SEP 11 1893 
 
 
INDUSTRIAL CONCILIATION. 
 
INDUSTRIAL CONCILIATION. 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY CROMPTON. 
 
 ' ORDER is the condition of all progress ; for progress is always 
 the object of order. Or to penetrate the question still more 
 deeply, progress may be regarded simply as the development 
 of order ; for the order of nature necessarily contains within 
 itself the germ of all possible progress." AUGUSTE COMTE. 
 
 HENRY S. KING AND Co., LONDON. 
 1876. 
 
;'////.$ of translation and of reproduction are reserved}. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. The Industrial Situation 
 
 II. Arbitration .... 
 
 III. Conciliation 
 
 IV. The Manufactured Iron Trade 
 V. The Coal Trade . 
 
 VI. Arbitration in other Industries 
 VII. The Law of Arbitration 
 VIII. Conclusion .... 
 Appendix 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I 
 
 16 
 
 33 
 49 
 68 
 
 94 
 140 
 
 147 
 167 
 
I 
 
 % UNIVERSITY 
 
 INDUSTRIAL CONCILIATION. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE INDUSTRIAL SITUATION. 
 
 HEN the student of biological science 
 investigates a problem of animal or 
 vegetable life, his first inquiry is con- 
 cerning those surrounding conditions 
 which constitute the physical environment or 
 medium in which the particular being lives. In 
 like manner, before entering upon the consideration 
 of social phenomena, it is indispensable that we 
 should form a right estimate of the situation in 
 which those phenomena occur. They are to the 
 
 B 
 
2 The Industrial Situation. 
 
 world around them as the fish is to the water. 
 There is action and re-action between the living 
 parts of society and the social atmosphere in which 
 they are, just as there is between the fish and the 
 water. Unless we are right in this respect, our 
 judgment is less to be relied on, and practical 
 effort may fail for want of the necessary fitness of 
 time. or place. 
 
 We live in an age of vast and momentous change, 
 characterized as a period of, transition, as a passage 
 from an old to a new order. The industrial move- 
 ment is not separate or distinct from the other parts 
 of the human progress. Industry is but one aspect 
 of social life, and cannot be separated from other 
 aspects, intellectual, moral, or political. When the 
 public mind grasps a new political idea or seizes 
 upon some lofty moral aspiration, it is not limited 
 by the circumstances to which perhaps it may owe 
 its origin, but penetrates to all the actions and 
 desires of man. When the Radical manufacturers 
 preached political change to the working classes, 
 and set up before them political independence as 
 a goal to strive for, they ought not to have .been 
 surprised to find that the ideas they had taught 
 
The Industrial Situation. 
 
 with reference to the outer civic actions were at 
 once applied to the inner industrial life. The 
 feudal system was an industrial as well as a political 
 subjection. If the right aspiration for every citizen 
 is to be independent and free, that is, not subject 
 to arbitrary power but dependent only upon just 
 laws, the same aspiration must inevitably appeal- 
 right to him in his capacity of workman. The 
 political cry for Reform was equally a cry for a new 
 industrial rule. Such was the meaning of the great 
 processions of working men, to those who knew trie 
 key to the writing on the wall. 
 
 The authority of employers is not necessarily 
 undermined by the men becoming more indepen- 
 dent. The only industrial scheme which really 
 threatens the existence of the employer class is 
 that of Co-operative Production. The complete in- 
 dependence of the working classes is inevitable, and 
 only a question of time. The sooner it is realised 
 the better. And while the workmen ought not 
 to relax their efforts, the employers have to 
 accept the facts, and help their men to obtain an 
 independence which is the only sure foundation for 
 a higher and nobler authority. " I was asked," says 
 
4 The Industrial Situation. 
 
 Mr. Rupert Kettle, "to go to the city of Coventry 
 for the purpose of establishing the arbitration sys- 
 tem there, and I found that if the men had perfect 
 freedom and the masters had perfect freedom, and 
 the do.minant and servile position was entirely dis- 
 regarded, and they met upon equal terms, it was 
 just as easy to bring men to business as at 
 Wolverhampton. " 
 
 We may well look back to the beginning of 
 this long struggle by labour to achieve freedom, 
 and compare the condition of the working classes 
 in the past to that of workmen in the best 
 modern employment, where each man's freedom 
 is assured, and the fullest respect paid to the worth 
 and dignity of labour. Such a contrast is no less 
 than that between the slave and the free citizen. 
 The independence of the working classes does not 
 constitute the industrial progress, but it is a prime 
 factor in that progress. The obstinate refusal to 
 acknowledge and accept this fact can only bring 
 about in the future a renewal of the deadly struggle 
 which has taken place in the past, and is there- 
 fore to be condemned, as conduct contrary to the 
 
The Industrial Situation. 
 
 interests of mankind. A superficial view of the 
 industrial battle-field might lead any one to be- 
 lieve that war on a larger scale than ever was now 
 imminent between labour and capital. On each 
 side are massed larger forces, arrayed for war and 
 ever increasing in numbers, in material resources, 
 in skilful leadership, and in organization ; on each 
 side all minor causes of dissension and disunion 
 are put aside, such as individual interests and per- 
 sonal animosities, that a united front may be pre- 
 sented to the common foe. But this would be a 
 false and delusive picture the dark side only. The 
 bright side is very different, full of hope and full of 
 promise. This it is I wish to paint. 
 
 Increased organization, whether of masters or 
 men, or of both, means decreased war. Though 
 more noticed, strikes occur less frequently. When 
 there is a strike or a lock-out, though the area is 
 greater, the contest is less bitter and intense. Moral 
 and intellectual pressure has a greater coercive effect 
 upon both sides. More attention is paicl by each 
 side to the views of the other. There is far more 
 restraint. Wiser and more prudent counsels tend 
 
6 The Industrial Situation. 
 
 to prevail. The strike or the lock-out has less of the 
 character of war to the death. Each side presents 
 less of the stiff-necked, dogged resolve to yield 
 nothing, but fight it out to the bitter end. If we 
 take a typical instance of a struggle of twenty-five 
 years ago, the lock-out of the engineers in 1852, 
 we find it beginning with an ultimatum or declara- 
 tion of war by the Union, wrong in form, even had 
 the object been right, and calculated to irritate 
 and inflame the employers. On the other hand, 
 the employers entered upon the contest with the 
 formidable announcement that they would utterly 
 destroy the great institution, which the men rightly 
 regarded as the means of their safety and strength. 
 Refusing all offers of compromise, the employers 
 would only accept the complete and abject sub- 
 mission of the men. They had to choose between 
 starvation or desertion of their Union. They were 
 forced to promise to break faith with their Union ; 
 and in the end they broke their promise and not 
 
 % 
 
 their faith. It was a fierce and ungenerous triumph 
 by the employers, but a fruitless victory, as far as 
 the destruction of the Union was concerned. For 
 
The Industrial Situation. 
 
 the Society of Amalgamated Engineers, instead of 
 being destroyed, acquired fresh strength and has 
 prospered ever since ; proving that the power 
 of combination can withstand the most crushing 
 defeat. 
 
 There has in truth been a great intellectual and 
 moral progress among employers and employed. 
 Doubtless, there are parts of England and certain 
 trades in which the relations between employers 
 and employed are as bad now as was ever the case. 
 There are trades in which the most brutal savagery 
 is still the rule. This is the blackest part of the 
 dark side ; but the bright, if slowly, is surely gaining 
 upon it. None of the leaders of the workmen have 
 ever desired that there should be any relaxation of 
 the law dealing with real crimes. The agitation 
 for the abolition of the unjust laws which have 
 lately been repealed has not been disadvantageous 
 to the working classes. Questions of personal 
 interference, of criminal and moral responsibility, 
 have been brought vividly before them. They 
 have been thus made to see the necessity and 
 advantage of having to justify their actions in the 
 
8 The Industrial Situation. 
 
 full light of public opinion. The passing of the 
 recent Labour Laws, recognizing the complete legal 
 independence of the working classes, has come at 
 an opportune time. Industrial independence must 
 follow. A strong current has set in from the old 
 towards the new order. Everything tends in that 
 direction, whether we look to the attitude of the 
 employers to the employed, of the employed to the 
 employers, or whether we look to the moral and 
 intellectual change in public opinion on these 
 industrial questions. The time has in fact arrived 
 for a new departure, or rather for fresh efforts in 
 that direction which has proved to be right. The 
 central fact, the focus of light, is, the success of the 
 boards of conciliation. The last ten years have 
 been their time of trial, and the results of the system 
 are more satisfactory than its promoters had dared 
 to prophesy. Wishing to show the real progress 
 that is taking place in industry, I am forced by the 
 logic of facts to group what I have to say round 
 this system of conciliation. 
 
 The practical success which has attended the 
 establishment of most of the boards of arbitration 
 
The Industrial Situation. 
 
 and conciliation is due to the fact that the em- 
 ployers have really accepted the independence of 
 the men that is, they have accepted the trades 
 unions, which the men rightly regard as the secret 
 of their strength. To pretend that their inde- 
 pendence is assured when each workman contracts 
 individually with his employer and their collective 
 wishes and actions are disregarded, is too transpa- 
 rent a fallacy to need discussion. As if men could 
 be made independent when their strength was 
 piaralysed, or when they were deprived of habitual 
 association and co-operation in their common pur- 
 poses. Complete independence involves a recog- 
 nition by the employers of the trades unions, and 
 this is better done and more permanently assured 
 by a board of conciliation. Whatever difficulties 
 there may be in the application of systematic con- 
 ciliation to some trades, this much is shown that 
 where it has been successfully applied, it is not 
 only capable of diminishing the shock of the 
 opposing forces, but apparently of actually recon- 
 ciling capital and labour. 
 
 The conciliation system has been contemptuously 
 
io The Industrial Situation. 
 
 termed a " panacea." The sarcasm brings out the 
 truth. No one, not even the strongest opponent, 
 ventures to use any other language than that of 
 respectful acknowledgment for what has been 
 effected. It is precisely as a panacea that the 
 system works and is most needed. It has to deal 
 with a diseased and abnormal condition of the 
 industrial relations. The system is so elastic, and 
 admits of being so easily modified to fit the dif- 
 ferences which the various trades exhibit, that I do 
 not hesitate to say that there is more cogent proof 
 of its being universally applicable to industrial 
 disputes, than there is of any medicine in the phar- 
 macopoeia being universally applicable to the treat- 
 ment of any bodily disease.- But it does not follow 
 that these modern associations, of employers, of 
 workmen, or of both, are permanent institutions. 
 The value of a trade union or of a board of con- 
 ciliation is as a means to a definite end, not as a 
 solution of the labour difficulty. That solution 
 can only be moral improved morality on the 
 part of masters and men. The very strength of 
 the conciliation plan consists in its being a rough 
 
The Industrial Situation. 1 1 
 
 scheme, which directly brings the two in con- 
 tact, and developes the higher human qualities of 
 each. 
 
 Far too much is made of such questions as that 
 of piece-work or day-work. The mere form of re- 
 muneration or hiring is a matter of comparatively 
 secondary importance. Crushing and enslaving 
 abuses are incidental to both piece-work and day- 
 work, unless regulated by a high morality, or, at 
 least, by a sense of justice. Even in some of those 
 very trades in which, as for instance, in agriculture, 
 the general introduction of piece-work would insure 
 a great advance in the material welfare of the 
 labourers, there are districts in which piece-work 
 is the instrument of injustice and tyranny. Where 
 this is the case, the substitution of a day system, 
 regulated with justice and kindness, and recognizing 
 the independence of the men, would be a change 
 from bad to good. The trades unions are not, as 
 is often alleged, opposed to piece-work. The majo- 
 rity of them work by the piece. This is the case 
 throughout the textile manufactures. In some 
 industries, as the tailors', the strikes have been for 
 
1 2 The Industrial Situation. 
 
 the purpose of establishing a proper system of 
 prices for piece-work. The strike of the cabinet- 
 makers, which was alleged to be against piece-work, 
 was to maintain the true piece-work system, and 
 prevent the introduction of the lump or sweating 
 system. A great deal of unjust criticism has been 
 poured upon the unions that do resist the introduc- 
 tion or increase of piece-work ; although no one has 
 refuted the assertion made by the men, that in cer- 
 tain trades piece-work has given rise to a grinding 
 oppression, embittering and degrading the work- 
 man's life. This rests upon the most convincing 
 evidence, and therefore the struggle against piece- 
 work in those trades has been a struggle for liberty, 
 quite irrespective of whether piece-work or day- 
 work is the best in theory. Mr. John Burnett, the 
 Secretary to the Amalgamated Engineers, in his 
 letter to the Times on the Erith strike, admitted 
 that, after all, his objections were rather to the 
 abuses than to the principle of piece-work. The 
 subject has been inadequately discussed, not having 
 been treated by any one who had taken the trouble 
 to investigate the large facts of social and industrial 
 
The Industrial Situation. 13 
 
 organization on which it depends. Very few of 
 those who did write upon it fully recognized the 
 limits within which piece-work is desirable or prac- 
 ticable. In very many industries piece-work is 
 impossible, from the nature of the work, or because 
 there is no means of measuring the piece, or because 
 the quality of the work and the time required are 
 uncertain and variable. Nor must we forget that 
 one of the most serious evils of modern industrialism 
 is the excessive subdivision of labour, which the 
 piece-work system apparently stimulates and fails 
 to regulate. 
 
 The gradual rise and development of the work- 
 ing classes is then the great social fact underlying 
 the whole industrial question. Individually and 
 collectively, the workmen have assumed a new 
 position. The old relationship of masters and men 
 is shattered. Everywhere short contracts, even 
 minute contracts, are superseding the longer periods 
 of hiring. Short service is becoming the rule among 
 domestic servants. The yearly hirings of agricul- 
 tural labourers have been rudely shaken. It cannot 
 be doubted that the future of thdrjwotkin classes 
 
14 The Industrial Situation. 
 
 must be moulded by these large facts. Upon these, 
 as a foundation, the employers must seek to re- 
 constitute their authority. Too many of them have 
 shut their eyes and refused to see. Some have 
 actually thought that they could explain such facts 
 by crediting them to the efforts of " mischievous 
 agitators." No man could have caused the 
 minute system of employment. No man could 
 have created an organization like that of the 
 Amalgamated Society of Engineers. They are 
 the product of vast forces acting through a long 
 period of time ; a product which man may indeed 
 learn to modify and regulate, but which he cannot 
 create or destroy. The explanation of such stupen- 
 dous facts by the work of agitators, is exactly 
 similar to the primitive belief of savages, who at- 
 tribute the occurrence of eclipses and the appear- 
 ance of comets to the manipulations of a juggler 
 or a sorcerer. Happily the' most enlightened and 
 generous employers have not been deceived by 
 such notions, but have clearly discerned the cha- 
 racter of the industrial movement. An advance is 
 being made now by some of the employers towards 
 
The Industrial Situation. 
 
 v 
 
 the working classes which deserves the utmost 
 praise, which warrants the greatest hope in the 
 future, and without which all schemes of arbitra- 
 tion or of conciliation would be of little good. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 ARBITRATION. 
 
 RBITRATION is not the same as con- 
 ciliation, but may be used when con- 
 ciliation has failed, or where there has 
 been no attempt at conciliation. Arbi- 
 tration is " after the fact," and implies that a cause 
 of difference and a dispute have arisen. By arbitra- 
 tion this may be settled, a compromise effected, 
 and war averted ; and that whether the dispute 
 relates to past arrangements, as to what are the 
 terms of an existing contract, the just application 
 of those terms to a new state of things, or whether 
 the difficulty is to agree upon future prices or con- 
 ditions of labour. Desirable as this obviously is, 
 
Arbitration. 
 
 conciliation aims at something higher, at doing 
 before the fact that which arbitration accomplishes 
 after. It seeks to prevent and remove the causes 
 of dispute before they arise, to adjust differences 
 and claims before they become disputes. Arbi- 
 tration is limited to the larger and more general 
 questions of industry, those of wages or prices, or 
 those concerning a whole trade. A board of con- 
 ciliation deals with matters that could not be ar- 
 bitrated upon ; promoting the growth of beneficial 
 customs; interfering in the smaller details of indus- 
 trial life ; modifying or removing some of the worst 
 evils incidental to modern industry, such, for 
 example, as the truck system, or the wrongs which 
 workmen suffer at the hands of middlemen and 
 overseers. It will be seen in another chapter that 
 the very difficulties for which arbitration is a 
 remedy are best got rid of by the simplest kind 
 of conciliation in the earliest stages of the diffi- 
 culty. There may be arbitration without concilia- 
 tion, but the converse is not true ; at least, there 
 cannot be systematic conciliation without some 
 form of arbitration in the background, to be used 
 
 C 
 
1 8 Arbitration. 
 
 as a last resort, instead of a strike or lock-out. In 
 some boards there is an arbitration rule, by which, 
 if any such dispute does arise which cannot be 
 settled otherwise, an independent arbitrator shall 
 be appointed. In other systems there is a stand- 
 ing referee, whose decision is final. In others 
 the chairman of the board has a casting vote.- 
 A conciliation board has standing committees, 
 regular times of meeting, and is in fact a ma- 
 chinery for accommodating the conflicting interests 
 of employers and employed. 
 
 Conciliation has unquestionably sprung from 
 arbitration. The first established system of arbi- 
 tration was seen in France at the beginning of this 
 century, and was due to the general impulse given 
 by the French Revolution and to the destruction 
 of class distinctions. Certain legal tribunals were 
 created by law, called the "conseils des prud'- 
 hommes." They were composed of employers 
 and employed, and were authorised to determine 
 disputes that might arise between capital and 
 labour; but they had no jurisdiction which enabled 
 them to settle disputes as to future wages or prices, 
 
Arbitration. 19 
 
 or to fix terms of employment. In Belgium, more- 
 over, these courts seem to have had a semi-criminal 
 jurisdiction to punish misconduct by the infliction 
 of a fine, like the late Masters and Servants Act. 
 Probably arbitration in England owes its origin to 
 these " conseils des prud'hommes." Throughout 
 the century disputes have been settled between 
 employers and employed by resort to arbitration ; 
 and in some trades as, for example, in the pottery 
 trade the practice arose of inserting an arbitration 
 clause in labour contracts. About 1850 the prin- 
 ciple of arbitration was advocated as the best means 
 of insuring peace between labour and capital. But 
 it was not, as far as I can learn, 1 until 1860 that 
 any permanent system or board of arbitration 
 came into actual operation. The two men who 
 have been most instrumental in this work, and 
 whose names will long be remembered in connec- 
 tion with this movement, are Mr. Mundella and 
 
 1 There was a board in existence earlier than this in the 
 silk trade, and also in the printing trade, but they did not 
 last. See Chapter VI. 
 
2o Arbitration. 
 
 Mr. Rupert Kettle. Mr. Kettle, a lawyer and 
 judge, naturally approached the subject from a 
 legal point of view. Mr. Mundella, a manufacturer, 
 and himself sprung from the working classes, went 
 straight to the practical and moral end implied by 
 the word conciliation. If his route to the right 
 result was more direct, Mr. Kettle's was of even 
 greater experimental value, constituting an ex- 
 perience that could not well be dispensed with. 
 It is very satisfactory to find that both routes 
 of this noble emulation converge, each affording 
 strength to the common conclusions. Mr. Kettle's 
 scheme was based on a simple, yet admirable, 
 application of the principles of the common law. 
 A code of working rules was drawn up by the 
 representatives of employers and employed. These 
 rules were posted up in the workshops, and a copy 
 was given to every workman engaged. The work- 
 ing rules thus brought to the notice of the parties 
 became a contract binding between each employer 
 and every workman he engaged, which could be 
 enforced at law. But it was very soon found, in 
 confirmation of Mr. Mundella's view, that the real 
 
Arbitration. 21 
 
 difficulties were not relative to past, but to future 
 prices and arrangements. Mr. Kettle says that 
 "differences upon the terms of a future contract, 
 arising from the difficulty of foreseeing the future 
 rate of wages," are most liable to lead to disputes. 
 Mr. Mundella says : " If we had only to discuss 
 quarrels that have arisen about the past state of 
 prices we should have almost nothing to do, because 
 it is rarely that there is any dispute what shall be 
 the rate this week, but the dispute is, what shall be 
 the rate next week." It was soon evident that a 
 legal system of adjudication was limited by the 
 shortness of the notice to which the actual contract 
 was invariably subject. However valuable these con- 
 tracts or codes of working rules may be, their value 
 is impaired and lessened when, as is the case in the 
 building trades, each side can put an end to the con- 
 tract at any moment, without notice, or with very 
 short notice. Moreover, such a plan was too cum- 
 brous for the rapid adjustment of small differences. 
 It became, therefore, necessary to introduce a rule 
 for conciliation. A sub-committee, or smaller body 
 of employers and employed, was appointed to meet 
 
22 Arbitration. 
 
 oftener, and deal with the smaller matters as they 
 arose. This, which was first looked upon as sub- 
 sidiary, gradually assumed greater prominence, and 
 has now become the really essential and vital part 
 of the system. It is not too much to say that the 
 condition of all systems of arbitration being perma- 
 nently successful is, that full prominence should be 
 given to this feature of conciliation by a small com- 
 mittee. Mr. Kettle admits that "a union of con- 
 ciliation and arbitration would not be inconsistent. 
 An arbitration court did, in fact, include concilia- 
 tion, and so much was this true that sixteen out of 
 twenty cases were settled by conciliation." But he 
 still adheres to the opinion that the legal form and 
 aspect of arbitration is the best. The difference 
 between Mr. Kettle's view and Mr. Mundella's is 
 well expressed by the words sometimes used to 
 designate their respective systems, namely, "an 
 arbitration court" and "a board of conciliation." 
 Mr. Kettle thinks that an umpire is required to act 
 as judge between the parties, that "an arbitrator 
 would be able to keep before the disputants those 
 great and fundamental rules of commercial economy 
 
Arbitration. 23 
 
 by which service contracts are ultimately governed," 
 and that " an arbitrator undisturbed by the emotions 
 of the conflict would apply them to the facts before 
 him." This is arbitration by a court, not by a board. 
 The umpire presides over the investigation ; two 
 arbitrators are appointed by the employers, and 
 two by the men. These four are a kind of jury. 
 If they cannot agree, the umpire has to make his 
 award. Such a plan is very desirable where there 
 is antagonism and suspicion existing between mas- 
 ters and men. The presence of an umpire must 
 exercise a salutary restraint over both sides, and 
 such arbitrations must necessarily have a great 
 effect in carrying out the object aimed at namely, 
 the peaceful settlement of these burning questions. 
 There are trades now where any other mode would 
 be impossible. Probably no other plan is so well 
 adapted to the putting an end to a strike or lock- 
 out. 
 
