The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-03-26
A coon PLAN.


Within the past five years, certainly
within the past ten, it is that the move
ment has become general on the part of
employers and employees to come together
and adjust among themselves the causes
Of difference that may arise. Within
that period, too, 1t has been made plain
that that mode of conduct has been more
generally operative in bringing peace to
public Intervention of any kind.
In all of the leading industries today,
especially in those in which a more than
ordinarily high order of intelligence is
looked for among the men. there is but
little difficulty encountered In agreeing on
a scale of wages or on the other eondi-
lions attending the following of their call
ing by the operatives. Take the union
printers employed on newspapers Among
them the custom Is to enter into an ex-
press agreement with their employers for
ternational Typographical union and the
Publishers association approach the set
tlement of terms in just the same spirit
as any two business bodies might do,
and come to an agreement. with little if
any more friction.
There Is another plan which in opera
ton has been found very effective 1t is
referred to by Prof Commons in the cur
rent Review of Reviews as Negotiation -
1t is in operation among the freight han
dlers along the great lakes on the one
side and the superintendent and bosses
who represent the employing interest
on the other. 1t is in vogue, too, among
the bituminous miners and their bosses
as representing the mine owners, as we'll
as among the men of certain other call
ings, like the associated industries in the
metal trades.
In actual operation negotiation is
something like this: The men and their
bosses meet periodically and appoint
committees to confer. These committees
receive proper instructions from the
bodies they represent They meet in joint
session, where are put forward their
demands and counter demands. They are
referred back to their constituents as
the negotiations progress for further in
structions, as needed In this way they
thresh out their differences, each side
insisting on all that it can insist on an
giving way only when It has to. The
agreement finally decided on is the one
acceptable to both sides, and the only
one which is possible of being reached
between them. 1t is a plan adopted In
order to avoid strife, and is reached by
what might be called a purely parlia-
mentary method of conduct
Here men and employers through
their representatives meet on terms of
positive equality, and thereby the
chances of agreement are greatly en-
HANGED. This general plan has been in
operation among the bituminous coal
miners for some considerable time past.
and since its adoption there has
been no difficulty, however slight, among
them, while before industrial warfare
was the normal condition, bloodshed was
frequent, and each interest looked upon
the otfer as it's natural and implacable
enemy, with the result that the mining
of bituminous coal at = profit was a
commercial impossibility
A more general extension of this plan
of operation would be highly desirable
and must inevitably result in at least
further extension of the principle now
in frequent operation, of periodical
agreements entered into between en-
ployers and employees in the several in
dustries.