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 III 
 
 
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 The Canadian Method of 
 
 Preventing Strikes 
 
 and Lockouts 
 
 Address by 
 
 HON. W. L. MACKENZIE KING 
 
 Former Canadian Minister of Labor 
 Delivered at the Annual Dinner of the 
 
 RAILWAY BUSINESS ASSOCIATION 
 
 DECEMBER 19, 1912 
 

 *v 
 
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 of this pamphlet will be welcome from all those 
 desiring to place it in the hands of their repre- 
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 or sent direct to lists upon application to Frank 
 W. Noxon, Secretary, Railway Business Associa- 
 tion, 2 Rector Street, New York. 
 
 TfllfH 
 
 Form B104 
 

 The Canadian Method of Preventing 
 Strikes and Lockouts 
 
 Address by 
 
 HON. W. L. MACKENZIE KING 
 
 Former Canadian Minister of Labor 
 
 Delivered at the Fourth Annual Dinner of the Railway Business 
 Association, the national association of manufacturers of railway 
 materials, equipment and supplies, at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, 
 New York, Dec. 19, 1912 
 
 I have been asked to speak this 
 evening on the Canadian Industrial! 
 Disputes Investigation Act, but before 
 doing so, may I express to you my sin- 
 cere thanks at the honor which you 
 have conveyed in inviting me as your 
 guest this evening. May I, Mr. Presi- 
 dent, thank you this evening for the ex- 
 ceptionally cordial welcome which you 
 have extended, and the more than gen- 
 erous words in which you have phrased 
 it. I would like also, gentlemen, to 
 thank you for the honor in allowing 
 me to be associated on this occasion 
 with so distinguished a citizen of your 
 country as Mr. J. J. Hill. (Great ap- 
 plause.) 
 
 Coming from Canada, it is indeed a 
 pleasure to remember that Mr. Hill, 
 though today an American citizen, was 
 at one time also a Canadian (applause). 
 Ours is the land of his birth ; yours is 
 the land of his adoption. If there ever 
 was a time when I had the privilege 
 of approaching anything in the nature 
 of fame, I think it was this evening 
 when I learned from Mr. Hill that I 
 had the honor of being born within 20 
 miles of where he was born (laughter 
 and applause). 
 
 Well, gentlemen, we of both coun- 
 tries feel pride in his worthy and no- 
 ble character, and in the vastness of 
 
 his achievements. Each country has 
 profited by his example, and his work 
 is at once the prophecy and its ful- 
 fillment of the inheritance which we 
 have in common (applause). 
 
 To be born on the North American 
 continent, whether to the north or to 
 the south of the Great Lakes and the 
 49th parallel is to have not merely the 
 opportunity to share in the work of 
 fashioning the future of one country or 
 the other, but it is also to have the 
 greater opportunity of participating in 
 the work of furthering commercial su- 
 premacy, industrial supremacy, and the 
 maintenance of peace along lines of 
 enlightened development, which make 
 the growth of a nation, the growth of a 
 continent, stand out in the van of hu- 
 man progress, and make its enlightened 
 development the envy of the civilized 
 world (great applause). 
 
 THE AMERICAN PEACE 
 
 At this particular time, gentlemen, 
 while Europe is adding another chap- 
 ter to the tragic story of international 
 strife, and the curse of competitive arm- 
 ing is engendering the hatred and the 
 passions of men and of nations, we, as 
 the President of your Association has 
 said tonight, are approaching the cele- 
 
 257154 
 
bration of ioo years of peace along the 
 boundary line of no less distance than 
 4,000 miles, a boundary line which ex- 
 tends from the Atlantic, which unites 
 us to Europe on the one side, across to 
 the Pacific which unites us with Asia on 
 the other. Along this great frontier 
 we of the New World have substituted 
 granaries for arsenals and factories for 
 forts (applause), and for rivalries in 
 fleets and in armies we have substituted 
 the rivalries of commerce and trade, 
 to the advancement of the good of our 
 respective countries, and of this Conti- 
 nent, which we share in common, and 
 to the fostering among our peoples of 
 the amenities rather than the animosi- 
 ties of life. 
 
 INDUSTRIAL PEACE 
 
 This, gentlemen, is a circumstance 
 which as time records its story will 
 have an important bearing upon the 
 part which this Continent will play in 
 world supremacy. If to the mainten- 
 ance of international peace we are 
 able to add something in the nature 
 of stability and maintenance of indus- 
 trial peace, this continent should rise 
 to a position of commercial and in- 
 dustrial importance, while Europe and 
 the nations of Europe carry around 
 their shoulders the legacies of past 
 wars and the burden of existing arma- 
 ments, and Asia struggles for the light 
 and learning which has given us the 
 civilization we enjoy today (ap- 
 plause). 
 
 It is from this point of view that 
 I wish this evening to speak on the 
 subject of industrial peace; to speak on 
 the Canadian Industrial Disputes In- 
 vestigation Act and to touch, where the 
 occasion seems to permit it, on some 
 comparisons between that legislation 
 and existing legislation in this country, 
 and possibly existing experiments in 
 other lands. 
 
 FIRST CONCILIATION ACT 
 
 The Canadian Industrial Disputes 
 Investigation Act was the outgrowth 
 
 of previous legislation and of experi- 
 ence gathered from previous legisla- 
 tion, and its working not only in Can- 
 ada, but in other countries as well. 
 The first act enacted by the Federal 
 Parliament having to do with the ques- 
 tion of industrial peace was the Con- 
 ciliation Act of 1900. This act was 
 copied from the Conciliation Act of 
 Great Britain of the same name, the 
 act under which Sir George Asquith 
 has effected so many splendid settle- 
 ments of recent years. 
 
 The Conciliation Act was a voluntary 
 act and did not apply compulsion in 
 any shape or form, but provided ma- 
 chinery whereby the State,, upon the 
 request of either of the parties to a 
 dispute, or of its own motion, might 
 lend its good offices toward the friendly 
 mediation or settlement of a threat- 
 ened or existing dispute. That was the 
 first act which was introduced by Sir 
 William Mulock, at that time Post- 
 master General of Canada. 
 
