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GOVERNMENTAL ARBITRATION.

"What mighty contests rise from trivial things!"

РОРЕ.

"And sheathed their swords for lack of argument."

SHAKESPEARE.

"Beware

Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in,
Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee."

IBID.

"Thy head is as full of quarrels as an egg is full of meat."

"I won't quarrel with my bread and butter."

IBID.

SWIFT.

X.

GOVERNMENTAL ARBITRATION.

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THE freedom of individual contract is the chief cornerstone in the structure of any system of liberal government. It is something that must be accorded and guaranteed to every citizen, whether he be high or low, rich or poor, employer or employee. Any legislation, or even prevailing custom, which tends to its impairment, is tyrannous. The greatest danger of the present time lurks in new forms of despotism imposed in the guise of humanity and philanthropy. The laboring man has more to apprehend from special legislation — ostensibly in his behalf — than any one else. However plausible new legislative departures may seem to him in their inception, their ultimate working produces hardship. His real interest demands free conditions, prevailing confidence, and general prosperity. To create demand for labor, there must be some inducement for starting new enterprises, and the extension of those already founded. Men of means will not embark in business with the prospect before them of interminable friction, or if the State, in response to demagogic demand, proposes to take control of their business and deny them the right of free contract.

During the last few years, many States have made. provision for tribunals of arbitration, whose business is the settlement of disputes and controversies between employers and employees. These provisions for the machinery of arbitration vary somewhat in detail, but are similar in general plan and operation. General experience up to this

time confirms the conclusion that no practical or permanent benefit can be expected from legal arbitration as a State system. It may be of some use, morally, as a temporary expedient to bridge over chasms of active hostility, or for emergencies when reason has lost its sway; but it is useless as a means for the permanent settlement of differences continually arising between capital and labor, while they occupy their present artificial and antagonistic attitude. Courts are already organized, and laws in force, to construe and enforce existing contracts; but the province assumed by these tribunals (at least in some States) of making new contracts between citizens, and of fixing prices other than those established by supply and demand, is a novel and unwarranted advance in the direction of paternal government.

What manufacturer can possibly have any security in engaging in business, if he be debarred from the natural right and freedom of hiring labor at its market price, or at a rate offered by those who are willing to sell? It is evident that no person or corporation will permit the State to transact their business for them; and if the State insists upon so doing, then business must come to an end. As well have a State board to determine the natural or proper market price for potatoes, clothing, or dentistry. These are the product of labor; and if the value of labor is to be arbitrarily fixed by the State, the same logic requires its application to them. During the French Revolution there was an attempt to do this impossible thing. Even if this were a proper function for this court, it is evident that in order to arrive at intelligent decisions, it must adopt rules and methods of procedure like a court of equity; that is, it must call in witnesses on both sides, and make up a verdict on the weight of evidence. It is also plain that even if the State usurped the right to make arbitrary contracts and prices between citizens, regardless

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