The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-12-28
A WAY TO END STRIKES.

Coming to public notice as they do
at a time when there has just been
averted what would have proved to be
one of the most disastrous strikes in
the history of this nation-that of the
enginemen on the western railroads.
the views of Premier BRAND or
France for the prevention of strikes
are bound to attract considerable at
tention. Surely the time is approaching
fast when some steps must be taken
that will be sufficient to make strikes
impossible on the part of the employees
of public service corporations, and
also make impossible the development
of conditions in the management or
such corporations and the treatment
of their employees that would give the
latter reasons for going out on
strike. Countless people, besides en-
ployers and employees, would be con-
cerned in a strike that would tie up
the arteries of commerce in that large
section of the nation which is tapped
by all the railroads running west OF
Chicago. The same would be true of
any other section of the country. Such
a strike, were it to be maintained for
any considerable period of time, would
work more or less hardship on almost
each and every individual in the strike
zone. The wheels of all the other in
dustries besides the railroads would
falter and many of them would stop.
There are other activities, also, be-
sides railroading where strikes work
untold damage to others in addition to
the parties directly concerned.
1t is NJ. Brands plan to have
created in France a permanent con-
Citation commission, composed of
representatives of employers and en-
ployees as well as outsiders, to which
the workers shall submit such de-
mands as they may have for the
ameliorAtion of conditions under
which they work. If this commission
is unable to bring the warning factions
together, then the differences must be
submitted to arbitration. In other
words compulsory arbitration is pro-
Vided. And that appears to be the
only way in which the differences OF
labor and capital can be settled effec-
lively without the necessity of a
strike. 1t is M. Brands belief that in
such a method of Cancellation and or
bitration, workingmen will be provided
with a weapon to obtain their rights
which will be just as powerful as the
strike.
Some labor leaders appear to go on
the theory that in urging labor to sub
NIT it's grievances to arbitration, or
making arbitration compulsory, it is
being deprived of its rights and that
the practice of such a plan would have
a tendency to destroy the effectiveness
of organized labor. This is a narrow
view to take. That conditions develop
from time to time in all kinds of en-
ployment which make it burdensome
for the employees to greater or less
extent, no one win deny. Nor will
any one deny the right of labor to
seek an amelioration of such condi-
lions. That this can be done through
compulsory Cancellation and arbitra-
ton is indisputable. Honest laboring
men and workers in every human ac-
tivity want no more than their just
dues. They may be pardoned for
being accorded such treatment by
their employers. At the same time
the demands they make may be a
trife unjust. Their employers also
have certain rights in the premises and
have conditions to deal with that the
laborers often do not fully appreciate.
And it would seem eminently fitting
and fair to all concerned that disputes
between employers and employees on
questions arising from conditions de-
veloping on both sides could be more
satisfactorily settled by impartial ar
bitration than in any other way.
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