 RAILWAY LABOR DISPUTES 
 ACT 
 
 Three years later it was followed by 
 another act, the Railway Labor Dis- 
 putes Act, which, as its name im- 
 plies, was confined to disputes on rail- 
 ways, actual or apprehended disputes 
 calculated in some way to impede the 
 progress of the mails or dislocate trans- 
 portation. This measure was some- 
 what similar to the Conciliation Act, 
 in that it provided machinery by the 
 State for use in the intervention and 
 settlement of industrial disputes, but 
 it went one step further. It provided 
 machinery whereby in the event of a 
 difference of statement between the 
 parties, there would be some means of 
 getting at the facts. It provided the 
 true facts of the case under oath. It 
 made provision for establishment of a 
 Board upon which each of the par- 
 ties to a dispute might be represented, 
 and gave that Board the power to sum- 
 mon before it witnesses, to compel the 
 production of affidavits, to take evi- 
 
dence under oath, and to prepare a re- 
 port in order to influence public opin- 
 ion. That was the extent of the com- 
 pulsion in that particular measure. 
 It simply provided machinery similar 
 to machinery existing in the courts at 
 the time to enable the parties to get 
 better at the facts. It contained, how- 
 ever, no provision of any kind of re- 
 striction one way or another. 
 
 ORIGIN OF PRESENT ACT 
 
 In the summer of 1906, or in the early 
 spring of that year, the mines in Leth- 
 bridge, in the southern part of the 
 Province of Alberta, were stopped, ow- 
 ing to a strike. That strike continued 
 until late on into the fall, and sud- 
 denly the people in these Western prov- 
 inces of Canada icalized that they were 
 face to face with the approach of win- 
 ter, and that owing to the cessation of 
 ope^at.r'on in these mines they had no 
 coal with which to meet the situation. 
 For a time the Canadian West was al- 
 most in a state of consternation. They 
 had not grasped the thought. They had 
 not realized during the summer months 
 that ihe supply of coal on which they 
 would be dependent in the winter was 
 not forthcoming, and it was only when 
 the snow began to fly that they began 
 to take estimate* of what they had in 
 the way of provision for the winter, 
 realized that winter was upon them 
 and that they had not the wherewithal 
 to meet the situation. 
 
 To show the condition at that mo- 
 ment, let me read a letter which was 
 sent by one of the settlers on the plains 
 to Sir Wilfred Laurier, who was 
 Prime Minister of Canada at that time. 
 
 As the assertion of a free man of his 
 lights as a free man, and the obliga- 
 tions which he has a right to expect 
 from the State, it is, I think, an his- 
 toric document. It will appeal to you 
 all, I am sure, as one of the most in- 
 teresting of human documents. 
 
 A HUMAN DOCUMENT 
 This letter is dated: 
 Local Improvement District of 
 Ramsay, 
 Saskatchewan, Nov. 19, 1906. 
 "Dear Sir Wilfrid: 
 
 The hamlet of Bladworth is the 
 supplying point for settlers in ap- 
 proximately 12 townships surround- 
 ing. 
 
 "These townships have approxi- 
 mately 50 settlers each settled 
 therein. The country is open rolling 
 prairie, devoid of trees. The settlers 
 depend for fuel on wood or coal ob- 
 tained at the nearest railway station 
 — Bladworth. The local dealers se- 
 cure their wood from the Prince Al- 
 bert country, and their coal from the 
 Gait mines, Lethbridge. No coal has 
 been obtained from this latter source 
 since April last. One car was ob- 
 tained from Banff in September last, 
 since which no coal has been received 
 here. Ten cars are under orders from 
 Lethbridge and none delivered. One 
 car is ordered from Estevan and 
 promised by the mine operator for 
 Dec. 17 next. 
 
 "Wood has been ordered from the 
 Cowan Company, Prince Albert, and 
 their answer is: 
 
 M 'We have neither slabs, edgings, 
 nor cuttings, and though we have in- 
 quired, we are unable to purchase 
 any cord wood as there is none in 
 the city/ 
 
 "Settlers have been burning lum- 
 ber at $30 a thousand, willow bram- 
 ble, twisted hay and grain. These 
 sources are well nigh exhausted. 
 
 FACING DEATH 
 
 "Dr. J. Fyfe reports from observa- 
 tion that no fuel is in the settlers' 
 hands, and that suffering and per- 
 haps death will ensue therefrom. All 
 public schools are closed for want of 
 fuel. The Saskatchewan Hotel, a 30- 
 roomed house, has but one fire. 
 
 "A blizzard has been blowing on 
 Nov. 15, 16 and 17, with zero 
 
weather. I leave you, sir, to imagine 
 what the condition of your fellow 
 subjects is in the electoral division 
 of Batoche — a name not unknown in 
 history. This condition is not local, 
 but general. 
 
 THE RIGHT TO LIVE 
 
 "We are informed that those per- 
 sons operating the mines of the peo- 
 ple are disputing over their rights, 
 regardless of the right of the people 
 to live. I would respectfully ask, 
 that you, sir, put an end to a dispute 
 that is intolerable, and the mainte- 
 nance of which endangers the life 
 and happiness (inalienable rights of 
 all free people) of all settlers. 
 
 "I ask you, sir, on behalf of a 
 suffering people, that by the powers 
 vested in you the right of eminent 
 domain be exercised. 
 
 "I can assure you, sir, without ex- 
 aggeration that this matter is one of 
 life and death to the settlers here, 
 one requiring immediate action. 
 
 "Your obedient humble servant, 
 "WM. L. RAMSAY, 
 "Chairman of Committee." 
 
 DIFFICULTIES OF MEDIATION 
 Well, it would take too long, gen- 
 tlemen, to recount the circumstances 
 which brought that industrial dispute 
 to a close. I hope you will pardon 
 the personal reference, if, for the sake 
 of helping to make clear the purpose 
 underlying this Act, I mention to you 
 that having been sent to deal with 
 that particular situation, I encountered 
 amid these circumstances the two ob- 
 stacles which I imagine most men, who 
 have had anything to do with the set- 
 tlement of industrial disputes, have en- 
 countered on a great many occasions: 
 In the first place the difficulty of 
 getting the parties to meet together; 
 and in the second place, the difficulty 
 of getting accurate information in re- 
 gard to disputed points when they are 
 together. 
 
