Switzerland.—The canton of Geneva enacted a law in 1900 providing for the settlement by negotiation, conciliation or arbitration of the general terms of employment in a trade, subject, however, to special arrangements between employers and workmen in particular cases. The negotiations take place between delegates chosen by the associations of employers and employed, or failing them, by meetings summoned by the council of state on sufficient applications. Failing settlement, the council of state, on application from either party, is to appoint one or more conciliators from its members, and if this fail the central committee of the Prud’hommes, together with the delegates of employers and workmen, is to form a board of arbitration, whose decision is binding. Any collective suspension of work is illegal during the period covered by the award or agreement. Up to the end of 1904 only seven cases occurred of application of the law to industrial differences. In Basel (town) a law providing for voluntary conciliation by means of boards of employers and workmen with an independent chairman appointed ad hoc by the council of state of the canton, has been in force since 1897, but it remained practically unused until 1902. In the period from January 1902 to May 1905, 18 disputes were dealt with and 10 settled under this law. A similar law was adopted in St Gall in 1902. In the three years 1902-1904, 10 disputes were dealt with and 3 settled.
Sweden.—By a law which came into force on the 1st of January 1907, Sweden was divided into seven districts and in each district a conciliator was appointed by the crown. The conciliator must reside within his district and his principal duty is to promote the settlement of disputes between employers and work-people or between members of either class among themselves. He is also on request to advise and otherwise assist employers and work-people in framing agreements affecting the conditions of labour if and so far as agreements are designed to promote good relations between the two classes and to obviate stoppages of work.
United States.—In the United States several states have legislated on the subject of conciliation and arbitration, among the first of such acts being the “Wallace” Act of 1883, in Pennsylvania, which, however, was almost inoperative. Altogether, 24 states have made constitutional or statutory provision for mediation in trade disputes, of which 17 contemplate the formation of permanent state boards. The only state laws which require notice are those of Massachusetts and New York providing for the formation of state boards of arbitration. The Massachusetts board, founded in 1886, consists of one employer, one employed and one independent person chosen by both. The New York board (1886) consists of two representatives of different political parties, and one member of a bona fide trade organization within the state. In both states it is the duty of the board, with or without application from the parties, to proceed to the spot where a labour dispute has occurred, and to endeavour to promote a settlement. The parties may decline its services, but the board is empowered to issue a report, and on application from either side to hold an inquiry and publish its decision, which (in Massachusetts) is binding for six months, unless sixty days’ notice to the contrary is given by one side to the other. Several states, including Massachusetts and New York, provide not only for state boards, but also for local boards.
In Massachusetts, during 1906, the state board dealt with 158 disputes. Of these the board was appealed to as arbitrator in 95 cases. Awards were rendered in 80 cases, 12 cases were withdrawn and 3 cases were still pending at the end of the year. In New York the number of cases dealt with is much smaller.
Federal legislation can only touch the question of arbitration and conciliation so far as regards disputes affecting commerce between different states. Thus an act of June 1898 provides that in a dispute involving serious interruption of business on railways engaged in inter-state commerce, the chairman of the Inter-State Commerce Commission and the commissioner of labour shall, on application of either party, endeavour to effect a settlement, or to induce the parties to submit the dispute to arbitration. While an arbitration under the act is pending a strike or lock-out is unlawful.
Authorities.—For the recent development of arbitration and conciliation in the United Kingdom, see the Annual Reports of the Labour Department of the Board of Trade on Strikes and Lock-outs from 1888 onwards. Since 1890 these reports have contained special appendices on the work of arbitration boards. See also the Labour Gazette (the monthly journal of the Labour Department) from 1893 onward, and the Report on Rules of Voluntary Conciliation and Arbitration Boards and Joint Committees. The Reports of the Royal Commission on Labour (1891-1894) contain much valuable information on the subject. For the working of the Conciliation Act see the Reports of the Board of Trade on their proceedings under the Conciliation Act 1896. For the earlier history in the United Kingdom: Crompton, Industrial Conciliation (1876); Price, Industrial Peace (1887). For foreign and colonial developments: the third Abstract of Foreign Labour Statistics (1906), issued by the Board of Trade; Report on Government Industrial Arbitration, by L.W. Hatch (Bulletin of Bureau of Labour of United States Department of Commerce and Labour, September 1905); the report of the French Office du Travail, De la conciliation et de l’arbitrage dans les conflits collectifs entre patrons et ouvriers en France et à l’étranger (1893); the Annual Reports of the same Department on Strikes, Lockouts and Arbitration; the Reports of the Massachusetts and New York State Arbitration Boards, and of the New Zealand Department of Labour; and the Labour Gazette. See also the following general works: N.P. Gilman, Methods of Industrial Peace (Boston, 1904); A.C. Pigou, Principles and Methods of Industrial Peace (1905).
(X.)
ARBOGAST (d. 394), a barbarian officer in the Roman army, at the end of the 4th century. His nationality is uncertain, but Zosimus, Eunapius and Sulpicius Alexander (a Gallo-Roman historian quoted by Gregory of Tours) all refer to him as a Frank. Having served with distinction against the Goths in Thrace, he was sent by Theodosius in 388 against Maximus, who had usurped the empire of the west and had murdered Gratian. His complete success, which resulted in the destruction of Maximus and his sons and the pacification of Gaul, led Theodosius to appoint him chief minister for his young brother-in-law Valentinian II. His rule was most energetic; but while he favoured the barbarians in the imperial service, and appointed them to high office, Valentinian, openly jealous of his minister, sought to surround himself with Romans. As an offset to this, Arbogast allied himself with the pagan element in Rome, while Valentinian was strictly orthodox. In 392 Valentinian was secretly put to death at Vienne (in Gaul), and Arbogast, naming as his successor Eugenius, a rhetorician, descended into Italy to meet the expedition which Theodosius was heading against him. He proclaimed himself the champion of the old Roman gods, and as a response to the appeal of Ambrose, is said to have threatened to stable his horses in the cathedral of Milan, and to force the monks to fight in his army. His defeat in the hard-fought battle of the Frigidus saved Italy from these dangers. Theodosius, after a two days’ fight, gained the victory by the treachery of one of Arbogast’s generals, sent to cut off his retreat. Eugenius was captured and executed, but Arbogast escaped to the mountains, where however he slew himself three days afterwards (8th of September 394). Although we have only most distorted narratives upon which to rely—pagan eulogy and Christian denunciation—Arbogast appears to have been one of the greatest soldiers of the later empire, and a statesman of no mean rank. His energy, and his apparent disdain for the effete civilization which he protected, but which did not affect his character, make his personality one of the most interesting of the 4th century.
See T. Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders (1880), vol. i. chap. ii.