Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-07
4 LABOR DECISION
RESULT OF AN ARBITRATION
COMMISSION.
Representative Livernash, Who Was
Attorney for the Union, Gives
His Views.

| Representative Edward J. Livernash to-
| day received from New York formal notih-
| cation of the decision of the important
| street railway dispute which for the last
| six months has been engaging the atten-
| ton of arbitration commission, COM
posed of Oscar Straus, former United States
| minister to Turkey, and at present mem
| her of The Hague peace comm1ssion Fat
| rick Calhoun, the New York millionaire,
| and w. D. Mahon international president
| of the Amalgamated Association of Street
| Railway Employees of America. The de-
| cison is generally regarded as a signal
victory for the labor unions of this coun-
try in that it dscountenances the apphca-
| ton in labor-and-cap tal struggles of the
unchecked law of supply and demand as a
measure of wages.
The Immediate question before the COM
mission a proposal on the part OF the
street railway employees of San Francisco
that they be given an advance of wages,
and proposal of their principal employer,
the United Railroads, that their wages be
| reduced The wages the workmen wished
to have advanced were already the highest
paid in America for street railway service,
and the United Railroads corporation ac-
cordngly urged that the commission should
compare San Francisco with other cities
and give the employer the benefit of the un-
qualified law of supply and demand-a wage
rate on the average American level. The
ton urged that if the unchecked law of
supply and demand were given play the
cause of arbitration in this country would
be seriously set back. The labor unions of
the United States We're all interested in
the case, accordingly, because of the stand
ing of the arbiters and the possible of
thelr award as precedent In other labor
and capital disputes. They have been close
~ following the matter and the national
leaders have been much concerned to the
outcome.
The decision of a majority of the arb-
tration commissioners is in favor of an
advance of wages for all the workmen
concerned-5 per cent for some, 10 per
cent for the most of them; and this result
has been reached by rejecting the law of
supply and demand affording a Just
measure of wages. Mr.. Strauss wrote the
majority opinion, Mr.. Mahon concurring,
and dissenting opinion is to be written
by Mr.. Calhoun, who strongly disfavors
the principle for which the majority
stands.
Mr.. Livernash's Statement
Representative Livernash, who has from
the beginning had charge of the labor
union side of the controversy, and who
as already reported in The Star argued
the workmen's cause in New York recent
ly, said this afternoon:
Il regard the award a valuable vic
tory for the trades union cause in the
United States. 1t establishes a cear-cut
stand, and that precedent will be of large
use in the troubled times ahead.
Capital boldly asked in this arbitration
for the laying down of a rule that in arbi
t1atiOn affecting wages in America the
average wage prevailing in the country at
large should be ascertained. and then the
unchecked law of supply and demand
should be given such application would
oblge arbiters to assume workmen to
be available for the particular service I'M
der consideration at whatever workmen
might be receiving in average cities, even
though-aS was true in the case at bar-tne
wages in such cities ranged lower than in
the center Immediately in question.
Labor replied by quoting Ricardo, thus:
In the natural advance of society the
wages of labor will have a tendency to fall.
as far as they are regulated by supply and
demand and by pleading that concern for
civilization requires earnest and intelligent
opposition to tendencies toward poverty
among the masses-tendencies making from
sweetness and. light, and requires further
that they must be given equitable participa-
uon IN wealth as matter of stability of
government and industry. along the line of
reasoning Lecky expressed when he wrote:
The best security of the industrial fab
ric is to be found in the wide division and
diffusion of property, which softens the
lines of class demarcation and gives the
great masses of the people a close ana
evident interest in the security of prop
erty, the maintenance of contracts, the
credit and wel1-being of the state
"Of course, trades uniOnism-a world
movement for betterment of the toilers-
has set it's face resolutely against the I'M
checked operation of that law of supply
and demand whose normal effect is to
drive downward the wages of labor. In
the last analysis the labor union exists
as a check upon that law, an institution
designed to bring into play higher law
essential justice between employer and
workman.
1T was accordingly urged by our side
that labor union could submit to arbl-
tra ton any of it's disputes with capital,
save on the distinct and necessary con-
dition that the unchecked law of supply and
demand should not be given effect; else
would the union, by resorting to arbitra-
ton, countenanee the very evil it was its
main business to destroy.
Il am much gratied by the determine
ton of the commission to turn away from
the doctrine invoked by the capitalists.
Commissioner Straus very distinctly eX-
presses his belief in law higher than the
law of supply and demand. and 1t is to that
higher law the workingmen of Christendom
are in these days appealing"