 It must be admitted that Mr. Kettle, in elabo- 
 rating this system, and himself successfully under- 
 taking the difficult office of umpire, has done 
 a work the importance of which cannot be over- 
 
24 A rbitration . 
 
 estimated. But its uses are temporary and pro- 
 visional. No institution can be permanent which 
 contemplates a continuous and lasting opposition 
 between labour and capital. The same may be 
 said of the trades unions, which have been well 
 described as " armed peace ; " but then they have 
 other functions besides that of resisting and op- 
 posing employers, and they are capable of being 
 modified and transformed for the better carrying 
 out of useful and social purposes, as the present 
 antagonism between capital and labour diminishes 
 and dies away. So too with boards of conciliation, 
 which have already shown that they are capable 
 of being employed to promote industrial progress, 
 apart from the more special object with which they 
 were originally established. 
 
 Every board of conciliation, as has been said, 
 must have an ultimate appeal of some kind. If it 
 be to an umpire, it is much better, when it is prac- 
 ticable, that he should not attend ; that his name 
 should only appear on the title-page of the book of 
 rules, to remind both sides that there is an ulti- 
 mate appeal to something better than force. The 
 
Arbitration. 25 
 
 system of umpires, arbitrators, and advocates on 
 each side, is by no means free from vices and 
 dangers. Generally, each side appoints two arbi- 
 trators ; these, though perfectly honest, are not 
 always impartial judges, and too often fiery par- 
 tisans. Indeed, I have known an instance in 
 which, I believe, from peculiar circumstances, the 
 case for the men was actually drawn up by one 
 of the men's arbitrators, after the investigation 
 had begun. Constantly the men's arbitrators go 
 to the investigation simply to get as much as 
 they possibly can for the men. No doubt, war 
 at the arbitration court is better than strikes and 
 lock-outs. 
 
 Well-founded fears are entertained lest the 
 legal side of these arbitrations should be in- 
 creased, and lest all the vices of advocacy, its 
 subtleties and hair-splittings, and the system of 
 winning causes by the suppression of truth, should 
 poison the system and destroy its candour and 
 vigour. The notion is gaining ground that it 
 is desirable that each fresh arbitration should 
 start from the conclusions of the last award. 
 
26 Arbitration. 
 
 In the coal arbitrations, this is claimed as a right 
 by the advocates of the miners. Mr. Herschell, 
 in his recent award in the Northumberland coal 
 trade, agrees with the view urged by the repre- 
 sentatives of the miners, "that the last award 
 ought, as a rule, to be taken as the starting point," 
 and he further recommends the establishment of 
 a more permanent tribunal, because " a uniform 
 principle would then be applied, and justice would 
 more certainly be done to all parties than if the 
 tribunal is different on each occasion, and is unable 
 to know completely and accurately the principles 
 on which its predecessor proceeded." The error of 
 this legal conception consists in the failure to see 
 that these arbitrations are only temporary expe- 
 dients, to enable industry to emerge from a chronic 
 state of war, and that giving systematic and per- 
 manent form to the continual succession of arbitra- 
 tion struggles is a danger as formidable as the 
 system of strikes. If each arbitration is to be 
 governed by the accumulated results of former 
 awards, we shall have a series of decisions grad- 
 ually forming a voluminous and unintelligible 
 
A rbitration . 2 7 
 
 library of case law, and a system of refined ad- 
 vocacy. Indeed, the printed reports of the various 
 arbitrations in the coal trade have already assumed 
 a formidable appearance. I should entertain great 
 apprehension that if these ideas were adopted they 
 would prove fatal to arbitration, were it not that I 
 am sure that masters and men will instinctively re- 
 ject anything of the sort. It cannot be too strongly 
 impressed upon employers and employed, that 
 whatever temporary benefits this kind of arbitration 
 may bring, it is not and cannot be a means of 
 thoroughly reconciling capital and labour. 
 
 There is, besides, another source of danger in 
 these courts, a fallacy that would sooner or later 
 lead to serious difficulty, if it were really acted on. 
 It consists in the too absolute conception formed of 
 economical truth. The inevitable consequence of 
 the arbitration court presided over by a legal or 
 judicial umpire, is, that he is by his training instinc- 
 tively impelled to seek for absolute rules, which he 
 can apply to the disputes that come before him. 
 At law, certain rules are by statute or custom made 
 absolute for the very purpose of easy and precise 
 
28 Arbitration. 
 
 application to practice. There are none such in 
 political economy. Mr. Kettle, however, thinks 
 differently ; he says : " It is too much the fashion 
 to regard these rules as mere theories ; they are in 
 fact as easy of practical and familiar application as 
 a spirit level and a pair of compasses ; and an arbi- 
 trator, undisturbed by the emotions of the conflict, 
 would apply them to the facts before him almost 
 as easily as an artisan uses those simple instru- 
 ments." A more dangerous fallacy could not 
 possibly be propounded. But the fact is, that Mr. 
 Kettle's awards fail entirely to carry out this 
 view. They are remarkable for very vigorous ana- 
 lysis and skilful unravelling of complicated facts, 
 but in no sense are they deductive applications of 
 the truths of political economy. Any attempt to 
 carry out such a scheme must inevitably lead to 
 disappointment, where the arbitrator does not make 
 up for the mistake by clear and practical views as 
 to the causes of the difficulty which he is called 
 upon to adjust. 
 
 John Stuart Mill says, in a remarkable passage 
 in the preface to his " Political Economy," " For 
 
Arbitration. 29 
 
 practical purposes, political economy is inseparably 
 intertwined with many other branches of social 
 philosophy. Except on matters of mere detail, 
 there are perhaps no practical questions, even 
 among those which approach nearest to the cha- 
 racter of purely economical questions, which 
 admit of being decided on economical premises 
 alone." 
 
 The following quotation from Mr. Kettle raises 
 the point in question. He says : " If a board 
 made a decision which took wages out of capital it 
 would be most unjust ; and on the other hand, if 
 the board took profit out of wages, that would be 
 equally unjust. But it afforded the means of ascer- 
 taining exactly what the value of the labour was at 
 that particular time; in fact, it was a mart and mar- 
 ket, where both parties were independent dealers, 
 where the market price was arrived at by the dis- 
 cussion by the board ; and if a dispute arose as to 
 what was the market price, by discussing the 
 grounds upon which the two parties based their 
 respective claims the true value was ascertained. 
 But the decision must be based on what was just 
 
30 Arbitration. 
 
 and equitable at the time, and not on what might 
 be forced from one side or conceded by the other." 
 If the words "just and equitable" meant "after full 
 consideration of all the moral and social circum- 
 stances of the case," then I have no objection to and 
 can heartily accept this view. But if it means that 
 the rigid adherence to certain rudely estimated eco- 
 nomical relations between capital, profits, prices, 
 and wages, are to be treated as absolute facts to be 
 directly applied, and that, all other social and moral 
 facts being excluded, they are to form the sole basis 
 of the arbitration, that is a fallacy which, sooner or 
 later, must destroy the usefulness of courts of arbi- 
 tration. Mr. Kettle has, indeed, expressly advoca- 
 ted this separation between the moral and econo- 
 mical laws, and that the former must be disregarded 
 in coming to a practical decision on these matters. 
 But in practical judgments and actions they cannot 
 be separated. Both are necessary parts of every 
 practical conclusion, as inseparable as are the sen- 
 sory and motor nerves in the living body by which 
 physical action is governed. Not only must the 
 economical and moral be combined, but they must 
 
* 
 
 Arbitration. 31 
 
 be rightly combined, or error and failure will 
 surely follow. 
 
 Courts of arbitration, then, have a great work 
 
 fore them, limited in extent and temporary ; 
 namely, to bring about peaceful relations, and get 
 rid of strikes and lock-outs. To the further carrying 
 on of this work we must look to boards of concilia- 
 tion, which, still more than courts of arbitration, are 
 calculated to draw the masters and men nearer 
 together. A board of conciliation can achieve that 
 at which arbitration should aim, that is, a moral and 
 religious settlement, necessarily based on a due 
 regard to all economical conditions and facts. Mr. 
 Kettle has done good service by insisting on the 
 business character of boards of arbitration. Busi- 
 ness does not exclude, but should be based on and 
 subordinate to, justice and morality. 
 
 Business facts and economical facts have to be 
 determined irrespective of other considerations. 
 But the moment we step from dealing intellectually 
 with facts to applying them practically to con- 
 duct, our economical conclusions must be com- 
 bined with social and moral considerations. There 
 
32 A rbitration . 
 
 is nothing in such a picture that may not be 
 accomplished, that has not been already accom- 
 plished ; any one could point to employers who 
 have perfectly succeeded in this, and whose 
 names are household words among the working 
 classes. It is not to the lower and narrow-minded 
 employers that we look with hope, but to those of a 
 different type, who realize the inadequacy and the 
 unsatisfactory state of the present system, who can 
 look forward to an industrial development, the 
 extent and precise nature of which we do not 
 clearly understand, but which we perceive is going 
 on before our eyes, and which we are bound 
 by everything we revere to further, and not to 
 hinder. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 CONCILIATION. 
 
 E have seen that in every conciliation 
 board there must be some method of 
 final decision, that is, arbitration in 
 some shape, and that there can be no 
 permanent system of arbitration without concilia- 
 tion. The development of arbitration and con- 
 ciliation in industry is characterized by the 
 increasing prominence of conciliation ; whereas 
 arbitration, though a necessary, tends to become 
 a less and less important feature. Mr. Mundella 
 must be regarded as the inventor of systematic 
 industrial conciliation. The first board was started 
 in his own trade of hosiery in the year 1860. 
 Prior to that time the history of the relations be- 
 
 D 
 
34 Conciliation. 
 
 tween employers and employed in the trade is 
 that of war. If the worst aspects of this war, the 
 terrible riots, the murders, arsons, and machine- 
 breakings of the early part of the century, had 
 disappeared, there was still hatred and suspicion 
 by the operatives towards their masters, who in 
 their .turn entertained feelings of animosity against 
 the men. Mr. Mundella admits that, "In times 
 of depression a manufacturer pressed down the 
 workmen as low as he possibly could, and the 
 less conscience he had of course the more he 
 pressed down the workmen ; and when the time 
 for an advance came, or better trade, although 
 the natural demand for labour would sometimes 
 force up wages a little, yet it was always resisted 
 as much as possible. The men sent deputations 
 from trades unions round to the hosiers' ware- 
 houses. At one warehouse they would be told 
 to walk downstairs, the masters would not ac- 
 knowledge trades unions. At another they would 
 be told : ' Well, we shall wait till we see what 
 our neighbours do.' After going round to the 
 different firms and being received in that way, 
 the chances are. that the men would go home and 
 
Conciliation. 35 
 
 strike, and it would depend on circumstances how 
 long they could keep out. They would, perhaps, 
 ask for more than was the natural rate, more than 
 the trade could fairly give. It was simply starving 
 out the manufacturer or the workman till a com- 
 promise was effected." 
 
 In 1860 there were three strikes in one branch of 
 the trade, one of which lasted eleven weeks. The 
 
 anufacturers met together to consider what they 
 should do in their defence. A general lock-out 
 was proposed, but this meant the turning a large 
 population into the streets. They shrank from 
 such a step. Wisely and nobly they resolved to try 
 a better alternative ; after some consideration a 
 handbill was issued inviting a conference between 
 masters and men to see if a peaceable issue might 
 not be found to the dispute, which was one of wages. 
 " Three of us," says Mr. Mundella, " met a dozen 
 leaders of the trades unions. We consulted with 
 these men and told them that the present plan 
 was a bad one, that they took every advan- 
 tage of us when we had a demand, and we took 
 every advantage of them when trade was bad, and 
 it was a system mutually predatory. Well, the men 
 
36 Conciliation. 
 
 were very suspicious at first : indeed, it is impossible 
 to describe to you how suspiciously we looked at 
 each other. Some of the manufacturers also de- 
 precated our proceedings, and said that we were 
 degrading them. However, we had some ideas of 
 our own, and we went on with them, and we 
 sketched out what we called 'a board of arbitra- 
 tion and conciliation.'" They agreed to refer all 
 questions in dispute to the board ; that the board 
 should be composed of an equal number of manu- 
 facturers and workmen, both to be chosen annually 
 by their respective bodies. " When we came to 
 make our rules it was agreed that the chairman 
 should be elected by the meeting, and should 
 have a vote, and a casting vote when necessary. 
 I was chosen the chairman in the first instance, 
 and I have been the chairman ever since. I have 
 a casting vote, and twice that casting vote has 
 got us into trouble, and for the last four years 1 
 it has been resolved that we would not vote at all. 
 Even when a working man was convinced, or a 
 
 1 Mr. Mundella said this in 1868. 
 
- 
 
 Conciliation. 37 
 
 master convinced, he did not like acting against 
 his own order, and in some instances we had 
 secessions in consequence of that ; so we said, ' Do 
 not let us vote again ; let us try if we can agree ;' and 
 did agree." Although the rules of the board 
 still give the chairman a casting vote, it is never 
 used. The chairman is always an employer, and 
 it is thought undesirable that where there is an 
 equal vote, the decision should be given by an em- 
 ployer. The board has consequently come to 
 the determination that in such an event, there shall 
 be a reference to some arbitrator to be appointed 
 for the occasion. There would be no objection on 
 the part of the board to a permanent referee, so 
 long as he was acquainted with the trade ; but there 
 is a very strong feeling against a stranger referee, 
 as the questions must depend to a great extent on 
 the judgment formed of foreign goods, and the 
 probable effect of foreign competition on the trade. 
 The proceedings of the board are very informal, 
 not like a court, but the masters and men sit round 
 a table, the men interspersed with the masters. 
 Each side has its secretary. The proceedings are 
 
38 Conciliation. 
 
 without ceremony, and the matter is settled by 
 what the men call " a long jaw," discussion and 
 explanation of views, in which the men convince 
 the masters as often as the masters the men. Of 
 course this does not mean that every member of 
 the board is always convinced, though it seems that 
 even this is very often the case, but when they are 
 not they are content to compromise. They know 
 the fatal consequences of disagreement. They agree 
 by coming to the best arrangement possible under 
 the circumstances. It is in fact conciliation, and 
 is far better than the decision of a court or of an 
 umpire. The " long jaw," ending in agreement, may 
 take a longer time, but is the true practical way out 
 of the difficulty. 
 
 In the hosiery trade all employment is by piece- 
 work. We have seen that wherever the nature 
 of the work admits of employment by piece-work, 
 the system requires to be properly regulated or 
 it will work injustice. It is not true that the 
 unions desire to fix a maximum wage or price, and 
 allow no one to earn more. This is not true ; but 
 they do aim at fixing a minimum, below which the 
 
Conciliation. 39 
 
 wages, whether measured by time or by the piece, 
 shall not fall. The unions are guilds of skilled men, / 
 and they look with natural jealousy on a properly 
 qualified artist taking less than his services are 
 worth. So they often fix a minimum or limit, 
 though this is hardly so fixed and unchangeable a 
 limit as the guinea fee of the barrister or physician. 
 The condition of a fair system of remuneration by 
 piece-work is some plan for giving temporary fixity 
 to the price of the piece, or else some system by 
 which, when any alteration is necessary, the change 
 can be adjusted according to some known and 
 fixed principle. This is what Mr. Mundella's board 
 accomplishes, by fixing the price of all piece- 
 work for a certain time in advance. There are 
 statements of prices of no less than 6,000 articles. 
 This fixes the wages just as much as if it fixed wages 
 for time service. It amounts to a code of rules 
 regulating the particulars of the whole trade, some- 
 times lasting without change for as long a period 
 as two or three years. The convenience of all 
 parties is consulted. The board meets once every 
 three months, but may be called together oftener 
 
4O Conciliation. 
 
 should occasion arise. Due notice of any proposed 
 alteration must be given beforehand. 
 
 Both Mr. Mundella and Mr. Kettle agree that 
 these boards ought to be voluntary, and not com- 
 pulsory. They believe that compulsion is fatal to 
 conciliation. Some of the trades unionists have 
 certainly been in favour of compulsory arbitration. 
 But I believe I am right in stating that the present 
 compulsory legal powers have never been used by 
 either side to compel the other to arbitrate on any 
 dispute. 1 Mr. Mundella and Mr. Kettle rely on the 
 moral coercion which the employers and the men 
 can exercise over the individual members of their 
 respective bodies. The influence of the employers 
 and fair reasoning are sufficient to make any em- 
 ployer who might be disposed to disregard the de- 
 cision of the board see the advantage in the long 
 run of loyally accepting an unfavourable decision of 
 the board. With the workmen there would be a 
 great difficulty if there were no trades unions. There 
 is no way of binding the men to accept the decision 
 
 1 See Appendix on the Law applicable to Arbitration. 
 
Conciliation. 41 
 
 of the board, unless there are unions or some other 
 organization among them that would have the same 
 power over them. Happily the trades unions have 
 been able to discharge this function, and not for 
 the unionists only but for the non-unionists as well. 
 The latter are very glad to avail themselves of the 
 advantages accruing from the established organiza- 
 tion of the unions ; and the board is in fact a bond of 
 union and peace between unionist and non-unionist. 
 Some boards have rules to prevent any difference 
 arising from the fact of a man's belonging or not be- 
 longing to a trade union. One of Mr. Kettle's rules 
 says, "Neither masters nor men shall interfere with 
 any man on account of his being a society man or 
 non-society man." The board in fact accepts the 
 trade union and the principle of combination among 
 employers and employed, and uses it as the in- 
 strument for establishing peace and good will, 
 liberty and justice. Both Mr. Kettle and Mr. 
 Mundella testify to the value of the trades unions, 
 and to the way in which the workmen have per- 
 formed their part. Mr. Kettle says : " My expe- 
 rience of arbitration is, that when the masters and 
 
42 Conciliation. 
 
 the men meet as men of business, and discuss their 
 business matters together with perfect freedom, it 
 is the greatest possible relief both to the men and 
 to the masters, that they appreciate the opportunity 
 of coming and discussing the matter candidly and 
 fairly with one another, and I have never found the 
 men unreasonable, nor have I found the masters 
 unreasonable. Sometimes I have heard untenable 
 propositions enunciated on either side, but the 
 general result is that they meet in a proper spirit 
 and come to a satisfactory arrangement." 
 
 Mr. Mundella says : " The very men that the 
 manufacturers dreaded were the men that were sent 
 to represent the workmen at the board. We found 
 them the most straightforward men we could desire 
 to have to deal with ; we have often found that the 
 power behind them has been too strong for them ; 
 they are generally the most intelligent men ; and 
 often they are put under great pressure by work- 
 men outside to do things which they know to be 
 contrary to common sense, and they will not do 
 them. They have been the greatest barriers we have 
 had between the ignorant workmen and ourselves." 
 
Conciliation. 43 
 
 One of the most important parts of the system 
 has yet to be described, that is, the committee of 
 inquiry, which consists of four members of the 
 board, two employers and two operatives. If a 
 dispute arises it comes in the first instance before 
 the two secretaries of the board. If they fail to 
 adjust the difference it is brought before the com- 
 mittee of inquiry, but they have no power to make 
 an award. They can only settle the difference 
 amicably by the consent of both sides. In one of 
 the rules it is distinctly laid down that neither 
 board nor committee will entertain any application 
 from men on strike. The condition of the board's 
 action is, that the men remain at their work. Every 
 case has to pass through the hands, first of the secre- 
 taries, then of the committee, before it comes to the 
 last stage, the board. There has been no appeal to 
 the board for a year. The vice-president, who is a 
 workman, writes to me thus : " We have many dis- 
 putes, but we soon settle them. I have settled two 
 this week quite satisfactorily to both workmen and 
 employers. I have another for to-morrow. But I 
 have no doubt when I see the parties it will be all 
 
44 Conciliation. 
 
 right, without either the committee or the board." 
 The board has been a success for fifteen years. 
 Masters and men have been loyal to the decisions. 
 There have been exceptional instances, in which 
 individual masters and small bodies of men have 
 taken huff and rejected the decision of the board; 
 but this was only for a short time. Generally, when 
 such seceders have listened to the arguments of the 
 members of the board, they have in time seen their 
 error, have come back, and by so doing have 
 strengthened, rather than weakened, the vitality of 
 the system. The lesson could not be learnt by all 
 at once. 
 
 There is a similar board for the Leicester hosiery 
 trade, which is not the same industry, but a manu- 
 facture of coarser goods. It dates from 1868, and 
 the differences between this and the Nottingham 
 board are very slight. The board is composed of 
 nine manufacturers, nine workmen, and six middle- 
 men, three of the latter being chosen by the masters 
 and three by the men ; there is a standing referee 
 appointed, whose decision is final in the event of an 
 equal vote ; and the committee of inquiry consists 
 
Conciliation. 45 
 
 of two employers, two workmen, and one middle- 
 man. One of the workmen on the board writes : 
 " We have had many difficult questions to decide, 
 one being the removal of an old custom, rents and 
 charges. The equivalent was determined by the 
 board. We have considerable interest and sympa- 
 thy with boards of this kind, but unless both sides 
 of the board enter into disputes with a desire and 
 determination to do what is proved to be right, 
 they will be of no use. We have had no trouble 
 in the hosiery trade, either with manufacturers or 
 men, in carrying out the decisions of the board. 
 All have accepted them." At Derby there has 
 been another board, which has worked successfully 
 upon similar rules. 
 
 All that has been said of the Nottingham hosiery 
 trade applies to the Nottingham lace trade. But 
 the constitution of the board in the lace trade pre- 
 sents features of great interest. It is composed of 
 twelve employers and twelve workmen. There are 
 three different branches of the trade, and the board 
 is a representation of these three branches. Six 
 masters and six men represent one branch, the 
 
46 Conciliation. 
 
 other two branches being represented each by three 
 masters and three men. There are three com- 
 mittees of inquiry, each composed of three masters 
 and three men, one committee for each branch of 
 the trade. Every question arising out of one par- 
 ticular branch of the trade comes before the cor- 
 responding committee, and the matter must be 
 considered by all the members of that committee 
 before it is sent to the board. The committee have 
 power to make binding awards, but only with the 
 consent of both sides ; and not in cases where an 
 award would affect others outside that branch. As 
 in the Leicester board, there is a standing referee, 
 appointed annually, 1 who is not an umpire to pre- 
 side over the arbitration, but simply a referee, who 
 is appealed to in case of an equal vote, and whose 
 decision is final. This board, which was started 
 
 1 The writer of this book is the present referee to the board 
 in the lace trade. He only accepted the office after having 
 expressly stated that he was entirely ignorant of the details 
 and processes of such manufactures. It was a very striking 
 fact that the employers should accept as referee one who 
 could only be known to them as having advocated certain 
 views on behalf of the trades unions. 
 
Conciliation. 47 
 
 soon after Mr. Mundella's in the hosiery trade, has 
 been a complete success. Its constitution and rules 
 appear to me the best I have seen, and I therefore 
 print them at the end of the book. The represen- 
 tative character of the board appears to have two 
 results : one, of satisfying the men that their case 
 has been decided by men who really understand 
 the facts ; the other, that the work of conciliation 
 is done by the parties actually concerned and not 
 by strangers. The plan reduces the interference of 
 strangers to a minimum, which is indeed the very 
 essence and principal merit of industrial concilia- 
 tion. The system might be applied to create 
 boards in complicated industries, as I shall show 
 when I come to the consideration of the building 
 trades. The representative plan has been used with 
 great success too in the iron trade, where the board 
 was directly framed from this type. 
 
