Fabian T ract No. 83. STATE ARBITRATION AND THE LIVING WAGE. 'VnH A.N Accou.-..:T OF THE NEw ZEALA:"IID A:-lq8. S~<:coxn Emno:-~, .AuGusT 1903. TH~ disastrous effecb of a great labor dispute which ha~ para!) led an industry for month~ are obviou~ to all, and the con equences of smaller di~turbances, though less apparent, are in the aggn::gatt: scarcely less important. In the five year, 1898-1902, there ha\t: been, on an annual average, 632 strikes and lock-outs, involving 2II,775 persons a year, and costing an annual loss of 5,716,ozb working days. For thirty years everyone has been "ingeminating peace," and we propose, in the first place, to examine the machiner) that exists to-day for preventing industrial war ; and secondly, to consider in what way lasting peace can be secured. Di putes may arise either out of the interpretation of an exi~ting contract, or out of the framing of new terms of labor. To decide the former class is a judicial act, to determine the latter is a legislativtfunction. Interpretation cases are on the Continent settled by special courts, but in England they are in no way distinguished from other ca es, and, from the comparative rarity with which they come under the public eye, are scarcely included within the popular meaning of the term industrial dispute. In this Tract we shall deal mainly with the econd class. Method of Collective Bargaining. For the proper consideration of disputes arising out of the framing of new labor contract it i;. important to bear in mind that they are only the exceptional failures which occur 111 a complex system ol negotiation between employers and employed. \Vhere the men are di~organiled the terms of labor are fixed at the will of the master~. but the trade unions practise a method of collective bargaining which ensures peace throughout a great part of the industrial world. Bt ginning with the negotiation;, of ;,hop committees, or single branche>, with individual employers, the proce;.s has developed into regularconference between the organized masters on the one side and thtunion of all the workmen in the trade on the other, and the drawing up of collective agreement embodying common rules for the wholt: industry, fixing both "·age;. and the other condttions of labor. Simtlarly with disputes afl"ecting indi\iduab only-from the intervention of the trade union ecretary on behalf of a victimiled workman 11e proceed to the regular examination of all complaint:. in the textile indu try by the paid secretarie:. of the employer ' and workmem' c rganization , and the reference of the lew cases in which they cannot .tgree to joint committee . tir~t of the local, and finally of the centr 1 as <;>ciatic•n . In the higher grade of industry we han~ thus a private legt.,.lati\·e -Y tem and a pri\ .ne judicial S) ,tem e tabli;.hed by mutu:~l 3 agreement, and enforcing decision::. by appeal to the law-abiding !>pirit of the people. The Board of Trade Bluebook on Standard Piecework Lists,* will give some idea of the work of the unions. In IQ02 only 1'+ per cent. of the workmen who e wages were altered in the course of the year were engaged in disputes on this account. EYen when conferences and negotiations fail, and a strike or lock-out ensues, the unions are pre-eminent in effecting peace, and in J 8Q7IQOI settled by direct negotiation 73·2 per cent. of the total strikes. Temporary joint committees naturally develop into trade board of a more permanent character, representative of employers and employed in equal proportions. In 1902 there were 67 such board!> actually at work, which dealt with r ,462 cases, and settled 678. The Durham Joint Committee for the coal trade owes its success to the fact that while general wage-moYements are determined on the basis of the old sliding scale, now abolished, it settles what alterations shall be made in the county a\'erage wage to meet the peculiarities of working in particular collieries, and arranges colliery as apart from county disputes. Provision is made for the reference to arbitration of cases which the committee cannot settle. The local boards in the boot trade, on the other hand, have "full power to settle all questiom submitted to them concerning wages, hours of labor, and the conditions of employment of all classes of workpeople represented thereon within their districts." Their exercise of this jurisdiction is, howeyer, governed by the clauses in the Agreement of 1895, referring to minimum wage, output, machinery, etc. Trade Boards, in fact, only seem to be successful where they work under carefully defined preliminary