El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-12-21
COMPULSORY ARBITRATION.

At the recent meeting of the South
ern Industrial convention H. F.
Thompson, of Montgomery, secretary
of the Southern Industrial convention
said he was glad of the opportunity
to address the convention and to cor
rect the impression caused by the dis
torted reports of his testimony before
the industrial commission last June,
and which had a tendency to brand
him as an enemy of labor. Mr..
Thompson spoke in partas follows:
Labor and capital are inherent and
co-equal factors in organized society
as we find it today. 1t is possible TO
conceive of some remote perior in the
past when utilities were free and avail
able to all alike, but as no such con-
dItionS no weXiSt, nor can they be rele-
gated into any such primitive posi-
bilitieS, we must take these as essen
tial and fixed ingredients of civilized
life, and it seems to be that when that
is done this problem of labor and cap
al will be solved. for then neither
will be permitted to claim exemption
from those rules of government which
apply to all other subjects. The trouble
is that both. throug-I some tacit GUS
tom. which has SO long been acquies-
ceu in that it takes on the form and
force of an unwritten law, which ap-
pears to have given to each a privi-
legged exemption from the realm of
government. But remove that unwar-
ranted custom, and declare that these
shall stand alike with all other citi-
zens, and the work of securing a prop
err solution of this question will be fin
ished.
LAS no one can now deliberately set
about the evil of injuring another. why
c1 l,I, FOL I>n v~@
this same requirement? Properly ap-
piled, existing principles and usages of
government would no more permit in
juries to be inflicted by either labor
or capital, the one on the other than
it would permit it between any other
And when you do this you
have compulsory arbitration, just as
all others now have it.
Now let me prove this to you. If
any right is infringed. or any wrong
is committed, affecting citizens under
any form OF government on earth, they
can first settle it among themselves.
This is arbitration, pure and simple.
But if they cannot thus settle it, they
may not call in their neighbors, and
hold a council of war and then de-
eide to settle it vi ct armis. No, they
must resor. to the courts for a settle
ment, and this is compulsory arbitra-
ton. Why should these differences
between labor and capital be exempt
from a similar rule? Compulsory arbi-
tration is therefore the eunciation of
no new principle in Jurisprudence, but
only applying to labor and capital the
same governmental power that is
placed over all other citizens.
strike is a crime against society,
just as much as a mob that takes a
80 80
inflicts summary vengeance upon h,m.
So likewise is lockout to enforce a
demand of capital against labor. CUP
pose a person having the custody of
another attempts to starve that per-
son into obedience of some demand,
how long do you think it would be toll
Grated If found out? Not for a single
moment. And SO a lockout to bring
workmen to accept less than a living
wage is starvation on a larger scale,
and organized society should not per-
nit it. Again, society hangs a man
that stops another on a public highway
and takes his money, but it permits
organized labor to commit a greater
crime in the boycott Under this ban
not only is the individual held up and
mis- property sought to be taken from
him, but even the innocent one who
would furnish him with the necessar-
les of life, is similarly injured, and
yet we claim to live in a civilized and
Christian land. Gentlemen of this con-
vention, should such things be pos
sible under any form of government,
much less under one claiming as we do
to set standard that the whole world
should take for their guidance.
rs it not about time for us to vindi-
cate that claim, and before attempting
to Christianize heather lands do more
missionary work here at home? The
south is starting on an industrial ca
reer which can make her supreme in
the industrial world, but before she
may hope to reach that supremacy,
she must take such action as will Sc
cnro her industrial