 If the movement had gone no further than the 
 staple trades of Nottingham and the Leicester 
 hosiery trade, it would have been a most successful 
 and remarkable reconciliation between capital and 
 labour, but it would have been far from a decisive 
 
 o. '*K 
 
 CSIVERSITl) 
 
 Qf / 
 
48 Conciliation. 
 
 experiment ; though such an example might well 
 have induced employers in other trades to follow in 
 the same path. For the change has been from war 
 to peace. Confidence and goodwill have replaced 
 suspicion and open hostility. The constant reference 
 of differences and disputes to an acknowledged 
 authority for decision upon the basis of reason and 
 proof, and the abiding loyally by adverse and dis- 
 appointing awards, is truly a great moral lesson. 
 Besides this, the lesson has a valuable intellectual 
 influence, in teaching the working classes to look 
 further into the future than they are wont to do. 
 The moral and social advantages of a board of 
 conciliation cannot be disputed. But other ques- 
 tions must be dealt with. How far is industrial 
 conciliation applicable to other industries ; and is 
 it economically a success ? 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE MANUFACTURED IRON TRADE. 
 
 HERE is no portion of our industrial 
 history more interesting or more im- 
 portant than that of the manufactured 
 iron trade of the North of England, both 
 in regard to the rapid growth of a mighty indus- 
 try and the improvement of the relations between 
 masters and men. No better example than this 
 can be given of the profound truth which I have 
 placed upon the title-page, and which is the text 
 and key to the investigation of all social phenomena. 
 The relations between employers and employed 
 are not arbitrary or capable of being altered in any 
 way that fancy may dictate. Notwithstanding the 
 
 E 
 
50 The Manufactured Iron Trade. 
 
 fact that so many employers have issued from the 
 ranks of labour, the constant tendency throughout 
 the long past, dating from the period when slavery 
 or serfdom was the mode of industrial rule, has 
 been for employers and employed to become more 
 distinct, more different, and more unlike. Not to 
 see and recognize this divergence, is to fail to 
 understand the conditions of the problem by the 
 solution of which these conflicting forces are to be 
 reconciled and united in harmonious action. The 
 past has been remarkable for the increase of actual 
 force the force of combined numbers on the one 
 hand, of concentrated wealth on the other. The 
 problem of the future is therefore a double one : that 
 of combining the two and regulating their action. 
 Employers and employed, and the relations sub- 
 sisting between them, constitute an essential part of 
 the natural structure or order of modern society. 
 Industrial progress may be analyzed into two 
 constituents material and human. We may con- 
 sider the lower of these first, namely, the material 
 or economical progress, and investigate the gradual 
 improvement in the modes of accumulating, pre- 
 
The Manufactured Iron Trade. 5 1 
 
 serving, and distributing wealth. The second and 
 higher progress is the actual development of the 
 individual employers and employed, and of the 
 natural human relations between them. The 
 manufacturers of this country, desirous to obtain 
 light on these difficult matters, appear to me to 
 have over-estimated the value of the lower, and 
 neglected the study of the higher progress. The 
 fact that the economical laws are a necessary 
 foundation does not clash with the truth that the 
 higher progress is assuming an ever increasing 
 importance. The industrial struggles would never 
 have assumed the dimensions they have attained to 
 if the employers had realized the importance of the 
 higher progress, and had done more for the 
 education of the individual workman, and for the 
 development of his family life. The foregoing 
 chapters show that a great change is taking place, 
 and that the English capitalists are now rising to a 
 consciousness of the higher progress, and this will be 
 still more fully borne out by the present chapter. 
 
 The iron trade is one of the greatest and most 
 remarkable branches of British industry. It may, 
 
5 2 The Manufactured Iron Trade. 
 
 perhaps, be said to be more characteristic of, and 
 more connected with, the material power of 
 England than any other trade. Enormous capital 
 is invested in the production and manufacture of 
 iron ; and thereby large populations in various 
 parts of England, Scotland, and Wales find means 
 of livelihood. The manufacturer has not to rely on 
 other countries for a supply of his raw material ; 
 which fact, by itself, tends to exclude some sources 
 of instability. But, on the other hand, the great 
 extent of its export relations with other countries, 
 its close dependence upon the production of coal, 
 its complicated labour difficulties, its connection 
 with the railway system ; all these are causes 
 which may partially explain how it is that the iron 
 trade is subject to the most remarkable fluctuations 
 in prices. " You cannot," said one of the iron- 
 worker's delegates, " see a fortnight before you in 
 the trade." These changes are so large and sudden 
 that they seem to defy all prudence and render 
 foresight all but impossible. 
 
 The economist or social philosopher may well seek 
 to unravel the complicated conditions on which such 
 phenomena depend, and to find a uniform constancy 
 
The Manufactured Iron Trade. 5 3 
 
 amidst such a changing variety. Viewed, however, 
 with reference to the practical purpose of this book, 
 they are precisely the very circumstances most 
 calculated to strain a system of conciliation to the 
 farthest point The magnitude of the interests 
 involved, by the side of which industries like the 
 two staple trades of Nottingham seem insignificant, 
 renders the introduction and success of a board of 
 arbitration and conciliation in the iron trade one of 
 the most hopeful industrial events of the present 
 time. 
 
 Without the proof of actual success, an oppo- 
 nent might not unreasonably have argued that a 
 scheme like that of the Nottingham Boards must 
 necessarily be inapplicable to an industry like the 
 manufacture of iron. Moreover, there were other 
 most serious obstacles, which had to be overcome 
 before any reconciliation could be effected between 
 the ironmasters and the ironworkers. The work 
 the men have to do in the manufacture of iron is 
 extremely trying to their health and strength. 
 Excessive physical labour is not conducive to 
 intellectual vigour, but the reverse. Intellectual 
 capacity is by no means necessary to the successful 
 
54 The Manufactured Iron Trade. 
 
 ironworker, however advantageous otherwise to his 
 social well being. The ironworkers are badly 
 educated. I find no evidence of any superiority, 
 like that respecting some of the coal-miners. 
 
 The North of England iron trade was started at 
 Middlesborough before the year 1860. During the 
 succeeding ten years it underwent very rapid growth, 
 and became one of the most important districts for 
 the manufacture of iron. A large number of opera- 
 tives had been collected together from various parts 
 of England. Some came from ironworks in other 
 places, many from other trades, and a considerable 
 number were Irish labourers. Hence there was 
 a want of discipline among them. They were 
 strangers to their employers as well as to each 
 other. There were none or very few of those ties 
 of friendship, locality, or long service, or of old 
 association, which, in the absence of systematic 
 organization or religious control, are a valuable 
 source of influence and means of moral restraint. 
 The history of the trade before this time had 
 been one of endless dispute ; of deeply engrained 
 suspicion on the part of the operatives ; of want of 
 sympathy and understanding on the side of the 
 
The Manufactured Iron Trade. 5 5 
 
 masters. The iron manufacture is of such a nature 
 that the various employments are closely inter- 
 connected. One set of men are so dependent 
 on the work done by those of a different craft, 
 that the strike of any branch of the manufac- 
 ture necessarily affects other branches, and must 
 seriously impede or stop the operations that are 
 going on. Such were the discordant elements that 
 were brought together. No wonder, then, that 
 strikes were of frequent occurrence. In 1866 the 
 works were stopped for four months. The men 
 had refused to submit to a reduction of wages, but 
 were in the end forced to accept the masters' terms. 
 From that time to the end of 1868 "repeated 
 reductions in the wages of the men became neces- 
 sary, and gave rise to feelings of resentment which 
 rendered it more than probable that any increase 
 in the demand for iron would be the signal for 
 peremptory demands on the part of the workmen, 
 tending to a renewal of the confusion of previous 
 years, and to the destruction of the prosperity 
 which all might otherwise hope to share." 1 
 
 1 Paper read by Mr. Samuelson, M.P., at the Iron Trade 
 Association, February, 1876. 
 
56 The Manufactured Iron Trade. 
 
 Early in 1869, when there was some improve- 
 ment and the prospect became a little brighter, the 
 operatives made a demand for an advance of wages ; 
 and then it was, that the idea occured to some of 
 those concerned of bringing about a conference 
 between the representatives of the employers and 
 of the employed, not only with the view of settling 
 the wages dispute, but of establishing a permanent 
 board like those in the Nottingham trades. 
 
 Several men went to Nottingham to obtain all 
 the information that was to be had. On the 1st 
 March, 1869, at Darlington, after a preliminary 
 meeting of the men, the first conference was held, 
 and only adjourned that a committee might draw 
 up a scheme for a permanent board, which was 
 adopted the following week after a very careful 
 discussion of the rules ; and the board came into 
 existence at once, began its work, and has 
 flourished ever since. 
 
 At the beginning of this year the board repre- 
 sented thirty-five iron-works, and more than 13,000 
 operatives subscribed to the board. Besides these, 
 large numbers of men are always connected with 
 
The Manufactured Iron Trade. 5 7 
 
 ron-works, who do not subscribe, but are never- 
 teless dependent upon its arrangements for em- 
 >loyment, and who would be thrown out of work 
 a strike were to occur. The works represented 
 >y the board contain no less than 1,913 puddling 
 furnaces, out of 2,136, the number in the whole 
 listrict The board has a representative con- 
 stitution, each " works " sending two represen- 
 tatives, an employer and an operative ; the latter 
 being chosen by ballot for one year, but eligible 
 for re-election. A president, vice-president, and 
 two secretaries are chosen by the board for a year. 
 They are not entitled to vote ; but the " works " 
 for which either was elected is entitled to nomi- 
 nate another representative in his stead. If the 
 employer-representative of any works happens to 
 be absent, the corresponding operative-represen- 
 tative is not allowed to vote. A standing com- 
 mittee, consisting of five employers and five 
 operatives, the president and vice-president, is 
 appointed by the board, and is exactly analogous 
 to the "committee of inquiry" in the lace and 
 hosiery trades. Its functions are well defined 
 
58 The Manufactured Iron Trade. 
 
 by Rule n : "All questions shall in the first 
 instance be referred to the standing committee, 
 who shall investigate and endeavour to settle the 
 matters so referred to it, but shall have no power 
 to make an award unless by the 'consent of the 
 parties." Failing settlement by the committee, it 
 is at once referred to the board. In 1875 this 
 committee settled more than forty disputes. Its 
 decisions, or to speak correctly, its recommenda- 
 tions, are generally accepted ; appeal to the board 
 is exceptional. If the board fails to agree, it 
 appoints an independent referee to settle the 
 dispute. There is no standing referee as in the 
 lace trade. Lately, however, disputed questions 
 have been referred to two arbitrators, one chosen 
 by the employers and the other by the men, an 
 umpire being named, whose decision is final. But 
 in the event of the arbitrators being unable to 
 agree, each* of them has to state his view to the 
 umpire ; which involves another hearing, further 
 delay, and increased expense. There seems to be 
 no advantage in such a prolonged system of arbi- 
 tration. That plan would be the best, by which 
 
The Manufactured Iron Trade. 59 
 
 ie dispute was settled by one arbitration, and that 
 short as possible. 
 
 Since the board has been in existence there have 
 ien six arbitrations on the general question of 
 fages ; three before Mr. Thomas Hughes, two 
 if ore Mr. Kettle, and one recently before two 
 rbitrators, Mr. Williams and Mr. Mundella, who 
 'reed without reference to the umpire fixed upon, 
 it this board has proved a success is admitted 
 >n all hands. In the printed case laid by the 
 employers before the recent arbitrators, they say : 
 " The board has been in operation since 1 869, and 
 during the whole of the intervening period the 
 general district wages regulations have been settled 
 without resort to strikes or lock-outs, and the 
 employers most readily accord their opinion, that 
 with a few local exceptions, which do not affect 
 the general principle, the operatives as a body 
 have been loyal to the rules laid down by the 
 board." 
 
 When the board first came together in 1869, the 
 first decision raised the wages of iron-workers from 
 Ss. to 8s. 6d. per ton. Next year they rose to 
 
60 The Manufactured Iron Trade. 
 
 9.$-. 6d. and this continued throughout the following 
 year, 1871. In February 1872, there was an ad- 
 vance made of is. per ton, and in May another 
 advance took place of an additional 2s. So that 
 the wages of puddlers were 12s. 6d. per ton. In 
 February, 1873, they got <$d. more, making 13^. $d. 
 Of course the men were not likely to object to this. 
 Nor was there any reason why the employers 
 should complain, so long as they had faith in the 
 men's abiding by unfavourable awards. For it 
 appears to be the fact, that the wages thus paid to 
 the iron-workers did not rise in a ratio proportional 
 to the advance in the profits. But the turn in the 
 tide came at last. The fall was as rapid as the 
 rise. In eighteen months the wages sank 42^ per 
 cent. This was effected partly by agreement, 
 partly by award : and the men loyally stood to the 
 awards, though they involved such enormous re- 
 ductions. So matters remained until the recent 
 arbitration, when the employers asked for a further 
 reduction to Js. 6d. a ton : lower wages than had 
 been paid in the North of England since 1863. 
 The reduction awarded by the arbitrators without 
 
The Manufactured Iron Trade. 6 1 
 
 ference to the umpire was evidently a compro- 
 
 ise, and amounted to Ss. 2d. The whole pro- 
 ings were characterized by admirable patience 
 
 d forbearance on both sides. The momentous 
 ssue was fairly and calmly discussed. The men 
 were no doubt bitterly disappointed, but resolved 
 to stick to the decision of the arbitrators. 
 
 In some of the outlying districts, the men at 
 first resented the decision and refused to work. 
 But their leaders, who were members of the board, 
 especially the late Mr. John Kane, insisted on the 
 importance of their keeping faith, and urged them 
 by their action to uphold the character of the 
 English workmen. In two or three days all the 
 men were at work quietly at a reduction of 50 per 
 cent, on the prices of 1873. 
 
 When we consider the state of things existing in 
 these districts from 1860 to the formation of the 
 board in 1869; that such a crisis has been peace- 
 fully and quietly passed through, it is not sur- 
 prising to find the employers desirous of testifying 
 to the benefits accruing from the system. 
 
 On the 24th February in the present year, the 
 
62 The Manufactured Iron Trade. 
 
 first meeting of a new Association of the British 
 Iron Trade met together at the Westminster Palace 
 Hotel, and after a valuable address from the pre- 
 sident, Mr. G. T. Clark, the first subject brought 
 forward was that of arbitration. Mr. Samuelson, 
 M.P., read a paper upon the success of the Board 
 of Arbitration and Conciliation in the North of 
 England manufactured iron trade, advocating the 
 establishment of similar boards in the trade. He 
 said that, " Arbitration in a more or less organized 
 form is now accepted in the manufactured iron 
 trade of South Staffordshire, South Wales, and 
 Scotland ; in the ironstone mines of Cleveland, 
 and in all the principal coal-mining districts of 
 England and Wales ;" and moreover, he expressed 
 his conviction that the North of England Board 
 would be able to deal with "questions like those 
 which would arise under such a great revolution as 
 appears not unlikely to occur in the processes of 
 manufacture, by the introduction of mechanical 
 puddling, or its entire supersession." In the dis- 
 cussion which followed, other employers bore wit- 
 ness to the value of the board, to the character of 
 
The Manufactured Iron Trade. 63 
 
 the men and their leaders. Having been present, 
 as a stranger, I can testify to the frankness and 
 generosity with which these employers spoke of 
 their men, and acknowledged the moral benefits to 
 themselves which had resulted from the contact and 
 intercourse between masters and men of which the 
 board was the direct instrument. The debate was 
 well concluded by a few words from the president, 
 expressing his opinion that the discussion had had 
 its effect; and candidly admitting that his own 
 views had been modified, and that sooner or later 
 the subject must be resumed. The resolution 
 moved by Mr. Samuelson was not pressed, but the 
 discussion was adjourned, sine die: there was no 
 object in carrying a resolution against a minority ; 
 for a system like this rests on the voluntary assent 
 and convictions of all those engaged. It may 
 however be said, that no more important meeting 
 has taken place for many years in this country. 
 Its whole conduct and tenour were well worthy of 
 the greatness and importance of the trade and the 
 power of the ironmasters. They have set an ex- 
 ample which other associations of employers will 
 
64 The Manufactured Iron Trade. 
 
 do well to follow. It would have been well if the 
 "Federation of Employers," who met on the fol- 
 lowing day at the same place, could have followed 
 in the same path, at once so beneficial to capital 
 and labour and to the general interests of the 
 civilized world. 
 
 The course of the board that has been estab- 
 lished in the South Staffordshire Iron Trade has 
 not run so smoothly. Here we have a failure to 
 record, but one that does not appear to have had a 
 discouraging effect. It was formed upon the basis 
 of the two organizations in the district, the South 
 Staffordshire Ironmasters' Association and the local 
 branch of the Ironworkers' Union. The board 
 only represented these associations. There was no 
 attempt to include those who were outsiders and 
 not unionists. The programme for the formation of 
 a new board declares that "the reconstruction of 
 the old Conciliation Board on its former basis will 
 never be attempted again, as it is quite powerless 
 to bind those men who were not in the Ironworkers' 
 Union, even though the master himself was bound." 
 At the discussion by the Iron Trade Association 
 
: 
 
 The Manufactured Iron Trade. 65 
 
 most hopeful views were expressed as to the future 
 of the new South Staffordshire Board, which has 
 since then been established. 
 
 The constitution of this board is not the same as 
 at of the North of England Board. It consists 
 imply of twelve masters and twelve operatives, 
 but every works joining the board shall, if pos- 
 sible, have a representative of the employers and 
 a representative of the operatives. The board 
 elects a president, not connected with the iron 
 trade, whose duty it is to attend at meetings when 
 questions are brought before the board to be 
 settled, but to take no part in the discussion, 
 beyond asking explanations sufficient to guide his 
 judgment. He has not to give an award, like an 
 arbitrator or an umpire, but, in the event of an 
 equal vote, he would have to decide then and there 
 by his casting vote. This would seem to be an 
 inexpensive and practical way of settling questions 
 rapidly ; on the one hand, avoiding the delay and 
 expense of protracted proceedings ; on the other 
 hand, providing against dissatisfaction on the part 
 of workmen or masters, if a large question as to 
 
 F 
 
66 The Manufactured Iron Trade. 
 
 prices were decided by either a workman or master. 
 It seems almost superfluous to say, that in the 
 working of these boards every effort ought to be 
 made by both sides to come to a decision, and not 
 to let the fixing of large questions depend on the 
 casting vote of the president. This has, I believe, 
 been done in the Nottingham hosiery trade. Much 
 must depend on the moral attitude and feeling of 
 the actual members of the board. The Notting- 
 ham boards have shown that the secret of successful 
 conciliation is the firm determination to agree, and 
 not to differ. The South Staffordshire Board has 
 begun well by accepting the result of an arbi- 
 tration. Besides the president there is a chairman 
 and vice-chairman, who are elected by the board 
 from themselves, but whose functions are not clearly 
 defined by the rules. Instead of a committee of 
 inquiry, the rules, which are not very precise, say 
 that "In case of any difference arising at any 
 works, it is intended that it shall be settled by the 
 works representatives ; but in case of their failing, 
 it is open to them to refer it to the chairman, vice- 
 chairman, and the two secretaries, who may call the 
 board together if they see fit." 
 
= 
 
 The Manufactured Iron Trade. 67 
 
 Various questions underlying the practical carry- 
 ing out of these arbitration and conciliation boards 
 suggested by what has occurred in the iron 
 trade, but they will be more conveniently dis- 
 cussed in the following chapter on the coal 
 trade. 
 
 The success of the board in the North of Eng- 
 land iron trade, under the circumstances and trials 
 I have described, is in truth sufficient to enable us 
 to say the system is adapted to all industries in 
 which the employments are not too varied, and 
 which are grouped into large local aggregates, as 
 distinguished from those trades which are scattered 
 all over the kingdom. Of this kind of industry 
 there could be no more typical experiment, no 
 more remarkable success, than that of a great 
 trade evolving a peaceful system like this, under 
 the most trying vicissitudes that could well be 
 imagined. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE COAL TRADE. 
 
 RBITRATION in the coal trade is an 
 accomplished fact, as far as England 
 and Wales are concerned. Everywhere 
 disputes are being settled by arbitra- 
 tion. As yet, however (with perhaps one excep^ 
 tion), no permanent board, either for arbitration or 
 conciliation, has been adopted. When a dispute 
 arises, arbitrators are chosen on each side and an 
 independent man is fixed upon as umpire. The 
 investigation takes place in one form or another, 
 and the masters and men abide by the result. In 
 the Northumberland coal trade, although there is 
 no permanent arbitration board, the masters and 
 
The Coal Trade. 69 
 
 len have for some years met together and dis- 
 cussed all large questions, affecting the whole dis- 
 ict, in a friendly way. The masters had their 
 :iation, the men belonged to two large trades 
 lions. Since March, 1873, a joint committee, 
 >mposed of six employers and six operatives, has 
 let, and discussed and settled all questions "of 
 mere local importance, affecting individual pits." 
 But the committee has no authority to deal with 
 the larger question of wages ; nor is there any 
 board which has such authority. The arbitrating 
 tribunal is created for the occasion. For example, 
 on March 1st, 1875, an arbitration took place 
 between the employers and employed in the North- 
 umberland coal trade, before four arbitrators 
 two chosen by the employers and two by the men 
 presided over by the umpire, Mr. Rupert Kettle, 
 who defines the constitution of the court very 
 clearly : " We are one body of five ; and if, by- 
 and-by, it should be found that you are two and 
 two, and, therefore, cannot arrive at a conclusion, 
 the decision will be with me ; but until that time 
 arrives you are the judges, and I am only assisting 
 
/o The Coal Trade. 
 
 you." The colliery owners begin the statement of 
 their case with the following remarkable testimony 
 as to the relations between employers and em- 
 ployed, and as to the condition of the colliers, 
 which those would do well to attend to who are 
 ready hastily and lightly to repeat the unjust exag- 
 gerations so current about the excesses of colliers. 
 They say : 
 
 " It is satisfactory to us that gentlemen who have so in- 
 terested themselves in the welfare of the working classes are 
 to arbitrate upon this important subject, and it is with plea- 
 sure that we proceed to draw your attention to one of the 
 most active mining districts in the kingdom, where for many 
 years the masters and the men have been on the most 
 friendly terms. You on your part, we feel sure, will gladly 
 recognize that you are not called in to stand between an 
 oppressed body of labourers and their employers, but that, 
 on the contrary, you will find that the miners of this district 
 form, both physically and morally, a most advanced type of 
 mankind, from which some of our most talented and clever 
 inventors and senators 1 have been drawn, and from which, 
 with great skill and judgment, some of the ablest advocates 
 have been selected that ever represented any body of men ; 
 
 1 Mr. T. Burt, M.P., was the Secretary of the North- 
 umberland Miners' Association, and has uniformly advocated 
 the establishment of boards of arbitration and conciliation. 
 