agreements. The full power of collective bargaining through trade unions and trade board is only attained in the few well-organized trades. For some time after 1890, District Boards of Conciliation were warmly advocated as a means of bringing the disputants together and mducing them to settle their differences amicably, that is by collectiYe bargaining. Though they were welcomed by the weaker trades, their period of favor was brief, and in 1901 there were only nine such board registered under the Conciliation Act, of which the London board i the chief. Finally, the reference of disputes to pri\·ate persons is the oldest form of private intervention. \Vith the disappearance of sliding scales, and the growing activity of the Board of Trade, it has become less prominent than formerly, but it is frequently pro\'ided for in collectiYe agreements. Some notable modern instances, like the Coal War in 1893 and the Boot Trade Dispute of 1893, were really official Go\·ernmental interventions, not to arbitrate but to further the negotiations between the parties. Government Mediation. The report of the Royal Commission on Labor in I 89+ recognizedthe failure of private attempts at mediation, and recommended (rlthat Town and County Councils should be enabled to create special tribunals for defined districts or trade , more or less after the patten. of the French Conseils de Prud'hommes ; (z) that a central department should promote by advice and assistance the formation of trade and district boards of conciliation and arbitration ; (3) that the Board of Trade should have power to enquire into and report on any trade dispute ; and (4) that the Board of Trade should have power to appoint an arbitrator, when requested by both parties. In r o6 the Conciliation (Trade Disputes) Act was passed, empowering the Board of Trade, where a dispute had ai isen or was apprehended, (a) to enquire into the causes of the dispute ; (b) to induce the parties t(l meet together with a view to an amicable settlement ; (c) to appoint a person to act as conciliator when requested by either party ; (d) to appoint an arbitrator on the application of both parties. Private boards of conciliation and arbitration might be registered under the Act, and where no Board existed the Board of Trade might endeavor to get one formed. This measure is thoroughly permissive, for neither can one party to a dispute compel the other to submit the difference to arbitration, nor is either bound by the award. In both these respects it is inferior to the Durham ] oint Committee and the Boot Trade Boards, .md it has been thoroughly discredited by it powerlessness to 0\·er· come the obstinacy of Lord Penrhyn, and by the tardiness and inefficacy of Mr. Ritchie's Intervention in the engineering dispute. To the end of June, 1901 1' 113 cases had been dealt with under the .-\ct, nine on the initiative of the Board ; 32 disputes were settled by conciliation, 38 by arbitration, and ro out of court ; in 33 cases a ettlement was not effected, or the application was refused by the Board of Trade. Compulsion in New Zealand. New Zealand is the classical land of compulsory arbitration. tht: only land where it ha had a fair trial, and the only land where indmtrial peace prevails. Since the Hon. \V. P. Reeves, then .:\1inister for Labor, carried in rS94 his Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration _-\ct, "all matters or things affecting or relating to work done or to be done, or the privilege , rights, or duties of employers or workmc::n in any industry" are withdrawn from the domain of private warfare and placed under the regulation of law. [n the first place that _-\ct defined the bodie with which it had to deal by providing for the registration of any number of persons, not le s than five employc::r' or seven workmen, as indu trial unions, which thereby become Lvrporate bodies with power to ue and be sued. They alone could take proceedings under the Act, for the law took no cognizance of di putt: between individual workmen and their master , but yet unregi tered c::mployers or men were not exempt from the control of the l.~w. The e industrial unions might enter into industrial agreement With each other-or industrial unions of workmen with individual em- ployers-dealing with any indu trial matter or for the prevention or -.ettlement of indu trial di putes. The e agreements-whi~l~ re· -embled the " collective:: agreemenb " with which we are familiar- Third Repor of the Ro: JJ of T> ...lt of Prot.,cJillg, unJ.,, the C.:mc li ti ( f raJe Oisputes) .\ . 