CONGRESS. (LABOR QUESTIONS.) 



261 



Knights of Labor. But suppose you pass this 

 bill, what do you accomplish ? 



"If both parties to a controversy agree to 

 abitrate under its provisions, the board for 

 which it provides becomes a board of investi- 

 gation and inquiry. It can publish its find- 

 ings of fact and give its opinion as to who is 

 right or who is wrong. And there it stops; it 

 can go no further. This might be of some util- 

 ity and benefit if in every case of controversy 

 the investigation could be had. But either 

 party can refuse to be investigated. Then 

 what does the bill accomplish that may not be 

 accomplished without it? But suppose the 

 board is appointed and the investigation had, 

 the corporation can ignore its findings and 

 sneer at its recommendations. But it will be 

 claimed that an enlightened public opinion will 

 force the party in the wrong to respect that 

 opinion and accede to its judgment. If this be 

 true, then the bill should be so perfected as to 

 compel the investigation, not the arbitration, 

 in every instance." 



In favor of the measure, Mr. Long, of Mas- 

 sachusetts, said : 



" I am for this bill because it is by no means 

 so valueless as has been represented. It has 

 other virtues than the virtue of being merely 

 harmless. The bill is a positive force. It does 

 something more than simply declare, what is 

 already true, that one man having a grievance 

 against another may enter into an arbitration 

 over it with him if both agree to do so. What 

 I say is this : If, without this law, any humble 

 employe of a powerful railroad corporation 

 should to-day ask that corporation to enter 

 into an arbitration with him over a difference 

 between them, the chances, as you know, are 

 a hundred to one that in any ordinary case the 

 corporation would decline and would wave him 

 away. You also know such is the power of 

 the expression of the representatives of the 

 people, such is the power of an act of the 

 American Congress that if you pass this bill, 

 then let the humblest workingman demand of 

 the corporation that employs him an arbitra- 

 tion, let him demand it under the sanction of 

 an act of Congress, and the chances are a hun- 

 dred to one that it will be granted, or that, to 

 avoid refusing it, an adjustment will be made. 

 In that way you insure to him a hearing ; and 

 let me say and I say this to the credit of the 

 wisdom of the Committee on Labor you in- 

 sure it to him pretty much as substantially as 

 if you had put a compulsory provision into the 

 bill. 



" Pass this bill with this fifth section in it, 

 and you provide that the em ploy 6, however 

 poor, engaging in an arbitration of this char- 

 acter shall have the expense of his arbitrators, 

 of his witnesses, of the clerk, of the stenogra- 

 pherall the expenses of the arbitration paid 

 out of the United States Treasury. And let 

 me tell you it will be a mighty cheap price to 

 pay if it will tend to avoid such an experience 

 as we have had within the last few weeks in 



the State of Missouri, with the attendant dam- 

 age and loss that have followed from it to all 

 classes of the community. Pass the bill with 

 this section, and you have put the humblest 

 workingman upon an equality in this respect 

 with the richest employer. There is no longer 

 anything to prevent the hearing of any matter 

 in dispute without oppressive expense to one 

 side or the other and upon fair and equal terras. 

 The result will be not the multiplicity of these 

 complaints or suits, but their infrequency. The 

 very power to invoke arbitration will prevent 

 its invocation, as every man who is familiar 

 with human nature knows, because the party 

 in the wrong will sooner do justice than have 

 that power invoked, and because no man who 

 has not a good cause of complaint will be in a 

 hurry to have its weakness and fallacy exposed 

 to the light of an investigating arbitration. 



" I am for this bill, then, because it is on 

 the whole a good bill, and especially because 

 it is a temperate bill; because it does not un- 

 dertake too much ; because, while it meets pub- 

 lic sentiment, it goes only as far as public senti- 

 ment has now gone. It opens the door to peace- 

 ful adjustment of difficulties. It turns the minds 

 of the people in the direction of adjudication, 

 and not in the direction of revolution or vio- 

 lence. It works no harm. It accomplishes a 

 good purpose. The committee are entitled to 

 credit for having brought it here in so moder- 

 ate a form, and I trust we shall pass it as they 

 have presented it to us." 



April 3, the bill passed by a vote of 199 to 

 80. It was brought up for discussion in the 

 Senate, but did not come to a final vote. 



On the subject of arbitration, the President 

 sent to Congress the following message : 

 To the Senate and House of Representatives : 



The Constitution imposes upon the President the 

 duty of recommending to the consideration of Con- 

 gress from time to time such measures as he shall 

 judge necessary and expedient. 



I am so deeply impressed with the importance of 

 immediately and thoughtfully meeting the problem 

 vvliich recent events and a present condition have 

 thrust upon us, involving the settlement of disputes 

 arising between our laboring-men and their employ- 

 ers, that I am constrained to recommend to Congress 

 legislation upon this serious and pressing subject. 



Under our form of government the value of labor 

 as an element of national prosperity should be dis- 

 tinctly recognized, and the welfare of the laboring- 

 man should be regarded as especially entitled to legis- 

 lative care. In a country which offers to all its citi- 

 zens the highest attainment of social and political dis- 

 tinction its workingmen can not justly or safely be 

 considered as irrevocably consigned to the limits of a 

 class and entitled to no attention and allowed no pro- 

 test against neglect. 



The laboring-man, bearing in his hand an indis- 

 pensable contribution to our growth and progress, 

 may well insist, with manly courage and as a right, 

 upon the same recognition from those who make our 

 laws as is accorded to any other citizen having a valu- 

 able interest in charge ; and his reasonable demands 

 should be met in such a spirit of appreciation and fair- 

 ness as to induce a contented and patriotic co-opera- 

 tion in the achievement of a grand national destiny. 



"While the real interests of labor are not promoted 

 by a resort to threats and violent manifestations, and 

 while those who under the pretext of an advocacy of 