The Coal Trade. 71 
 
 and the owners so far appreciate their intelligence that 
 they meet their representatives at all times, and frankly 
 and cordially discuss with them all matters in dispute. 
 
 " The result has been, that the pits have been kept con- 
 tinuously going, and both masters and men have severally 
 reaped the greatest possible advantage that could be obtained 
 from the exceptionally good state of the trade during the last 
 few years. This intelligence on the side of the miners has 
 shown itself often and again in the ready way all questions 
 of percentage, and others requiring a high mental training, 
 have been taken up by them in the various discussions that 
 have taken place, and leads us to hope that they will follow 
 and comprehend the very important statement that we shall 
 have to lay before you a statement full of instruction, which 
 we trust will draw the attention of the miners to most im- 
 portant truths, and cause them to loyally accept the decision 
 which we feel sure will be the result of this arbitration." 
 
 In the Durham coal trade we find a similar state 
 of things prevailing. The district is described 
 as one in which " reason and calm discussion have 
 pre-eminently taken the place of force." I have 
 already in the second chapter pointed out the 
 danger of these arbitrations creating a system of 
 refined advocacy, and this danger is greater in the 
 coal trade than in any other industry. No doubt 
 they have a most beneficial effect : but they are 
 
72 The Coal Trade. 
 
 very long investigations, most intricate and diffi- 
 cult to follow, and generally, they are by no 
 means calculated to bring conviction to the minds 
 of the operatives. This must be a danger to 
 the system ; unless the operatives can understand 
 the grounds of the decisions they will sooner or 
 later doubt their justice. Too great frequency is 
 another evil. For example, in the Durham coal 
 trade, an award was made in November, 1874, 
 after prolonged investigations, by Mr. Russell Gur- 
 ney, which seemed to give satisfaction to both 
 sides. Yet we find another great arbitration be- 
 ginning in April, 1875, and the men giving ut- 
 terance to the following complaint : " We had 
 certainly thought that an award based on such 
 exhaustive evidence, and given by such an unques- 
 tionable authority, would have been allowed to 
 settle the wages question in the county of Durham 
 for a much longer period than the mine-owners 
 have allowed to elapse before requesting a further 
 reduction in our wages." Of course the answer 
 is, that the fault lies in the fluctuations, which are 
 beyond the employers' control. But that only 
 
The Coal Trade. 73 
 
 serves to show the weakness of a system which 
 cannot modify or regulate the effects of such fluc- 
 tuations, and points to the want of a perma- 
 nent board of conciliation, which, as in the iron 
 trade, has a better chance of securing a peaceful 
 acceptance of hard terms. The uncertainties of 
 trade and the fluctuations seem to be as great in 
 the coal trade as in the iron trade. Doubtless 
 the changing price of coal is one of the causes 
 of fluctuation in the iron trade. But on the other 
 hand, the Report of the Coal Committee, 1873, 
 states : " It is clearly shown that the real order of 
 events has been the rise in the price of iron, the 
 rise in the price of coal, and the rise in the rate of 
 wages." No wonder that men like Mr. Halliday 
 should look upon such rapid fluctuations up and 
 down as the great difficulty against which masters 
 and men ought to contend. The late Mr. J. 
 Normansell, one of the best leaders the workmen 
 have had, while willing to accept arbitration as a 
 lesser evil than that of striking, emphatically said 
 that he looked forward to some plan of " reference" 
 or conciliation putting an end to the arbitra- 
 
74 The Coal Trade. 
 
 tions. Great, however, as the fluctuations and 
 difficulties have been, these arbitrations in North- 
 umberland and Durham have been successful, and 
 have been loyally adhered to by employers and 
 employed. 
 
 There have, however, been arbitrations in the 
 coal trade all over the country, and the result 
 must be admitted to be very satisfactory. Some- 
 times there have been instances of employers, and 
 sometimes of men, refusing arbitration. These 
 are becoming more rare. A very wholesome feel- 
 ing exists, which is generally though not always 
 right, that the side refusing arbitration is neces- 
 sarily in the wrong. The refusal to submit to 
 arbitration is regarded as equivalent to a weak 
 case. Both in the coal and iron trades, when 
 arbitration has taken place, masters and men as a 
 rule abide by the result. There have been a 
 certain number of cases in which employers or 
 men have repudiated the decision : but these have 
 been exceptional ; sometimes there is a discon- 
 tented minority, which, after grumbling, accepts the 
 result. Mr. Kettle says that he always expects a 
 
The Coal Trade. 75 
 
 little sulking when the award is unpleasant. For 
 my own part, after making all the inquiries I 
 can, I do not hesitate to say, that these instances 
 are few and unimportant ; and that men like 
 Mr. Henry Robertson, M.P., and others, are fully 
 justified in the favourable opinion they have pub- 
 licly expressed as to the practical success of the 
 system in the coal trade. 
 
 In one instance where the men refused to abide 
 by the award, which certainly did them a great 
 injury, the employers voluntarily accepted a less 
 reduction than had been awarded by the umpire. 
 At another colliery, in South Wales, the men com- 
 plained of the neglect of their own arbitrator, 
 and refused to accept his award. On the other 
 hand, there have been successful arbitrations in 
 Ashton-under-Lyne, Oldham, North Staffordshire, 
 Cleveland, and the North of England. 
 
 In South Staffordshire, after the strike of 1874, 
 a sliding scale was agreed to by a joint committee 
 of employers and employed. At Radstock there 
 have been two awards : one by Mr. Kettle, the 
 other by Mr. Hughes. So with awards at Bristol and 
 
76 The Coal Trade. 
 
 in Cumberland. In the South Wales steam-coal 
 collieries the men remained loyal to a most un- 
 favourable award. I have already spoken of the 
 Durham and Northumberland districts. 
 
 In North Wales Mr. Horatio Lloyd, the county 
 court judge, testifies to the earnest desire and 
 efforts on the part of the leaders of the men 
 to get them to be true to the awards. This after 
 all is the main feature. The first condition of arbi- 
 tration is, that the leaders of the workmen should 
 be true, and according to the uncontradicted testi- 
 mony of many arbitrators and employers they 
 have been true on all occasions. No single in- 
 stance of any trade union leader urging the men 
 to break faith has come to my knowledge ; but 
 whenever there was a danger of the men repu- 
 diating the decision their leaders have promptly 
 and firmly protested. These rough uneducated 
 Welsh colliers must not be judged too harshly, if 
 at times they fail to see their true interest and 
 break from the awards. They will soon learn the 
 right lesson, both of interest and a higher morality, 
 which their leaders are earnestly striving to impress 
 
The Coal Trade. 77 
 
 upon them. Mr. Lloyd informed me that on one 
 occasion, when the men were inclined to reject the 
 decision, the leaders held a mass meeting and told 
 the men that they and the whole body of workmen 
 were bound in honour to abide by the result, and 
 that they, the leaders, would have nothing more to 
 do with the miners if they failed them then and 
 were false to their word. 
 
 The chief obstacle to a better and more per- 
 manent system of arbitration and conciliation con- 
 sists in the want of more highly organized and 
 more permanent associations, both of the miners 
 and of the mine-owners. Where this is the case, 
 as in Northumberland and Durham, arbitration 
 is most successful. Mr. Halliday says, " the 
 greatest difficulty prevails where there are most 
 non-union men, as there is nothing to bind them to 
 an agreement;" and "I do not know one case of 
 the men deviating from an award when the unions 
 have entered into arbitration for the men." In some 
 coaLdistricts the mine-owners appear hardly to have 
 adopted that attitude towards their men which is 
 necessary to ensure success. But Mr. Halliday gives 
 
78 The Coal Trade. 
 
 the following testimony in reference to the South 
 Wales Board : " We have had very comfortable 
 meetings. The employers' representatives treated 
 the miners' representatives, including myself, with 
 the greatest courtesy and respect." 
 
 This account of the arbitrations in the coal 
 trade does not pretend to be complete ; but it is 
 sufficient to show the area and numbers of men 
 who have been brought under the influence of this 
 idea. Those who are at all accquainted with the 
 rough and violent character of some parts of our 
 mining population, who see the difficulties and 
 dangers arising out of the aggregating large masses 
 of uneducated men together, engaged in employ- 
 ment ever subject to the greatest fluctuations, will 
 know how to appreciate the moral teaching implied 
 by the spread of such a system as that of arbi- 
 tration. Great credit is due to the leaders of the 
 miners, who have certainly in recent times kept 
 their followers well in hand. The behaviour of the 
 miners in the South Wales strike was truly admir- 
 able, but the happy result ought not to blind any 
 one to the fact that the occasion was a period of 
 
The Coal Trade. 79 
 
 danger and anxiety. Everything passed off peace- 
 ably and smoothly ; and yet, it can hardly be 
 doubted that there was ground for apprehension, 
 and that a small spark might have lit up a fearful 
 flame. We cannot but remember the riots that have 
 taken place in the past. At Mold in North Wales, 
 during the summer of 1869, the most formidable 
 riot occurred that has been seen in England and 
 Wales for the last twenty-five years. A precon- 
 certed attack was made by an organized mob of 
 miners upon a large force of military and police, with 
 the intention of rescuing one of their fellows from the 
 custody of the officers of the law. Two men had 
 been tried by the magistrates for assaults arising 
 out of a trade dispute, and the men had been 
 leniently treated and sentenced to a small term of 
 imprisonment. There took place what can only 
 be described as a fearful battle. The soldiers 
 behaved with unexampled patience and self- 
 restraint. They were not ordered to fire until 
 there was a real danger of destruction. As it was, 
 no less than 50 per cent, were hors de combat, 
 requiring surgical assistance. The soldiers got 
 
8o The Coal Trade. 
 
 back to Chester with uniforms torn, rifles broken, 
 each of them a mass of blood and bruises. The law 
 was fully and sternly vindicated at the assizes by a 
 sentence of ten years' penal servitude. The men 
 were not then in union. Since then they have 
 come under the leadership of wiser men, unionism 
 is becoming firmly established, and we see the idea 
 of arbitration making way among them. What if 
 there are a few backslidings and breaches of faith 
 under trying circumstances ? Very likely there will 
 be; but such events will not be exaggerated by 
 the employers, who know well enough that such a 
 progress cannot be wrought in an hour, and that it 
 really is more rapid than any of us could have 
 anticipated at the time of the Mold Riot in 1869. 
 The result is very striking : a bright outlet to a 
 dark and difficult problem. 
 
 The truths of political economy serve us as 
 lights to indicate our way, and prevent our de- 
 viating into wrong paths, but do not admit of 
 precise application to settle disputes as to wages 
 or prices. Economical laws represent certain 
 abstract tendencies, but do not give us equations 
 
The Coal Trade. 81 
 
 or ratios, from which we can deduce the required 
 solution. All attempts in this direction are vain 
 and fruitless. Consequently, it becomes neces-3 
 sary, and is the essential condition of a successful 
 arbitration, that the disputants should agree upon 
 some fact, some proportion, or some principle, by 
 which the settlement may be effected. This isj 
 not in any way a conclusion from political 
 economy, though knowledge of the economical 
 truths is a valuable safeguard ; but it is a purely 
 arbitrary and empirical arrangement. The printed 
 reports of the coal trade arbitrations are ex- 
 ceedingly interesting for the clever way in which 
 the questions of profits, prices, and wages are 
 discussed, but at the same time they offer the 
 most convincing proof of how impossible it is to 
 use political economy for the purposes of judicial 
 investigation. The practical question always is, 
 " How are the wages to be computed ? are they to 
 depend on the profits ?" The employers say, "Cer- 
 tainly not ; wages do not depend on profits. To 
 attempt to carry out such a scheme would be to 
 make labour participate in the profits without 
 
 G 
 
82 The Coal Trade. 
 
 bearing the risks and the losses incidental to the 
 use of capital. Besides, how could the wages 
 of a district be regulated proportionally to profits ? 
 Profits vary in the same trade according to the 
 circumstances and conditions of each separate 
 manufactory. They depend upon whether the 
 management is economical and efficient, the lo- 
 cality and situation good or bad, and numerous 
 other conditions. Moreover, equal capitals do not 
 in fact give equal profits. Probably no two fac- 
 tories or shops would give the same result." Then, 
 with reference to prices, employers and employed 
 practically adopt this attitude. To a certain extent 
 much that has been said with regard to profits 
 applies to prices. Wages have nothing to do 
 with prices; circumstances may render prices high 
 and wages low, at the same time there is a sort 
 of recognized feeling that the price of a manu- 
 factured article may be used as a rough, unskilful, 
 but practical, mode of settling the question. 
 
 The truth is, that these arbitrations will not 
 be satisfactory unless they are based on all the 
 facts, relative to prices, profits, and the demand 
 
The Coal Trade. 83 
 
 and supply of labour, and are determined by 
 some arbitrary but fixed rule, which alone can 
 prevent the arbitration from being a mere com- 
 promise. Generally this is a ratio agreed upon 
 between prices and wages. A certain date is 
 fixed upon, at which time the wages were con- 
 sidered to be satisfactory to the men and the 
 profits to the master. This becomes the practical 
 ideal, a just and desirable condition of trade ; 
 and the arbitrator's aim, when acquainted with 
 all the facts, is to approximate to this ratio, as 
 far as he can do so without injury or injustice. 
 I do not believe that there is any other rational 
 theory of these arbitrations. 
 
 It is said to be a great obstacle in the way 
 of successful arbitration that the coal-owners 
 are very unwilling to b^ng their books into court. 
 The argument u*ocd to compel them to produce 
 their books is, that if the settlement is to be on 
 the price basis the average selling price of the 
 district can only be obtained by examining the 
 books of all the firms in the association. Such 
 an argument savours of the legal arbitrator. I 
 
84 The Coal Trade. 
 
 could understand such an argument with reference 
 to the average profits in the district. But can 
 it be seriously maintained that the production of 
 the books is necessary, for discovering the prices ? 
 Is not the selling price of coal at any time easily 
 ascertainable, as it is of almost any other goods? 
 However there seems to be a great difference 
 of opinion on the question. I am told that in the 
 Northumberland Coal Trade the nominal market 
 price is fictitious, and that it represents only a local 
 market, whereas the real market is a very wide one, 
 coal being sent to the Baltic and other distant 
 places. It seems strange that coal bought at a 
 colliery for different places should have different 
 prices ; and that no two collieries obtain exactly the 
 same price for coal, as is asserted by those who say 
 that prices can only be determined by reference to 
 the books of the coal owners. 
 
 Assuming, therefore, the books to be neces- 
 sary, the course obviously is for one accountant 
 to go through them and publish the result. 
 This has sometimes been done. Sometimes there 
 has been point-blank refusal by the coal owners. 
 At other times the umpire has been allowed 
 

 The Coal Trade. 85 
 
 to see the books and not the arbitrators, or 
 ingenious methods have been resorted to by 
 which the figures could be used, but the identity 
 of the firms concealed. I am not aware that 
 there has been any such difficulty experienced 
 in any other trade. The fact is, that though the 
 men see that wages cannot depend upon profits, 
 they know that very often the facts as to the 
 profits in a district at a given time are very 
 important facts for the purposes of the investiga- 
 tion, especially to test or disprove the employer's 
 statements. Hence the effort to get at the books; 
 and in such a case it may well be that the truth 
 would be very material, and it very often happens 
 that a just and satisfactory arbitration would 
 be impossible without the facts which the books 
 alone could furnish. This is especially the case 
 where the employers ask for a reduction of wages, 
 and allege that they are making little or no profit. 
 Nevertheless I cannot but think that legal arbi- 
 trators are apt to exaggerate the importance 
 and underrate the inconvenience of the produc- 
 tion of books. No doubt the more publicity that 
 can be given the better; but then it must be a 
 
86 The Coal Trade. 
 
 publicity which will not be taken advantage of in 
 the present state of the mercantile world. The 
 remedy seems to me to lie in the trust engendered 
 by a board of conciliation. If the board rigidly 
 determined exactly what information was required, 
 one or two of the members might well be trusted 
 to get the requisite information for the board. 
 These difficulties would seem to belong to the 
 arbitration system. They would be lessened, if 
 not removed, by a board of conciliation. 
 
 In the interests of peace it might perhaps be 
 desirable if in each of the various trades throughout 
 the country a ratio between prices and wages could 
 be fixed upon, or any other arbitrary principle, 
 which should be the lasting basis of all arbitrations 
 and of all payments of wages. This is what I 
 understand by the " sliding-scale," which many 
 people still believe to be practical. Many of the 
 colliers and the iron-workers, and some of the 
 colliery owners, believe the plan to be feasible. 
 Mr. Herschell, in his award this year upon the 
 Northumberland coal trade arbitration, expresses 
 a strong opinion that a sliding-scale might now 
 

 The Coal Trade. 87 
 
 be successfully adopted in the coal trade ; and 
 that if such a scale could be arranged it would 
 obviously greatly lessen the frequency of arbi- 
 trations, as the adjustment of wages could be 
 easily calculated, and disputes would tend to be 
 limited to unusual or exceptional circumstances. 
 
 In the iron trade, however, Mr. Samuelson 
 informs us in his paper that several references had 
 to be made to the umpire, Mr. Rupert Kettle, in 
 regard to special adjustments of wages at different 
 works ; and that " the general references were 
 rendered necessary by the failure to discover a 
 self-regulating scale of wages varying with the 
 price of iron, which should stand the test of a 
 lengthened period. Two such scales were adopted 
 and tried since 1872, and both have been aban- 
 doned." Nevertheless the iron-workers are not satis- 
 fied that the attempt should be abandoned, and 
 wish to make another trial of the sliding-scale. 
 It is greatly to be regretted that a man like Mr. 
 Herschell, who expresses such confident opinions 
 on so difficult a subject, should not take the 
 trouble to show us how he arrives at such an 
 
88 The Coal Trade. 
 
 inference. I must say that it is a rash thing for 
 a legal arbitrator to do, without publishing the 
 exact reasoning on which he bases so important 
 a judgment. If he is wrong in principle, as I 
 believe him to be, he is urging the men into a 
 wrong path, which must do more harm than good. 
 With regard to the iron trade, how can there be 
 a scale, that is, a fixed ratio between wages and 
 prices, when an increase in the price of coal or 
 ironstone may raise the cost of production against 
 the manufacturer without increasing the price of 
 the manufactured article in a corresponding de- 
 gree ? In the textile trades it constantly happens 
 that the lower the price of the raw material the 
 lower the cost of production and the price of the 
 manufactured article, and yet for that very reason 
 the sale is greater, and as a consequence wages 
 are increased. It comes to this : Does the cost 
 of production in the coal trade depend so ex- 
 clusively on the wages paid for labour that the 
 other constituents may practically be disregarded ? 
 I do not believe it; and if not, how can there be a 
 fixed ratio ? 
 
The Coal Trade. 89 
 
 The fact is, that the cost of getting coal does not 
 depend exclusively on the wages of labour ; and 
 the other things that go to make up the cost to the 
 coal owner are so considerable and vary so much 
 as to make all the difference between a colliery 
 paying or not paying. A fixed ratio of wages to 
 prices might therefore be very unjust to an em- 
 ployer; or if prices fell very low it might be very 
 hard that the whole loss should be made up out of 
 the men's wages. 
 
 Some of the men's representatives, who do not 
 seem to have great faith in the principle, are never- 
 theless in favour of the establishment of a sliding- 
 scale, on the ground that it is a settlement for a long 
 time. So anxious are the leaders to avoid strikes 
 that they prefer any settlement to none. If this is 
 their real want, I would recommend a fair trial 
 of a permanent board of conciliation, which 
 promises better results, and has a much surer 
 foundation than the sliding-scale. I cannot hear 
 of any sliding-scale which has lasted for a long 
 time, that is, for a sufficiently long time to be re- 
 garded as a permanent success of the invention. 
 
90 The Coal Trade. 
 
 Workmen must, however, see that a sliding-scale 
 does not mean either fixed wages or diminished 
 fluctuations. I suspect they do thoroughly under- 
 stand this ; and therefore we find another notion, 
 closely connected with this sliding-scale ; another 
 notion, that gives rise to most difficult questions. 
 Some of the operatives are of opinion that the 
 board should fix a minimum wage, below which 
 wages shall not go : limiting, in fact, the powers of 
 the board. It must be admitted that those repre- 
 sentatives of the men, who have entertained this 
 view, have expressed themselves very vaguely and 
 not given the idea the precision, without which 
 adequate treatment of the question is impossible. 
 They seem to say that if a sliding-scale is fixed 
 upon there should be a limit placed at the lower 
 end of the scale, so that a workman's wages should 
 never sink to what they consider to be the star- 
 vation point. If such a plan were possible, it would 
 only be by a limitation of the other, of the upper 
 end of the scale as well as of the lower. If the 
 men were to renounce wages rising above a certain 
 figure, then everything above that, going into the 
 
The Coal Trade. 91 
 
 pocket of the employer, instead of being increased 
 wages, might be regarded as and would be ad- 
 ditional profits of the employer and would enable 
 him, as it were, to guarantee the workman his salary. 
 A very small approach is thus made to the simpler 
 plan of a fixed salary instead of fluctuating 
 wages. The employer would pay wages by a scale 
 lopped at both ends ; wages would never rise very 
 high or fall very low. The extreme fluctuations 
 would seem to be avoided. In no other way can 
 such a proposition be tenable. But then, it must 
 not be forgotten that the employer would be 
 obliged to close his works, not only much sooner, 
 but when they need never be closed at all. In 
 very bad times he would have no choice. He must 
 necessarily close his works when he might other- 
 wise keep them open and give some employment ; 
 as was, for example, done by the employers 
 during the cotton famine, 'at the time of the 
 American War. In fact, the plan involves the 
 acceptance of the proposition that the half loaf is 
 not better than no bread ; and yet I believe there 
 are operatives who accept this proposition. 
 
92 The Coal Trade. 
 
 These great arbitrations have forced the idea 
 upon the employers and the employed, of settle- 
 ment upon the basis of justice, after a fair exami- 
 nation of all the facts. Unquestionably these 
 great arbitrations have done a very important 
 work in getting at the facts and obtaining a great 
 deal of information which could not otherwise have 
 been got at. On some subjects the men's eyes 
 have been opened, and the result has been that 
 both employers and employed stand on a different 
 footing towards each other. This has been a 
 necessary work, and probably will have had as 
 valuable an effect on the coal-owners as it has on 
 the men. 
 
