The morning news., 1897-07-17
ArbitratIon and the strll.e.

Arbitration and the strike.
Strong efforts are being made to bring
the coal mine owners and their striking
operatives together to arbitrate their diff
ferences, and thus end the disastrous
strike. A number Of official arbitrators,
holding office under state warrant are
keeping themselves in readiness TO respond
to a request from the principals TO the
controversy to extend their good offices.
They are powerless to take action until re-
quested to do so.
Arbitration is unquestionably the clViliz-
ed method of settling differences, and It is
sincerely to be hoped that it will prove ef-
fective in this instance The strike is
costing the laborng people immense sums
Of money which they can i'll afford TO
lose. On the other hand. many Of the
operators seem to have been making a
rather good thing of the strike, as they
have been enabled to dispose of large
stocks of coal at prices some times as high
as $50 per cent advance over the prices
which obtained when the strike went into
effect. The strikers, therefore, are the
greater sufferers.
While the principle Of arbitration is COM
mendable, at the same time it must
be admitted that no satisfactory plan Of
arbtrating labor troubles has yet been
devised. The scate commissions of arbi-
tration are without power to enforce their
awards. The obligation of the parties to
the question to be arbitrated to abide by
the award is merely moral one Should
the finding be disagreeable to either par
ty, there would be no way to
hold the dissatisfied party to the
terms of the verdict To illustrate,
if in the present instance an
arbitration board should make a finding
unsatisfactory to the miners, how could
the miners be prevented from continuing
their strike until their demands were ac-
ceded to? Manfestly 1t would be i'm
practicable, If not impossible. to put them
in Jail; the whole country would cry
out against any such proceedings. They
could not be held in pecuniary damages,
for the reason that they have no money
or property with which to pay damages.
The corporations might be held in pecu-
mary damages If it were not for that
gross injustice and inequality that would
be practieed in enforcing penalty against
one party which could not be enforced
against the other.
1t may be said that, having given their
consent to arbitration, the strikers would,
from their sense of honor, abide by the
award. whatever 1t might be- In mat
ters involving so many persons, however.
it is not safe to take anything for grant
ed We are satisfied that the majority of
Americans after having entered into an
arbitration agreement would live up to
their bargain: but a great many of the
miners are not Americans. They are Ital-
ians Huns, Slavs and Poles of the lower
classes, brought over here by the mine
owners to break down wages. They are
perpeually and notoriously turbulent
one of the coal operators has proposed
a plan, embodying arbitration, which he
says would stop the present strike and
prevent similar labor troubles in the fu-
lure. He proposes to bind the operators
by contract to treat their men and each
other with justice. The contract, among
other things, is TO guarantee uniformity
Of wages, the abolition of company
stores" the uniformity of screens, and
concert of action in various matters. I'm
fair competition between operators, it is
said, is the main cause of the present
trouble. While there may be a solution
of the difficulty in the suggestion, there
is also an obstacle in the way of carry
ing it out. A combination on the part of
the coal operators might be construed to
be "in restraint Of trade" and therefore
come under the ban of the trust hunters
and the antitrust laws.