St. Paul daily globe., 1895-09-16

| these conditions did not exist, where
the building of the road was exceed
| ingly expensive, through tunneling,
] high grading, sharp curves and all the
| other conditions which make a road of
| the highest cost, that rate would be
unreasonable and unjust.
| 1t is, therefore, for the commission
| to determine, subject to the review
| and the revision of the courts, as to
the reasonableness and business of
| freight rates. So the government of
| the United States is now, so far as law
is concerned and so far as the federal
government has committed itself, in
control of the freight rates of the rail-
roads of this country. That the law
has been to a certain extent failure
has nothing to do with the principle
involved.
NO POWER TO FIX WAGES.
The adjustment of difficulties aris-
ing between the employees Of railroads
and the corporations must rest upon
precisely the same principles: yet it
must be emphatically understood that
government has no right and no power,
even if it had the right, to fix the rate
of wages. 1t may fix, within certain
citations, by specific declaration, the
rates at which passengers shall be
transported; it may fix also the rates
at which freight shall be carried; and
so the courts have held; but it cannot,
under any circumstances, fix the price
of labor or the price of commodities.
Every attempt of government to fix
prices has resulted in more or less dis
aster. The experience of our own col
onies, following as they did some of the
habits and customs off the mother
country, is sufficient to prove that gov
ernment cannot fix rates of wages and
prices of commodities. What can it
do, then? What function has the gov
ernment in relation to the contro-
versies which arise in railroad work?
1t can make a declaration similar to
that contained in the interstate COM
merce act, that wages and rules shall
be reasonable and just.
When a controversy arises on a rail-
road involving the wages of it's en-
ployes, and the two parties have not
the moral character which will enable
them to settle the difficulty between
themselves after mutual conference
and the exchange of views. the matter
should be left to referees, which re-
feresS may be in existence by an act
of law or called into existence by the
dCLS Ol IuG lWo Pal llcS lHNOlNC GU, IL
matters not which, but let us suppose
that it is the government that has
created board of arbitration to which
the subject matter in controversy can
be and should be submitted.
The board can then make an investi-
cation and declare whether the rate
of wages or the rules in existence at
the time of the controversy and which
are the subject of it are reasonable and
lust. And it can declare if they are
not reasonable and just what wages
and rules are reasonable and just
under all the conditions existing on
the particular road in controversy. 1t
cannot say if the wages which prevail
are unreasonable and unjust that the
road shall pay what the board con-
siders reasonable and just wages or
that the men shall accept what 1t de-.
termineS.
Such a. Judgment would inevitably re-
suit in government control of the rates
of wages and the price Of commodities,
for If the court or the board or what
ever tribunal might be authorized to
consider a controversy, should decide
that higher wages must be paid, and
the award should be enforceable, as
the judgment Of a court Is enforceable,
it would practically and effectually fix
the price of labor and indirectly the
price of commodities which labor pro-
duces. ,t.a.6 ~
LEADS TO SOCIALISTIC STATE.
Such a result would lead directly to
a sccialistic state, and the ultimate
outcome would be the destruction of
industrial ORDER and hence Of social
order, which depends upon the peace
and prosperity of the former for its
| continued existence. For these rea-
sons, briefly stated, compulsory arbi-
! tration can play little or no part in the
| adjustment of labor controversies.
| But law can provide that the two
parties to such a controversy, having
| submitted their claims to a board of.
| arbitration, can consent that the
| award of such board shall be final, and
| if not final in the estimation Of either
| party, subject to the review of
| proper court, the Judgment of which,
| by consent Of the parties, shall be en-
forceable as a judgment at law. This,
to my own mind, is as far as the gov
| ernment can go in the adjustment OF
| troubles which arise upon railroads;
| but this Is essentially voluntary arbi-
| tration, because compulsory arbitra-
| ton involves two things-frst, that
| either party can bring the other into
| court, as In an ordinary suit at law;
and, second that the prevailing party
| can compel the other, under all the
| power and force of Judgment at law,
to accept the conclusion. This means
the carrying out Of the prevailing judg-
ment with all the power Of the state,
both civil and and military, and would
| mean not only the destruction of in
| dustry, so far as 1t was applied, but
the destruction or serious impairment
of the social structure itself, because
society Is built upon the success of the
industrial world.
| Modern society ignores militarism
| and is built upon industrialism. So if
compulsory arbitration should be re-
sorted to or be provided by law, we
should simply be carrying ourselves
back to the military order, from which
we have happily emerged, instead of
abiding by the principles which under
lie industrial order. The function of
! government ceases, then when it has
provided machinery which parties will
accept, and has announced what is
reasonable and just. It goes beyond
it's power when it insists that the ma
ties will or not. But this arbitration,
high-minded as it is, cannot solve the
problems of labor as they relate to
railroad employment.
Whenever there is great railroad
strike the press Of the country, the
thinkers, the law-abiding citizens in
sist that there shall be some means
established by law by which railroad
employees shall be recognized as public
servants, as well as the servants of
the corporations they Immediately
serve. When the great strike Is passed
and is declared Off by the parties MAX
ing it ard by the public, too, this de-
mand ceases to have any force, and
whoever suggests then, when there is
no struggle on, that some means ought
to be adopted by law, under the senti-
naent Of the public, to prevent such
struggles again or to reduce their
severity. is very sure to run against
all the vested interests of the country.
REMEDY SUGGESTED.