The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-10-19
LABOR AND ARBITRATION
REPORT OF THE INDUSTRIAL CON-
MISSION GIVEN TO THE PUBLIC.
Review of Testimony of Witnesses
Growth of Collective Bargain
ing and Cancellation.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1s.-The industrial
commission to-day made public its report
on labor disputes and arbitration. Ii is &.
comprehensive document, reviewing the
testimony OF the witnesses that have APP
peared before the commission the sub
ject, and takes up in detail the evidence
on collective bargaining, Cancellation and
arbitration and the laws and court de-
cisions governing labor combinations. Lo-
cal systems of collective bargaining and
agreements between employees, il is stated,
have been most highly developed in the
building trades, the brewery, boot and shoe,
baking AMI agreements between employers,
it is stated. have been most highly devel-
oped in the building trades, the brewery.
boot and shoe, baking. woodworking and
metal working trades. some branches Of
the clothing trade and in the transporta-
ton business; I'm other words, where both
employers and employees are strongest or
ganized. BY far the larger number of
written agreements prescribing the condi-
tions of labor are made between organiza-
tions of working men on one side and en-
ployers acting individually on the other
There is a growing movement in favor of
collective bargaining as between organiza-
lions of employers and employees covering
an industry throughout the country or
throughout large sections where the condi-
tons of business are generally similar.
A growing movement is noted toward es-
tablishing state and local machinery for
arbitration in the bituminous coal in
dustry, where there is now, at least
in most mining districts, no effective
method for disposng OF the minor dis
putes which arise from time to time. In
this trade there is especially no permanent
Joint committee for the entire central COM
petitive field to which differences arising in
connection with the interstate agreement
may be ultimately referred. Systems of ar
bitration as to specific disputes have been,
however, established in a formal manner
and on a national scale in the stovemak-
ing. the general foundry, machinists mot
now in existence) and the printing trades.
Among these the printing trade is the only
one which provides for reference of the dis
pute to an outside person where the repre-
sentatives of the two sides fail to agree.
The report praises state boards of arbi-
tratiOn for doing much toward furthering
industrial peace. Legislation establishing
compulsory arbitration as yet has not been
established only in the Australasian colo
MES of New Zealand and west Australia,
where the system Is very far-reaching. The
representatives of employers and working
men who have testified before the commits
sion almost uniformly have opposed COM
pulSory arbitration. Several state boards
of arbitration in the United States also
have expressed their opinion against com
pulsory arbitration as a general principle,
and one or two of the boards have spe-
officially opposed IL in any form. State ar
bitraton boards in New York, Indiana,
Ohio and Illinois have compulsion in GER
tain cases, as where life and public welfare
are endangered or great inconvenience and
| loss are entailed on the people. in rail-
road strikes.