The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-07-10
" NUsT BE ARBITRATION.

Z L
The people Of this country are face to
! face with a question which they must
settle, and which cannot be settled by
bloodshed The question is, shall the
business of the people of the United
States be periodically unsettled by dis
putes between corporations and their
employesf Shall we be brought 70 the
verge OF civil war every year or two be-
cause an employer of labor refuses to
agree with hia employees as to their
wages and other matters?
When the coal miners fall out with the
coal mine owners business is paralyzed
for want Of coal; when q month later the
railroad employees disagree with the
railroad managers the business of TO-
600, 900 people is suspended and millions
Of dollars worth of property 20 to waste.
Now are the 70.000,000 people of this
country going to be called upon to en-
dure this state of affairs very often? The
great public never seems to be taken
into consideration in these matters.
Their interests are not consulted in these
disputes The employers and employees
make war on each other and the public,
whom it is their business to serve, is left
to take care of itself as best it may.
While the proposition that "a man has
a right to run his own business to suit
himself has been generally accepted, it
is beginning to dawn on intelligent
minds that the rights of few thou
sand men are not to be preferred to those
of 70,0O0,0OO people. This is a govern
ment of and for the people When these
periodical disputes occur the seventy
millions are asked and expected to arm
and shed their blood to settle the dis
pute: and this emergency is now begin
ming to arise at least once year.
Are we to be plunged into war every
time a corporation and its servants fall
out? A way must be found to settle
these matters without resorting to the
barbarous and destructive methods of
the middle ages. We are not going to
repeat the horror of 1851. The human
race, in this, the most civilized nation on
the earth, has made some advancement
in the last thirty years.
There is a better way than warfare
now.
Railroad employees have the same right
to combine that railway corporations
have. Each is entitled. to an equal place
in the eyes of the people and in the eyes
Of the law. The shield Of American lib
erty covers both alike Just as patriotic
hearts beat under the overall blouse of
the shop man as under the railroad pres
ident's vest Both are American citizens.
Both have equal rights; and it is the
duty of both to serve his fellow citizens
as part of the common carrier system of
this country.
When they disagree, war is not to be
levied upon one or the other, but both
should be required by law to come into d
court Of arbitration where the merits Of
their dispute can be carefully examined
and each awarded justice. We DO not
allow two men VINO quarrel to engage in
a breach Of the peace. If they do, we see
that they are arrested and fined for
fighting. No more should we allow any
set or sets of men to engage in fight
which disturbs the whole community
and causes wholesale loss to innocent
parties.
Arbitration of these disputes is the
remedy of this great modern evil. Pull
lie opinion is crystallizing rapidly IN this
direction. The mayors Of fifty cities at
the request of Mayor PIngree of Detroit. !
have expressed their ideas on 'the best
remedy" and with scarcely an exception,
they declared that arbitration must be-
come the fixed policy of the future. The /
people of this country will not endure
war; it must be arbitration.