 Now, what was the situation in Sas- 
 katchewan at that time? There were 
 
 settlers all over these prairies practi- 
 cally on the verge of freezing to death 
 in their homes. There were municipal- 
 ities unable to give any assistance one 
 way or another to the people who be- 
 longed to them. There was the Prov- 
 ince itself, absolutely incapacitated in 
 the matter of bringing any relief. There 
 was the will of the people of those 
 provinces, the will of the people of the 
 whole country, as expressed through 
 the Dominion Parliament, desirous to 
 affect the situation, and absolutely 
 thwarted in its endeavor because the 
 parties preferred to stand and debate 
 the question whether such-and-such an 
 action might mean the recognition of 
 a union, or whether such-and-such a 
 statement was or was not true. 
 
 ORIGINAL ISSUE FORGOTTEN 
 
 To make the situation more exas- 
 perating, one found, as I think one will 
 usually find in connection with disputes 
 that run on for a little time, that the 
 main trouble had ceased to be the ques- 
 tion at issue at the outset; that there 
 had come to be an endless number of 
 bickerings and bitternesses, and that 
 the difficulty of getting over these 
 prejudices and hatreds, which had been 
 engendered during the course of the 
 struggle, was a much more difficult 
 task than the settlement of any ques- 
 tion of actual condition of hours or of 
 wages. 
 
 Well, gentlemen, it was having this 
 situation in mind, having the folly and 
 the criminality of such a set of cir- 
 cumstances impressed indelibly upon 
 my mind that on returning to Ottawa, 
 after that experience, I made up my 
 mind that if it was possible to gain ex- 
 pression in legislation, to any measure 
 which would help in the future to pre- 
 vent a national calamity of that kind, I 
 would use what chance might come to 
 hand toward the attainment of that 
 particular end. And so, after reaching 
 Ottawa, Parliament being in session at 
 the time, I ventured to set out the 
 circumstances, and make one or two 
 
recommendations. This is taken from 
 the report given at the time: 
 
 ACT RECOMMENDED 
 "When it is remembered that organ- 
 ized society alone makes possible the 
 operation of mines to the mutual benefit 
 of those engaged in the work of produc- 
 tion, a recognition of the obligations 
 due society by the parties is something 
 which the State is justified in compell- 
 ing if the parties themselves are un- 
 willing to concede it. In any civilized 
 community private rights should cease 
 when they become public wrongs. (Ap- 
 plause). Clearly, there is nothing in 
 the rights of parties to a dispute to 
 justify the inhabitants of a province 
 being brought face to face with a fuel 
 famine amid winter conditions, so long 
 as there is coal in the ground, and men 
 and capital at hand to mine it. Either 
 the disputants must be prepared to 
 leave the differences which they are un- 
 able to amicably settle to the arbitra- 
 ment of such authority as the State 
 may determine most expedient, or 
 make way for others who are prepared 
 to do so. 
 
 INVESTIGATION FIRST 
 "Inasmuch as coal is in this country 
 one of the foremost necessaries, on 
 which not only a great part of the man- 
 ufacturing and transportation indus- 
 tries but also, as the recent experience 
 has shown, much of happiness and life 
 itself depends, it would appear that if 
 legislation can be devised, which, with- 
 out encroaching upon the recognized 
 rights of employers and employees, will 
 at the same time protect the public, the 
 State would be justified in enacting 
 any measure which will make the strike 
 or lockout in a coal mine a thing of the 
 past. Such an end, it would appear, 
 might be achieved, at least in part, 
 were provision made whereby, as in 
 the case of the Railway Labor Disputes 
 Act, all questions in dispute might be 
 referred to a Board empowered to con- 
 duct an investigation under oath, with 
 the additional feature, perhaps, that 
 
 such reference should not be optional 
 but obligatory, and pending the investi- 
 gation and until the board has issued 
 its finding the parties be restrained, on 
 pain of penalty, from declaring a lockout 
 or strike. 
 
 "In view of past experience and the 
 present situation, I would, therefore, re- 
 spectfully recommend that the atten- 
 tion of Parliament be, at as early a date 
 as possible, invited to a consideration 
 of some such or other measure with a 
 view of preventing a possible recur- 
 rence of an experience such as this 
 country has been forced to witness dur- 
 ing the past month, and of promoting 
 in the interests of the whole people the 
 cause of industrial peace.' , 
 
 SCOPE BROADENED 
 
 Well, gentlemen, the recommenda- 
 tion contained there was subsequently 
 elaborated into the form of a bill, and 
 this bill was introduced into the House 
 by the Hon. Rudolph Lemieux on Dec. 
 17, 1906. The House of Commons and 
 Parliament generally having in mind 
 the experience of that year were in a 
 mood to take up legislation of that 
 kind, and it passed rapidly through 
 the House of Commons to the Senate, 
 received the Royal Assent on March 
 22, and became law from that time. 
 
 Now that measure, as I have already 
 indicated, while originally framed with 
 a view of protecting the public, trans- 
 portation companies, manufacturing 
 concerns, and all classes in the com- 
 munity against the possible recurrence 
 of a situation which might produce a 
 fuel famine at a critical time, was 
 widened so as to include all those 
 classes of industries which we designate 
 generally under the term of public 
 utilities, those industries which have to 
 do with the serving of the public gen- 
 erally, and which depend upon the 
 public in such large measure for their 
 success. 
 
 So the Act was broadened to include 
 transportation companies of all kinds, 
 street railways companies as well as 
 
steam railway companies; mines of 
 every class, metalliferous as well as 
 coal mines, other agencies of communi- 
 cation and transportation, such as the 
 telegraph and the telephone, electric 
 lights, waterworks and civic works of 
 different kinds, all that vast group 
 which are so familiar to each of you 
 under the head of "public service utili- 
 ties." 
 
 That is the scope of the Act at the 
 present time, and in considering this 
 work and the effect of it, this should 
 be kept in mind, because it goes much 
 further in the classes of employees to 
 which it applies than much existing 
 legislation in other countries. 
 
 INVESTIGATION OBLIGATORY 
 
 The provisions are very simple. The 
 Act provides that where a strike or 
 lockout is threatened in any one of 
 these industries, before such a strike 
 or lockout can legally take place, the 
 parties must refer their differences to 
 a Board for settlement. The act pro- 
 vides machinery by which they make 
 this reference. Each party, the party 
 about to strike, or the party about to 
 lockout, must serve a notice informing 
 the government that unless a Board is 
 appointed a strike or lockout will take 
 place ; that they have exhausted all pos- 
 sible means of arriving at a settlement 
 between themselves, and that they ask 
 the government to appoint a Board. 
 
