LABOR ARBITRATION. The investiga tion and determination of disputed matters between employers and employs.
The subject of "arbitration and concilia tion" with respect to the settlement of labor disputes is at the time of writing one of very present consideration throughout the world. The words quoted are constantly used to gether, but arbitration strictly applies to cases where the parties agree beforehand to abide by the award, while conciliation is the term used where there is no agreement, but the efforts are made by some indifferent par ty as a mediator to promote an agreement between the parties, In Great Britaein the subject of the peaceable set tlement of trade disputes has progressed much more than in this country and in some of the British colonies the subject has reached a very advanced stage.
It is a curious fact that during the struggle in this country to devise some effective system of la bor arbitration, little attention seems to have been paid till recently to very successful efforts in that direction in England which long antedated any American legislation. At a very early period the regulation of wages was controlled by two masters and two journeymen, or, in default of agreement, by a magistrate after hearing both sides, but this was terminated by the separation of the masters and journeymen into two classes, and thereafter wages were fixed either by the employers or the magistrates. The latter system prevailed under the apprenticeship law of Elizabeth, and this contin ued until early in the eighteenth century, except in the cotton factories, which were not within the law. In this industry, there was satisfactory regulation by a joint committee of laborers and employers, but towards the latter and of the eighteenth cen tury, the latter obtained general control and, the ap prentice law was repealed. From then until about 1860, this condition remained undisturbed except by frequent petitions to parliament, although in the book printing business the trades unions secured an arrangement for settling price lista by a joint com mittee of employers and laborers, which was in op eration with good success since 1805.
In 1860 the system of arbitration and agreement originated by a manufacturer, Mr. Mundeila, suc cessfully dealt with the labor problem in the vari ous branches of trade involved in the stocking weaving and glove industries of the three counties of Nottingham, Leicestershire, and Derbyshire. The system, in brief, provided for a court of arbitration and agreement to decide every question relative to wages. It consisted of nine employers and nine
laborers, selected respectively by an assembly of their own class for one year. The court had a reg ular organization with a standing executive com mittee by which all disputes were disposed of so far as practicable, the final judgment, however, being entered by the court. The two interests involved negotiated with each other on perfect equality and the decisions were binding. Under this system, there was no umpire and no provision for the exe cution of the judgment, the reliance being entirely upon the moral force of the statute, conscience, and the pressure of public opinion. The practical work ing of these courts was very successful and, quot ing Mr. Mundella, July 4, 1268, "during eight years we had not a single strike, and never in the history of our city and our industry did there exist such a hearty good understanding between employers and laborers as now." The rules may be found in de tail in chap. 18 of The Relation of Labor to the Law of To-day, by Brentano, translated by Porter Sher man, from which the historical facts here stated are mainly taken.
Another system of courts of arbitration and agree ment was that of Rupert Kettle, a judge of the county court of Worcestershire ; the statutes drawn by him were adopted by the employers and laborers in the building trades in Wolverhampton. They were in their main features similar to the Mundella courts, but differed from the latter in the funds mental point of providing an impartial umpire, and through legal provisions, the judgments were made binding in law. These provisions, however, were but seldom required in practice, as the presence of an impartial umpire had a tendency to produce an agreement without calling upon him ; id. The re sult of the actual working of these two systems for many years is that they have approached each other, in that those of Kettle have become mere courts of agreement and those of Mundella have in most cases elected an impartial umpire who decides in case of a tie. The relation between the trades unions and the courts of arbitration in many dis tricts has become very intimate, the former making in their organization for the labor repre sentation in the latter, paying the laborer's share of the expenses of the courts and enforcing the judgments by expelling members who do not obey them. The courts are similarly supported by so cieties of employers ; Id.