TRANSACTIONS OF SEGTION PF. 547 
a country as England of any method of industrial peace, whether in the form 
of arbitration or not, the consent of the interested parties is essential. The 
experience of New Zealand and Australia would seem to necessitate qualification 
of this statement, but circumstances there are very different from circumstances 
in the United Kingdom, and even there the prohibition of striking and locking-out 
has not been observed without exception. Needless to say a disregard of a law 
which is suffered without penalty weakens the force of the law and has a cumula- 
tive effect. 
The following methods of industrial peace may be distinguished :— 
(1) The method of settling disputes through the judgment of an impartial 
arbitrator. 
(2) The method by which settlement is brought about with the consent of 
both parties through the mediation of persons acquainted with the 
points at issue. This is commonly known as the method of media- 
tion or conciliation. 
(3) The method of bringing in public opinion as a third factor through 
the investigation of disputes and publication of results, 
Quite apart from the difficulties connected with compulsion already noticed, 
arbitration is likely to prove, in an industrialised country like England, a very 
defective plan; in the first place because the award may be unsatisfying to one 
or both parties; and, secondly, because the arbitrator will find it exceedingly 
awkward to get the kind of evidence from which he can deduce the right result. 
Nevertheless it is better that small disputes should be settled in this way than 
that cessation of work should supervene, and it is better also that one or both 
parties should suffer slight dissatisfaction than that an industry should be con- 
yulsed by industrial warfare for a lengthy period. The most hopeful method for 
English conditions would seem to be that of conciliation, the obligation to inter- 
vene whenever there were prospects of success being imposed upon some public 
office, panel, or official. This is the policy of the English Act of 1906, and of 
the strengthening of that measure by the step taken in 1911. In certain cases 
the method might be supplemented by the third method distinguished above, 
which is the outstanding feature of Canadian experiment. And recent events 
have shown that in special cases a more drastic handling of disputes may be 
requisite. In connection with the problem of industrial peace, above everything 
it is important to realise that action at the present time must be tentative and 
undoctrinaire. 
(ii) A Consideration of some of the Causes affecting Prices and Wages in 
the past Forty Years. By Sir Francis WesBster. 
Is the present rise of prices ‘ probably due to the enormously increased output 
of gold’? This would be a facile solution of a difficult problem. Bimetallism 
in another garb. Unrest as affected by it. Scarcity of gold in the eighties 
and nineties is not proven as the cause of low prices. Other possible causes. 
Acceleration and cheapening of transit. Consequent increase of effective stocks 
of commodities. Consequent decrease of price. Effect of labour-saving in pro- 
duction. Increased financial efticiency. Lower prices counteract lessened 
production of gold. None of the usual signs of scarcity is visible. Long con- 
tinuance of peace after 1870. Consequent feeling of security. Effect on gilt- 
edged securities. Arguments and predictions of bimetallists. These are 
disproved by events. Advantages of low prices to this creditor country. 
Speculation as to a possible effect of Protection on prices. Wars break the calm, 
and downward course of prices is arrested. Effect of war on prices of com- 
modities and of prices of gilt-edged securities. Security begotten of long peace 
is lost. Warlike expenditure still growing. World’s expenditure on luxuries 
also growing. The accumulated plenty of thirty years’ peace is trenched upon. 
Surplus is consumed. Consequent return of prices to basis of the seventies. 
Celerity with which stocks of commodities can now be drawn on. Growing 
wants of civilised communities. Growth of national and of private expenditure. 
Threatened rapid alterations of prices; their danger. Effect of high prices and 
active trade on gilt-edged securities. The fall in Consols is not so great as the 
advance in price of money. The time is approaching when these conditions 
NN2 