 The notice served on the government 
 contains a statement of the differences 
 and a copy of that statement is re- 
 quired by the act to be sent to the other 
 party to the dispute. 
 
 SPECIAL BOARD CHOSEN 
 
 Then the Minister of Labor calls 
 upon each of the parties to name a 
 member for the Board. The men who 
 are applying or the company that is 
 applying, in the first instance, are 
 called upon to name one member; the 
 opposite side are called upon to name 
 a member, and these two chosen in this 
 way meet together, and are given an 
 
 opportunity to agree upon a chairmai 
 
 If they are unable to agree upon a 
 chairman within a specified time then 
 the Minister of Labor himself appoints 
 a chairman, or if either party fails to 
 name a member of a Board themselves, 
 the Minister of Labor appoints someone 
 to act in the place of the party not 
 making the appointment. 
 
 This Board when it is appointed has 
 almost the powers of a court. It may 
 compel the production of documents; 
 it may subpoena witnesses ; it may take 
 evidence under oath, but its duty is pri- 
 marily that of a conciliation board in 
 the first instance, and a board of media- 
 tion, and only secondarily that of a 
 court. 
 
 OFFICIAL PUBLICITY 
 
 Once the parties have been brought 
 before the Board in this fashion, if the 
 Board through its good offices can 
 bring about a settlement by concilia- 
 tion, it prepares its report and sends it 
 in to the government. If, however, they 
 are unable to effect any settlement, then 
 the Board prepares a report, which is 
 given to the public, and announced 
 through one of the government organs, 
 given to the press, and sent broadcast 
 throughout the land, and that report 
 sets out what in the opinion of the 
 Board is the real trouble at issue, and 
 what, in its opinion, ought to be done 
 in justice to the situation to prevent a 
 strike or a lockout. 
 
 AWARD NOT COMPULSORY 
 
 There the function of the govern- 
 ment ends. There is nothing in the act 
 which compels the acceptance of this 
 particular award. It is not compulsory 
 arbitration. It is simply compulsory in- 
 vestigation. There is no restraint upon 
 the parties. Once they have had this 
 inquiry in the matter of whether a 
 strike or lockout shall take place, they 
 may do just as they please about it ; but 
 the act has this feature to it, that if 
 the public is subjected to the incon- 
 venience of the cessation of operation 
 
in mines or upon railways, or any of 
 these utilities, the public knows what 
 the trouble is about, and what, in the 
 opinion of men who have been ap- 
 pointed to look into it, appears to be 
 the right and the fair thing to do. 
 
 THIRTY DAYS' NOTICE 
 
 That is the act as it stands at the 
 present time. There have been one or 
 two clauses added since the Act was 
 introduced. One of them is a rather 
 important one. This has to do with 
 the notice which companies are sup- 
 posed to give or men are supposed to 
 give companies before any changes in 
 wages or conditions affecting hours take 
 place. The Act provides that at least 
 ^o days' notice must be given by either 
 party wishing to change the status quo 
 in that particular. That at first sight 
 may see somewhat arbitrary, but if 
 you stop and think, all these large con- 
 cerns, for the most part, have long 
 standing agreements, and a 30 days' no- 
 tice is a very customary thing in most 
 cases ; and the significance of that notice 
 is the more apparent when I explain 
 this feature to you. 
 
 When the Act was introduced, some 
 of the men felt that in some of its par- 
 ticulars it put a little bit too much in 
 the way of restraint upon them. They 
 said: "An employer may threaten to 
 change our wages, to lower our wages, 
 or to increase hours or to do something 
 of the kind which is adverse to us, and 
 if we don't like it, we have to apply for 
 a Board and then if a Board decides 
 against us, we are told, 'You made the 
 application and your own Board has 
 decided against you. You ought to ac- 
 cept the result. The onus is on you for 
 having applied for a board.' " 
 
 Now this amendment puts the onus on 
 the party that wishes to make the 
 change to make the application for the 
 Board. If the men want an increase of 
 wages, and the company objects to the 
 increase, then the men ask for a Board 
 to show cause why that increase should 
 be granted. 
 
 9 
 
 On the other hand, if a Company 
 wants to reduce wages at a particular 
 time and the men object, according to 
 this law the company cannot reduce its 
 wages until a Board has investigated 
 the case and made a statement in regard 
 to it. In that way, the interests of the 
 parties are respected, and the onus is 
 put upon the party that wishes to 
 change the status quo to show reason 
 why it should or should not be done. 
 
 RESULTS 
 
 Now, as to the workings of the Act 
 and its effect. It has been on the stat- 
 utes for over five and a half years, six 
 years in March next, so that the experi- 
 ment has run on long enough to enable 
 us to see whether there is any virtue in 
 the measure. 
 
 During that time, five and a half 
 years, up to September, 1912, from the 
 official records, there have been alto- 
 gether 132 applications for boards un- 
 der the Act, 40 of these have had to 
 do with coal mining, 10 with metallife- 
 rus mining, 53 with railways, 10 with 
 street railways, 3 with longshoremen, 2 
 with freight-handlers, 1 with teamsters, 
 one with sailors, 1 with ship-liners, 1 
 with deck-hands, 2 with commercial 
 telegraphers, 2 with telephone workers, 
 1 with civic laborers, 2 with electrical 
 workers, and 4 related to the boot and 
 shoe industries and industries not 
 necessarily under the act but who can 
 come in under it if the parties acqui- 
 esce. * 
 
 AVERTED ALL BUT FIFTEEN 
 
 During that time out of 132 appli- 
 cations for Boards, according to the sta- 
 tistical records, strikes were averted in 
 all save 15 in these particular indus- 
 tries (applause). 
 
