3 i4 ROBERT H. THURSTON 



bargains without impediment or interference. A bargain is 

 an agreement entered into freely by two individuals, or two 

 parties, each finding it profitable and satisfactory to himself. 

 No man can be compelled to enter into an agreement in busi- 

 ness matters or to make a bargain the result of which is not, 

 in his view, the best that he can make and a profitable one to 

 himself. Compulsory bargaining, like compulsory arbitra- 

 tion, is a contradiction of terms. 



While it is physically possible for the state to formulate 

 a code of law which may contain or involve a wrong principle 

 or a bad practice, it is always to be assumed that reference to 

 the constitution of the state or nation will lead the supreme 

 legal authority to restore the code to correct form. The funda- 

 mental principle on which must rest all others, legally as well 

 as socially and morally, is expressed in the maxim — "The 

 state must maintain the law and must preserve the peace." 

 When the law is maintained and the peace is preserved by 

 the authorities all disputes must settle themselves without 

 hostile meetings, and they always will be settled without 

 endangering the individual, the state or the nation. This one 

 maxim forces all ill disposed or unjust citizens to submit to 

 ultimate justice. 



Strikes and boycotts are, usually, simply endeavors, by 

 forcible means, to compel another to make a bargain satis- 

 factory only to the attacking party. They involve the en- 

 deavor to secure a bargain by compulsion which could not 

 be secured with mutual advantage and by common agree- 

 ment as the best for both parties that could be arranged at 

 the time and under the circumstances. They preclude the 

 separation of the two parties to the negotiation and freedom 

 of both to open other negotiations where a proper and rightful 

 bargain may be made. In either case one party determines 

 that it should secure a better compensation for what it has 

 to offer and then seeks to compel the other side to its own 

 estimate of the value of its offering. When such efforts are 

 made to secure compulsory agreement with the claims of the 

 attacking party success can rarely be secured except by 

 forcibly destroying all competition, and strikes are almost 

 invariably accompanied by illegal violence and often by 