 I have professedly been painting the bright side 
 of the picture. The dark side of the coal trade 
 needs no description. Such events as those re- 
 cently witnessed in the South Yorkshire and North 
 Derbyshire coal trade are very disappointing. The 
 Employers' Association having given notice of 
 a 15 per cent, reduction, a deputation from the 
 miners waited upon them, and made an offer to 
 accept 7 per cent, reduction, and that the other /J 
 
The Coal Trade. 93 
 
 should be the subject of arbitration. " Not only," 
 says the " Sheffield Independent," " would they con- 
 cede nothing of the 1 5 per cent, but they repelled 
 a suggestion for arbitration with something in their 
 manner almost brusque." We had hoped for better 
 things, and had reason for our hope, as Mr. 
 C. Markham occupied the chair on this occasion. 1 
 Disappointments must recur again and again. It 
 would indeed be foolish to expect strikes or the 
 causes of strikes to cease at once or in any other 
 way than by slow degrees. The principal fact 
 after all is, the gradual introduction into this great 
 trade and among the colliers in so many different 
 parts of the country of the idea of justice, and the 
 strong wish to settle disputes without recourse 
 being had to strikes on the one side or lock-outs 
 on the other. 
 
 1 Since this was written the dispute terminated by the 
 employers offering to accept 10 per cent, reduction, and to 
 refer the remaining 5 per cent, to arbitration, or to accept 
 12^ per cent, reduction as a settlement. This latter offer was 
 accepted by the men. Efforts have also been made to 
 establish a board of conciliation. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ARBITRATION IN OTHER INDUSTRIES. 
 
 HE English working classes have given 
 the most favourable reception to the 
 proposals for courts and boards of 
 arbitration or conciliation. Wherever 
 representatives of the working classes have met 
 together, and the subject of arbitration has been 
 brought forward, favourable resolutions have been 
 passed with remarkable unanimity and enthusiasm. 
 On no other subject has there been so hearty a 
 response. Mr. George Odger, to the great value 
 of whose life and influence upon the industrial 
 progress I am glad to bear witness, introduced the 
 subject of arbitration to a large representative 
 meeting that was held at Sheffield in the year 
 
Arbitration in other Industries. 95 
 
 1 866. He said that " With the principles of strikes 
 he had no sympathy, but he looked upon them as 
 a sad necessity as a two-edged instrument, which 
 was dangerous to use, and which ought to be 
 avoided. Strikes were to the social world what 
 wars were to the political world. They became 
 crimes, unless they were prompted by absolute 
 necessity." This view has steadily been growing 
 among the workmen, who have been taught to 
 look to peaceable and just settlements of the 
 labour questions. None know better than the 
 advocates of arbitration and conciliation, that the 
 success of their efforts is due to the teaching and 
 guidance of men like Mr. Odger, who have preached 
 and prepared the way for peace. 
 
 We have come to the conclusion that permanent 
 boards, either of arbitration or conciliation, are 
 not possible unless the operatives are united 
 together in some form of permanently established 
 organization, without which there is no guarantee 
 that the men will abide by the decisions of the 
 board ; and that the system has the best chance of 
 success when the employers are also associated 
 
96 Arbitration in other Industries. 
 
 together. In examining the conditions of some 
 other industries, we are naturally led to the con- 
 sideration of those trades in which there are highly 
 organized associations of employers and employed, 
 and yet no board established, where there has 
 been arbitration but only in an exceptional and 
 unsystematic way. 
 
 In the preceding chapters the reader may have 
 noticed that the industries treated of have been 
 local in character. There are, in fact, two great 
 divisions of human industry. One, the more 
 general, which consists principally of the manufac- 
 ture of the instruments, machinery, and buildings 
 used in other industries, and where the operatives 
 are necessarily scattered over the country, and not 
 collected into groups. In the other, each trade 
 tends to group itself in certain localities, and, 
 therefore, includes mining operations, as well as 
 the more special and complicated industries, as 
 the textile manufactures, shoemaking, pottery, 
 cutlery, etc. Where the operatives are locally 
 united, the board forms an institution in their 
 midst, working under their eyes, influencing them 
 
Arbitration in other Industries. 97 
 
 : 
 
 in their opinions and actions, itself subject to their 
 criticism and judgment. This is not so with the 
 more general trades, whose work consists in the 
 manufacture of the tools and plant used in the 
 special trades. Steam-engines and engineers are 
 wanted in all trades everywhere. Carpenters, 
 bricklayers, painters, masons, plasterers, moulders, 
 c., do not admit of local aggregation : they are 
 attered all over the kingdom. Can the con- 
 ciliation principle apply to such trades ? Is a 
 board practicable among them ? The difficulty is 
 more clearly seen when we come to consider how 
 the principle could be applied to large engineering 
 manufacture, or to steel works, like those at 
 Sheffield. It cannot be supposed that a local 
 Sheffield board for steel manufacture could possibly 
 settle wages for a trade union like that of the iron 
 moulders, extending all over England and Wales, 
 and even to Ireland. 
 
 The Iron Moulders. 
 
 Besides this, the very strength and success of 
 some unions constitute a difficulty of itself. The 
 
 H 
 
98 Arbitration in other Industries. 
 
 Iron Moulders' Union is a typical case. Their 
 union is extremely strong, stable, and highly 
 organized. For many years their respected leader, 
 Mr. Daniel Guile, has guided them with prudence, 
 energy, and wisdom. The society has been in 
 existence for sixty-six years, and steadily increases. 
 The relations between employers and employed 
 are, on the whole, satisfactory. Strikes occur but 
 seldom. They feel themselves so strong and so 
 united that they do not, as a rule, adopt the system 
 of picketing. If any employer insists upon a mode 
 of work they do not like, they simply leave his 
 employment and find work elsewhere. There is no 
 strike in the sense of an active struggle to prevent 
 other workmen from going in. Their wages do 
 not fluctuate. They fix a minimum, below which 
 they decline to work ; but they neither attempt 
 nor have any wish to fix a maximum. If wages 
 were to be reduced below 38^. per week a moulder 
 would simply give the usual notice and leave. 
 Wages have hardly altered at all. The present mini- 
 mum in London is 3&r. ; in 1848 it was 36^. ; "there- 
 fore," say the iron moulders, " what is there for us to 
 
: 
 
 Arbitration in other Industries. 99 
 
 arbitrate about ? " There are employers, sometimes 
 new men, who try to undersell the old-established 
 firms by reducing wages below this minimum. 
 There is no dispute. The iron moulders say, " Em- 
 loy whom you will ; our terms are 38^. ; take 
 em or not, just as you like." * As far as I can 
 see, there is no reason to suppose that this state 
 of things will not be maintained. 
 
 But though arbitration is not wanted in respect 
 of wages, there are difficulties of a different kind, 
 which a board of conciliation could remove by 
 bringing employers and men more and more 
 into contact. The iron moulders assert that in old 
 times, when their union was in its earlier days, the 
 employer was not so far removed from the men 
 in his employ as is now the case. His life, his 
 
 1 This is a perfect example of labour being sold with 
 reservation of price. "Thus, owing to two causes one, 
 labour's inability to keep, the other, the habitual poverty of 
 labourers labour is almost always sold without reservation 
 of price." Thornton on Laboiir, p. 75. 
 
 " Unless goods be offered for sale unreservedly, the 
 stanchest believer in the law of supply and demand will not 
 pretend that it can possibly apply." Ibid. p. 56. 
 
ioo Arbitration in other Industries. 
 
 position, his habits and surroundings, made him, if 
 not one of them, at least nearer and more closely 
 related to them. Now everything tends to a wider 
 separation ; wealth and luxury, different habits, 
 aspirations, ideas, and feelings. The consequence 
 is, that the workmen see and know much less of 
 their master than formerly. The middle man 
 comes between, and occupies a position of increas- 
 ing importance. The iron moulders might easily 
 be brought to accept any practicable scheme 
 that would remove or modify evils of which they 
 complain that spring from this source, and which 
 would bring about a greater sympathy and im- 
 proved relations between them and their employers. 
 
 The Engineers. 
 
 In the engineering trade the difficulties in the 
 way of a board seem at first sight insurmountable. 
 The Society of Amalgamated Engineers, which is 
 one of the most highly organized and strongest 
 trade unions in the country, is not averse to 
 arbitration. They have on different occasions ac- 
 cepted it. The great nine hours' strike at New- 
 
Arbitration in other Industries. 101 
 
 castle was in reality put an end to by an offer of 
 arbitration on the part of the men. Probably they 
 would agree to arbitration in any dispute which 
 they thought would admit of that mode of settle- 
 ment. But this is very different from the adoption 
 of a permanent board, for which it seems that they 
 are hardly prepared. However, this may be partly 
 due to the fact that no practicable scheme has been 
 put before them. It is extremely probable, look- 
 ing to the high character and ability which their 
 leaders have always shown, that an offer of any 
 really practical scheme coming from the employers 
 would receive the fairest and most careful attention 
 at the hands of the union. 
 
 At present, both the representatives of the men 
 and the master engineers have not been able to 
 surmount the difficulties described at the beginning 
 of this chapter. One of the best known and most 
 important employers in the North of England has 
 written, " We employ fitters, smiths, boiler makers, 
 pattern makers, moulders in iron, moulders in brass, 
 forge-men, joiners, coppersmiths, tinsmiths, brass 
 finishers, plumbers, and labourers. No court of 
 
IO2 Arbitration in other Industries. 
 
 arbitration could regulate the wages to be paid 
 to the workers in all these diverse trades unless 
 the jurisdiction of the court embraced, not only 
 engineering employers, but all other persons 
 employing similar trades. It would be difficult 
 enough to get the general assent of engineering 
 employers to any scheme of arbitration, but I con- 
 sider it would be altogether impracticable to bring 
 in all other employers of similar labour." 
 
 On the other hand, I quote the following opinion 
 of Mr. John Burnett, the general secretary of the 
 Society of Amalgamated Engineers, in his history 
 of the nine hours' strike at Newcastle : " It has 
 likewise been thought and said that another lesson 
 which the strike should teach is, that it is almost 
 absolutely necessary to establish courts of arbitra- 
 tion in all great centres of industry. As far as the 
 engineering trade is concerned, the establishment 
 of such courts would be hedged about with diffi- 
 culties on account of the many different branches 
 employed and the many different rates of wages 
 paid. There can be no doubt, however, that if 
 Mr. Mundella, Mr. Kettle, or other competent 
 
Arbitration in other Industries. 105 
 
 gentlemen, were to devote a little attention to the 
 matter, a scheme of arbitration might be arranged, 
 so as to apply to the various peculiarities of the 
 engineering trade." 
 
 The complex character of such works or manu- 
 factures is no doubt a difficulty, but by no means 
 of an insuperable kind. 
 
 It must be acknowledged that the foregoing 
 statement by an employer, which raises the diffi- 
 culty extremely well, is an overstatement. Where 
 a few men, like joiners, are engaged as part of the 
 system, their wages cannot form part of the diffi- 
 culty. In such a case, the joiners' wages are not 
 regulated by master engineers, but by the master 
 builders. The master engineer is exactly in the 
 same position as any private person who engages 
 half-a-dozen carpenters. He is bound by the 
 wages current in the trade. When this source of 
 error is eliminated, the complexity of the problem 
 will be seen to be greatly diminished. The diffi- 
 culty would seem to be capable of solution, by a 
 general board established for the whole engineering 
 trade, between the amalgamated engineers on the 
 
IO4 Arbitration in other Industries. 
 
 one side, and the associated employers on the 
 other. Small unions, such, for example, as the 
 coppersmiths, would gladly unite with the engi- 
 neers for the purposes of such a board. The 
 Brassworkers' Association recently made strenuous, 
 but I believe unavailing, efforts to settle a dispute 
 by means of arbitration. There is no reason why 
 such an attempt should not be made at once, and 
 it might be limited at first to a certain district, if it 
 were thought wiser to make the experiment on a 
 smaller scale. 
 
 The Building Trades. 
 
 The building trades are another instance of the 
 general industries necessary to, entering into, and 
 forming part of all other industries. There is no 
 reason why boards should not be established, so as 
 to include the different trades engaged in building 
 operations. No board of arbitration, as far as I 
 can learn, has ever been started in London. If a 
 general national board for the whole of the build- 
 ing trades seems too large an experiment, a board for 
 the trades in London is simple and practical, when 
 
Arbitration in other Industries. 105 
 
 the real difficulties are understood. Such a board 
 must necessarily be constructed upon a developed 
 plan of representation, like that of the Notting- 
 ham Lace Board. It should include carpenters, 
 masons, bricklayers, and plasterers, and should 
 work by means of sub-committees drawn from 
 these different trades. It must not be thought that 
 this is a fanciful sketch or paper plan. It has 
 already been successfully adopted on a small scale 
 in numerous localities, and is regarded as practical 
 by many of the men's representatives. A board is 
 urgently needed in London, because the relations 
 between employers and employed are very unsatis- 
 factory. For some years there has been a code 
 of working rules forming the contract between 
 some of the largest employers and their workmen. 
 The other day the operatives sued an employer for 
 breach of contract. They produced the code of 
 rules agreed upon and signed by a certain number 
 of operatives and employers. The defendant was 
 not one of the employers who had signed, and he 
 repudiated the contract altogether. The men lost 
 their case, because they were unable to prove that 
 
io6 Arbitration in other Industries. 
 
 he had authorized the employers who did sign, 
 or that the contract in question was binding upon 
 him. 
 
 In 1865 Mr. Kettle started a board of arbitra- 
 tion in the building trades at Wolverhampton, 
 which included plasterers, carpenters, and brick- 
 layers. This, I believe, worked successfully till 
 last year. The last decision given by the umpire 
 seems to have been the cause of a very unfor- 
 tunate difference of opinion and dissatisfaction on 
 the part of some of the workmen. The bricklayers 
 declared that the umpire had altogether mistaken 
 tke question on which he was asked to arbitrate, 
 that he had been called in to decide how much ad- 
 vance was to be conceded by the employers. He 
 awarded nothing at all. The men's grievance was, 
 that the employers had consented to some advance. 
 They rejected the award, and made another claim, 
 which was conceded by the employers. This is 
 the story told by Mr. Coulson, the secretary of the 
 bricklayers, who, of course, blamed the men for not 
 accepting the award, as having acted contrary to 
 their true interests, and done what was morally 
 
Arbitration in other Industries. 107 
 
 wrong. Happily the board is not broken up, but 
 still goes on. The bricklayers have withdrawn, 
 and I believe the plasterers. The board gives 
 complete satisfaction to the carpenters, and it is 
 earnestly to be hoped that those who have left will 
 see they have made a mistake, and come back. 
 
 Considering the long success of the board, the up- 
 right attitude of the men's leaders, the disappointing 
 character of the decision, it is earnestly to be 
 hoped that the employers will not let this affair 
 prejudice them against the board. At Malvern 
 the employers gave up arbitration after an un- 
 favourable decision by the arbitrators against 
 them. But they did not do as the men at Wolver- 
 hampton did. They adhered to the decision, 
 though they came to the unwise determination 
 of having no more arbitration. Doubtless there 
 have been other instances of failure on one side or 
 the other ; but these must be exceptional, as arbi- 
 tration more or less systematic continues to be ex- 
 tensively used in the building trades. Mr. Coulson 
 has endeavoured to push forward the arbitration 
 system wherever he could for the Operative Brick- 
 
io8 Arbitration in other Industries. 
 
 layers' Society ; generally the system is very imper- 
 fect, being little more than a code of working rules, 
 with or without an arbitration clause. In some dis- 
 tricts, however, as Wolverhampton, Worcester, Bir- 
 mingham, and the Potteries, there have been regular 
 conciliation boards. The Birmingham board in- 
 cludes carpenters, bricklayers, plasterers, and la- 
 bourers ; six employers and six operatives being 
 chosen to represent each of these trades. Standing 
 committees are formed from each industry with 
 much the same duties as the committees of inquiry 
 in the Nottingham trades. The defect of these 
 boards is, a want of regular meetings. It is most 
 important that these meetings should be regular, 
 and not merely called when the dispute has reached 
 a certain point, opinions have been formed, and 
 feelings excited. By having meetings regular a 
 system and habit of settling difficulties grows 
 up, and becomes a business rather than a party 
 struggle. This Birmingham board seems to have 
 been framed from the Wolverhampton one. There 
 are, however, very considerable difficulties to be 
 overcome, before the system can be fully successful, 
 
Arbitration in other Industries. 109 
 
 either in those places where it has been at work 
 or in London. Probably little difficulty would be 
 found in respect of the carpenters or plasterers. 
 The able leaders of the carpenters have done 
 their best to push forward arbitration as a remedy. 
 The carpenters have kept up the Wolverhampton 
 board, which otherwise would have broken down ; 
 and this in spite of a difficulty, which seems to have 
 been one of the causes why the bricklayers and 
 plasterers left. The board insisted on an award for 
 three years ; but the men were unwilling to bind 
 themselves fof so long a period ; and where an 
 award was made for a small increase the carpenters 
 preferred to go on working at the old prices for 
 another twelve months rather than bind themselves 
 for three years to a very small increase. Three 
 years does seem a very long time. At Sheffield, 
 in 1871, the carpenters drew up a code of rules for 
 a board on the Nottingham plan, and sent 100 
 copies to the principal employers, who took no 
 notice of it. Instead of peaceful settlement by a 
 board, there ensued an eleven months' strike ! 
 There has, however, been among the carpenters 
 
no Arbitration in other Industries. 
 
 of late a growing feeling of dissatisfaction at what 
 they consider to be the unsatisfactory results of 
 appeals to arbitration. This does not refer to boards 
 of conciliation, the results of which have been 
 eminently satisfactory, but to the failure of the 
 arbitration to satisfy the men. Mr. Prior, the 
 secretary of the Amalgamated Carpenters, in his 
 annual report of this year, attributes this feeling, 
 for which he thinks there is reason, to the neglect 
 on the part of the men to explain their case fully 
 to the umpire. This may be so, but it will always 
 be extremely difficult for a stranger, entirely unac- 
 quainted with the industry and with the conditions 
 and life of the workmen, so to grasp all the varied 
 circumstances of the case as to give a satisfactory 
 judgment. Herein lies the weak part of arbitra- 
 tion by a stranger umpire. This difficulty does 
 not occur in the board of conciliation. 
 
 Bricklayers. 
 
 There are two large societies of bricklayers. The 
 United Operative Bricklayers, numbering over 7,000 
 men, extends all over the country, but has its 
 largest branches in the North of England. They 
 
Arbitration in other Industries. 1 1 1 
 
 are opposed to arbitration, having tried it and being 
 dissatisfied with the results ; and in some new rules 
 drawn up in 1875, they have removed the word 
 " arbitration " from their conciliation rule. They 
 distinctly avow the wish to settle disputes by con- 
 ciliation, but this seems hardly consistent with the 
 omission of arbitration in the last resort I there- 
 fore wrote to the secretary to ask him whether his 
 society would be in favour of a permanent board, 
 like that in the Nottingham hosiery trade, the de- 
 cision, in the event of an equal vote, to be by the 
 casting vote of the president To this he answered, 
 without, of course, pledging himself to any course 
 of action, that he thought it would, and that 
 he personally would approve of such a plan. Of 
 course the question will be, whether his men would 
 abide by the decisions of such a board. 
 
 The other society, the Operative Bricklayers* 
 Society, numbering over 5,000 men, is very favour- 
 able to arbitration. Mr. Coulson, their secretary, 
 has done his utmost to establish boards wherever 
 he could. This society is especially powerful in 
 London, having 1913 members in London, where 
 the other union has only seventy-five a fact of 
 
H2 Arbitration in other Industries. 
 
 great importance when we are considering the 
 question of whether a board is practicable for the 
 London building trades. It may safely be said that 
 it would be, as far as bricklayers, plasterers, and 
 carpenters are concerned. 
 
 Masons. 
 
 Unfortunately the same cannot be said of the 
 masons. Until recently they have not made any 
 attempts to establish boards of arbitration or con- 
 ciliation. 1 They have, however, a very strong 
 
 1 It would be unfair not to print the following from the 
 book of rules of the Society of Operative Stone Masons, 
 p. 36 : " Should the members of any town or locality seek 
 to alter or better their condition as between employers and 
 employed, they must first use their utmost endeavours, by 
 correspondence, interviews, or a conference, consisting of an 
 equal number of employers and employed, who shall, if 
 possible, come to an amicable arrangement ; but only after 
 such means have failed to secure the desired alteration shall 
 they be justified in suspending work." But this rule is 
 altogether insufficient. Supposing no real question of prin- 
 ciple involved, such as those belonging to the union, the 
 strike is unjustifiable, unless an offer of arbitration has been 
 made; that is, a strike involving an attempt to prevent 
 the employers from getting labour elsewhere. 
 
Arbitration in other Industries. 113 
 
 trades union, well organized, and skilfully man- 
 aged. Their leaders are able and honourable 
 men, exercising a valuable modifying influence 
 over them. The leaders and the executive council 
 are not sufficiently powerful. Here, as is the case 
 with many other unions, the central executive 
 power is too weak. The notion so often enter- 
 tained of the union action being entirely directed 
 by the paid officers, and of the strikes being caused 
 and kept up by men who profit by the occasion, is 
 not true of the large amalgamated trades unions. 
 
 The masons, it must be admitted, have an unen- 
 viable reputation for obstinacy. They have a 
 conservative tenacity, which tends to prevent them 
 from changing some practices which cannot stand 
 the test of criticism. Their prosperity has been 
 in fact too great. " We have done well in the 
 old way ; we have got what we wanted by force 
 or by strikes ; we are thoroughly united and can 
 compel our employers; why should we submit 
 to reason and arbitration that which we are sure 
 of obtaining in the old way ?" This is not an 
 exaggerated statement. The masons are commonly 
 
 I 
 
H4 Arbitration in other Industries. 
 
 spoken of as self-willed and rough. They are, in 
 fact, difficult to manage. Their leaders are doubt- 
 less anxious that this important body of men should 
 follow in the path which reason and morality dic- 
 tate as best and as right : but they cannot throw 
 away their influence by attempting to force a body 
 like the masons to a course of action for which they 
 are not prepared, intellectually or morally. The 
 leaders of the union will doubtless prevent the 
 union as a body from taking any unjust course, 
 but they are not always able to prevent spontaneous 
 action on the part of the men in different localities. 
 They can only hope to exercise a modifying 
 influence. 
 
 The other day some masons struck work. Their 
 employer proposed arbitration. The men refused. 
 He offered to accept any arbitrator they might 
 name. They still refused. So convinced was he 
 of the justice of his case that he offered to refer 
 the question to the executive council of their own 
 union ; and they actually refused, so unwilling 
 were they to submit to a just decision, so utterly 
 regardless of the contempt with which such in- 
 
Arbitration in other Industries. 
 
 JJ.1J. 
 
 bu 
 
 tolerant and unjust proceedings must be regarded. 
 I need hardly add that such a strike was repudiated 
 by the executive of the union. 
 