5d. ; and in bootmaking from 26s. IOd. to 34S. sd. For all females the average weekly wage in tht. clothing trade rose from I 5s. 5d. to I 8s. 3d. ; in the boot trade from I 3s. 4d. to I 5 . 3d. ; and in the underclothing trade from 1 rs. 3d. (ill I8q8) to 12s. 7d. The wages for adults only are much higher, and the fixed minimum wage is never the actual wages paid. Thus, ill I90I the minimum wage fixed by the Clothing Board was 45s. for adult males and 20s. for adult females, but the average wages earned were 53s. 6d. and 22 . 3d. Under the hirt Board the minimum wage for adult females was I6s. and the average wage 20s. 8d. Nevertheless there have been serious difficulties in the workingof the Acts. The Boards were too large, and had no power to call evidence, examine book , or decide the cases on anything but the written statements put forward by their members. The member~ thu regarded themselve not as judges but as the advocates of tht. side by which they were elected. To avoid giving either side all advantage the chairman was always chosen from outside the trade and while he always worked for a compromi e each side sought t(l weary or cajole him into the greatest po ible preference for its view!>. Only the suspensory power of the Governor, by enabling e\·idence tt be heard, made the law workable in many cases. Indeed the wonder i there has not been more friction than there actually was. Tht. provisions for dealing with old and slow workers were clumsy, and further complications were added by the oppo ition to the regulationof apprenticeship in the sweated trades offered b) employers greedyfor cheap labor. In a noticeable number of cases, too, through com plicity of the workpeople the minimum w::~ge was not in practic observed. A Royal Commi sion was appointed in Iqoo to investigatt. the working of the Factories and Shops Act, and in the spring ot 1QO.) it reported against the continuance of the wage-board y tern, but, recognizing" that there cannot be any return to the old conditions of freedom of contract in factory labor," recommended the adoption of a scheme substantially based on the Tew Zealand At:t which tht: commis ioner de cribed a "the faire t, the mo t complt:tl:, and the mo t u eful labor law on the tatute-books of the Australa ian t::~te ." :\leanwhile the Act of rqoo came to an end in IQO.! and \\':1' n:newed for a year ; all determination. made after ] ulr. 1 02, were !>U pendt.:d while the earlier one wert: continued in fore · q Arbitration in New South Wales. The Industrial Arbitation Act of 1901 is closely modelled on the New Zealand law in its provisions for industrial unions and agreements. There are no Boards of Conciliation, but only one Court of Arbitration for the whole colony, consisting of a Judge of the Supreme Court and two members recommended by the industrial unions of workers and employers respectively. Other special points are that the Registrar of the Court may bring an industrial dispute before the Court ; an employer who locks out his men while proceedings are pending may be fined £I ,ooo or imprisoned for two months ; and most important of all-in any case before it the Court may " declare that any practice, regulation, rule, custom, term of agreement, condition of employment, or dealing whatsoever in relation to an industrial matter, shall be a common rule of the industry." It is still too soon to say how this Act will work. Finally it may be noted that West Australia adopted in 1900 the New Zealand law, and about the same time South Australia set up a system of wage boards. Failure of Voluntary Intervention. State intervention in labor disputes when one of the partie~ cannot be compelled to arbitrate, and the award is not enforceable at law, can be summed up as a universal failure, and the contrast with the compulsory Act of New Zealand is striking. The causes are on the surface. Naturally the party in an industrial dispute which feels itself the stronger is unwilling to surrender the strategic advantage of position for the chance of winning less in arbitration, and when both are strongly organized the result may be disastrous. Secondly, intervention usually takes place too late, when angry passions have been roused and neither side is willing to believe in the other's goodfaith. Distrust of well-meaning but unskilled arbitrators counts for much, and the fact that arbitrators are usually drawn from the middle or upper classes has been a standing cause of objection by working men. This feeling is, however, changing. "Things are verydifferent now," said Mr. Mawdsley to an interviewer (Sunda)' Cliromde, 7th November, 1897), ''the Board of Trade takes the matter up, and appoints a thoroughly able investigator." .Above all, the absence of a penalty for breach of the award nullifies the best intentions of the legislators. Actual breach of agreements formally entered into have fortunately been of comparatively rare occurrence in this country, but the statistics show that refusal to accept an unfa, ·orable award is by no means uncommon everywhere. Or if the award is accepted the quarrel is renewed in a short time and arbitration refused. The Right of the State. The great difficulty in the way of arbitration is the refusal of the disputants to admit that anyone is concerned in their quarrel but themselves. When the Board of Trade at last intervened in the Engineering \"far its conduct was denounced by Sir Henry Howorth, F.R.S., M.P., as an" impertinence," and the Tz"mes, October 7, r8cn, declared that : ''The right of interference by a Government depart 10 ment can only be e:ercised to any JOnd pu1 po e when the conflict is practically over, and when one ide or the other wi ·hes to have an •>ppnrtunity for honorable retreat." .-\gain t this belated theory of the right of private warfare we oppose the only theory under which ocial peace is possible-the right and duty of the tate both to safeguard the national welfare and industry, and to ecure the well-beingof each of its members. This theory i· particularly applicable to trikes and lock-out where large numbers of people, not concerned in the dispute, are often seriou ·ly injured by the stoppage of work. For the ake of the public peace the State interferes in the purelyprivate quarrels of a couple of litigant , for the ake of the publichealth it interfere· at every turn with the rights of private property, for the -,ake of safety to life and limb it interfere with the internal arrangements of factorie and mines and the right of an employer to do what he likes with his own, for the sake of common hone ty it regulates the payment of wages by mean of Truck Acts, " Particulars Clau es,'' and Checkweighmen. To extend this general principle of the regulation of industry by common rules to the determination of wage , hour , and the other condition of labor is a natural sequence. It is not proposed, a is often objected, to compel employers to run their work at a lo · , but it i propo ed that if employers enter into an industry at all they shall conduct it on terms satisfactory to the public con cience. A man is not compelled to run a factory if he cannot afford it; but if he does open one it must have sufficient fire- e capes and sati factory appliance again t accidents. \Vhen the <.mall boot and ·hoe manufacturers complained that they were beingdriven out of the trade by the agreements whtch the large factory- owners were making with the trade union, the editor of the S/i1Jermd Leather Rec()rd replied : '' If mall manufacturers cannot continue to exist except by paying le than a proper standard of wages for work done, that is the cleare t possible proof that they have no right to exist a such." In return for thi State interference employers are oflered the opportunity of conducting their bu ine · under the rule of peace in tead of war, of freedom from ces ation of indu try, and of having the term and conditions of labor fixed for period of ufficient duration to enable them to enter advantageouslyinto future contract . The workmen are given the great boon of teady rate of wages, and instead of having to maintain their standard of life in an unequal truggle again t the pre ent-day huge amalgamation of capital, they are offered an impartial umpire and a judicial enquiry. T h e P rinciples of Arbitration. When it i admitted that .lll labor disputes ought to be ubmitted t•> Board of Arbitration who e award hould be enforceable at law, we :ue till left face to face with the problem of the principle uponwhich arbitration ought to be ba ed. For practical purpo c thi mean the principle on whH:h wage que.,tion mu t be arranged,~ r more than half the trike and lock-out originate in wage di pute · , \'~1. · ·., p. 15-h 10th .