Sec. 12. #Compulsory arbitration#.  The serious question in the subject of arbitration concerns the introduction of the principle of coercion by government, in compulsory arbitration.  This, in principle, is pretty radically different from voluntary arbitration, for as it denies to the parties the right to settle their dispute by private agreement, it becomes in effect the legal regulation of rates of wages and conditions of work.  In principle this was involved in the legal regulation of wages in England from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries.  The plan is closely approached in the industrial courts that are now provided in a number of European countries for a cheap and expeditious settlement of small disputes regarding trade matters, arising in the relations between employer and employees.  The new modern development began when New Zealand passed a compulsory arbitration act in 1894, followed to some extent since by all the other Australian states, largely through the action of the Labor party.  Through the operation of its act New Zealand came to be called the “land without strikes,” tho the description was inaccurate, especially after 1907.  The Canadian Industrial Disputes Act of 1907 is an example that has had influence upon public opinion everywhere, and has been followed to some extent in recent legislation in New Zealand, America, and elsewhere.  It involves the compulsory principle in a limited degree, making it unlawful in public utilities and mines to change the terms of employment without thirty days’ notice, or to strike or lock-out until after investigation and hearing before a board to be nominated for the purpose.  The Colorado Act of 1915 goes even beyond the Canadian act in its scope.  The plan seems destined to have wider applications and a larger development in the not distant future.  Let us note the general attitude of the various interests concerned.

Sec. 13. #Organized labor’s attitude toward labor legislation#.  Labor organizations hitherto have been in their legal nature almost entirely private and voluntary.  They are seldom incorporated and are rarely even recognized in any way by legislatures and by courts, which deal merely with the members as individuals.[12] Their private character, combined with their limited membership as compared with the total population, leaves them without the power to accomplish legally by themselves the results which they desire in their own interest.  Hence they are tempted at times to usurp public authority over the field of private rights in industry.[13] In other cases, when they have come to the end of their unaided powers, they invoke the aid of the law to accomplish their objects.  But the appeal of organized labor to the law is special and qualified, being confined to cases where the actions of others are controlled to the advantage of the union, such as regulating the work of women and children, controlling the acts of employers in respect to construction of factories,