 Supposing a London board started in the building 
 trades, it is very likely that the masons would 
 not come in at first ; but there would be many 
 influences tending to bring them in. We cannot 
 
 t remember that the attitude of the men has 
 been one of chronic hostility towards the employers. 
 Nor have the master builders attempted to meet 
 the men in the spirit of the North of England 
 ironmasters. Had they done so, it cannot be 
 doubted that the masons would have been more 
 ready to co-operate with them. One of the leaders 
 of the masons told me that he once had a letter 
 from a master builder, and he regarded that as 
 a most unusual and extraordinary occurrence. 
 The opposition of the masons is to be overcome. 
 The leaders are most desirous for a permanent 
 system of conciliation, to replace the present ant- 
 agonism. They would do all that in them lies to 
 influence their men in the right direction. It 
 cannot be doubted, that if the master builders in 
 
n6 Arbitration in other Industries. 
 
 London were really to advance towards the men, 
 to establish a board, inviting the masons to join 
 with the other trades, the force of public opinion, 
 of that of their fellow workmen, and their own 
 common sense, would sooner or later produce a 
 great impression upon them. All men on these 
 subjects have undergone great change, and there 
 are plenty of reasons why certain changes should 
 be made less rapidly in some trades than in others. 
 My estimate of the masons may be severe, but 
 there is nothing in their past history, or in their 
 conduct, to prevent the confident belief I entertain 
 that they will come round and adopt the system 
 of conciliation, and that then the very obstinacy 
 which they display may be the support and strength 
 of the system, which they will some day find 
 beneficial to their welfare and progress. 1 
 
 1 I am confirmed in the above judgment by the fact that a 
 code of rules has just been drawn up at Bristol between the 
 Masters' Association and the Operative Stonemasons. One 
 rule provides " that six employers and six operatives act as a 
 standing committee to hear and determine any minor disputes 
 that may arise from time to time as to the intention and 
 working of the foregoing rules, and their decision shall 
 
Arbitration in other Industries. 1 1 7 
 
 The Painters. 
 
 I am not aware of any permanent board having 
 been started by the painters, and indeed should not 
 have mentioned that occupation, were it not that 
 the painters had recently repudiated an award at 
 Manchester. Some time ago the painters gave 
 notice for id. per hour advance. The employers 
 on their side demanded d. per hour reduction. 
 The question was referred to a committee composed 
 of six masters and six men. They could not 
 agree, and the Bishop of Manchester was asked to 
 arbitrate. He exactly split the difference, and 
 awarded d. per hour advance. The men refused 
 to accept the award, at least 600 out of 800 refused 
 to submit. Conduct like this is not supported by 
 the General Alliance of Operative House Painters, 
 as the rules of that trade union do not allow 
 
 be equally binding on both parties ; and that no suspension 
 of labour shall take place pending the decision of the concilia- 
 tion committee." This has taken place in a district where 
 great difficulties had been experienced, and will no doubt lead 
 to the formation of a more complete board, with larger 
 powers. 
 
n8 Arbitration in other Industries* 
 
 support to be given to any members or any 
 branch that has refused to submit to arbitration. 
 The Manchester painters before this occurrence 
 have three times referred their disputes to arbitra- 
 tion, and have honourably abided by the awards. 
 The men have already gone in to work on the 
 terms of the award, and confess that their course of 
 action has been wrong. 
 
 Although there is no permanent board in the 
 trade, a code of working rules was established at 
 Manchester in 1870, agreed upon by six operatives 
 and six employers ; and there must be six 
 months' notice of any proposed change, which is 
 settled by conciliation, if possible, if not by reference 
 to some arbitrator. The painters at Bolton have, 
 however, asked for an advance of id. per hour, 
 and refused arbitration. 
 
 The General Alliance of Operative House Painters 
 is a federated union, and has very little control 
 over the societies of which it is composed. But 
 still it seems that their influence has had a powerful 
 moral effect over their members ; at Birmingham 
 and Coventry there have been successful arbitra- 
 
Arbitration in other Industries. 119 
 
 tions recently ; at Leicester and Nottingham 
 arbitration was offered by the men, at first declined 
 by the employers, but afterwards accepted. These 
 ups and downs all tend in one direction, and 
 show how steadily the wish is growing on both 
 sides to settle these disputes without strikes. 
 
 
 The Potteries. 
 
 A successful board of conciliation and arbitra- 
 tion has been in existence since 1868 in the 
 Staffordshire Potteries for the china and earthen- 
 ware manufactories. The board is framed on the 
 model of the Nottingham boards. The president 
 presides over such meetings of the board as are not 
 convened for the purpose of arbitration ; but a 
 standing referee presides over all arbitrations by 
 the board, and his decision is final, in the event of 
 an equal vote. The advantage of this seems to be 
 that the referee is not called in or arbitration 
 attempted until the board has failed to settle by 
 conciliation ; in which case there is to be one 
 final arbitration arrived at, if possible, without 
 difference. 
 
I2O Arbitration in other Industries. 
 
 The board has a considerable power of enforcing 
 its award legally, because it is (unless otherwise 
 specified) subject to a month's notice on either side. 
 But the settlement of the prices of labour is for a 
 year. The rules contain some valuable regulations 
 with reference to the trade usages ; showing how 
 the rules of a board of this kind may become a 
 kind of constitutional statute book for the trade ; 
 the laws being drawn up to suit the interests 
 and comforts of both parties. There are many 
 different branches in the trade, and consequently 
 even more difficulties to contend with than in most 
 other trades. Indeed there were so many branches 
 that it was not thought desirable to give a distinct 
 representation to each branch of the trade. It 
 would have made the board unwieldy in size. 
 Representation is not necessary when there is trust 
 and confidence existing between the employers and 
 the employed, which seems to have been the case 
 in the pottery trade. 
 
 The establishment of a board in this trade proves 
 that a board may be of great value in works or in 
 industries where the relations between employers 
 
Arbitration in other Industries. 121 
 
 and employed are good, and where at first sight 
 it appears that a board is not wanted. A manu- 
 facturer in this trade writes to me thus : " I may 
 say, long before we had our board formed, we 
 settled our disputes on the same principle, by 
 fixing on two workmen and two masters, and I 
 never remember a single failure, but we always 
 prevented a strike. We have not had a turn-out 
 in the potting trade for more than thirty years." 
 
 
 The Chemical Trade. 
 
 A board of arbitration and conciliation, its rules 
 evidently taken from those of the Nottingham 
 Board, was established in 1875, in the chemical 
 trade of Northumberland and Durham, but suffi- 
 cient time has hardly elapsed to test its effect. A 
 decision has, however, recently been given, and 
 accepted by both sides in good faith. The board 
 has not a permanent referee, but only a rule for 
 the appointment of a referee for the occasion ; and 
 this may prove to be a source of difficulty. Here, 
 as in all these boards, the principal object, the 
 
122 Arbitration in other Industries. 
 
 prevention of strikes and lock-outs, is stated ex- 
 pressly in the bye-laws : " Above all, the board 
 would impress upon its subscribers that there must 
 be no strike or lock-out. The main object of the 
 board is to prevent any thing of this sort ; and if 
 any strike or lock-out takes place, the board may 
 refuse to inquire into the matter in dispute till work 
 is resumed, and the fact of its having been inter- 
 rupted will be taken into account in considering 
 the question." 
 
 Boot and Shoemakers. 
 
 In many trades in which no permanent board 
 has as yet been attempted there is a distinct 
 advance in the same direction. In some it has not 
 gone further than a general approbation of the 
 principle of arbitration and the occasional settle- 
 ment of a dispute by reference to some third party. 
 In some trades unions there is a standing rule in 
 reference to arbitration. The Amalgamated Boot 
 and Shoe Makers have a rule that " any employer, 
 in a case of dispute, requiring to have it settled by 
 arbitration, the section and council shall afford 
 
Arbitration in other Industries. 123 
 
 every facility for settling it in that way." Other 
 rules express more definitely the duty of attempt- 
 ing to settle every dispute by arbitration before 
 resorting to a strike. 
 
 Some years ago one of the most valuable of the 
 trade union secretaries seriously endangered his 
 position by vigorously denouncing a strike, which 
 he thought right on the merits, because the men 
 had not exhausted all other means of settlement 
 before resorting to a strike. 
 
 Other trade societies, as in the case of the 
 painters, have a rule making the acceptance of 
 arbitration compulsory. The recent lock-out in 
 the boot and shoe trade at Stafford has been 
 happily settled by representatives of the employers 
 and employed ; and among the conditions of 
 settlement are : " That a board of arbitration, con- 
 sisting of an equal number of employers and work- 
 men, shall be constituted, the members of such 
 board to meet quarterly, to which all trade disputes 
 occurring in the interim shall be referred for settle- 
 ment. That no member shall be discharged 
 through any action taken in any trade matter or 
 
124 Arbitration in other Industries. 
 
 dispute. That no shop shall be struck, or illegal 
 means used by the union to compel men to join 
 the unions." 
 
 A board of arbitration and conciliation was 
 started last year in the boot and shoe trade at 
 Leicester, and seems to have given satisfaction. 
 Its rules are framed on the model of the Notting- 
 ham Board, with a committee of inquiry and a 
 permanent referee. 
 
 The Textile Trades. 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1849, m consequence 
 of a strike, a voluntary court of arbitration, sug- 
 gested by the conseils des prud' homines, was es- 
 tablished at Macclesfield between the manufac- 
 turers and the weavers in the silk trade. It was 
 called " The Macclesfield Silk Trade Board," and 
 consisted of twelve manufacturers and twelve 
 weavers, a chairman and secretary, not members 
 of the board. The board had a representative 
 character. The operatives sat on one side of a 
 table and the employers on the other, the chairman 
 
Arbitration in other Industries. 125 
 
 and secretary taking the top and bottom. The 
 board did not attempt, as far as I can learn, to 
 obtain any legal sanction for its awards, nor could 
 it have obtained the support of the law, because it 
 aimed at the settlement of future prices, as well as 
 the enforcing of subsisting contracts. Their book 
 of rules contained 125 pages of prices, and there 
 seem to have been continual alterations to settle 
 the prices of the new fabrics which were constantly 
 coming out. The prices fixed were to be regarded 
 as minimum prices, until altered by the board. 
 
 The most curious feature of this remarkable at- 
 tempt was, that the board contemplated and doubt- 
 less carried on a system of compulsion over em- 
 ployers and workmen. Rule IX. says, " that the 
 board shall not give its support to any manufacturer 
 in case of any dispute between his workpeople and 
 himself, unless such manufacturer pay the prices 
 agreed upon from time to time by the board." 
 Rule XIII. goes still further: "that upon any 
 direct case of breach of the arrangements of this 
 board being discovered, the same shall be visited 
 upon the manufacturer or weaver by fine and 
 
126 Arbitration in other Industries. 
 
 exposure, and upon a repetition double the fine in 
 each case, the informer to receive the half of the 
 fine." 
 
 These powers were no doubt sufficient to repress 
 small delinquencies, but manifestly insufficient to 
 deal with any case of persistent revolt. So that when 
 any manufacturer refused to submit to these penal- 
 ties there was no choice except letting him go on 
 the one hand, which is the invariable course now 
 adopted by all boards, and the alternative, adopted 
 in Macclesfield, of a strike, if not organized, at 
 least sanctioned and even supported, by the board. 
 The board first inquired into the truth of the 
 charges. When these were established, an official 
 letter was sent by the secretary. If this failed, a 
 deputation of manufacturers and workmen waited 
 upon the delinquent. If this failed too, then the 
 board formally withdrew its " countenance " and 
 support from the firm in question, practically leav- 
 ing the operatives to strike. Some of the manu- 
 facturers, it is said, would even collect subscriptions 
 from their weavers in support of the strike, others 
 were neutral, but all allowed facilities of entrance 
 
Arbitration in other Industries. 127 
 
 into the mills for the purpose of collecting strike 
 funds. 
 
 Thus an institution expressly created for the very 
 purpose of putting an end to strikes by moral means, 
 systematically employed strikes as the means of 
 carrying out its awards. The consequence, of 
 course, was failure, the system being rotten at 
 the core ; but the board lasted four years, during 
 which time there was no strike, though strikes had 
 been frequent before, and the town was never in a 
 more tranquil state. No sooner was the board 
 broken up than the strikes began again, and there 
 have been plenty of them ever since. The board 
 broke up in consequence of the leading employer 
 refusing to abide by the rules, or the system of 
 fines and coercion, and a strike taking place to 
 compel his subordination to the board. Another 
 cause of this failure was the insufficient prominence 
 of conciliation. 
 
 Another reason seems to have been, that the 
 men were not sufficiently organized, and therefore 
 the employers were under a more stringent com- 
 pulsion than the operatives. Even now the weavers 
 
128 Arbitration in other Industries. 
 
 are not organized like other unions. Instead of 
 each person having to pay his subscription on the 
 branch meeting night or according to rule, they 
 have a loose way of paying by loom ; each room 
 or shop collecting its own money. 
 
 Besides all these reasons, the circumstances 
 of the trade itself, the changes due to fashion, 
 and the competition among the employers to 
 bring out new articles, and the consequent ad- 
 vantages of secrecy, raised other difficulties, which 
 were by themselves calculated at such a time 
 to endanger the existence of any board. If 
 this board nearly anticipated Mr. Mundella and 
 Mr. Kettle in their efforts, its history shows clearly 
 the practical wisdom with which they have avoided 
 the rocks on which the Macclesfield board was lost. 
 Since then there has been no permanent board. 
 At times employers and weavers have met under 
 the old form to settle disputes that have arisen, but 
 such committee has never lasted, and has not 
 had the prestige and authority which the old board, 
 with all its faults, possessed. 
 
 In the -woollen and worsted trades of Yorkshire 
 
Arbitration in other Industries. 129 
 
 there have been no boards of arbitration or con- 
 ciliation ; nor has arbitration been resorted to as 
 a means of settling disputes. This arises from two 
 causes : first, the majority of the workers, more 
 than seventy per cent., are women and children. 
 Secondly, the employers have undoubtedly been 
 very just and reasonable, and, what is of even 
 greater importance, they have always been most 
 accessible and easily approached by their opera- 
 tives. Consequently there have been comparatively 
 few disputes. 
 
 In the East Lancashire cotton trade there is no 
 system of arbitration or conciliation ; but commit- 
 tees, composed of employers and employed, are 
 appointed from time to time for the purpose of 
 settling disputes, and they argue the question out 
 till one side gives in. They entertain questions and 
 make arrangements as to future prices and wages, 
 as well as to disputes arising out of existing wages 
 or rules. This plan, however, does not seem to give 
 complete satisfaction to the men, even if it does 
 to the employers. Mr. Birtwistle, the Secretary to 
 the East Lancashire Amalgamated Weavers' Asso- 
 
 K 
 
130 Arbitration in other Industries. 
 
 ciation, writes to me giving expression to this feel- 
 ing, and saying that he is convinced that they will 
 be compelled to resort to arbitration. The failure, 
 if indeed it be a failure, is evidently due to the fact 
 that the conciliation attempted is not permanent or 
 systematic, and that there is no ultimate appeal, or 
 power to decide, either to referee or the casting 
 vote of the chairman, which, as I have before 
 remarked, is a necessary part of every board. 
 Among these operatives, complaints are rife which 
 are precisely of that character which an organized 
 board can most successfully deal with ; and it is a 
 very hopeful sign that an association like the 
 weavers' union, numbering sixteen thousand men, 
 should have taken up an attitude which, if met in a 
 similar spirit by the employers, must lead to the 
 establishment of a board of conciliation. 
 
 Printing. 
 
 Arbitration was common in the printing trade in 
 some shape or other, it seems, even from the earliest 
 times. Disputes were often settled by committees 
 
Arbitration in other Industries. 131 
 
 of a small number of employers and operatives. 
 About 1853 a court of arbitration was constituted 
 in the trade ; not a permanent court, but to be 
 formed as occasion required, and to consist of 
 three employers and three compositors, and a bar- 
 rister was appointed for a year to act as umpire 
 when there was occasion for the court. The court 
 broke up because the men, while accepting the 
 award as a decision in an actual dispute, refused 
 to accept it as a decision binding in all other cases 
 arising out of past contracts and involving similar 
 questions. The masters naturally claimed that the 
 decision should have the effect of a decision in all 
 cases, and that, like a legal judgment, it should 
 settle the law. Since then there has not been, as 
 far as I can learn, any permanent court in the 
 trade. 
 
 In the Typographical Trade Union arbitration 
 has often been suggested by the executive council 
 and by various branches, but has not been resorted 
 to. Where the employers have shown a willing- 
 ness to have a reasonable settlement, the operatives 
 have generally been able, by means of interviews 
 
132 Arbitration in other Industries. 
 
 with them, to come to an understanding. Two 
 years ago, in Manchester, the printers sought an 
 advance of two shillings in the rate of wages, with 
 a slight increase in the overtime rate, and other 
 minor improvements. The application to the em- 
 ployers was met with a flat refusal. The men asked 
 their executive council to authorize them to tender 
 the proper notices, and to leave their employment 
 on the expiration of the notices. This was only 
 given on condition that the men should offer to 
 submit their claims to arbitration or to meet their 
 employers in a conference. The Master Printers' 
 Association accepted the latter offer, and five of 
 their body met five representatives of the men. 
 Two meetings were held, at which all the disputed 
 points were discussed in a very friendly way, and in 
 the end the advance asked for by the men was con- 
 ceded, they on their side giving up some of the 
 secondary demands they had originally made. 
 
 It seems that some five or six years ago the 
 Manchester Trades Council, in conjunction with 
 the Chamber of Commerce^ did establish a board 
 of arbitration and conciliation, with the county 
 
Arbitration in other Industries. 133 
 
 court judge as umpire ; but the board was broken 
 up, as no case was ever brought before them. 
 If I am rightly informed, the attempt was to 
 establish a local board, not confined to any one 
 trade, but applicable to all the trades in the neigh- 
 bourhood. The failure of such an attempt might 
 have been predicted, and is attributed to the un- 
 willingness of both masters and men to refer their 
 disputes to any one who has not a practical know- 
 ledge of the particular trade in which the dispute 
 may have arisen. This must be regarded as the 
 failure of a court analogous to one of the conseils 
 des prucT/wmmes, and not of a board of concilia- 
 tion. 
 
 The result of the inquiries I have made relative 
 to the subject matter of this book arbitration and 
 conciliation is, that there is complete trust and a 
 firm belief among the working classes in the system 
 of conciliation ; that there is a very strong feeling 
 among a very large majority of the artisans in 
 favour of arbitration ; but that in several trades 
 there have been failure and disappointment in the 
 results, and a want of confidence in arbitration by 
 
134 Arbitration in other Industries. 
 
 a court or by a stranger. It may be that in some 
 of these cases there is no ground for dissatisfaction. 
 But there may be dissatisfaction even where the 
 decision is right and just. The system does not 
 appear so well calculated to satisfy the parties as 
 does the system of conciliation. I cannot but 
 sympathize with the feeling that the men must 
 often have, that if the arbitrator could have had 
 their knowledge of detail and situation the result 
 would have been different. The moral is to de- 
 velope conciliation and reduce arbitration to a 
 minimum, though there must always be some 
 power in reserve by which recurrence to strikes 
 may be avoided. 
 
 I have not attempted to give a complete account 
 of arbitration in all industries, but have only se- 
 lected the most instructive instances, by way of 
 example. What I have said applies only to the 
 skilled artisans. With the exception of the 
 labourers that enter into the Birmingham board 
 in the building trade, there has been no arbitration, 
 or only very exceptional instances, among the un- 
 skilled labourers, among whom any permanent form 
 

 Arbitration in other Industries. 135 
 
 of association is rare. The formation of a trade 
 union is a necessary stage towards arbitration. 
 
 I am not aware of any arbitrations having taken 
 place between farmers and agricultural labourers ; 
 though arbitration has been proposed by the 
 leaders of the Agricultural Union, who are very 
 anxious to adopt any course that would avoid a 
 strike. At present, however, the union is not 
 strong enough, unless in certain counties, and in 
 many parts the farmers are not prepared, and their 
 antagonism is too great, for such a step. Still they 
 are not more prejudiced than employers have been 
 in other trades. The moment they really come to 
 accept the independence and combined power of 
 the labourers as an accomplished fact, there will be 
 sufficient pressure from public opinion to force them 
 to try the more reasonable methods and not drive 
 matters to an extremity. 
 
 Here and there are enlightened farmers, who have 
 risen to this conception of the future relations be- 
 tween the farmer and labourer. They may not be 
 heard of in public, but each one of them exercises 
 a potent effect in changing the views of the farmer 
 
136 Arbitration in other Industries. 
 
 class. Already in some counties there are Farmers' 
 Defence Associations ; and though these at first 
 assume a hostile attitude towards the labourers' 
 unions, that does not alter the fact that association 
 by the farmers is the first step towards moderate 
 and reasonable action by all the farmers. 
 
 Few people are aware of the extraordinary 
 ignorance and benighted state of both farmers and 
 labourers on the subject of contract, in certain parts 
 of England. There are intelligent and most re- 
 spected farmers who consider it an act of insubor- 
 dination on the part of their work-people if they 
 ask the price of their labour by the piece before- 
 hand. These farmers actually deny that agriculture 
 can be properly carried on under a system of 
 contract for wages or piece-work. They insist that 
 it is better for the labourers not to know until after- 
 wards, because then they may get more. The men, 
 on the other hand, in many places, in some places 
 that I am acquainted with, dislike piece-work, and 
 are prejudiced against it ; but then the piece-work 
 they object to is, piece-work without a fixed price. 
 
 The ignorance of the labourers upon the subject 
 
Arbitration in other Industries. 137 
 
 of contract is most conspicuously shown at the 
 statute fairs and yearly hirings, where they sign 
 yearly engagements of the vaguest and most unjust 
 description, without being aware that they might 
 easily have got fair terms if they had had anyone 
 to advise them who had his wits about him. 
 They are often without the very idea of bargaining 
 or of getting favourable terms for themselves. 
 
 A committee of farmers and the labourers' repre- 
 sentatives might now do a very useful work if they 
 were to agree on certain forms of contract, which 
 should be reduced to a printed form and recom- 
 mended by the committee to the farmers and 
 labourers of the district. This might be under- 
 taken without attempting at first to fix wages 
 or prices ; all that would be wanted would be 
 that the contract should be put into such a shape 
 as would do justice and be satisfactory to both. 
 I cannot but hope that something may soon be 
 attempted in this direction which may bring the 
 farmers and labourers face to face to discuss some 
 practical scheme, like that which I suggest. 
 
