ARBITRATION
The relations of capital and labor—mutually dependent the one upon the other—both selfish and often unjust—have caused serious trouble in the past decade of the world's history. Fair and equitable arbitration seems to be the only safe and just way of settling disputes of this character.
CAPITAL AND LABOR.
Perhaps the gravest problem which confronts our country is the eternal strife between capital and labor. It is a problem which when solved will prove one of the most beneficent boons that ever blessed mankind. Disputes continually arise between employers and employees; strikes have occurred without number, many of them attended by violence, the destruction of property and lamentable loss of life. Arbitration is the best and most sensible cure for the grave peril which at times has seemed to threaten the safety of our institutions, and when the employer and those dependent upon him for the support of themselves and families meet in a friendly spirit and discuss their differences, they are certain to reach an amicable agreement.
That men have the right to strike and combine against a lowering of their wages or for the purpose of increasing them is beyond all dispute. That they have the right to destroy property or prevent other men from taking their places is contended by no intelligent person, but, so long as human nature remains as it is, they will do so, with the result that in almost every instance it is the laborers themselves who are the greatest losers and sufferers.
One fact for which all ought to be grateful is that the murderous anarchists who once plotted and struck with the venom of rattlesnakes have either disappeared or ceased their evil work. They are scarcely heard of in these days, and that it may ever remain thus is the fervent wish of every patriotic and right-minded citizen.
It is inevitable that so long as the United States remains an asylum for the persecuted and oppressed of all nations, it must receive many of the miscreants that have been compelled to flee from their own countries to escape the penalty of their crimes. Despite the ravings of the anarchists, we have good-naturedly let them alone, not believing they would ever dare to carry out any of the threats which they were so fond of making. Thus they became emboldened and finally ventured to put their execrable principles into practice.
There were a good many strikes in different parts of the country in the early months of 1886. A number were settled by arbitration, such as the strike on the elevated railroads in New York City, but others were fought out to the bitter end.
A strike occurred on the Missouri Pacific Railroad in the spring of 1886. The strikers became violent, destroyed property, and a number of lives were lost. The end came in May, and, as is generally the case, it was against the employes, many of whom were unable to regain the places that had been taken by others.
ANARCHISTIC OUTBREAK IN CHICAGO.
The cry for eight hours, at the same rate of wages previously paid for ten, was raised in New York and Chicago in May, 1886. Here and there a compromise of nine hours was agreed upon with a half of each Saturday for the employes, but in other cases the employers would not yield anything. This issue led to the strike of 40,000 workmen in Chicago, who were chiefly lumbermen, brickmakers, freight-handlers, iron-workers, and men employed in factories. So many people were idle that business of all kinds suffered. Naturally there were many parades and much speech-making. That "an idle mind is the devil's workshop" was proven by the appearance of the communistic red flag in some of the parades and by the savage utterances of their speech-makers.