The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1917-03-17
COMPULSORY ARBITRATION.

a Movement. Toward ChatteI Slavery.
In a recent address in New York A.
B. Garretson, president of the Order
of Railway Conductors, said in part:
Now, to talk about compulsory arbi-
tration, whether it is compulsory inves-
tigation or compulsory arbitration, is
an utter absurdity,
The very moment it becomes COM
pulsory arbitration it ceases to be ar
filtration and only becomes another
form Of court, with judge possessing
different qualifications presiding there
in. Take away the right to quit when
he will from the laboring man and you
might just as well enslave him to start
with, provided he will submit to 1t.
There is no difference In principle be-
tween tying man on public utility
or elsewhere to his labor and actual
slavery.
It Is exactly like the idea that labor
is a commodity. If labor is a commod-
ity thfsma who does the labor and
FURNISHES the effort is q chattel. If
man isla free agent, ethically it is the
same flung to make him work for one
hour ainst his will as it is to make
him VI irk for one year or a hundred
againstlhis will.
The Guarantee of liberty, the pursuit
of happiness according to his own con-
cept of what is right, as long as it
doesn't Einfringe, not on the profits, but
on the apparent rights Of others, are
his now, and whenever you take these
away from the meanest laborer that
there is on earth you have deprived
him of Asmething- there are some
of us vet who believe it is God given
and it will bring its logical result.
The mass Of the people are exactly
like the elephant-dangerous when
they learn their strength and when
ever legislation is proposed or is en-
acted that fnfringes on the rights of
marAsfor no cause that can be cited
for the profit of others, not nee
les II the comfort, but for the profit
OIL Eers, It is bound to bring re-
acsaf that win lead the man into the
course that will educate him as to his
strength.
Ii you complain that 100000 men
held up the government what will 3d.
100000 of them do if they can to hold
| up the government?
Are they going to be that govern
ment, or is the other 100000 going
to be the government? 1t is worth
careful consideration. The signs of
the times are not to be disregarded.
| The social conditions that exist are
of character to make every man who
I has honestly the interest of the people
1 at heart, and l am not speaking of
the people as 'peepup either-the great
body of the race honestly at heart, to
give careful thought to whether or not
the crust is too thin for safety, wheth-
er or not evils that exist must not re-
for the correction or whether there is
! to come a cataclysm that will make
previous occurrences of its character
all 60 into the shade.
This is the age of colossal things. If
it comes it will come In a way that
will make it overshadow all former
Industrial upheavals precisely as the
present war blots out of existence viz
tually all of the wars that preceded it,
and it is worthy of the best effort OF
every honest man, no matter what he
is, union man, laboring man, capitalist
or employer, to bring about solution
| that will be equitable to all concerned
| for it will never be settled finally until
| it is settled right, and the strife be-
tween the man who has and the man
who has not will continue until that
day comes, and it is worthy every
mans effort to bring it about.