\Jnil, I· 91, quot~J Ill / Jl(IU Il ia/ /)onoonc_l , by S. j B. \\ e b, \ ol • II'· 5~9· sso. II Before we can hope to abolish the appeal to force we must determine \~hat is to be the controlling factor in fixing wages. There can be httle expectation that either side in a dispute will be satisfied with an award of which they do not know the basis. The public view is that the decision must leave the national interests unimpaired. In New Zealand the settlement of disputes on the basis of the demands of" equity and good conscience" has led to progressively rising wages and progressively decreasing hours of labor. Such expressions are, however, too vague to suit the requirements of a highly organizedindustry. As a matter of fact, wage questions are debated upon one of two assumptions: that wages are dependent on profits or independent of them. The former assumption is naturally prevalent among employers, the latter among workmen, though not universally. The belief that capital should be assured of a certain minimum profit is one that arbitrators have often been credited with holding, and accounts for much of the dislike of the working classes to privatearbitration. As Mr. Mawdsley told the Labor Commission (Group C., Q. 774) : "Arbitrators generally go in for a certain standard of profit for capital-generally speaking, it has been 10 per cent. Mr. Chamberlain has always said that capital ought to have IO per cent. If the arbitrator went in for IO per cent. in the cotton trade we should have a very big reduction of wages; and we are not going to have it." Under the form that wages must follow prices, this same assumption was once very widely held among working men and still subsists among the miners of Northumberland and Durham and the ironworkers of the North of England. It was the governing idea of great arbitrators like Mr. (now Sir) David Dale and Dr. Spence Watson, and is strongly supported by Dr. Schultze-Gaevernitz, who says that the function of the arbitrator is " simply to find out what the price (of labor) would naturally have tended to become if he had not been called in . . . and discover the state of the balance of power between the two parties by scientific methods."" In .the course of the last ten years, however, this assumption has been gradually replaced among the working classes by another, that wages must conform to a certain standard of life for each industrial grade. The Dock Strike of I889 won over the general public to the belief that wages should not depend merely on the balancing of the supply of and demand for labor ; and the Coal War of I893 went far towards establishing the further principle that labor should be guaranteed a certain minimum wage not dependent on the price of the product. In the Boot Trade Dispute of I895 it was agreed that the employers should not take advantage of the numbers thrown out of employment by machinery in order to reduce wages. The growthof this assumption has also been aided by the proved efficiency of high wages, and in fact it is rapidly replacing the other both among economists and in the general mind. Legal Standards. To give the support of the law-courts to the decisions of courts of arbitration means, frankly, the regulation of wages by law. Under * Social P~ace, p. rgz. I:! ::.uch a system the remuneration of labor would no longer de::pend on the higgling of the markt:t, whetht::r betwet::n indi,·idual or betwet:n associations of employer::. and employt:d, but would have to conform to orne principle which the tate had elected to support. Tht: determination of thi principle-or, rather, the choice between the two principle already et forth-is therefore all the more important. o far as has been tried in this country, the mot ucct: sful method of determining wages i wht:rt:: a trong trade:: union negotiate directly with the employers. Such succe s, howeYer, ha been largely dut: t<• the fact that the organization of tht: workmen has been superior to that of the employers, and that consequently their strategic position has been stronger. 'ot agreement upon economic principle, but defective combination among factory-owners, has enabled the cotton operative to maintain their wacres against falling profits. Tht: growing process of tru tification in the coLton industry is removin" this ob tacle, and where the masters are olidly combined t::n!n organized labor is powerles , a::. the Engineering Dispute of 1 97 ha, shown. The low growth of trade unioni m and it abject weaknt:s~ in a large, and that tht:: lowe:: t and wor t-ofT, section of the labor world are additional argument::. for not lea,·ing the tandard of Lift:: to the:: sole protection of the union . Tht: general public of conumers have also thi special n :spon ibility in the matter, that to them i due the economic pressure under which the workmen is crushed ; for it is their insi::.tence upon cheapness which, traced from the retail de:1ler through the middleman to the manufacturer, leads to the:: continual attacks on wages. The limitation of competition, by prt:venting the under elling of good employer by mt:n who find their profit in low wages, i another object de irablt:: both to the general public and to the best -ection of the capitalist cia . And, failing other modes of settling wages, there is the danger, which realized itself for a time in the Birmingham ::.taple trades and in the te:\tile dyeing trade, that employer and employed should unite into " alliance " to put down competition and keep up prices and wage to the detriment of tht: gent:ral con::.umer. Finally. there i the transcendent interest of everyone in the freeing of industry from tht: eriou los e caused by trike and lock-outs. 