 The time for such an effort is opportune, be- 
 
138 Arbitration in other Industries. 
 
 cause on the one hand there is an undoubted 
 scarcity of labour, which must greatly affect the 
 prospects of the farmers and the cultivation of the 
 land; on the other hand, this scarcity, caused to 
 a great extent by the emigrative action of the 
 union, has not raised wages, or certainly has not 
 raised wages proportionally to the diminution of 
 the supply. 1 The agricultural unions have suc- 
 cessfully stood their ground ; the combination is 
 
 1 The rise of wages that has taken -place in agriculture 
 appears to me to be caused principally by the power of the 
 union, and the increased intelligence of the labourers, and 
 not by the deficiency in labour that has been brought about 
 by the emigration and the migration of labourers. When the 
 union was first introduced into Hampshire and Surrey, before 
 the diminution began, the wages rose from eleven shillings to 
 thirteen shillings. Since then they have slowly improved ; on 
 some farms wages are still thirteen shillings, but generally 
 there is more piece-work, piece-work is better paid, and that 
 has re-acted upon the wages given by the better class of 
 farmers. In no sense has there been any increase in wages 
 proportional to the scarcity of labour. But the action of the 
 union has had the effect of giving all men employment 
 through the winter, and of greatly diminishing the number 
 that come upon the parish. 
 
Arbitration in other Industries. 1 39 
 
 ot to be crushed. Everything points to the fact 
 that it is in the interest of farmers and labourers 
 to make fresh efforts to settle differences and 
 prevent the causes of difference from arising. 
 Moreover, the farmers must awaken to and ac- 
 cept the new state of things. Travelling with 
 an agricultural labourer on the railway last year, 
 I began to question him as to his contract in the 
 harvest that he was going to perform, and said, 
 
 I suppose you are satisfied to take what is given 
 you, without making terms?" "No, no," he said ; 
 " no more of that. I haven't been to hear Joseph 
 Arch for nothing." There can be no doubt that the 
 combination among the agricultural labourers has 
 given an immense impulse towards the complete 
 accomplishment of that labour revolution which 
 I have defined by the word "independence," and 
 which is the condition and basis of the future 
 organization of industry. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE LAW OF ARBITRATION. 
 
 TTEMPTS have been made from time 
 to time to bring the provisions of the 
 law to enforce the awards of arbitrators, 
 and to establish courts of arbitration, 
 like the conseils des prudhommes in France. These 
 attempts have failed, though they have been 
 favourably regarded by employers and employed, 
 and very considerable powers have been freely 
 given by the legislature. I have already explained 
 in Chapter II. how, by bringing the rules agreed on 
 by the board to the notice of employers and em- 
 ployed, the rules become the contract binding in 
 law upon both sides. There are now three statutes 
 relating to arbitration, but they are founded upon 
 
The L aw of A rbitration. 141 
 
 the principle of free contracts between employers 
 and employed. Their only effect is to give greater 
 facilities for the formation of such contracts, and 
 for the proving and enforcing the same. They do 
 not take away any of the ordinary legal rights 
 which every workman or employer possesses in 
 his capacity of citizen, of claiming compensation 
 for breach of contract in the courts of law. 
 
 The first statute, the 5 Geo. IV., chap. 96 
 (1824), gives very considerable powers of compul- 
 sory arbitration on application by either party to a 
 justice of the peace. Referees can be appointed, 
 but in the event of their not acting the magistrate 
 is empowered to arbitrate and give his decision, 
 and a machinery is provided for carrying out this 
 compulsory arbitration. Section 2 limits the act 
 to subsisting contracts. The act does not con- 
 template the formation of permanent boards or 
 councils, or the fixing of future wages and prices. 
 There is, however, a remarkable passage in section 
 3, the meaning or effect of which I do not pretend 
 to interpret, or even to understand : " But nothing 
 in this act shall authorize any justice to establish a 
 
142 The Law of Arbitration. 
 
 rate of wages, or price of labour or workmanship, 
 at which the workman shall in future be paid, 
 unless with the mutual consent of both master and 
 workman." 
 
 In 1867 another act was passed, 30 & 31 Viet, 
 chap. 105 (Lord St. Leonard's act): "An Act to 
 establish Equitable Councils of Conciliation to ad- 
 just differences between Masters and Men." This 
 act gives power to the Home Secretary to license 
 permanent councils of conciliation. Why they are 
 termed "equitable," or why "councils of concilia- 
 tion," it is difficult to see ; because the act limits 
 their operation to the existing contracts enumerated 
 in section 2 of the 5 Geo. IV., chap. 96. They would 
 only be permanent courts of arbitration, with a 
 special legal patronage, and special methods of en- 
 forcing awards, summoning witnesses, &c. I do not 
 believe that any licences have been applied for, and 
 the statute has in effect been quite inoperative. 
 
 Lastly we come to the act of 1872 (Mr. Mundella's 
 act), passed by the legislature in deference to the 
 views of Mr. Kettle and the wishes of several of the 
 Trades Union Congresses. This statute gives all 
 
The Law of Arbitration. 143 
 
 the powers that can be given for the establishment 
 of permanent boards of arbitration that are con- 
 sistent with the principle of freedom of contract. 
 These boards have authority to fix future wages or 
 prices, and power to enforce their awards by legal 
 process. But the act only gives improved facilities 
 for carrying out Mr. Kettle's plan, and awards can 
 only be enforced as breaches of contract 
 
 It is unnecessary to enter upon the question of 
 whether an arbitration council under this act is a 
 better mode of procedure, for either workman or 
 employer, than the county court or the court of 
 petty sessions ; probably most persons would agree 
 with me in thinking it worse than a county court 
 or stipendiary magistrate, and probably not better 
 as a court of justice than the court of petty ses- 
 sions presided over by the ordinary justices of 
 the peace. But this is not the difficulty. The real 
 difficulty is, that most of the awards fixing rules or 
 making contracts for a future period are subject 
 to a very short notice. Therefore the contract is 
 limited by the notice. 
 
 In the building trades, for example, the board 
 
144 The Law of Arbitration. 
 
 may settle the wages and conditions of labour for 
 six or twelve months, but as the men and the 
 employers are entitled to terminate the hiring at 
 a minute's notice, payment being generally by the 
 hour, there is nothing to prevent the employers 
 from discharging the men, or the men from leaving 
 their employment, whenever they choose to do so. 
 If an award were given which the men thought un- 
 favourable, there would be nothing to prevent them 
 striking for better terms. Unless, therefore, the men 
 and masters contract for a considerable time, or, 
 which is the same thing, agree to lengthen the re- 
 quired notice, there is no legal means of enforcing 
 the award. Moral means are in fact the true pro- 
 tection against such breach of faith. It is better, 
 therefore, not to depend on legal means, but for 
 both sides to rely solely on moral means and to 
 endeavour to strengthen that in every way. By 
 trusting to legal redress, I cannot but think that an 
 obstacle is put in the way of the development of 
 the mutual trust between employers and employed 
 which is the only real reconciliation. The statute 
 gives a very excellent form of contract, and may 
 
The Law of Arbitration. 145 
 
 possibly be used in some industries, but will have 
 little practical effect, as the opinion of both em- 
 ployers and employed, confirmed by experience, is 
 against legal and in favour of voluntary arbitration 
 outside the law. Here, as in so many other parts of 
 our social life, we find the legal system becoming 
 inefficient and antiquated. Legal remedies and 
 the legal system were created by the past. The 
 law and the lawyers have been the instruments of 
 part of the human progress, and they have still a 
 great and noble work to do. But it is a work that 
 must constantly diminish. Professional lawyers 
 naturally exaggerate the importance of their own 
 profession, and judges will inevitably attempt to 
 arrogate to themselves a moral authority which 
 they do not possess. On labour questions they 
 have shown how utterly incapable they were of 
 grasping the conditions of the moral problem. The 
 history of their action in the Labour Laws and in 
 the Law of Conspiracy ought to be the most valu- 
 able warning to the working classes not to trust 
 to law for the solution of these great industrial 
 and social difficulties. The law and our tribunals, 
 
 L 
 
146 The Law of Arbitration. 
 
 admirable and worthy of veneration as they often 
 are, cannot be the means of reconciling capital and 
 labour. 1 
 
 1 See statute 35 & 36 Viet., chap. 46, Masters and Work- 
 men (Arbitration), in the Appendix. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 NDUSTRIAL conciliation is an econo- 
 mical success. This is a mere truism, 
 as far as the putting a stop to strikes 
 or lock-outs is concerned. Industry, 
 instead of being subject to constant interruptions, is 
 continuous. The waste and misery consequent on 
 stoppage, even for a short time, are avoided. Ob- 
 jections are, however, drawn from the truths of 
 political economy to invalidate the position of the 
 advocates of arbitration and conciliation. Some of 
 these have no real foundation ; others, which have a 
 very narrow foundation, raise important questions 
 for our consideration. 
 
148 Conclusion. 
 
 I have heard it asserted that a board of concilia- 
 tion was neither more nor less than a gigantic con- 
 spiracy between employers and employed against 
 the consumer and the public. The promoters of the 
 system laugh at this idea. The consumer, they 
 say, can take care of himself. He has the remedy 
 in his own hands ; he need not buy. The very 
 essence of trade is to please the consumer, to estab- 
 lish a market, and induce the public to buy, to in- 
 crease or even create a demand. The truth and 
 force of this argument do not dispose of the 
 difficulty. By union between employers and em- 
 ployed a force is created which may be abused like 
 any other force. In some occupations it is untrue 
 to say that the consumer need not buy, or that 
 demand and supply will equalize an inequality in 
 the long run. 
 
 There are two trades in London of which I have 
 tried in vain to get information and exact details. 
 If my information is correct there is in these trades 
 complete harmony between masters and men ; and 
 a conspiracy is alleged to exist between them, by 
 which the most extravagant prices are forced from 
 

 Conclusion. 149 
 
 the customer. In one of these it is said that the 
 bill charges the customer full wages for time, full 
 wages for piece-work, and also for materials found, 
 and so on. It would be interesting to know what is 
 the division of the spoil. 
 
 After all, these are very exceptional cases. 
 Generally "caveat emptor" is the right rule, and 
 the customer must look after his own interest. 
 There is no occasion to protect him by restrictive 
 laws ; nor is a beneficial system like that of indus- 
 trial conciliation in the least invalidated by the 
 fact of such an abuse being possible in some 
 cases. Power may always be abused. But the 
 objection serves well to remind boards of concilia- 
 tion that such questions ought to receive the 
 fullest consideration at their hands. Publicity is 
 the best guarantee of all action by a board being 
 regulated by a high morality and sense of justice. 
 The very fact of a board being a public institution, 
 subject to public criticism, appears to me to afford 
 the requisite protection against any proceedings 
 savouring of fraud or injustice. It may turn out 
 that boards of conciliation are the best means of 
 
150 Conclusion. 
 
 introducing great reforms in all those abuses re- 
 lating to the deterioration of goods and scamped 
 work, which at present constitute so foul a stain 
 upon our commercial reputation. 
 
 Another objection urged more frequently is, that 
 the board of arbitration interferes with or acts 
 contrary to the law of supply and demand. But 
 surely here is a very strange misconception ; a 
 " law" is simply the expression of the way in which 
 certain events or phenomena occur. We are being 
 perpetually told, by economists like Mr. Leoni 
 Levi, who profess to teach something very impor- 
 tant, that we cannot alter the " eternal " law of 
 supply and demand. But the law is only eternal 
 when the phenomena, of which it is the abstract 
 expression, are eternal ; and if they cease to exist 
 so does the law, and they may be so modified that 
 the law itself, which is relative, not absolute, under- 
 goes modification. 
 
 Nor does a law, economical or physical, prevent 
 interference in regard to the phenomena of which 
 the law is the mode of action. On the contrary, 
 when we know the law we know how events take 
 
Conclusion. 151 
 
 place. We are then able, either to predict exactly 
 and with precision what is going to happen, as in 
 the case of astronomy, or, by means of our know- 
 ledge, to make certain modifications in the circum- 
 stances to our own advantage. Within certain 
 limits, supply or demand may be increased or dimi- 
 nished. Traders act in this way, and modify either 
 the supply or demand, with the deliberate inten- 
 tion of effecting certain changes. This is exactly 
 analogous to what happens when we add a weight 
 to one scale of the balance with the object of pro- 
 ducing an inverse alteration in the other. 
 
 A board of conciliation cannot, any more than 
 a single employer, act in violation of the law of 
 . supply and demand. The board or the employer 
 may however act in violation of that foresight and 
 prudence which knowledge ought to give ; and then 
 lamentable consequences follow, but the law holds 
 good. Precisely the same occurs, when an engineer 
 builds a bridge in violation of the practical prin- 
 ciples and rules established upon the known physical 
 laws. The bridge breaks down when the first 
 waggon goes over it, not because the physical 
 
152 Conclusion. 
 
 laws are violated, but because the practical rules 
 taught by the laws are disregarded. The bridge 
 falls, not in violation but by virtue of the physical 
 laws. Just so the trade misfortune occurs by virtue 
 of and subject to the economical laws, which govern 
 misfortune equally with fortune. 
 
 Nothing can be more important than that this 
 exact conception of law should form the foundation 
 of industrial thought. The object which lies before 
 us in the industrial world is, the discovery and the 
 systematic application of industrial truth. At pre- 
 sent our knowledge is extremely limited on these 
 subjects ; far more limited than is commonly sup- 
 posed ; and is in very truth confined to certain 
 abstract propositions, like that of the relations 
 between supply and demand, which are not exact 
 or precise, and which, from their abstract character, 
 do not admit of either direct or precise application 
 to practice. Even when there is a direct influence 
 of demand upon supply, or vice versa, there is no 
 fixed ratio or equation, giving us a precise law, by 
 means of which we can reckon prices by calculation. 
 This can no more be done than we can calculate 
 
Conclusion. 153 
 
 exactly when a man will die, from the universal law 
 of death to which all beings are subject. 
 
 The law of demand and supply is simply the 
 statement of a tendency that exists either for de- 
 mand to influence supply or for supply to influence 
 demand. Other intervening circumstances may 
 and do constantly prevent its operation ; but the 
 tendency still exists. Where the law operates, it 
 does not follow, as so many persons suppose, that 
 therefore industry and labour must be left to be 
 regulated by the "eternal" supply and demand. 
 As well might an engineer attempt to construct a 
 railway by leaving it to the laws of motion and 
 gravitation ; or to make a locomotive go without 
 boiler or fire, because of the eternal laws regu- 
 lating the pressure and expansibility of fluids 
 and gases. The truth is, that the laisser faire is 
 anarchy. The economical laws that exist are 
 favourable to human progress, when properly used 
 for that purpose, but they are favourable also to 
 destruction. The true goal before us is, the syste- 
 matic construction and organization of industry, 
 not by the light of and upon the basis of economic 
 
154 Conclusion. 
 
 laws alone, but by use of all the laws appertaining 
 to man's social and moral life. 
 
 Nothing can be more striking from this point of 
 view than Mr. Brassey's chapter on supply and de- 
 mand. He proves that the effect of " unusual 
 pressure upon the labour resources of a sparse and 
 scattered population " was an advance of wages, 
 due to the natural operation of the law of supply 
 and demand. But every one of these instances is 
 exceptional and abnormal, introducing and causing 
 the very fluctuations which are the great economical 
 and social difficulty, and of which Mr. Brassey him- 
 self says, "It cannot be doubted that the spas- 
 modic and fluctuating character of our trade pro- 
 duces an unhappy effect, upon the operatives who 
 are subject to its influence, of a constant fluctuation 
 in their wages ;" and in another place he says, "It 
 must be acknowledged by all who have studied 
 these questions that our working class is exposed 
 to an amount of suffering, from the fluctuations in 
 the commerce of this country, unparalleled else- 
 where." 
 
 The natural operation of supply and demand 
 may be for good or for bad. Rapid advances, due 
 

 
 Conclusion. 155 
 
 to unusual pressure, are a cause of disturbance, not 
 a means of settled evolution or of regulating in- 
 dustry. They constitute a state of disease, not 
 of health. Step by step we are advancing on 
 these vital questions. The next and most urgent 
 step to be taken is, to rise from the delusive 
 and paralyzing belief that supply and demand 
 n or will regulate wages and the conditions of 
 labour, to the conception of conscious, intentional, 
 and systematic construction upon the sure founda- 
 tion of economic and social truth. If we ever 
 become able to apply industrial and economical 
 laws directly to practice, it must be by the dis- 
 covery of the concrete laws relative to capital, 
 profits, and wages, especially those relating to 
 distribution knowledge of which latter laws are 
 most urgently wanted. They will have to be 
 worked out in the future by the larger minded and 
 better educated of the employer class, by men 
 who, after adequate scientific training, will devote 
 their lives to the discovery of these truths. 
 
 Meanwhile, the great movement in advance is 
 being taken by the rise of these boards of concilia- 
 tion and arbitration in so many different industries 
 
156 Conclusion. 
 
 throughout England, the effect of which is to 
 .secure that peace between employers and employed 
 which appears to be the necessary condition both 
 to the discovery and application of the required 
 truth. A board of conciliation may not be of 
 the least use in throwing light on these difficult 
 questions, but assuredly it would prove a valuable 
 -school for teaching the practical trade economy, and 
 knowledge of the facts of foreign competition, the 
 condition of the working classes in other countries, 
 the value of foreign manufactured goods, the value 
 of the raw material and of labour, and so forth. 
 The Nottingham boards have always sought to 
 obtain the fullest information, and to discuss this 
 kind of trade questions. Samples of foreign manu- 
 factured goods are put into the hands of the 
 members of the board. In 1867 the hosiery board 
 .sent two workmen to the competing districts of 
 France and Germany, to examine the state of trade 
 wages, and the conditions of the manufacture in 
 those countries. 
 
 It cannot be said that knowledge of this kind 
 and convictions as to the general facts of the trade 
 
Conclusion. 
 
 157 
 
 are not desirable for the working classes. The 
 time may come, in some distant period, when 
 workmen may accept and rely on the bare state- 
 ment of a competent employer, but that is not 
 so now. In the account issued by the Nottingham 
 Hosiery Board in 1866, they say : " Whenever any 
 breach of economic laws has been suggested by 
 workmen outside the board, the operative delegates 
 have always been the first to denounce it. The 
 voices of reason and humanity have invariably had 
 due weight with the delegates of both sections. 
 And although both masters and workmen are 
 accustomed to express their opinion of each other's 
 individual and collective acts without the slightest 
 reserve, no manufacturer or workman has ever been 
 known to suffer from the free and honest expression 
 of his views. One of the most evident results of 
 this interchange of thought and opinion is, that the 
 workman becomes better acquainted with the 
 laws which govern trade and commerce and with 
 the influence of foreign competition ; and the 
 master learns how to appreciate the difficulties 
 of the workman and to sympathize more with his 
 
158 Conclusion. 
 
 trials and struggles to maintain and improve his 
 position." 
 
 When a board of arbitration or conciliation is 
 successfully established, it necessarily becomes the 
 labour market of the trade in the district. A 
 market has generally a local character ; except at 
 the annual statute fairs or in servants' registry 
 offices, we do not see local labour markets. That 
 kind of market to which the actual labourers go and 
 exhibit themselves for hire, is becoming rapidly 
 obsolete. It is, however, most desirable that there 
 should be some institution, having a precise locality, 
 and serving the same purposes of determining and 
 settling the wages of labour, as the market of old. 
 But this was a rough and unsystematic barter and 
 sale. The new market has higher functions and 
 duties. If it must have a definite locality, it must 
 also have personal representatives to discharge those 
 functions and duties ; and those representatives 
 must be responsible for the proper discharge thereof. 
 
 The new market should be a human and social 
 institution, to settle terms of employment in ac- 
 cordance with the principles of fair dealing and 
 
, 
 
 Conclusion. 159 
 
 orality, and should aim at organizing the condi- 
 tions of industrial life. To attempt to exclude and 
 divorce justice and moral judgments from these 
 hirings, and to say that it is not unjust to give in- 
 sufficient wages or harsh conditions if the labourer 
 accepts them, is to trample on the facts and the 
 conditions of the problem. 1 There never is that 
 and equal barter dreamed of by too many 
 economists a dream which has spoilt much valu- 
 able work. Barter, not based on justice, means, in 
 plain words the predominance of force over reason, 
 justice, and morals. Quite apart from the fact that 
 the working classes have not yet reached an inde- 
 pendent condition, and that they have to accept 
 contracts that they do not approve of, that they 
 have too often to submit to such terms as the 
 employer chooses to dictate ; quite apart from this, 
 one side or other, employer or employed, always 
 has the advantage. The great progress is to subor- 
 
 1 Such, for example, as the condition often inserted in yearly 
 hirings of agricultural labourers, that money to be paid at the 
 end of the hiring shall be forfeited for misconduct. 
 
160 Conclusion. 
 
 dinate this force to reason and justice, and unless a 
 board of conciliation or other market can do this 
 work, it will fail. But the boards that have suc- 
 ceeded have shown conclusively that they can 
 settle wages and the conditions of labour in this 
 way, and that they are able to reduce these either 
 into the form of a contract binding and enforceable 
 at law, or into a code of rules to be enforced 
 morally, or at least without recourse being had to 
 law, by the employers' associations on the one 
 hand and the trades unions on the other. 
 
 But a board, when successfully established, is the 
 labour market of the district in a more strictly 
 economical sense : it governs those persons that do 
 not belong to it. A number of workmen who did 
 not belong to, and who struck for a demand that the 
 board had condemned, would have very little chance 
 of success. Employers who offered less wages than 
 the board allowed would not get the men they 
 wanted. This has been found by experience to be 
 the case. The wages paid by outstanding firms who 
 would not join have, in fact, been regulated by 
 the board. The result is, that they are drawn in 
 
Conclusion. 1 6 1 
 
 after a time, because otherwise they are governed 
 by a system over which they have no influence 
 and in which they are unrepresented. There is, 
 moreover, a further tendency for a well-conducted 
 board to extend its influence and become a market 
 for the same trade in other districts. At one time 
 the decisions of the South Staffordshire board in the 
 iron trade governed those of the North of England 
 with reference to wages. More recently the wages 
 in the iron manufacture of Derbyshire and South 
 Yorkshire have been governed by the rates prevail- 
 ing and by the decisions of the board in the North 
 of England. 
 
 t Wages are greatly affected by customs and 
 practices. A board of conciliation, as has been 
 said before, promotes those that are beneficial and 
 
 t checks or abolishes those that are noxious. And 
 this must necessarily have a valuable economical 
 effect, as well as tend to the social and moral 
 improvement of the workmen. A board probably 
 has a greater power of remedying evils like those 
 of the truck system than any penal legislation. 
 The Nottingham boards have taken energetic 
 
 M 
 
1 62 Conclusion. 
 
 measures against the truck system, which has 
 been quite abolished in those industries. They were, 
 moreover, completely successful in getting rid of 
 the vexed question of frame-rents, which had been 
 a standing grievance among the operatives for 200 
 years. In this way the evils attributed to overseers 
 and middlemen, which some workmen so bitterly 
 complain of, may be removed. In the Leicester 
 hosiery trade the middlemen are represented on the 
 board. Another series of evils, seemingly to both 
 employers and employed, arises out of the system 
 of sub-contracts. A board seems to be the most 
 effective mode of dealing with such matters. In 
 one trade in which sub-contract difficulties occur, 
 the London branch of the United Society of Boiler- 
 makers and Iron Ship-builders have been recently 
 considering whether they should not attempt to get 
 rid of the evils accruing from the system by the 
 establishment of a permanent board of conciliation. 
 First and foremost among industrial questions 
 is that relating to the regulation of wages. Em- 
 ployers and employed alike, sometimes expressly, 
 sometimes unconsciously, put this forward as the 
 
Conclusion. 163 
 
 object to be attained. The object underlying all 
 efforts, all schemes of arbitration and conciliation, 
 is, to prevent fluctuations, or to modify their evil 
 effects by prudence and foresight. The value of 
 labour depends ultimately on supply and demand. 
 Hence many persons have thought that supply and 
 demand must govern wages, to the exclusion of other 
 influences, and consequently that the only mode of 
 regulating wages was by increasing or decreasing 
 one or other of these two. That beneficial effects 
 may be thus produced, by preventing too rapid 
 oscillations, can hardly be doubted. But it is clear 
 that the problem is much more complicated than 
 the economists have thought, and that further 
 knowledge would give us a wider scope, greater 
 power and precision in dealing with industrial 
 phenomena. 
 
