The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1904-08-28

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million men, or over a quartz OF all the
Observation-Disclosures I'll the King dom or gan
tied sintoSmlners unions in 1901 sss is. ID
Ii 1t was tho miners who. among TIERS
led in the movement towards concili a-s
ton and arbitration, but for many years
they me t Wit h the \ greatest difficulties. II
Before 4 1870 the condition of the miners,
was unspeakably bad |, and during. the
thirty years from 1912 to 1871 tho miners
of Northumberland struggled continuous
3ly for grecognit ton. & It was In the tier
year that the Mort hum berland miners
fHere finally cognized. e and the expert
iment was 50 successful that recosn milton
gradually flowed ins he 10 tier mining
counties 81 Great Britain. and general
agreements were everywhere made with
tho miners organi "a io1,s.
The Sliding Scale Principle
In casting a bout for#a sis upon which
to form agreeme the unions accepted
sliding seal es is bas ed upon he idea that
wages must follow prices, and that when
the price OF coal sisos, wages must Else
and when prices II fall !, wages must fall
Although this sliding scale was tightly
praised at first and was joyously ,: hal lied
as the solution s OF M the al whole s. labor
problem, 1t soon began to show defects.
In bad !. times the sliding scale aled 4Sto3
Eprice cutting Of the most re ckless sort.
Land wages fell 4: below a. point 81 at which
hit was Il possible to 8naintain ii Q decent
standard OF living. u The miners, eBpecial-f
! iy in Yorkshire, demanded that, sliding
scale or no sliding scale. a certain mint
mum wage must be guaranteed, and II
was claimed that prices could not and
should not re ulate wa gcs. The miners;
asserted, and here Is now the conten-i
ton Of trades unionists throughout the.
5world, that wages must regulate prices
up to the point OF SguaranteelnEsa mini
mum living wage, and that no industry!
or business cannot guarantee this living
wa SO has a moral Or economic light Of
lsexistencc.. Pf ut
This principle q has now been q dopted.8
at least In a 5qualifie sense, throug hout
the mining Ind ustry5 Of Great Britain, and
At has been taken up and accented by
other industries. here now exists In
the various mining counties OF Great
Britain Joint boards " Of conclliatio
whose dutyit IS to regulate wages 4 c-5
|Scording to the state OF the Industry. The
important thing. however, is that q maxi
mum &5 and a minimum wage was
esta blished 8 so that $S an employer
knows that he will not have to-
|3pay above q certain amount, and $ the
is assured that wages will not
! fall below a certain ate. Between those
1.-TWO points tho rat e OF wa ges ma u oscil y
Hate according to he state Of the indus
,5try. wages rising In good times and fall
Ting In bad, but he n ormal $averag state
j2ofsthe Industry seems in the pas Z to have
given the miners something like fifteen
per cent. above the guaranteed minimum;
Everything to Insure Peace.
b In these arran gements for Joint agree
3ments between the mine owners and the
mine workers everything is done to er-s
sure peace as far as possible. The agree
lsmcnts are made for indefinite periods
t5subjcct to $55: terminate ion #s Upon a3 5thrcoi
months notice upon either side. The
i5joint committees are made up OF IN
\ equal number Of n represe tptives from
each side. usually amounting to fourteen
Sqr4ritteen. Wherever posi- BILE. he agree
sments are made without the intervention
| of an arbitrator or outside person, but
permanent arrangements exist for the
appointment OF a fair minded and disin-s
lstertested chairman, WHOSE services may
ISbe called upon In the event9o a failure
Ito agree. The manner of selecting this
chairmansi Is worthy OF notice. Both sides
attempt to agree upon the selection OF
a chairman i who will act permanently,
4 but II Is determined III advance by the
I3rulesuf the joint board that upon failure
Ito agree upon n chairman, the Speaker
| OF the u House OF Commons vii q be re-
tSquested to appoin Il q. man who Will act
1 In this capacity. This system has work
ed admirably, both the miners and the
operators 3nppea ring to place implicit cons
| lfidence In the Just ico2 and "Reminiscences
Eof the man appoint ed. even where they
l{haye failed to q & rec and the selection.
has been lmndo i by the Speaker OF the
/ House OF Commons, s33 i. N ny
The tendency In Great Britain Is for. the
functions of the Npernlanent chairman to
f8become even more Important, w hen first
called upon. he seeks to conclliate the par
ties and to bring 4 them to g common
agreement, but upon fa II res to q ccolll-
lSplsh this purpose no has tho right to
decide the case absolutely and to tix the
wages at gsonle point between, the maxi
mum and tho milllmunl, From this judg-
ment there Is no appeal. There Is always
M danger that an arbllTato WI weaken
1.-the powers OF tho represe ia Ives of the
1.-TWO sides and encourage them to persist
int,lnrea sonahles demands in tho hope tina t
1.-The arbitrator may & I've them sonnet hing,
hut 1t Ia noteworthy hat ~ the British
coal mining Industry the great majority
4ofs; the cases have been decided not by
tho arbitrator. but by common agreement
IsbetWean the parties. X: RI 4 s sss
Work Of Cancellation Boards, i,