 In that connection let me put in one 
 word of parenthesis. There were at the 
 beginning, when the Act was first put 
 into operation, one or two instances 
 where the men came out without the 
 knowledge of the existence of the Act 
 upon the statute. This measure applies, 
 
as you will bear in mind, from the At- 
 lantic to the Pacific, and it takes some 
 little time for men in all parts of a 
 country to become acquainted with 
 the provisions of existing law. There 
 have been two or three cases where 
 men have come out without knowing of 
 the existence of the statute, and these 
 figures would be subject to modifica- 
 tion, in that connection ; but I think in 
 every case where they did come out, as 
 soon as the law was brought immedi- 
 ately to their attention, they named a 
 member for a Board, and had the dif- 
 ference settled under the law; and in 
 all cases, with the exception of 15, by 
 every reference that has been made to 
 a Board, under this Act, a strike has 
 been averted or ended. Of these 132 
 cases, 20 were settled after the applica- 
 tion was made for a Board, but before 
 the Board was actually appointed. 
 There is a feature in connection with 
 this act to keep in mind. The number 
 of applications does not necessarily af- 
 ford or give the truest index of the 
 service which is being rendered the 
 country by legislation of that kind. You 
 can readily see that once a party is 
 obliged to come with its case before 
 the public, they are not going to rush 
 into a situation and be exposed in re- 
 gard to it unless they feel that there is 
 a substantial measure of justice in the 
 case. I know from personal knowledge 
 both from the men and from employers 
 that there have been cases where 
 strikes would have taken place but for 
 the fact that there was under this meas- 
 ure, the certainty of public investiga- 
 tion in regard to different features, and 
 rather than have a public investigation, 
 the parties themselves came together 
 and settled their differences without 
 any reference to a Board. (Applause.) 
 In 107 cases the Boards reported 
 upon their work, and five cases were 
 before Boards at the end of Septem- 
 ber. 
 
 STREET RAILWAY STRIKES 
 Now to bring out, perhaps, a little 
 
 more clearly, the effect of this Act, 
 let me first of all mention just two or 
 three classes, and name them in par- 
 ticular, and show its results. Take 
 the case of the street railways. We used 
 to have in Canada a series of street 
 railway strikes every year prior to the 
 enactment of this law. There was not 
 a year went by that we had not in 
 some cities, in some years in a number 
 of the cities, strikes on the street rail- 
 ways, and they were usually among 
 the worst strikes which we had in the 
 country. By "worst" I mean the pub- 
 lic were very much inconvenienced; a 
 great deal of property was destroyed, 
 and in some cases there was serious in- 
 jury, and I think in one or two cases 
 loss of life in consequence of them. 
 
 Now since this Act has gone into 
 force, now a period of six years nearly, 
 we have had only one strike on all the 
 street railway systems of the Dominion 
 of Canada — just one strike (applause). 
 That was a strike which took place in 
 the city of Winnipeg after a Board had 
 investigated, and it lasted only a few 
 days, and then a settlement was made 
 on the basis of the award given out by 
 the Board (applause). 
 
 STEAM RAILWAYS 
 
 Then let us turn from street rail- 
 ways to steam railways. Here let me 
 draw a distinction which is drawn in 
 the administration of the Erdman Act. 
 I have had the pleasure of reading re- 
 cently the excellent report issued by 
 Mr. Neill, and I notice that in that re- 
 port he points out that the operation 
 of the Erdman Act is limited strictly 
 to the classes of employees who consti- 
 tute what are known as the operating 
 forces of a particular road; that is to 
 say, the engineers, the firemen, the 
 trainmen, the conductors, the section 
 men, the telegraphers and switchmen. 
 I believe those seven groups are the 
 only groups with which the gentlemen 
 who have been operating under that 
 Act have attempted to deal. 
 
 Now in the Canadian Act, the appli- 
 
 10 
 
cation is necessarily much wider than 
 that. It includes all classes connected 
 with railways; the men employed in 
 the roundhouses, machinists, boiler- 
 maker, car-builders, and all that class 
 of employees; freight-handlers, team- 
 sters, if employed by railway com- 
 panies ; clerks in the offices of the rail- 
 way companies. It takes in every class 
 of employees belonging to a particular 
 company. 
 
 There have been four strikes in Can- 
 ada in the course of five and three- 
 quarters years affecting railway em- 
 ployees ; but if we leave out of account 
 the classes other than those to which 
 the Erdman Act applies, there has been 
 since this Act went into force but one 
 strike affecting the operating crews on 
 the railways of the Dominion during 
 that time. That was the Grand Trunk 
 strike which took place a couple of 
 years ago, and which took place after 
 there had been an investigation under 
 one of these Boards. There has been, as 
 possibly some of you may have no- 
 ticed, a strike recently, in connection 
 with the C. P. R. of some classes of the 
 employees, but the classes concerned 
 were not the operating group. They 
 have not affected in any way the trans- 
 portation so far as the public is con- 
 cerned. The Minister of Labor refused 
 to grant a Board at the outset. He gave 
 as his reason, and I am speaking now 
 only from newspaper reports, that the 
 number of questions to be dealt with 
 were too many for a Board, or that the 
 class of employees was not the class 
 that the Act was intended to affect. 
 
 Well, he is a political opponent of 
 mine, so I won't say whether he was 
 right or whether he was wrong in the 
 interpretation that he put upon the Act. 
 (Laughter and applause.) But I will 
 say this, that if I had been Minister of 
 Labor the Act would have been applied 
 I and that strike would not have taken 
 place (laughter and applause). How- 
 ever, the law is there. It is there to be 
 administered according to its particular 
 terms, and as I say, when you limit it 
 
 in this way to the operating classes, 
 there has been this one strike in that 
 period of years. 
 
 IMMUNITY ALMOST COMPLETE 
 
 Then take another class of labor that 
 we used to have a considerable num- 
 ber of strikes among, the men dealing 
 with the loading of ships, ship laborers, 
 and dock laborers, and wharf hands, 
 and the like. Every spring in Halifax, 
 Montreal or Quebec we had our steam- 
 ship companies tied up as the conse- 
 quence of some strike. Since that Act 
 went into effect we have not had any 
 stoppage in that particular industry. 
 
 We used to have another important 
 industry affected at times, and that was 
 the commercial telegraphers. You had 
 a great strike in this country a short 
 time ago of commercial telegraphers. 
 Members of the same union were con- 
 cerned in that strike in Canada, but in 
 Canada this law was applicable and 
 our men did not go out. I think they 
 had an investigation under the Act, but 
 we have not had, since this Act went 
 into force, a single strike among the 
 telegraphers or telephone operators in 
 Canada. 
 