 It cannot be too often enunciated that we have 
 not yet got the whole truth. The law of supply 
 and demand is an important truth, but a small 
 part of the whole truth. We are greatly in 
 the dark on this difficult subject, and have much 
 need of further light. Above all is wanted that in 
 
164 Conclusion. 
 
 the investigation of these problems economical con- 
 siderations should be rightly combined with ideas 
 of industrial organization and evolution. As har- 
 mony is restored between capital and labour, as 
 employers and employed gradually cease to be 
 opposed, and meet together and co-operate in 
 mutual trust, equally animated with the conception 
 of peaceably working out the great ends before 
 them, the evolution of the industrial organization 
 will go on. Its movement will reveal the laws by 
 which it moves, and progress, from being purely 
 empirical, will tend to become, more and more as 
 time goes on, conscious, intentional, and systematic. 
 It would not be difficult to propound a number of 
 questions which want a scientific answer ; but the 
 questions relate to wages. What limit can be put 
 to the fluctuations in wages ? How are such limits 
 to be imposed ? What sacrifices are necessary on the 
 part of employers and employed ? Is it not possible 
 to fix the fluctuation to part of the wages, so that 
 one part would be fixed, the other fluctuating ? 
 Then, if so, what laws regulate the proportion of 
 the fixed to the unfixed, in the different branches of 
 
Conclusion. 165 
 
 human industry? As new experiments are insti- 
 tuted, it will become possible to find out the laws 
 evolved by new conditions and new industrial facts. 
 Such laws, being concrete and not abstract, are pre- 
 cisely those laws that are capable of being directly 
 applied to practice. As I have said before, it is to 
 the advanced and large-minded employers that we 
 must look for the working out of such practical 
 problems. The guiding truths are not to be sought 
 deductively, but discovered inductively by the study 
 and examination of the actual industrial pheno- 
 mena. We shall do well to reflect on what John 
 Stuart Mill has said on this, that "society can 
 subject the distribution of wealth to whatever rules 
 it thinks best ; but what practical results will flow 
 from the operation of those rules must be discovered, 
 like any other physical or mental truths, by obser- 
 vation and reasoning." 
 
 This book has been written with the sole object 
 and hope of helping this great cause on. Each 
 effort upon the onward march has its effect. It is 
 by our united and associated efforts that our 
 progress is assured, and I have sought only to 
 
1 66 Conclusion. 
 
 bring to others " the lamps of invention, and not 
 the firebrands of contradiction." To me it seems 
 difficult to point to any set of men in history, 
 certainly to none in modern history, on whom a 
 greater and more important duty rested, than at 
 the present moment devolves upon the English 
 capitalists. They have to solve the industrial 
 problem of the world, to discover the truths on 
 which it must depend, and, putting aside the pre- 
 conceived notions and prejudices of the past, to urge 
 forward the final industrial and social re-organiza- 
 tion towards which we are now moving. There 
 cannot be a nobler or more sacred work for men 
 to do. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 BOARD OF ARBITRATION AND CON- 
 
 CILIATION FOR THE LACE 
 
 TRADE FOR 1876. 
 
 Pregttient. 
 MR. MALLET. 
 
 MR. HARPER. 
 
 MR. MALLET. 
 
 'BoarD. 
 
 MR. MALLET. 
 
 H. S. BIRKIN. 
 
 BROOKSBANK. 
 
 T. S. CLARKE. 
 
 CREASSEY. 
 
 WILLATT. 
 
 COPE. 
 
 ELSEY. 
 
 J. B. WALKER. 
 
 Fox. 
 
 GREGORY. 
 
 HODGSON. 
 
 MR. HARPER. 
 CHEETHAM. 
 CELL. 
 HUBBARD. 
 PICKER. 
 SANSOM. 
 MANTLE. 
 WALLIS. 
 WEBBER. 
 J. Cox. 
 SKEVINGTON. 
 SMITH. 
 
1 68 
 
 Appendix* 
 
 MR. MALLET. 
 ,, BROOKSBANK. 
 WILLATT. 
 
 MR. COPE. 
 ,, ELSEY. 
 WALKER. 
 
 MR. Fox. 
 ,, GREGORY. 
 HODGSON. 
 
 Eleferee. 
 HENRY CROMPTON, ESQ. 
 
 Committee of SJitquirp. 
 LEVERS. 
 
 MR. HARPER. 
 CHEETHAM. 
 SANSOM. 
 
 CURTAIN. 
 
 I MR. MANTLE. 
 ,, WEBBER. 
 ,, WALLIS. 
 
 PLAIN NET. 
 
 MR Cox. 
 SKEVINGTON. 
 SMITH. 
 
 Secretaries. 
 MR. H. A. GOODYER. I MR. G. MARRIOTT. 
 

 RULES, 
 
 AS ADOPTED AT THE MEETING OF DELEGATES, HELD 
 
 AT THE MECHANICS' HALL, SEPT. I-JTH, 1874, 
 
 AND AMENDED, JULY IOTH, 1876. 
 
 1. THAT a Board of Trade be formed, to be styled the 
 "BOARD OF ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION FOR THE 
 LACE TRADE." 
 
 2. That the object of the said Board shall be to arbitrate 
 on any questions that may be referred to it from time to time, 
 by the joint consent of Employer and Workman, and by 
 conciliatory means to interpose its influence to put an end 
 to any dispute that may arise. 
 
 3. This Board to consist of twelve Manufacturers and 
 twelve Operatives, five of each to form a quorum, the Manu- 
 facturers to elect six Levers, three Curtain, and three Plain 
 Net representatives, and the Operatives six Levers, three 
 Curtain, and three Plain Net representatives, each to be 
 chosen by their respective associations. The whole of the 
 delegates to serve for one year, and to be eligible for re- 
 election. The new council to be elected in the month ot 
 January in each year. That when a special question arises 
 
1 70 Appendix. 
 
 upon which the members of the Board have not sufficient in- 
 formation, it shall be competent for either side to introduce, 
 after seven days' notice to the secretaries, not more than two 
 extra delegates, who shall give information and enter into 
 discussion upon such question ; but in every case, only 
 members of the Board shall vote. The above alteration 
 shall also apply to special meetings of each branch. No 
 changes shall be made in the extra delegates whilst the ques- 
 tion is under discussion. 
 
 4. The decision of the Board shall be binding on the 
 parties to any dispute submitted by them. 
 
 5. That a committee of Inquiry of six members of the 
 Board, three Employers and three Workmen engaged in 
 that particular branch in which the dispute arises, shall 
 inquire into any cases referred to it. such committee to use 
 its influence in the settlement of disputes. If unable amicably 
 to adjust the business referred to it, it shall be remitted to the 
 whole of the members of that branch upon the Board, and 
 should no agreement then be arrived at, the case shall be 
 submitted to a full Board ; but in no case shall the commit- 
 tees make any award. The committees to be appointed 
 annually at the first meeting of the Board. 
 
 6. That the Board shall, at its first meeting in each year, 
 elect a president, vice-president, treasurer, referee, and two 
 secretaries, who shall continue in office for one year, and be 
 eligible for re-election. 
 
 7. That the Board shall meet for the transaction of busi- 
 ness once a quarter, viz., the second Monday in January, 
 April, July, and October ; but on a requisition to the Presi- 
 dent, signed by three members of the Board, specifying the 
 

 Appendix. 171 
 
 DU 
 
 = 
 
 nature of the business to be transacted, he shall, within seven 
 days, convene a meeting of its members. The circular call- 
 ing such meeting shall specify the nature of the business for 
 consideration, provided that such business has first been 
 submitted to the committee of inquiry, and left undecided 
 by them. 
 
 8. The parties to any dispute remitted to the Board shall, 
 if possible, agree to a joint written statement of their case, 
 but if they cannot agree, a statement in writing from each 
 
 rty shall be made, and in either case forwarded to the sec- 
 taries within seven days of the Board's meeting. 
 
 9. That the president shall preside over the meetings of 
 the Board, and in his absence the vice-president ; in the 
 absence of both president and vice-president, a chairman 
 shall be elected by the majority present. The chairman to 
 have but one vote, and in case of numbers being equal, appeal 
 shall be made to the referee. 
 
 10. That the decision of the referee shall be final, and 
 immediately binding on both sides. 
 
 11. That when at any meeting of the Board the number 
 of Employers and Workmen is unequal all shall have the 
 right of fully entering into the discussion of any matters 
 brought before them, but only an equal number of each shall 
 vote. The withdrawal of the members of whichever body 
 may be in excess to be by lot. 
 
 12. That any expenses incurred by this Board be borne 
 equally by the Operatives and Employers, and the accounts to 
 be produced and passed at each quarterly meeting. 
 
 13. That no alteration or addition be made to these Rules 
 except at a quarterly meeting or a special meeting convened 
 
172 Appendix. 
 
 for the purpose. Any member of the Board intending to 
 propose an alteration or addition shall furnish the exact terms 
 thereof, in writing, to the secretaries twenty-eight days before 
 such meeting, and the secretaries shall give twenty-one days' 
 notice of the same to each member of the Board. 
 
 MASTERS AND WORKMEN (ARBITRATION). 
 
 35 & 36 VICT., CHAP. 46. 
 
 An Act to make further Provision for Arbitration between 
 Masters and Workmen. 6th Attgust, 1872. 
 
 WHEREAS by the Act of the fifth year of George the Fourth, 
 chapter ninety-six, intituled "An Act to consolidate and 
 amend the Laws relative to the Arbitration of Disputes be- 
 tween Masters and Workmen," hereinafter referred to as the 
 "principal Act," provision is made for the arbitration in a 
 mode therein prescribed of certain disputes between masters 
 and workmen : 
 
 And whereas it is expedient to make further provision for 
 arbitration between masters and workmen : 
 
 Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by 
 and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual 
 and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament 
 assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows : 
 
 I. The following provisions shall have effect with refer- 
 ence to agreements under this Act : 
 
 (i.) An agreement under this Act shall either designate 
 some board, council, persons or person as arbitra- 
 
Appendix, 1 73 
 
 tors or arbitrator, or define the time and manner of 
 appointment of arbitrators or of an arbitrator ; and 
 shall designate, by name or by description of office 
 or otherwise, some person to be, or some person or 
 persons (other than the arbitrators or arbitrator) to 
 appoint, an umpire, in case of disagreement between 
 arbitrators. 
 
 (2.) A master and a workman shall become mutually 
 bound by an agreement under this Act (hereinafter 
 referred to as " the agreement") upon the master or 
 his agent giving to the workman, and the workman 
 accepting, a printed copy of the agreement : 
 
 Provided that a workman may, within forty-eight 
 hours after the delivery to him of the agreement, 
 give notice to the master or his agent that he will 
 not be bound by the agreement, and thereupon the 
 agreement shall be of no effect as between such 
 workman and the master. 
 
 (3.) When a master and workman are bound by the agree- 
 ment they shall continue so bound during the con- 
 tinuance of any contract of employment and service 
 which is in force between them at the time of making 
 the agreement, or in contemplation of which the 
 agreement is made, and thereafter so long as they 
 mutually consent from time to time to continue to 
 employ and serve without having rescinded the 
 agreement. Moreover, the agreement may provide 
 that any number of days' notice, not exceeding six 
 of an intention on the part of the master or workman 
 to cease to employ or be employed shall be required, 
 
1 74 Appendix. 
 
 and in that case the parties to the agreement shall 
 continue bound by it respectively until the expiration 
 of the required number of days after such notice has 
 been given by either of the parties. 
 
 (4.) The agreement may provide that the parties to it shall, 
 during its continuance, be bound by any rules con- 
 tained in the agreement, or to be made by the arbi- 
 trators, arbitrator, or umpire, as to the rate of wages 
 to be paid, or the hours or quantities of work to be 
 performed, or the conditions or regulations under 
 which work is to be done, and may specify penal- 
 ties, to be enforced by the arbitrators, arbitrator, or 
 umpire, for the breach of any such rule. 
 
 (5.) The agreement may also provide that in case any or 
 the following matters arise they shall be determined 
 by the arbitrators or arbitrator, viz. : 
 
 a. Any such disagreement or dispute as is men- 
 
 tioned in the second section of the principal 
 Act ; or 
 
 b. Any question, case, or matter to which the pro- 
 
 visions of the Master and Servant Act, 1867, 
 
 apply ; 
 
 and thereupon in case any such matter arises be- 
 tween the parties while they are bound by the agree- 
 ment, the arbitrators, arbitrator, or umpire shall 
 have jurisdiction for the hearing and determination 
 thereof, and upon their or his hearing and deter- 
 mining the same, no other proceeding shall be taken 
 before any other court or person for the same 
 matter ; but if the disagreement or dispute is not so 
 
Appendix. 175 
 
 heard and determined within twenty-one days from 
 the time when it arose, the jurisdiction of the arbi- 
 trators, arbitrator, or umpire shall cease, unless the 
 parties have, since the arising of the disagreement 
 or dispute, consented in writing that it shall be 
 exclusively determined by the arbitrators, arbitrator, 
 or umpire. 
 
 A disagreement or dispute shall be deemed to 
 arise at the time of the act or omission to which it 
 relates. 
 
 (6.) The arbitrators, arbitrator, or umpire may hear and 
 determine any matter referred to them in such 
 manner as they think fit, or as may be prescribed by 
 the agreement. 
 
 (7.) The agreement, and also any rules made by the arbi- 
 trators, arbitrator, or umpire in pursuance of its pro- 
 visions, shall in all proceedings, as well before them 
 as in any court, be evidence of the terms of the 
 contract of employment and service between the 
 parties bound by the agreement. 
 
 (8.) The agreement shall be deemed to be an agreement 
 within the meaning of the thirteenth section of the 
 principal Act for all the purposes of that Act. 
 
 (9.) If the agreement provides for the production or exa- 
 mination of any books, documents, or accounts, sub- 
 ject or not to any conditions as to the mode of their 
 production or examination, the arbitrators, arbitra- 
 tor, or umpire may require the production or exa- 
 mination (subject to any such conditions) of any 
 such books, documents, or accounts in the possession 
 
1 76 Appendix. 
 
 or control of any person summoned as a witness, and 
 who is bound by the agreement ; and the provisions 
 of the principal Act, for compelling the attendance 
 and submission of witnesses, shall apply for enforcing 
 such production or examination. 
 
 II. This Act maybe cited as "The Arbitration (Masters 
 and Workmen) Act, 1872." 
 
 MEMORANDUM ON THE ARBITRATION 
 
 (MASTERS AND WORKMEN) 
 
 ACT, 1872. 
 
 THE USES OF THE ACT. 
 
 Briefly stated, the uses of the Act are three, viz : 
 
 1. To provide the most simple machinery for a binding 
 submission to arbitration, and for the proceedings therein. 
 
 2. To extend facilities of arbitration to questions of wages, 
 hours, and other conditions of labour, and also to all the 
 numerous and important matters which may otherwise have 
 to be determined by justices under the provisions of the 
 Employers and Workmen's Act. 
 
 3. To provide for submission to arbitration of future dis- 
 putes by anticipation, without waiting till the time when a 
 dispute has actually arisen, and the parties are too much ex- 
 cited to agree upon arbitrators. 
 
 MODE OF PUTTING THE ACT IN OPERATION. 
 
 i. A form of agreement must be drawn up and printed, 
 either by the employer or by the workman. Such a form is 
 
Appendix. 177 
 
 appended (No. I.) ; but this form is not obligatory, and it 
 may be varied to afty extent not inconsistent with the pro- 
 visions of the Act. 
 
 2. When the form of agreement is settled and printed it 
 will become binding on an employer and a workman recipro- 
 cally upon the employer giving to the workman and the 
 workman accepting a printed copy. But the workman has 
 forty-eight hours to consider and satisfy himself of the effect 
 of the agreement, and if within that time he gives a written 
 or verbal notice to the employer, or his agent, that he rejects 
 it, he will not be bound by it. If after accepting the copy he 
 does not give such notice, then both he and the employer will 
 be bound by the agreement during the agreed term of em- 
 ployment (whether that term be a day, or a week, or a year), 
 and no longer. The agreement, however, may itself provide 
 that six days' notice shall be given of an intention to termi- 
 nate the employment ; and in any case, upon an expiration 
 of an agreement it may be renewed in the same manner as 
 before. 
 
 3. In case any dispute of a kind to which the agreement 
 relates arises between the parties bound by it during the con- 
 tinuance of the agreement, the dispute will be heard and 
 determined, not by the parties, but by the arbitrators, in the 
 mode prescribed by the agreement ; or if no mode is so 
 prescribed, then at their discretion. The attendance of 
 witnesses and the production of evidence may be enforced 
 in the manner provided by the Arbitration Act of 1824 
 (5 Geo. IV., c. 96). 
 
 4. The award of the arbitrators may be in the annexed 
 form (II.) ; and it may be enforced in the manner provided by 
 
 N 
 
1 78 Appendix. 
 
 the Arbitration Act, 1824, (5 Geo. IV.,c. 96), by distress or im- 
 prisonment, and otherwise, or it may be enforced by plaint 
 in the county court. 
 
 5. An analysis is appended of the clauses of the Arbitra- 
 tion Act, 1824, which will be applicable for the purposes of 
 this Act. 
 
 FORMS OF AGREEMENT AND AWARD. 
 
 I. Form of Agreement. 
 The Arbitration (Masters and Workmen} Act, 1872. 
 
 A. B. (here insert name or usual description of the em- 
 ployers' firm and the name of the works); and 
 
 C. D. (here insert name and occupation of the workman). 
 
 r. The arbitrators shall be E. F. and G. H. (or, An arbi- 
 trator shall, on or before the day of 
 38 , be named in writing by H. I. on the part of the em- 
 ployer, or by J. K. on the part of the workman). 
 
 2. The umpire, in case the arbitrators are equally divided, 
 shall be L. M. (or, shall be the person for the time being 
 holding the office of or, shall be appointed by 
 N.O.) 
 
 3. In case a person by whom anything is to be done under 
 this agreement as an arbitrator or umpire, or as a person 
 appointed to nominate any arbitrator or umpire, dies or de- 
 clines to act, or becomes incapable of acting, or is interested 
 as a party or otherwise in the matter referred to him, a 
 person shall be appointed in writing by P. Q., or if P. Q. do 
 not appoint within three days after request in writing from 
 either party to the agreement, then by R. S., to act in the 
 
Appendix. 1 79 
 
 place of the person so dying, declining, or becoming in- 
 capable, or being interested. 
 
 4. Six days' notice shall be required of an intention on 
 the part either of the employer or of the workman to termi- 
 nate the contract of employment and service in respect of 
 which this agreement is made. 
 
 5. The parties to this agreement agree to the following 
 rules (or to such rules as may be made by the arbitrators on 
 the following subjects), viz. : 
 
 I (a) As to the rate of wages. (Here insert any such rule 
 agreed on.) 
 (&) As to the hours and quantities of work to be per- 
 formed. (Here insert any such rule agreed on.) 
 (r) As to the conditions or regulations under which work 
 is to be done. (Here insert any such rule agreed 
 on.) The penalties for the breach of the above rules 
 shall be the following: (here insert the penalties). 
 
 6. The following disputes arising between employer and 
 workman during the continuance of this agreement shall be 
 determined by arbitration under this agreement, viz. : 
 
 (a] Any such disagreement or dispute as is mentioned in 
 
 the second section of the Arbitration Act, 1824, 
 (5 Geo. IV., c. 96), except (here insert a description 
 of any such disagreements or disputes which it is 
 intended to except). 
 
 (b] Any question, case, or matter, to which the provisions 
 
 of the Masters and Servants Act, 1867, apply, except 
 
 (here insert a description of any such question, 
 
 case, or matter which it is intended to except). 
 
 7. The arbitrators or umpire shall hear any matter 
 
 referred to them in the following manner, viz. -.(here 
 
180 Appendix. 
 
 insert any regulations by which it is desired to govern the 
 proceedings of the arbitrators or umpire, e.g.) that they shall 
 decide on written statements from each side, or that they 
 shall hear oral evidence). 
 
 8. The following books, documents, and accounts shall, 
 on demand by the arbitrators or umpire, be produced and 
 submitted for examination, subject to the conditions here- 
 after mentioned, viz. : 
 
 (a) Books, documents, and accounts. (Here insert a 
 description of them, or any such books, documents, 
 and accounts as the arbitrator or umpire think fit to 
 demand.) 
 
 (b} Conditions. (Here insert any condition as to the 
 mode of production or examination.) 
 
 II. Form of Award. 
 The Arbitration (Masters and Workmen] Act, 1872. 
 
 Award. 
 
 We, A. B. and C. D. (name the arbitrators or umpire), the 
 arbitrators or umpire in the matter in dispute between (here 
 state the names of complainant and defendant) do hereby ad- 
 judge and determine 1 that (here set forth the determination). 
 
 Signed, A. B. 
 
 This day 18 C. D. 
 
 ( l NOTE. e.g.) that A. B. left his employment without due 
 notice, and that A. B. shall pay to C. D. the sum of 
 
 for his breach of contract ; or, 
 
 that C. D. dismissed A. B. without due notice, and that C. D. 
 shall pay to A. B. the sum of for his breach 
 
 of contract). 
 
Appendix. 
 
 181 
 
 ANALYSIS OF THE APPLICABLE SECTIONS OF THE 
 ARBITRATION ACT, 1824 (5 GEO. IV., C. 96). 
 
 9. Attendance of witnesses may be enforced by a 
 justice of the peace by summons or commit- 
 ment. 
 23. Acknowledgment of fulfilment of award by the 
 
 person in whose behalf it is made. 
 
 24-30. Performance of award maybe enforced by dis- 
 tress or imprisonment. 
 
 31. Costs and expenses to be settled by the arbi- 
 trators. 
 
 32. Exemption from stamp duty. 
 30-34. Protection of arbitrators, &c., from actions. 
 
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