'Ve thert::fore conclude that the ~tatt:: should in ib legi latin~ capacity adopt the same principle which the Government department::. and municipalitie, follow, and decbre that wage fixt:d under its anction must be an effectivt:: Living 'Vagt:. If a tandard Living 'Vage wert:: once c:stablished for a tradt: and fixc:d for a period of time, the fluctuations required by the exigt::ncit: of the market would be ea ier of determination. The standard ought to bt: not imply a minimum healthy sub::.i tence wage, but a higher sum calculated to secure the a\·erage standard of comfort which the cu tom of tht: trade demands, to leave room for progre i' t: impron!mt:nt, and to fit the recipient for the lift: of an efficie::nt cititen. It hould al o take into acc.cunt the: cost of training and the rai ing of a fre h gc:neration of worker::.. uch a wage hould be fixt:d for a somewhat long pe::riod, ay fj, e year~, aftc:r which it hould be:: rcvi~ed t<' mt:et tht:: tH.: w demand of pro n::s i\·e ciety. 13 It should be an absolute minimum upon which the conduct of industry should be based, just as there is a minimum of sanitary requirements. The increases which market fluctuations might permitshould be granted for a lesser period, say not exceeding two years. The determination of wages would thus involve: first, the fixing of the Standard Living Wage for a trade; second, ascertaining the additions allowed by movements in the market ; and, third, the application of these general rates to particular cases. The Standard vVage would not be as high as Mr. Pickard's ideal of 16s. a day for coalminers, but it would not fall as low as the 6s. per week which the sweated seamstress receives. It might be even somewhat under the wage now current in the given trade. These principles, therefore, should be set forth in the Act of Parliament to guide the .\rbitration Boards in the determination of wages, and, in fact, in addition to their ordinary function of settling disputes referred to them, they should have the special duty of ascertaining and fixingStandard Rates of Wage. The terms of the Act would necessarily, to a certain degree, be lacking in precision, but they would still act as an effective guidance. The Admiralty finds no difficulty in obtaining through its own officials, or the Labor Department, the information on which to base a living wage for its employees. The battle for a standard limit to the hours of labor is at presentbeing fought out before Parliament ; but there is no reason why the Arbitration Boards should not be utilized as legislative bodies on the lines already laid down in "Eight Hours by Law."':' Both in this question and in that of wages it should be a legal rule that regard should be had to uniformity of conditions throughout the trade. It is adhesion to this principle which forms the strength of the Joint Committees in the cotton trade. Constitution and Powers of the Boards. Generally speaking wherever Arbitration Boards have been created the District and not the Trade has been the unit. Despite the success with which this system has worked in New Zealand it is doubtful whether it is applicable to this country. The failure of voluntary District Boards and the comparative success of Trade Boards is certainly significant. In a country where industry is much localized, a District Board would inevitably in its composition be confined to the dominant industry, and would be unsuited to determine questions dealing with the unrepresented trades. It is essential, in order to ensure confidence in its decisions, that the members of a Board should be fully qualified to deal with all practical details, and the trade is therefore the best administrative unit for this country. Again, bearing in mind the experience of the coal and cotton industries, it would be expedient to distinguish between " local " and ''trade" questions. Local Boards should be established in