 So you see, gentlemen, if you take 
 into consideration those different 
 classes, take the street railways, the 
 steam railways, the shipping com- 
 panies, and the commercial telegraph- 
 ers, you will see that so far as the 
 agencies of transportation and com- 
 munication are concerned, with the ex- 
 ception of the cases that I have men- 
 tioned, we have enjoyed for nearly five 
 and a half years a complete immunity 
 from industrial strife. 
 
 ACT GENERALLY APPROVED 
 
 Now you will ask me how is this Act 
 viewed by the different classes in Can- 
 ada. Well, I think I may say that the 
 public generally have viewed that Act 
 with a good deal of favor; that you 
 could not get any government today to 
 repeal that statute, if you tried. The 
 Liberal government put it upon the 
 
 11 
 
books. The Conservative government 
 is in power today, and the Minister was 
 asked the other day if it was his inten- 
 tion to repeal the Act, and he replied 
 that he had no intention of the kind, no 
 such intention whatever. So I think we 
 may take it for granted that the Act 
 has appealed to the general public to 
 the extent, at least, that it will remain 
 upon our books. 
 
 It would, perhaps, not be doing jus- 
 tice to human nature if we did not say 
 that every measure is bound to have its 
 detractors, and bound to have its men 
 who will find fault with it, and there 
 are plenty of men, some of them on 
 very good grounds, and some of them 
 perhaps not on the highest grounds, 
 who are apt to find fault with any legis- 
 lation one way or another. 
 
 I believe if you ask the managers of 
 the companies that have been concerned 
 with this particular measure, that you 
 will find them pretty nearly unanimous 
 in the approval which they give to its 
 provisions. 
 
 ATTITUDE OF LABOR 
 Then when you come to the working- 
 men, perhaps I could not do better than 
 just quote from what I quoted in Par- 
 liament at the time we were adding one 
 or two amendments to the Act. The 
 amendment was the one that I have 
 spoken of, requiring the 30 days* notice. 
 The other amendment was an amend- 
 ment put in at the instance of railway 
 employees, to meet what seemed to me 
 a very fair need on their.part. Under 
 this act we required them, before they 
 applied for a Board, to poll their whole 
 system with a view of being able to 
 make the declaration which the law re- 
 quires, that a strike will take place un- 
 less a Board is granted. They pointed 
 out that was a great deal of expense, 
 particularly as they might have to poll 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and 
 also from the circumstance "that they 
 would have to poll again later, to find 
 out whether the finding of the Board 
 would meet with the approval of the 
 employees. They asked that some 
 
 change should be made in that particu- 
 lar. So we amended the Act so that 
 it would read, that in the case of rail- 
 way employees, or, the employees of 
 any utility extending beyond the boun- 
 daries of a single province, if a union 
 was recognized by its employers, if the 
 employers were entering into agree- 
 ments, and had agreements with their 
 organization, as is the case practically 
 in all the railroad brotherhoods, in that 
 case a declaration from the officers 
 themselves that they had exhausted 
 their means for a settlement of the dif- 
 ferences existing, would be sufficient to 
 cause the act to be invoked without the 
 necessity of polling the whole organi- 
 zation. 
 
 At the time of introducing the amend- 
 ment, I asked the representatives of the 
 different railroad brotherhoods if they 
 would give me their opinion of the Act 
 so I might give it to Parliament and be 
 in a position where I would know what 
 I was saying in asking Parliament to 
 grant the amendment suggested. With- 
 out reading in detail, I will quote from 
 the official records of the debates of 
 the House of Commons of Apri 26, 
 1910. 
 
 BROTHERHOODS SATISFIED 
 
 The first letter is a letter from Mr. 
 Calvin Lawrence, the legislative repre- 
 sentative of the Brotherhood of Loco- 
 motive Engineers. He said, in brief: 
 
 "I am pleased to say that I have very 
 carefully looked over the suggested 
 amendments and they appear to me to 
 be very satisfactory, and, in my opin- 
 ion, if adopted by Parliament, they 
 should bring the Industrial Disputes 
 Investigation Act of 1907 into a form 
 generally satisfactory, and acceptable 
 to railway employees; therefore, as rep- 
 resenting the Brotherhood of Engi- 
 neers, I can consistently endorse the 
 Act when so amended, believing that it 
 will, if amended as proposed, be a bene- 
 fit not only to railway employees, but 
 also to the public generally." 
 
 Mr. W. J. Dowell, legislative repre- 
 
 12 
 
sentative of the Brotherhood of Loco- 
 motive Firemen and Enginemen, said : 
 
 "I have gone carefully over the 
 amendments proposed, and I am of the 
 opinion that they will be satisfactory 
 should they become law as they are 
 drafted. I am also of the opinion that 
 the Industrial Disputes Investigation 
 Act, if it is amended as proposed, will 
 bring the act into a form which will 
 meet with the general approval of the 
 railway employees that I have the 
 honor to represent." 
 
 Mr. John Maloney, legislative repre- 
 sentative of the Brotherhood of Rail- 
 road Trainmen, said : 
 
 "I also feel if proposed amendments 
 are adopted by Parliament, they will 
 bring the Industrial Disputes Investi- 
 gation Act into a form satisfactory and 
 acceptable to all members of the train- 
 men's organization." 
 
 Mr. D. Campbell, Third Vice-Presi- 
 dent of the Order of Railroad Teleg- 
 raphers, said : 
 
 "I desire to say that if these amend- 
 ments can be obtained, the Act will be 
 entirely satisfactory to our organiza- 
 tion." * 
 
 Mr. A. B. Lowe, President of the 
 International Brotherhood of Mainte- 
 nance of Way Employees, said : 
 
 "My opinion of the Act itself has 
 never changed, that it is one of the best 
 pieces of legislation that has been 
 passed to my knowledge, in the inter- 
 ests of industrial peace." (Applause.) 
 
 Now, those, gentlemen, are some of 
 the opinions expressed by some of the 
 railway men at that time. They may 
 have changed their opinions since then, 
 but I believe that most of them have 
 not, and that the leading men among 
 the railroad brotherhoods in Canada to- 
 day will endorse that legislation as in 
 the interests not only of the public, but 
 as in the interests of the railway em- 
 ployees as well. And I believe that if 
 one confines the expression of opinion 
 to the groups that come immediately 
 under this act, one will find that on 
 the whole it has met and is meeting to- 
 
 day with pretty general approval 
 throughout the Dominion. 
 
