-
suits to fall wholly on others. Let the
consequences Of actions follow those
who commit them.
Under this form of arbitration, trade
unions should have legal, corporate
life over against the legal. corporate
life of those with whom they have to
deal. Any losses which trade union
may wantonly infict should fall upon
its funds. THE two parties would thus
stand before the entire community
the proper judge in the premises-and
have each legal method of action.
WilliamstOwn, Mass.