The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-09-19
DENYING WRITES ABOUT RECENT
 ARBITRATION

HahU suH aVN
 Clarence Dening of New Haven. who was onelof the recent trolley wage ar bitrators. has contributed to the Rail- way Age Gazette, of which he is an associate editor. an interesting account of the methods used by them in reach the selection of the third arbit1 ator MT. DeIning says:
 "A somewhat unique plan was adopted It was agreed that It was vas should be chosen from Connecticut, and that he be a man familiar with local conditions First to be exclud- ing official relations with labor organ izations on the one hand and public service corporations on the other. hand Next on the excluded list were persons in politics and public life as not be- ing disinterested parties. The clergy men were excepted for two reasons sympathy with the character Of their congregationsSand as even more nEeiy to be swayed by sentiment than the facts. The medical profession went out as unrelated to business, large cognate occupations on account Of p-e- judiced relations with the open or closed shop, and the mercantile class as liable to undue feeling in the maj ter of freight rates. Finally. review of the list of Connecticut attorneys- at-law showed practically none of
 
 or less scorooration business. With the lawyers out, the available groups were reduced to two-judges Of the higher courts of the State and the group of executive educators, includ- ing college presidents deans Of ade- partments and headmasters of large preparatoty schools. to- ,.t1ean Whom were were added professors Of political econ
 The list of 1T Connecticut judges was 5used first and resulted in the choice 4I,; .S7 .,1I1ft from residual group alphabetically arranged, or Judge W. $. Case, of Hartford. judge of the Superior court. who accepted the place. one judge having prevlousiy
 Regarding the findings Mr. Dem- ing says: d., arbitrators, appealing more to their own experience than to the erratic references in the evidence,agreed that there was a rise in the cost of living, which, considered by itself, entitled the men to more pay than was gwen them under the wage scale m 1orce. price principle and economic law of supply and demand connoted by the. oversupply of men on the waiting hst and the lower wage scales Of other eastern trolley lines. The arbitrator for the company urged the general principle as reinforced by other facts,1 notably the increased wages already granted by the company and the ten dency of the dread of the potent Wea- pon of 3 street railway strike to raise wages of the trolley men above the normal market level. His two col leagues urged that the ovefsuppiy or men on the waiting list implied ther ireff1ciency, despite his counter claims that efficiency was reasonably guar anteed by the company's dread Of damage suits and injury to rolling tially agreed that wa ges in other voca- tions were practically no criterion for this case, and also agreed in ignoring 41o exi<7 {17o cal ting to the financial condition of the Connecticut com pany-
 consultation over the question of the. agreement with the company violated by the men; and in his final finding excluded from consideration by> the articles of arbitration, which, in his opinion, referred to wages atone Ine arbitrator for the company, per con tra held that permission given by those articles to each side to present any evidence it desired were the dominating words that w1dened the scope of the investigation SO as to include the whole moral question or the violated compact; and, in ms minority opinion filed, expressed his belief that by refusing to face this moral issue the. arbitration had worse than failed. It ought, perhaps, to be added that at the hearing counsel for the men had refused to put in evidence on the violated agreement, while Q. large amount Of the cOIn- pany's testimony, bore explicitly on the point. In the end the arbitrator for the men concurred with Judge Case in giving them small increase about per. cent.-of pay-Judge Case writing the, opinion.
 t'In looking back over the long ar bitration protracted through some two months-thougI1f the actual hearings lasted through only four days-some brief reflections of a general nature on arbitrations of the kind may be 1n- dulged. In the first place the articles of arbitration should be scrutinized by each side with the utmost care single sentence in them, even a word, may be the turning point of the whole case-especialIy should the third arb1- trator be a strict constructionist or the reverse. The articles should be free from collateral issues and reduced to the direct question involved. Second ly, the cost of living factor is almost sure to figure in wage arbitrat1ons, and may also be reduced follow terms. One side tries to push the cost of l1v- ing up, the other to pull it down. The process is well nigh endless. the re- turns almost sure to be unDrecise. the statistics a great jungle of figures from which the weary arbitrators must at last turn to the not much more definite tests of personal exper1- ence. Thirdly, the management of the arbitration on each side should be Ieft to trained attorneys to marshal and align the evidence and prevent diffI- sir and the same reason. the