The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-02-13
For Arbitration by COM
pllsion.
Continued from First Page)

are expensive to all parties concerned
and because they tend toward anarchy
Statistics were produced showing that la
borers lost in wages through strikes from
1881 to 1900. 1907 GOO, GOO and employers
during the same period lost $142, coo 600
$500 FER cent OF the strikes during this
period were successful 1872 per cent
partly successful and 1925 per cent
wholly unsuccessful.
Trade agreements cannot settle these
disputes, because they are based ubon a
calculation Of enlightened selfshness. II
is true that all men are selfish, but that
all men are enlightened is not true.
''The report OF the Industrial Commits
sion of 1902, shows that voluntary arbi-
tration has failed in England, Germany,
France and wherever tried in America.
1t is only the man that feels he is going
to lose by : strike that is willing to ar
bitrate
Compulsory arbitration is the best
settlement, because it is final because
it protects the interests Of that much
eminently fair to all parties concerned
because its underlying principles are ter
nally right
MIR. MARSH FOR NEGATIVE.
Mr. Reuben Dwight Marsh, of the Eu
Society, spoke on the negative sIbstan-
TALLY as follows:
Arbitration voluntarily entered into is
the ideal settlement of any dispute and Is
approved by All but compulsory arbitra-
ton as a settlement of industrial dis
putes; is known nowhere in this world
except in three unimportant colonial pos
sessions OF Great Britain.
In the first place, compulsory arbitra-
tion is impracticable because il is univer-
sally opposed by both capital and labor
Labor is especially pronounced in oppos
ing settlement Of industrial disputes by
the State because capital has come to
exert such an enormous power in all de-
partments of our government
At present the total membership of
trade unions in the United States is APP
proximately 100000 and this is only a
small per cent. of the total industrial pop
ulation. This is an immense host for the
government to provoke to insubordina
ton.
Suppose that rs, 1000 organized laborers
should refuse to accede to the decision OF
q court OF arbitration. In such case the
only thing the States can do is to impose
fines or Imprisonment. Multitudes of
these laborers have no property. The
State knows no punishment for such peo-
pie but imprisonment Conceive then OF
the enormous expense of compelling by
Imprisonment 10000 men to obey the
Judgment of a court of arbitration.
Article 8, Section 81 OF the Federal Con
stitution provides that the trial Of all
crimes except in cases of impeachment
shall be by jury. The Fourteenth Amend
ment of the Constitution declares that no
State shall deprive any person of life, lib
erty or property without due
process OF law. BY reason OF this safe
guard the findings of a court
of arbitration, IS in the case Of all
other lower courts, would be subject to
revision by the higher courts. This is
tie stupendous process it would take to
enforce arbitration.
Then the State must control capital. l
have already spoken of the dominating
attitude of capital. Compulsory arbitra-
ton strenuously opposed by capital and
labor is impracticabe.
Compulsory arbitration is inconsistent
with the fundamental principles of our
government Freedom OF control Is one
of the best recognized principles among
American iurists. AS protection of free
dom of contract. the following kinds of
laws have been declared demonstrations
al: Statutes limiting the hours of labor;
laws forbi66ing employer to measure
wages by screened coal; laws providing
that employees must be paid at stated in
tervals and forbidding contracts for
longer time
Nowhere in all the world has compul-
sorry arbitration been established except
IN three colonial possessions OF Great
Britain. In only one of these, New Zea-
land, has it been actually tested; and OF
that test F. G. Ervington, Secretary OF
the New Zealand Liberty and Property
Defense League, says: "The act in CUES
ton is a symbol of perpetual Intestinal
war. 1t generates political strife, resent
ment, suspicion, and reprisals subversive
of the State The same subject is dis
cusse1 at some length by the New York
Times, showing that the system is indeed
failure in New Zealand And from
that discussion is established beyond
question the fact that it would also fail in
the United States
Mr.. NERNON CONCLUDES.
Mir. j. H. Vernon, Jr., followed Mr. A.
L. Fletcher, saying in substance
"By compulsory arbitration the very
purpose, that of settling disputes, would
be destroyed. Rather a court would be
este blished for the purpose of fixing
wages and requiring employers to pro-
vide employment for workmen, powers
which undoubtedly must cause serious
trouble and which are inconsistent with
M1erican principles. Moreover, we con-
tend that such powers granted to the de-
cision of q. court is not arbitration but
retter involuntary servitude.
There would be still more grave objec-
items to this system when we should I'M
dertake to PUT it into operation, namely.
the selection of a board of arbitrator
who were acquainted with the situation
OF every industrial trouble, OF defining
their jurisdiction, of regulating the contro
yersy in order that both parties should
he Justly treated.
I'VE appreciate the necessity of set
ting disputes between capital and labol
whereby these disputes the public is suit
feling, but the settlement must be made