the different centres of the trade, and a Trade Board should b~ established for the whole trade. To the Local Boards should be asstgned full power to settle all questions arising out of the interpretation of a contract, * Fabian Tract ~a. ~8. q or the application of a gent::r ..il rult: to particular ca t.:~. ln tht! ~cttlt:mtnt of new contract Local Board~ would fir~t at:t a~ conciliator~ to facilitate t:ellective bargaining betwet:n tht: two ide~. If conciliation failed, the Board would give a dt:ci~ion, from which an :tppeal would lie to the Trade Board. In cast:~ where tht! Board was unanimous it would probably be well to follow the precedent of the rew Zt!aland Act of 1900 and allow no appeal. Bt! ide dt!aling with appeal the Trade Boards would con ider questions affecting the whole trade, such as an identical demand from ~everal centre , Standard Li,·ing Wage, etc. It would on tht: wholt:: be better to confint! the Local Boards to interpretatiYt: ca t:~, and the Tradt:: Board to tht: framing of trade rules; but while experit::nce hows this to be po:.siblt: 111 industries like the coal and cotton trade covering .t number of competing centres, it would not bt! applicable to the building trade~ whert! the variou~ localitie are non-compt:ting. In any t:ase tht· Local Boards would only ha\·e to dt:al with market fluctuations above the tandard. The Boards hould be mall in i1.e, and t!ach side should scparatdy elect ib own member . Tht:: uffragc might be giYen to all employer~. but in theca e of workmt::n only organized bodies of men hould be dt::alt with. Trade Cnion~ hould bt.: the labor electoral bodies, a-. tht.:y are responsiblt:: organization which can bt:: made to suffer for tht! default of their mt.:mbers. They should be corporate bodies for the purpose of this Act only, otherwise en:ry petty-fogging solicitor would be encouraging men t!xpelled !rom a octety for blacklcgging, t!t<..., to bring action for rt::tn tatemt::nt or compen ation for loss of friendly benefib. l\1ember of Lo~.:al Boards should re ide coutinuously in their di~trict during their term of office. The Tradt:: Board might be elected by the member of tht:: Local Boards, tht:: two side vollng :.t::paratdy. At the first meettng of every Board a chairman hould be cho en from out ide. The Board of Tradt:: :.hould havt: powt::r to ettle all que tion a to electoral areas, to nominate repre entati\·e when: either ide refu ed to take part in an election, and to nominate chairmt::n in ca es of deadlock. The Board should have full powers to conduct the nt::ces ary enquirit . 111 peel factorie , appoint mvt:: tigators, compel the atttndanct: <•I wttnc, c , award costs, etc. The examination of complaint by t:xpt::rl a 111 the cotton indu~tr), hould be in every way encouragedby the Board of Tradt::. The expen t:: of the Board:., includingcompt::nsation to member for los~ of time, should be bornt:: by public fund~. Di putt! should bt:: reft:rrt::d to tht Boards on tht:: initiati\·t: eitht::r of an employt!r or of an a~..,ociation of employers, or of a trade union, and no .trike or lock-out .tfter the refertnce hould be permittedundt:r pain of tn.:rt: penal tie . Partie~ could appear by their agent , but only by legal rcprt: t:ntativt:s with the comtnt of all concerned. \Vant of formality houltl not itl\"alidate prot:tcdinrr . Final award' hould pecity the pcr,ons upon whom, and the pt::riod, not t . ctcdin~ two year~. for which tht!y arc binding, and brt:ach of an award hould be mad.: puni hablc hy line on the un1on or pcr~on cont:enH:d, a in . '~.:11 Zeal:tnd. CollcLti\t: . ~T~.:cment m dt· betwct::n parttt:' 1·oltlll tarily could be registered before a Board, and thereby become enforceable in the same manner as awards, provided they contained no worse terms for the workmen than those already contained in an award relating to the whole trade. Finally, it may be pointed out that local authorities can anticipatethe action of Parliament by specifying schedules of wages to be paid by the contractors to whom they give out work, and by tmaking it a condition of the contract that all disputes between employer and workmen shall be referred to arbitration. The Position of Trade Unions. Under such a law the position of trade unions would be much altered from what it is at present. The drain on their funds to resist strikes and lock-outs, and to fight the masters in their attempts to put down picketing and restrict the right of combination, would cease, and it would consequently be in their power to increase their out-of-work and other benefits. \Vhile a trade