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Show INDUSTRIAL ARBITRATION, AND WHY NOT? IS American labor at war with American Ameri-can capital and must it be a war to the finish? Is capital such a monster that it is not to be treated with until it is on its knees? Is it a Hohenzollern that has brought woeand destruction upon a world and therefore cannot be negotiated with? We think not. Neither is labor beyond the pale of capital. cap-ital. They are not engaged in a war to the death one with the other. Arbitration is going to be used by the railroad companies in deciding the question of wage increase. We have not a doubt but what the railroad brotherhoods will see the matter in the same light. Any other way of looking at this question would be an egregious blunder; worse, perhaps, an unpatriotic unpatri-otic act,' a criminal step when taken in the heart of a world war. The heads of the big brotherhoods at Buffalo met with President Wilson to discuss the situation from all angles. Undoubtedly the President will have assurance that under no condition will the arterial system of the nation be tied up or deranged for an hour. If there are differences to be settled, very well, let them be settled in due time, but work will go on as usual. A strike is a war. At this time a strike in the transportation system, in. the mines, in the great factories, would be a civil war, playing right into the hands of the enemy of mankind. The question of wage increase is an economic one, to be gone over in a practical prac-tical fashion, taking into consideration conditions in other work, cost of living, and profits to capital. Everything pertaining per-taining to the railroad situation would have to Joe investigated in the presence of experts from both sides and an intelligent in-telligent arbitration board before head or tail could be gotten out of the intricate intri-cate business. What would a strike determine de-termine ? That the men were under or over paid? No. If the men won, it would mean very likely that the loss from cessation would be greater than the wage increase; if the railroad executives ex-ecutives won, it would mean that they had the whip hand over labor for the time being. And in such matters of great moment the public has the greatest interest and the public could learn little of the right or wrong of the business through a strike or a lockout. Everywhere the trend is toward arbitration ar-bitration and away from the senseless strike. Most of the. responsible trade unions have taken to arbitration. In the printing print-ing and publishing trades strikes belong be-long to the past. The matter at issue has to be arbitrated. There are big black splotches on the American map showing where strikes and lockouts have taken place to hinder national readiness. Many states are learning from sad experience that strikes settle nothing for long. Rocky Mountain News. r |