 ERDMAN ACT SUCCESSFUL 
 
 Now let me just in conclusion say 
 one word in reference to your legisla- 
 tion here, and in reference to one or 
 two suggestions that have been made 
 elsewhere. 
 
 Naturally one hesitates to make any 
 comparisons, but let me first of all 
 speak of the Erdman Act, as I have 
 seen from the accounts given in the 
 report of that particular measure. I 
 think it is stated in regard to the Erd- 
 man Act that within the last five or 
 six years its provisions have been gen- 
 erally applied, and that in every in- 
 stance except one in which the Act has 
 been applied prior to the existence of a 
 strike, in which the gentlemen who 
 have acted as mediators under that 
 measure have had the opportunity of 
 intervention, they have prevented any 
 strike or lockout taking place, and that 
 as far as all strikes are concerned, and 
 all disputes, that mediation, in every 
 case where it has taken place, has 
 proven effective. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, could there be a 
 stronger endorsement for the princi- 
 ple, speaking broadly, the principle of 
 government intervention in industrial 
 disputes? 
 
 WHY LIMIT THE ACT? 
 
 The Erdman Act, as I have ex- 
 pressed to you already, is limited to the 
 operating forces of railway employees 
 only, but if it has had this great suc- 
 cess, which it has had, why, let me say 
 what I have often wished I might have 
 the opportunity of saying, that I believe 
 no finer testimonial in this world could 
 be given to character, to manhood, to 
 splendid ability than that act gives to 
 Mr. Judge Knapp and Mr. Neill, who 
 have had to do with its operation. (Ap- 
 plause.) 
 
 I think it has borne out that where 
 you can get, as you have in these two 
 gentlemen, men of strong personality, 
 
 13 
 
men of character, men of influence, men 
 of broad mind, and honest judgment, 
 where you can give such men an op- 
 portunity of dealing with an industrial 
 situation, they are able to effect settle- 
 ments in the interests of the whole pub- 
 lic. Now if the Act works so well in 
 regard to the particular classes to which 
 it applies ; if industrial peace is what we 
 are seeking, why limit its provisions to 
 those particular classes alone and not 
 frame up some measure which will be 
 broad enough and wide enough to ex- 
 tend some such kind of intervention to 
 all industries in the nature of public 
 utilities, all industries which may af- 
 fect the public one way or the other 
 (applause) ? 
 
 SPECIAL BOARDS BEST 
 
 Now it has been suggested that pos- 
 sibly that object could be best attained 
 by means of a permanent board. Well, 
 gentlemen, a permanent board has its 
 great advantages undoubtedly, but 
 there is one point to consider in connec- 
 tion with a permanent board — and as 
 you are considering these questions 
 now I hope you will not deem it pre- 
 sumptuous if I mention these points — 
 which we considered at the time we 
 were framing this Act. 
 
 A permanent board cannot get all 
 over the country at one time. A per- 
 manent board has to be located in one 
 place, and if you are going to have a 
 measure broad enough to include all 
 classes of public utilities, to deal with 
 mines, to deal with street railways, to 
 deal with all classes of railways, some- 
 thing wider in its nature or more easily 
 suited to individual localities is essen- 
 tial, than one permanent board. 
 
 There is this factor, too, to consider 
 in connection with it, and that is the ef- 
 fect of the attitude of a permanent 
 board toward particular questions ; and, 
 on the other hand, the attitude of mind 
 on the part of the parties affected 
 toward those who compose a perma- 
 nent board. If you get the right men, 
 perhaps you can do anything with a 
 
 permanent Board, but if you get th< 
 wrong men you will not do anything 01 
 you will do something that is worse 
 than nothing (applause). 
 
 PARTIES CHOOSE BOARD 
 
 Now the difference between the tw< 
 measures, between the permanen 
 board idea and the appointment of par 
 ticular boards for particular circum 
 stances, is that under the scheme 
 adopted in Canada you leave t( 
 the parties the choice of the men wh< 
 are to compose the board. If you have 
 got a Judge Knapp, if you have got a 
 Mr. Neill, you give to the people from 
 the Atlantic to the Pacific and from 
 Canada to the Gulf of Mexico the op- 
 portunity of getting either of these gen- 
 tlemen to act as a chairman on their 
 particular board. These individual 
 boards, in our country, have helped to 
 evolve or rather to disclose to the pub- 
 lic the type of man who is apt to win 
 the greatest confidence. We have 
 found where one chairman has suc- 
 ceeded in one case, he has been invari- 
 ably picked upon as chairman for an- 
 other Board, picked upon by the rep- 
 resentatives of labor as well as the rep- 
 resentatives of capital, because he has 
 established in a preceding board a rep- 
 utation for honesty in dealings of that 
 kind. 
 
 Furthermore, there has been the op- 
 portunity of going all over the country 
 and selecting the man best qualified for 
 that particular class of dispute. Once 
 you get a board giving a certain class 
 of decisions, undoubtedly men of a par- 
 ticular mind will follow, to a certain 
 extent, a line of precedent, and, on the 
 other hand, once you get a bias, 
 whether it is on the part of employers 
 or employees against a particular man 
 on a permanent board, that bias will 
 operate to the detriment and the ineffi- 
 ciency of his work. 
 
 You get over that difficulty when you 
 leave to each situation, as it develops, 
 the appointing of the men best qualified 
 to deal with that particular situation. 
 
 14 
 
»'. J.. 
 
 WHY LEAVE MEDIATION 
 OPTIONAL? 
 
 If, as has been proven on every 
 occasion where mediation under the 
 lman Act has taken place under the 
 Lgfoidance of these gentlemen, settle- 
 wients have been effected, is it not 
 jftvorth while considering whether it 
 r might not be to the advantage of the 
 public generally as well as to the par- 
 ties themselves to see that it be not left 
 [optional with the parties as to whether 
 or not mediation shall take place, but 
 [that some means shall be devised to 
 [secure mediation in advance of any 
 strike or lockout? That is one of the 
 [factors worth considering, whether, it 
 [having been established that mediation 
 pis successful, it is not just as wise to 
 I have it before trouble breaks out as to 
 ' have it after it has taken place. 
 
