The limits of this article will not allow a discussion of voluntary or involuntary arbitration, but let me say that in the above case we see that a simple arrangement between the parties changed all the strife to peace. Will society long tolerate a continuance of industrial warfare when it has in its own hands a preventive? For its own protection will it not tell employer and laborer, "You must settle your differences quietly by mutual agreement, or, if you can not, I will settle them for you"? It says this now to the individual. Men and women are not allowed in these days to settle their rights and wrongs by brute force. That method passed away long years ago in civilized communities. And society must continue to suffer from the violence and waste of strikes until it teaches employers and workingmen and itself a higher and better way.
May not it be possible that the outcome will be that associations of wage-earners are to be treated as the equals of the employer? Will not the democratic spirit of the age to come so permeate the industrial as well as the political world that the laborer and the employer will each have a share in the business they together carry on?
I have tried to make a very broad sketch of the change which has taken place in the condition of the laborer, with a consideration of some of the means by which that has come about. No longer is he a serf—no longer even the servant of a ruling class. He at length has risen to a share in the government of his town and country. No longer are laws passed against him specially, but in his favor. The laborer has become free—free to follow along the path of his predecessors, to gain full justice, but not to oppress others. Before the law at least he is the equal of his employer. I have implied at least that he has but followed the spirit which led his older brother of the middle class up from practical subjection to power. The craft guilds of the one, the labor unions of the other, are in the same line as the old town guilds. They all are manifestations of that democratic independence which seems necessary for political freedom. They all imply the capacity for organization as they all have shown its power. Let us believe that, like the old guilds, these labor organizations are helpful parts of the machinery of human progress. They force upon us the fact that there have been and are injustices which must be righted. We are beginning to learn that we can not depend upon one side alone for our political economy or our facts; that we need an organization strong enough to compel respect in order to protect those who without it would be, as they have been, helpless.
All the smoke and clash of industrial warfare seem terrifying; the innocent victims shock our sense of justice, but it is leading to the perfect peace. The true democracy—the brotherhood of man—is forcing itself upon mankind. If we in our prejudice, our selfishness, our ignorance, defy the signs of its coming, try to prevent its growth, or find only license in liberty, we shall continue to suffer all the ills which an obstruction of progress or a violation of its laws always brings with it. Is it not true that never in the history of the world has there been an agrarian rising, a peasant revolt, a labor war, that back of it we do not find as a main cause the injustice, the oppression, the selfishness of a more powerful class? And will there be perfect peace, perfect prosperity, until the divine harmony—the real brotherhood of man—is the rule of life? Wrong always breeds violence. But out of that violence, when the wrong is made right, comes peace. Massachusetts in her motto declares that "by the sword she seeks peace," and, to use Richard T. Ely's words, "the Prince of Peace proclaimed, 'Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword'; and yet truly was he called the Prince of Peace." Often is war the price of peace. And no one, no class of men, deserve their freedom unless, when all other means fail, they have the courage and energy to pay the price.
Therefore, we will not be alarmed at struggles which in the end will bring about a better condition of life for all. Rather let us try to end those struggles by pushing bravely on toward the end mankind is striving for. We, with such a past as ours, must not be false to the ideal which is our birthright; we should not be incapable of finding the true way. If we will forget our merely partisan strife, our petty jealousies, our class distinctions, and have only one aim, justice for all, an equal chance for self-development for all, whether he be born rich or poor, the ruling spirit of the next century will keep America still true to her high calling, and mankind still will find in her the inspiration to raise the disheartened and lowly of other lands. The truest patriotism is broad enough to help the unfortunate everywhere, and with courage, intelligence, and a faith in true democracy we shall not fail.
THE BERING SEA CONTROVERSY ONCE MORE.
By Prof. T. C. MENDENHALL.
Mr. Clark's interesting and, on the whole, fair review of my article on Expert Testimony in the Bering Sea Controversy, printed in this journal in 1897, might be allowed to stand, without comment, as the best possible vindication of the work of the Bering Sea Commission of 1891-'92, and as strong corroborative evidence of the soundness of the position taken in the article referred to. One or two quotations which he makes, however, are placed in such relation to other parts of the paper as to imply meanings which a reading of the article as a whole will show were never intended. This is notably true of the description of the frame of mind in which a scientific man should approach or conduct any investigation, which Mr. Clark quotes, and the further statement that, unfortunately, he often fails to come up to the standard set, and especially when his own interests are involved.
It might easily be inferred that these remarks were meant to have special application to the members of one or both Bering Sea commissions, while as a matter of fact they were a part of the general introduction, occurring some time before any reference is made to the commissions. I should greatly regret having any one understand that there was the slightest intimation of the existence of a "handsome retainer," or anything of the sort, in connection with any or all of the Bering Sea investigations.