Show i. i t Why Arbitration AJ Is Scorned The public pubic not knowing all of the aims back hack of the demands of or the railroad brotherhoods demands brotherhoods demands which threaten to result in a paralyzing strike see seems s unable to un understand erst nd why the e worker cr should hesitate to submit their cause to arbitration In the first place the brotherhoods d demand mand to know what t specific points are arc to be orbit arbitrated The are not willing to put the entire entire c controversy before before before be be- fore a board for final decision W. W S. S Carter president of the B Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and in a statement i labeled Why the eight hour work day is right declares that Arbitration is an unsatisfactory method of settlement Commenting arbitration which he calls The game of oil chance President g. g says in this circular Chance il Arbitration a Game of Can you call to mind a single instance in which workers at any trade have secured the eight hour eight hour day through arbitration The mine workers were forced to inconvenience the public pubic for many months by a great strike before they secured the hour eight-hour day Of 4 course now the public is glad that they were were for it t was their s sacrifice that thus helped to make this a better country to live in in The printers bricklayers carpenters and all the rest of them secured an an hour eight-hour day through Iong long and repeated strikes strike but who of you inconvenience nce All mothers of liberty Ilber y nd human now regrets your rights have suffered labor pains of the future by of the past If If the railroads may judge experiences they thoy p perhaps feel safe in submitting the present eight hour eight hour question to toan have already secured the an arbitration board The railroads cooperation co oper I 1 aHon of all chambers of commerce and other employers' employers associations in in their proposal that railway be now forced to submit their hour eight-hour proposition to arbitration r In the last Western arbitration locomotive hostlers who have g- g always been required to woi wor k twelve helve hours every day ay in the year asked for a ten-hour ten day and the arbitration board decided that they should f continue to work twelve hours But in fairness to the board it should be said that it was not believed by an anyone one that hostlers could support their families in decency on twenty-five twenty cents an hour unless they did work twelve hours per day After having refused to reduce a twelve-hour twelve day to a ten-hour ten day it would be radical to expect another arbitration board to reduce these same hostlers to an hour eight-hour day What courts are ever radical In an engineers' engineers arbitration they found the neutral arbitrator to be bea a retired railroad attorney attorney afflicted afflicted with old age bad digestion and I acute prejudice to prejudice to such an extent that he did not attempt to conceal his antipathy to the engineers The railroads railroads' representative in this arbitration I then tion was so much fairer than the neutral arbitrator that he conceded I more more than the so-called so neutral arbitrator wanted to give I In an arbitration of matters concerning conductors and and trainmen office ex-office holders holder or lame ducks rendered a decision that made the I victims say as though they meant it Never again In the last arbitration of wages and working conditions of western en engineers engineers en- en I firemen and hostlers the board was dominated by a man who I as director or trustee was directly concerned in the result of the award Aside from many millions of dollars of other railroad holdings much of f which would be affected by the aw award rd he was direct r of a trust company that owned one block of approximately of first mortgage mortgage mort mort- gage bonds of one of the railroads parties to the arbitration When his railway financial connections were discovered and official protest made against his continuance on the board the were officially advised ad advised ad ad- that while it had not been known that he was thus connected a knowledge of that fact would have been favorable rather than otherwise otherwise other other- wise to his appointment and that nothing has been brought to our knowledge since his appointment as an arbitrator which in our opinion disqualifies him as an arbitrator But ignoring past experiences let us presume that there is an arbir arbitration arbitration arbi arbi- r ton of this present hour eight demand of railway and that in picking PIC In the jury every effort is m made de to appoint neutrals entirely free of pr prejudices In such an event it is but tossing pennies to decide the question If the mental attitude of the men appointed is favorable to railway at the time of their appointment it is a two-to-one two chance that the will win If the neutrals' neutrals past environment has been eer such that it would require much evidence to convince them of the justice of of the mens men's demands no hour eight-hour day will be awarded If the president of the American Federation of Labor is selected as a neutral neutral arbitrator he will with perfect honesty and sincerity award railroad men the hour eight-hour day If a president director or an attorney of some great employing corporation is appointed with just as much honesty of purpose he will deny the hour eight-hour day If someone is appointed appointed ap- ap pointed who presumably has no mental bias it will be nothing more or orless c less than betting on the red against the black Why has h s not n t the suggestion sug estion been made that the entire matter be settled by pulling straws and thus relieve everybody of the bother |