New-York tribune., 1912-03-11
COMPULSORY ARBITRATION
A Weapon Against National
Strikes-Dangerous ExpedientS.

and transport services has become IN
evitable in the United Kingdom. Coai
and food supplies must be distributed
! from week to week or nearly every
branch Of industry will be paralyzed and
every working family will be reduced to
starvation. Cotton or engineering
strikes may be local in their effects ana
the calamitous consequences may be re-
stricted to Lancashire or to the Clyde
and the Tyne, but the existence Oh the
nation is dependent upon continuous sup
plies of fuel and food. That is why So
cialists are obsessed with the idea OF
bringing about general upheaval OF the
working classes through national
strike of million miners, supported by
sympathetic movements Of transport
workers and railway men. The social
revolution which will set the bottom lay
ers on top has seemed to be within sight
this week, as Vernon Hartshorn, the
most persistent and reckless member of
the Miners Federation, has held the des-
TIMES of the United Kingdom In the no'-
low Of his hand. Yet assuredly the bow
Of Ulysses cannot remain unstrung when
there is a deliberate menace OF national
ruin. Society must and will protect
itself whenever a catastrophe arises. II
government be unarmed in momen-
tous crisis 1t will obtain the necessary
weapons of defence.
The general proposition may be dis
cussed without reference to the negotia-
tions between the government and the
opposing leaders of the coal controversy,
which are still in progress when this
letter is written. These conferences re-
late to the minimum wage and directly
affect about 15 per cent Of the labor em-
ployed in mines If this can be settled
through the political influence or clever
diplomacy of ministers there may be a
temporary armistice, during which guar
antees Of output, the regulation Of dis
trict rates, the wages of hewers and al
lowances for abnormal conditions Of
labor may be considered. Yet arrange
ments made under artificial pressure
from newspapers and public opinion are
not likely to prove permanent even for
the 10 per cent, and sooner or later the
grievances of the So per cent will be
taken up by Socialist leaders and there
will be renewed attempts to obtain re-
dress for miners by holding up nearly
all the Industries of the land by throw
ing multitudes Of workers in other trades
out of employment and by exposing the
main body Of consumers to exorbitaut
prices for fuel and food. Even IL peace
be made this week through the arduous
bers, who are supporting them, a gigdn-
tic struggle between trade unionism and
capital will merely be postponed for a
few months or years. Sooner or later
pared to intervene with invincible power
in controversies relating to mining,
transport service and railway traffic. and
to command a settlement Of disputes
which are ruinous to the nation.
What can ministers do in a supreme
emergency when the resources Of con-
ciliation are exhausted? Radical jour-
nails talk vaguely about measures OF q
far-reaching character, which may eX-
pose the government to condemnation
for violation Of the rights Of contract
Conservative suggestions are sufficiently
startling. One is that the state shall
undertake TO make good at the end OF a
tentative period any loss caused by the
mems default in output when they are
paid the minimum wage. 1t is estimate /!
that the state could we'll afford to reim-
burse an aggregate loss of 10000
rather than to expose the country to a
general stoppage OF coal. food and work
Other recommendations from the same
source are even more strenuous. such as
the conversion of peaceful picketinE
into a crime, the seizure Of all strike
funds, the closing of trade union Offices,
the arrest Of socialist agitators and Ia
Dor leaders, the proclamation of dis
turbed areas and the criminal prosecu-
ton of all offenders interfering with the
passage Of fuel and food supplies. A
government which proposed drastic
legislation on these lines would abandon
office at once, and 1t would plunge the
country into civil war and multiply re-
cruits for a militant and destructive So
ciallsm.
Before ministers introduce panic meas
ures for appointing receivers for the
mines, for compulsory purchase Of all
coal above ground and for reimbursing
owners losses In carrying out the mini
mum wage, they will have to count the
cost Of these dangerous precedents. Not
tho partisan criticism, which would fol
low suspension of property rights and
arbitrary interference in the relations of
employers and employed so much as
the inevitable consequences Of drastic
measures for averting a crisis in a sin
gle industry. If minimum wage can
be financed by the state by means OF
guarantees for standard output, 1t can
be raised at successive stages under
compulsion OF a threat Of a national
strike. Moreover, If the miners can
carry their demands by menace of eco
nomic revolution, the remaining millions
OF organized labor can adopt similar ex-
pedients for securing a minimum wage
and subsequently raising 1t. Settlements
between employers and employed on the
principle of state aid, as in the case oe
land purchase in Ireland, will become
the new social order. Socialism will re-
ceive a powerful impulse. for trade
unionism will make systematic use OF
the resource Of industrial insurrection
when 1t discovers that ministers are pre-.
pared to adjust wage controversies by