TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 707 



genera] opinion and conversation, and also in economic literature. The practical 

 consequences of this are important, for thus alone can effective representation of 

 the men be secured ; but the lessons of the recent history of the Northumberland 

 coal trade must not be ignored. Although the ' machinery ' of industrial peace is 

 not everything, yet it is something, and it may modifj' the ' material ' of human 

 nature, and should therefore be brought to as great perfection as is possible. The 

 most desirable quality is adjustability, and this may be understood in different 

 senses: (1) adjustability to the varying circumstances of trade, (2) to the varied 

 circumstances of each particular industry, (3) to those which vary from one 

 industry to another, and (4) to the varying stages of improvement in the relations 

 between masters and men. Future, like past and present, industrial society will 

 probably present manifold diversities, and the ideal attitude of the social reformer 

 should be catholic and critical. 



2. The Difficulties of Arbitration. By RoBEUT Spence Watson, LL.D. 



Industrial war is in the air : it is the time to consider what difficulties prevent 

 the peaceable settlement of labour disputes, and how to overcome them. 



There are only two instances in which a peaceable settlement is impossible 

 excepting by the submission of one side — when, in a wages dispute, a rise would 

 mean bankruptcy to the employer ; a fall, starvation to the employed. 



Here for many years past, in several of the most important industries, the way 

 to avoid war has been found and followed with great success, and without appeal 

 "to law. There have been interruptions, but they are accounted for, and a great 

 balance of advantage I'emains to the credit of the peaceful system. The niunber of 

 disputes settled and arranged by joint boards of conciliation and arbitration in the 

 coal and iron industries was here stated. 



Habitual peace has been tried in many industries of widely differing character, 

 and in many parts of the country. Why is it not generally adopted ? 



The first reason is caste feeling upon both sides — want of mutual trust, neither 

 party believing it possible to convince the other. This makes employers unwilling 

 to recognise unions amongst the men, without which joint boards are scarcely 



Sossible, for they must represent practically the whole of a given trade in a given 

 istrict. Again, employers dislike the idea of furnishing information about their 

 own business transactions to others. 



These objections vanish with experience of the actual working of joint boards 

 which promote mutual good feelmg and sympathy, and tend to lessen caste 

 feeling. 



The best way to ensure the peaceable solution of labour disputes is to promote 

 the formation of joint boards of conciliation and arbitration in all branches of 

 industry, and, that they may have the best chance of success, to encoui-age com- 

 binations of employers and employed. 



But how far is this system applicable to unskilled labour, meaning thereby 

 labour which has nothing to learn, but can be transferred from one place or trade 

 to another without difficulty. 



There is little accurate knowledge of the number of skilled and unskilled work- 

 men in the Tyneside district. Certain works furnished exact figures which were 

 given, but only very general conclusions could be come to. The amount of un- 

 skilled labour to be considered is very great. The difficulties of the problem are 

 intensified in the metropolis, but do not differ in kind from those in the provinces. 

 The remedy is to be found in systematic organisation, leading to the establishment 

 of a method of peaceable settlement similar to that which works successfully in so 

 many cases of skilled labour. 



The difficulties in Ihe way of successful organisation occasioned by the un- 

 •certainty, the nomadic character, the poverty, ignorance, and necessary unthrifti- 

 ness, of unskilled labour were considered. A comparison between the condition 

 of the skilled labourer fifty years smce and at the present time was drawn, and 

 tiope for the future of unskilled labour derived from it. 



But what is the chance of the systematic organisation of unskilled labour, and 



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