Salt Lake Telegram | 1916-12-03 | Page 21 | Compulsory Arbitration and How it Worked

Compulsory Arbitration And How It Worked S S I It Made New Zealand The Country Without Strikes for a aWhile aWhile al While and Then the F Fatal ataI Flaws Were Discovered Now the Country With the Worst Strikes r rBy By CHARLES EDWARD RUSSELL Written Especially for The Telegram a e. e r Almost every day I find in some highbrow publication learned earned remarks to the effect that what this country needs to save it from railroad and other strikes and from ruin and desolation generally is compulsory arbitration of labor disputes They do not always call it by that name but that is what whai they mean COMPULSORY ARBITRATION What a pity it is that the highbrow editor doesn't read He might in time become almost intelligent If It for instance he should read a little of the history of this subject he would see that the United States doesn't need compulsory arbitration nor anything like it Because what the thing really is and really does isn't any matter of speculation It is a matter of record rec ord anybody ord-anybody anybody can find it One country country coun coun- try has lias tri tried d it out thoroughly and tested it to the limit in an experiment that covered many years and every phase of the subject and the safest bet I know Is that that country will never fool with it again On the surface compulsory arbitration arbitration tion looks fine Why should business be knocked out and the public suffer r while men settle with a strike a dispute dispute dispute dis dis- dis- dis that ought ought to to be settled by peaceful peaceful peaceful peace peace- ful arbitration Strikes are such costly things Besides Besides Be Be- sides even when they are successful they usually require arbitration to adJust adjust ad- ad Just the terms So the wise plan is isto isto isto to have arbitration at the beginning instead of at the end and save all this monstrous waste and trouble No doubt arbitration is a grand and beautiful thing thin and we ought to have havea a a. lot of it But compulsory arbitration arbitration tion is just one or those vain imaginings imag imago produced by minds that know nothing whatever of actual labor conditions con and on that can count four but cant can't count five It Is in fact a product of arr arrested sted development New Zealand sta started ted her experiment with it about bout twenty years ago It was a beautiful law lawand and beautiful was the system it introduced There were to be no more strikes Whenever a dispute arose between workers and their employers it was to be referred to an arbitration court and the court was to determine which had the right of or the quarrel and Issue an award or er finding that was to be accepted accepted accepted ac ac- on both sides And so there I would be peace Instead of strife The court was composed of three I I members one chosen by the labor unions one by the employers' employers associations associations lions and the third appointed by the government This was of course equivalent to toa toa toa a court with one Judge The member appointed by the government really decided everything I For a dozen years or so this device seemed to work without a hitch Not Nota a strike worth speaking of occurred I in all New Zealand The Country Without Strikes it was called around I the world I I The fatal flaw in the arrangement had not yet come to light but it was there ne nevertheless All these years I the decisions of the one-man one court had been on all Important Issues in favor of the workers When they asked for increased wages or better conditions they usually got what they wanted But in 1907 the workers in the great grea meat packing Industry the most imp important single Industry In New Zealand Zealand Zea Zea- land demanded a substantial increase in pay and this was the me straw th that t broke the laws law's back The employers who all these years had been groaning and protesting now declared flatly they could stand no nomore nomore nomore more and if w wages were further increased increased in in- creased they must go out of business The mens men's demands were turned down by the court An award was made mad in favor of the employers The men refused to accept the theaward theaward theaward award and went on strike Then the government began to wake up to a few tew facts it had always over over- looked Awards of the court had been enforced en en- forced upon employers under penalty of stiff surf fines and many had to pay heavily before they learned that the law meant what it said But there was no possible way to enforce the law upon the workers In this instance the government tried fines upon them and got grot judg judg- ments Government could collect such judgments upon employers because they had something that could be levied upon The government could not collect such Judgments against the workers because when the officers officers' cers cers' of the law got to the fhe workers' workers houses there was nothing to levy on but an old knife or a Then it thought of putting the men In jn JaiL Then it slowly began to perceive the essential fact that to compel men men to work on conditions they dont don't want to accept is just plain old slavery and nothing else in this world If they went on therefore they would be on ona ona ona a level with the slave drivers of the gold coast One more experience was necessary to beat the whole of this Into the governments governments government's governments government's gov gov- head It came Boon soon afterward afterward after after- ward in the great coal strike in t tie the e South Island where workers that refused refused re re- re- re fused to accept the courts courts award were levied upon and their household goods seized and offered for sale The owners merely bid them back at 25 cents for each lot and nobody wo would ld bid against them So the thel law w collapsed and compulsory compulsory so sory y arbitration came to an end In New Zealand THE LAW HAS NEVER BEEN REPEALED BUT IS A DEAD LETTER Now when a strike is threatened the government tries to avert It by conciliation and if it that will not do dothe dothe the workers choose an arbitrator the employers another and these agree upon a third But the findings of these arbitrators are not binding Either side may reject reject reject re re- re- re them and there is no attempt to enforce them This plan does not abo abolish sh strikes New Zealand lost long ago her title of The Th Country Without Strikes It has had bad in the last tast five years I Isome some of the worst strikes anywhere But the new plan lets the government out of the preposterous and impossible job of trying to drive men up to work on terms that they reject Any other free government that attempted the same thing would get into the same hole The thing Is utterly impossible in such a country To make compulsory arbitration work you would need a rifle at every workers worker's head and an iron collar coli art about his neck Nothing less less' would be of the least use