The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1894-07-25
Compulsory Arbitration.

Compulsory arbitration is the panacea
that the striking element is now de-
handing, and, in response to the clamor,
bill providing for enforced arbitration
of certain labor difficulties has already
been introduced in one of the national
houses. Arbitration is the hearing and
determination of controversy by per-
sons chosen by the parties. Its advan-
tages are the spontaneous and volun-
tary character of the submission, and,
when made compulsory, it is no more
arbitration than any suit at law or in
chancery is arbitration. The difference
would be-and that would be the only
substantial difference, though most
important and dangerous one, that a
new and untried judiciary would be
established to try class of questions
which the settled wisdom of all systems
of jurisprudence have deemed outside
the province of the judiciary to deter
mine. What one man or body of men
shall pay or demand for labor are ques-
tons which always have been, and al
ways should be, left to the parties con-
cerned to adjust. The right of one
man to hire labor in the cheapest mar
ket is no more, nor is it any less, sacred
than the right of another to sell labor
to the highest bidder. Any attempt to
interfere with the right of contract in
these regards trenches upon personal
liberty in form that would prove most
repugnant to the instincts of the Amer
lean people.
Moreover, there are insuperable diff
fculties in the way of enforcing any
system of compulsory arbitration on
these lines. Who is to compel large
body of irresponsible laborers to work
for certain corporation at the arbi-
trated rate of wages in case the result
of arbitration is unsatisfactory to them,
and what force will be brought to bear
to compel corporation to carry on a
business at daily loss? At whose whim
will arbitration be invoked, and under
what circumstances? The conditions
of business are so variable, so dependent
upon the ability and resources of the
men concerned, and thousand other
mutable circumstances, that an attempt
to keep the relations of labor and cap
ital in constant adjustment, except on
the basis of supply and demand, would
result in the most clumsy kind of pater-
nalism. Better by far that the govern
ment should have absolute charge of
certain lines of industries than that, by
the impracticable device of compulsory
arbitration, the same result should be
attempted by indirection and another
expensive judiciary system, stimulating
litigation and provoking discomfort,
should be saddled upon the country.
The courts already have authority
sufficient to protect both labor and cap
ital if that voluntary obedience would
be given to law and order which no
legislation can compel. They have
jurisdiction to set aside contracts which
are against public policy, and they ex-
ercise this jurisdiction to protect labor
in many cases fearlessly and impair
TALLY; but the power to make contracts
for men-repugnant, very likely, to
their desires-is an authority that
should be delegated to no body of men,
however wise or disinterested. The
truth is, that, while there is undoubt-
eddy much in the labor conditions of
this country that needs adjustment,
there is comparatively little that is the
proper subject of, or remediable by, ar
bitration. The cutlery for arbitration
confesses the absence of any legal
wrong. The courts are open to all who
knock at their doors. There is no lack
of able counsel to discover for client
his wrongs and undertake their redress,
and, in their last analysis, there are
few wrongs resulting in actual pecu-
mary lose which do not have their APP
propriate remedy in the courts.
Senator Edmunds attributes the
troubles in the last few weeks to an
overdose of Europe, and there certainly
is greater need of good citizenship than
of any compulsory method of arbitrat-
ing labor differences other than those
already vested in the courts.
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