 Another suggestion that I believe has 
 found favor in other countries and finds 
 favor with some in Canada, and I be- 
 lieve also with some here, is the idea 
 o f compulsory axhitratiorL — 
 
 Now the distinction between the 
 Canadian Act and compulsory arbitra- 
 tion is that under compulsory arbitra- 
 tion you compel the parties, under pains 
 and penalties, to accept the findings of 
 a board and abide by them. Under the 
 Canadian Act the compulsion is con- 
 fined to the matter of investigation. 
 You restrain the parties from striking 
 or locking-out until the investigation 
 has taken place. 
 
 BETTER WAY TO JUSTICE 
 
 Now men do not strike or lockout for 
 the fun of it. They do that because they 
 feel that, in the last resort that is their 
 means of obtaining justice. We contend 
 that under our measures we afford 
 them a better means of obtaining jus- 
 tice than a strike or lockout, and we 
 afford that means at the expense of the 
 public, and we say if at the expense of 
 the public, to whom you owe the opera- 
 tion of your utilities, you are able to 
 get a more effective means for settling 
 your difficulties than this weapon of the 
 
 strike or lockout which leaves its lega- 
 cies of debt and hatred behind it, we 
 ask that you shall take advantage of 
 that first, and if you are not satisfied 
 with it, then go ahead and try this 
 other particular weapon. 
 
 I know it has some disadvantages 
 from certain points of view, but if you 
 are considering the action over a period 
 f time with the large masses of me.% 
 I believe on sober, careful thought that 
 woikingmen as well as employers and 
 the public generally will come to see 
 that that is the best way. 
 
 I think it was Pym, a British states- 
 man, who said on one occasion, "That 
 form of government is best which does 
 actuate and dispose every member of 
 the State to the common good." 
 
 I do not think as a maxim of g^v- 
 ment that has ever been surpassed, and 
 I think we can apply the philosophy 
 underlying that to industrial situations 
 as well, and we can say that that form 
 of settlement of industrial differences is 
 best which will best actuate and dis- 
 pose every part and member of the in- 
 dustrial community to the common 
 good. 
 
 THE HUMAN ELEMENT 
 
 Now, in thinking of compulsory ar- 
 bitration, you have to take into account 
 two things — human nature as it is and 
 conditions as they are; and there are no 
 two more variable factors in the world 
 than these two. Economic phenomena 
 are broader than mere legal phe- 
 nomena, and while courts may be able 
 to deal satisfactorily with certain 
 classes of cases, it requires almost om- 
 niscient intelligence to be able to sum 
 up in a way what is best under all cir- 
 cumstances for men and' for com- 
 panies, where you are dealing with hu- 
 man life and with conditions which 
 vary, not merely with what happens 
 within a particular area, but what hap- 
 pens within other parts of the world 
 as well. 
 
 And so when you give to the parties 
 who are involved in these disputes a 
 
 16 
 
chance of naming their awn member 
 and of agreeing upon a chairman, you 
 get a position where each side feels to 
 a certain extent it has had to do with 
 the shaping of the tribunal which is ad- 
 judicating upon its affair. You take 
 account of that love of liberty in the in- 
 dividual man, of an assertion of his own 
 rights. Men do not like to have things 
 superimposed upon them. They would 
 rather, to a large extent, share in the 
 formation of particular tribunals and 
 then fall in line with the particular 
 award which may be given. That, I 
 think, is an important consideration, 
 and one that it is well to keep in mind 
 in the framing of any measure. 
 
 Legal enactment can do a certain 
 amount, but there are factors in life 
 which are of vaster import in dealing 
 with social conditions than the 'mere 
 matter of legal enactment, and what the 
 law can best do is to try to bring these 
 factors to bear in some way upon in- 
 dustrial situations. 
 
 Men are more than measures. There- 
 fore, in shaping any legislation have in 
 mind that in the last anaylsis what 
 should be aimed at is in some way to 
 fashion the measure so that the right 
 men may be brought to deal with it. 
 
 In the second place, personality is a 
 greater thing than policy of any kind, 
 and so in the fashioning of any legis- 
 lation which you hope to make effective 
 in dealing with industrial questions, try 
 to draft a measure so as to leave play 
 for that subtle and most important of 
 all the factors known to man, the play 
 of human personality in regard to par- 
 ticular questions. 
 
 PUBLICITY 
 
 Thirdly, publicity in some respects is 
 more effective as a means of remedy 
 than penalty. Penalty is a last resort, 
 but a more effective means of bringing 
 about a remedy to a situation is to 
 
 frame it up, if you can, in such a fas| 
 ion that the light of pubic opinion m; 
 be brought to bear upon it. It isj 
 curious thing that while men, as in< 
 viduals, may be mean and contempl 
 ble, still collectively and in a group aj 
 in the light of day, they cannot affc 
 to let their action appear in that lig] 
 (Applause.) 
 
 All legislation should aim at prevei 
 ing the mean man from profiting in vj 
 tue of his meanness, and I believe 
 best way to bring about that result | 
 in some way to expose to the pul 
 gaze either the employer or the woi 
 ingman who may be seeking, throt 
 his meanness, to profit in virtue ofj 
 (applause). 
 
 If you can devise machinery whi 
 will have that effect, then it seems 
 me penalties are unnecessary, 
 sense of good throughout the world il 
 reality more powerful than any pena] 
 which a law may impose. 
 
 And, lastly, gentlemen, rememl 
 this, and this I would say particula] 
 to my friends, the workingmen, th< 
 is no truer statement in human philoj 
 phy than that maxim of Burke when; 
 stated, "J ust i ce * s the common c< 
 cern of mankind." 
 
 If you can fashion some measi 
 which will enable you to place bef 
 mankind at large a situation in its ti 
 and in its proper light, and bring 
 its bearing upon the communi 
 whether it be small or large, and pi; 
 your trouble and your wrong, wl 
 ever it may be, before that great b< 
 of organized public opinion, if you 
 fashion a measure toward that 
 which will enable you to do that thij 
 then it seems to me that you can lei 
 with confidence, the result to the w( 
 ing-out of that eternal maxim that "jl 
 tice is the common concern of m| 
 kind." 
 
 (Great and prolonged applause.] 
 
 16 
 
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