union which occupied a strong strategic position in the labor market would have to resignits power to exact the full remuneration which the law of supply and demand might give it, a weak union would not be crushed by the mere money-power of capital. Their status would be greatly raised by the conferring of powers to take their share in the legal determination of the wages and other conditions of labor. In fact this would be their chief function in the future. For the right to strike would be substituted the power to legislate. A strong attraction would thus be exerted on the eight millions of workers who are at present outside the unions, while the raising of the wage-standard among the lowest ranks would enable many hundreds of thousands to join their organizations who are at present prevented by their poverty. Finally the wage-depressing competition of non-unionists would be stopped by decisions, on the New Zealand model, that unionists should be preferred to non-unionists when equally qualified for employment. CO.'\SULT: !>tale Erpaimml> in .-Jusira!Ja awl .\.ew Zen/am/, by the Uon. \\". 1'. REE\'Eo. (GranL Richards; 1902.) luduslria! Demoo·acy, by . and H. 1\"Eim. (Longmans ; 1902.) Preface to 190~ Edition. ·• Stale Arbitration and the Minimum \\'age in Australasia," by H . \\". MACI<03TY. (Polilicnl Somce Quarltr~v. i\hrch, 1g03.) F F ABIAN .ment of itL Rules a.nd the following ca.tions ca.n be obtained from the Secreta.ry, a.t the Fabian Office, 3 Clement's Inn, London, W.O. FABIANISM AND THE EMPIRE: A Manifesto. Edited by BEIL..,ARD SHAW. 6d. post free. FABIAN ESSAYS IN SOCIALISM. (35thTbousa.nd.) Paper cover, I/·; pla.in cloth, 2 ., post free from the Secreta.ry. FABIAN TRACTS and LEAFLETS. Tracts, each 16 to 52 pp., pric~ ld., or 9d. per doa., unless otherwise stattd. Leaflets, 4 pp. each, price ld. (or six COJXes, 1s. per 100, or 8 6 per 1000. The Set of 84, 3s.; post free 3 5· Bound in Buckram, 4 6; post free for 5s. Boxes for set, 1s., post free ls. 3d. I.-On General Socialism in its various aspects. TBACTS.-113. Communism. By W:11. ;\!ORRIS. 107. Socialism for Millionaues. By BJ::RNARD SHAW. 79· A Word of Remembrance and Caution to the R1ch. By JOHI!I WooLWAN. 78. Socialism and the Teaching of Christ. By Dr. JoHN CLIFFORD 87. The s&me in Wei h. 42. Christian Socialism. By Rev. S.D. HEADLAY. 75· Labor in the Longest Reign. By SIDNEY WEBB 72. The Moral Aspects of Socialism. By SIDNEY BALL. 6g. Difficulties of Individualism. By SIDNEY WEBB. 51. 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LEAFLETS.-8g. Old Age Pensiors at Work. xg. What the Farm Laborer Wants. 104. How Trade Umons benefit Workmen. lli.-On Local Government Powers: How to use them. TBACTB.-114. The Education Act, 1902. II1. Reform of Reformatories and Industnal Schools. By H. T. HoL rEs. 109. Cottage Plans and Common Sense. By RAY w.·D U.swJN. 105. F1ve Years' Fruits of the Parish Councils Act. 103. Overcrowding m London and its Remedy. HJ W . n;ADJIIAN, L.C.C. xox. The House Famine and How to Relieve 11. 52 pp. 76. Houses for the People. 100. Metropolitan BoroughCouncils: their powers and duties. 99· Local Government in Ireland. 82. Workmen's Compensation Act: what it means and how to make use of 1t. 77· Mumcipalization of Tramways. 62. Parish and Di trict Councils. 61. The London County Counc1!. 54· The Humanizing of the Poor Law. By J. F. 0AKEBHOTT. LEA.FLETB.-81. Municipal Water. 68. The Tenant's Sanitary Catechism. 71. Same for London. 63. P arlsb Council Cottages and how to get them. 58. Allotments and how to getthem. FABIAN MUNICIPAL PROGRAM, Fin T ERIE . London's Heritage in the City Guilds. Mumc1palization of the Gas Supply. Municipal Tramways. The Scandal of London's Markets. A Labor Policy for Public Authorities. ECOND SERIES (Nos. go to 97)· MuniCipalization of the Milk Supply. Municipal Pawnshops. MunicipalSlaughterhouses. Women as Councillors. Municipal Bakeries. Municipal Hospitals. Munic1pal Fire Insurance. Municipal Steamboats. E&dl Scri in a. red cover for 1d. (9d. per doz.), eparate lca.llet , 1 · p r l IV.-On Books. 29. What to Read on ~ocial a.ud conomic ubject . Hh edition, eul rg d nnd n a.rra.nK •d. tid. net, V.-On General Politics and Fabian Policy. 108 Twentieth Century Politics. Hy, I D. Jo:\ Wi.BF 70. Report on Fab an Pohcy. 41. The Fabian Society. 1ts Early History. By B B. ARD. IIAW. VI. Question Leaflets, containing Que tiona for Ca.ndidates for ~h• following bodies :-20, Poor L w Guardian&. 24, Parliament. 27, Town Ccun· c..Ja. :. , Count. 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