The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1903-05-09
; COMPULSORY INQUIRY rs,
! COMPULSORY ARBITRATION
9 BY
By CHAS. FRANCIS ADAMS.

prepared a. communication setting forth
certain Massachusetts experiences, dur
Ing previous similar troubles, as being
worthy Of consideration They sug-
gested a possible solution, practical in
character, of what are known as labor
troubles"-the conflicts between en-
ployer and employee which result in
strikes and tie-ups. Printed in vari-
Gus papers, this communication caused
at the time some discussion. More
recently I have been applying the ex-
perience then set forth, and the prin-
ciples advocated, to the existing and
more serious complications which have
since arisen. I have also been in COM
munication with Col. Carroll D. Wright
and Mr.. Henry Cabot Lodge, one Of the
senators from Massachusetts, discuss
ing the facts and theories involved,
with a view to what may be considered
an outcome based ON the systems, polit-
ical and constitutional, as well as the
labor conditions, and the social and
industrial organizations, existing to-
day in the United States. With a view
to ultimate satisfactory results, the
effort has been to recognize facts, and
to make action conform to them. My
purpose to-day is to set forth as brief
1y as possible the conclusions so far
reached.
In the communication referred to,
first called attention to the nearest ap-
proach to a practical solution of the
labor problem in accordance with
American conditions, ideals, and tradi-
tons, which has, SO far as I know, yet
been devised and put in use. And, in
making this statement, lay emphasis
upon the word American; for hold
it to be quite useless to take a system,
whether purely ideal and theoretical,
or even, in other countries, practicable,
and apply it generally. The first es-
sential to success in constructing or
developing any system of laws is that
such system shall be in conformity
with the conditions, ideals and tradi-
tons of the community for which it is
designed. To ignore them, much more
to run counter to them, is to court
failure at the outset. AS Alexander
Hamilton said more than a century ago
Of the United States CONSTITUTIONAL
government must be fitted to nation
much as a coat to the Individual; and
consequently what may be good at
Philadelphia, may be bad at Paris, and
ridiculed at Petersburgh." In like
manner, a system of legislation de-
signed to regulate the relations of labor
and capital may work we'll in Austria
liza, but it by no means follows that a
similar system would work well in
GREAT Britain or Germany; and a sys-
tenn which might be practical, if not
reasonably satisfactory, in Bohemia
and Austro- Hungary, would almost
surely prove quite otherwise in the
United States.
This 1 am we'll aware is a common
place, almost indeed, platitude. And
yet it is necessary to premise it care
fully; for, just so long as men are what
they now are, unusual eXigencies will
under any system Of government, from
time to time arise; but, when such dc
arise, it is always very noticeable how
the air is at once filled with sugges-
tons of remedy, either quite untried or
borrowed from other lands. And such
are recommended for immediate adop-
ton, wholly regardless of our constitu-
ton, laws, political organization or this
spirit of our industrial development
This is emperical, and, in these mat
tiers, empiracy is Of all things to be
Stunned.
come now to the experience have
referred to. There is, in the State o.
massachusetts,, and has been for ove1
thirty years, a Board of Railroad Com.
missioners. In the history Of thai
Board there was one important, bu
now quite forgotten, incident, from
which a highly suggestive lesson ma!
be drawn. It occurred twenty-five
years ago. The Massachusetts Rail
road Commission was organized on thu
theory, that, in adjusting matters o
difference between the community AM
it's railroad corporations, the vestin,
of arbitrary power in such tribuna
was a hindrance to it rather than
help: for the reason that in Americ,
force is in the long run less effectiv
in producing results than investigation
and subsequent we'll considered recon
mendations based thereon. The appea
was in every case to be made to reason
and public opinion, and not to tn
sheriff or the soldier. Accordingly, il
the event of differences between tn
corporations and their employees, eve]
those resulting in strikes and tie-ups
the Commissioners had no executive
power. 1t was their duty, in a genera
way, to take official cogniZance of tn
fact when the community was sustain
ing an injury or an inconvenience, an
to investigate the causes thereof. Hav
ing so Investigated, the Board was EN-
powered to locate the responsibility
for the injury and inconvenience, an
to make it's recommendations accord
ingly; but those recommendations ha
. merely a moral force. They could b
addressed to the parties concerned an
to public opinion, only. Their effec
greater or less was measured by tn
justice and good sense impressed upo
them. The Commissioners, moreover
disavowed any wish to be clothed wit
larger powers. They feared the pos
session Of such powers. They wer
persuaded they could in the end &C
complish more satisfactory result
without them.
This theory was soon put to tes
At four o'clock in the afternoon of til
twelfth Of February, 1877, all the loco
motive engineers and flremen in tn
employ of the Boston & Maine Railroa
Company stopped work in a bod,
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