Westinghouse Friction Draft Gear Westinghouse Friction Draft Dissipates train shocks with en- Manufactured by The Westinghouse Air Brake Co., Pittsburg, Pa. Builders of the Air Brake, 10A When Writing to Advertisers Please Mention The Railway Conductor. The subject of this address is suggested by the freedom with which the term "arbitration" is used as a word to conjure with. Its meaning seems to be little understood. To many people it is something new, and to the popular mind its very novelty places a dangerous glamour about it. The gravity of arbitration and all that it involves is little appreciated, and herein lies one of the prime causes for its abuse. Wise labor leaders and thoughtful employers of labor view it alike with apprehension. Any plan of settling labor disputes that is labeled "Arbitration" seems to catch the popular fancy; but as in all other matters, those who are ignorant of the issues involved and understand the question least, are the very persons who discuss it most, and who are most insistent upon its adoption for everything. With the masses arbitration is the first thought, while with those who are constantly dealing with labor disputes, it is the last resort. eral adoption could be better applied to all those simpler and more practical plans and methods of adjustment designed to render arbitration unnecessary. The popular idea of arbitration is an erroneous one, and if it prevail the labor problem will be complicated instead of simplified. Arbitration's popular synonym is "compromise," and there is nothing more mischievous than a compromise on any question of principle. Some one says: "Let the fine-spun rights of the case go, but get to work!" Could anything be more destructive of the foundations of our industrial life? There are some compromises which bring temporary good, it is true, but ultimate destruction must result, and many who have fulfilled the demands of the written law will stand accused before the "bar of eternal justice" for a wily evasion of those invisible questions and meanings which have their answer deep in the breast of humanity. Speaking from the viewpoint of one whose time is entirely occupied in adjusting differences arising between employer and employe in the coal mining industry of Illinois, I say that arbitration should never be resorted to save in an extremity, and that the energy and interest displayed in advocating its gen*Read before the National Convention of Employer and Employe, Minneapolis, Minn., tember 23, 1902. "What is fairer than arbitration?" is a query heard on all sides. Nothing is fairer than arbitration when arbitration is positively required, when all the parties to the dispute desire their differences arbitrated, and when the arbiters are men who have been selected because of their special fitness for the work. Sep |