The wageworker., 1909-10-02
ARBITRATION, COMPULSORY Or
OTHERWISE.

Inc present street car SITUATION IN
Omaha calls renewed attention to the
fact that Nebraska is no longer wholly
an agricultural state, and is therefore
in need of legislation that will recog-
nize changed conditions. Everybody
recognizes that Nebraska is plugging
along under a constitution that is
quarter of a century behind the times,
and that her code of laws is a crazy
patchwork lily becoming such a great
state.
Twenty-Five or thirty years ago the
most sanguine Nebraskan did not be-
lieve that Nebraska would ever
amount to much agriculturally, and
no one believed that industrial pur-
suits would ever be any factor in the
life of the state. Today Nebraska is
taking high rank, industrially as well
as agriculturally, and it is high time
that attention be given to the enact
ment of laws in recognition of these
changed conditions. In the metropolis
of Nebraska today a half-dozen men
on one side who claim tehy have moth
ing to arbitrate, and six hundred men
on the other side who claim-and
justly-that they have a grievance
which they are willing to arbitrate,
have plunged the city into strife, par
lalyzed business and cast a shadow
over the city's future prosperity.
Clearly and emphatically there
should be some method of preventing
recurrence of this sort of thing. 1t
| is true that the statutes provide a
crude sort of intervention, but it is
intelligence of this state on matters
pertaining to the industrial and social
welfare of the commonwealth. New
Zealand, fifty years ago a penal col
us in this respect. We are tagging
far behind Canada along these lines.
Why should any one man, or any
set of men, be allowed to paralyze the
Why should personal feeling be al
lowed to sacrifice the welfare of hun
dreds of innocent men and women?
Why should a public service corpora
tion, dependent for it's very life upon
the people, arrogantly declare that
there is nothing to arbitrate" when
| it becomes involved in a controversy
with a considerable number of the
people who make up the great general
public upon which it is dependent and
to which it owes everything?
If either party to a controversy af-
fecting the public is right, that party
has nothing to fear from arbitration.
| If it is wrong it is only natural that
it should fear arbitration.
Nebraska needs a clear-cut, we'll de-
fined and simple arbitration law. The
Wageworker believes in compulsory
arbitration at the demand
of either party to an industrial dis
pute. 1t would fervently oppose COM
pulsory compliance with the findings
of the board of arbitration, for it
knows only too we'll the cards are
stacked against the party to the con.
troversy who happens to be the wage
Garner instead of the wage payer. But
it demands compulsory submission to
arbitration, being well assured that
public opinion will be quite sufficient
to compel compliance with the findings
of such a board.
Changed conditions in Nebraska de
mand recognition at the hands of the
lawmakers. The next legislature oi
Nebraska ought to get busy in recog
nizing these changed conditions, quit
playing for partisan advantage and
proceed to legislate in accordance
with present day needs.
And above all else Nebraska needs
a new constitution. The quicker tina
new constitution is obtained the bet
; ter it will be for both capital ant
labor.
" ~