ing expenses and reduce our earnings and thereby hinder the expansion of our facilities; for that will arrest the growth of your business and the increase in the value of your properties. As our interests are mutual and interdependent, we will all gain by recognizing frankly one another's legal and moral rights and co-operating in a broad and intelligent spirit for the promotion of the development and progress of this marvelously promising country. No other country has so rich a heritage of mineral and agricultural wealth as has the United States. No other country is so wasteful in the use of those resources. No country has ever had so phenomenal a growth. This growth is yet in its infancy. In order that this development may be wise and permanent, we must quit our habit of waste and develop the habit of efficient use of our resources. We must encourage and enlarge our systems of transportation, both by rail and water, in such manner as will build up appropriate industries in every part of the country, and as will best develop the country as a whole. REFERENCES. From Mineral Resources, United States Geological Survey, 1907. Coal Production, United States, U. S. Geological Survey, 1906. Records U. S. Geological Survey. Statistician, B. & O. R. R. Slason Thompson, Bureau of Railway News, Chicago. Union Pacific Ry. Railway Statistics for U. S. for years ending June 30, 1907, prepared for General Managers' Assn. of Chicago by Slason Thompson, Bureau of Railway News. Manuscript notes, Union Pacific Ry. Annual Report Comptroller of the Treasury, 1907. Annual Report, Chief of Engineers, U. S. War Dept., 1906. The Importance of Arbitration as a Factor in the Advancement of the Mining Industry. BY HON. CARROLL D. WRIGHT, CLARK COLLEGE, WORCESTER, MASS. The most important and emphatic illustration of the importance of arbitration in any industry, so far as this country is concerned, was when the operators and miners in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania accepted the award of arbitration of the Commission appointed by the President at the request of the operators to adjust the questions existing between them and the miners. It is of no consequence now how this commission arose or was created. It was appointed by the President, as stated, on the request of the operators themselves, not on the initiative interference by the President. The strike of 1902 was a very severe one and with vast ramifications, its influence affecting not only domestic life, but the industries of the country. It had continued from May of that year until October, when the appointment of the commission was requested, and the two parties to the great strife consented to abide by the decision of the commission. That commission, after five months of hearings and deliberation, made an award fixing the conditions which were to be the rule for three years. The award related to the demand for higher wages for contract miners, the demand for a reduction in the hours of labor, the demand for payment by weight, the demand for an agreement with the United Mine Workers of America, the subject of check weighmen and check docking bosses, the distribution of mine cars, the sliding scale, discrimination, lawlessness, boycotting and blacklisting, direct payment, and lastly the life and conditions of the awards. The last award provided that the awards made should continue in force until March 31, 1906, that is, three years. In the fourth award the commission provided that any difficulty or disagreement arising under the award, either as its interpretation or application, or in any way growing out of the relations of the employers and employees which cannot be settled or adjusted by consultation between the superintendent or manager of the mine or mines, or is of a scope too large to be so settled or adjusted, shall be referred to a joint committee, to be called a board of conciliation, to consist of six persons, three of whom should belong to the miners' organizations, representing a majority of the mine workers, and three other persons to be appointed by the operators, etc. This board of conciliation was to take up and consider any question referred to it, and if the board was unable to decide, an umpire should be appointed at the request of the board by one of the Circuit Judges of the Third Judicial Circuit of the United States, whose decision should be final and binding in the premises. Here lies the fundamental basis of trade agreements and arbitration preceded by conciliatory methods. The award was accepted by both parties and very faithfully observed during the whole three years. Near its expiration the miners thought they were entitled to some modifications and organized a strike to secure them. The operators would not yield and the result was that the complete award was extended for three years more, that is, to March 31, 1909. During the first three years various questions arose relative to the interpretation of the award, extra demands of miners, etc. These were referred to the conciliation board, the results of whose decesion was accepted by the miners and operators. Several questions, perhaps fifteen or twenty, were referred to the umpire, and in every instance the decisions of the umpire were accepted by both parties and faithfully adhered to by them. During the second three years of the award, which became a voluntary agreement by the action in March, 1906, there has been little for the conciliation board to do, and so far as information goes the affairs of the anthacite regions have been running along smoothly and with fair satisfaction to all parties. The result of the award of the commission appointed by the President put several millions of dollars into the hands of the miners which they would not have received otherwise. The sliding scale has worked satisfactorily, so far as the writer knows, and the whole result has been beneficial in the extreme. The public has had full confidence that mining operations would go forward and the whole benefit of arbitration has been realized. The previous history of the mining industry, so far as strikes are concerned, taken in comparison with the history in the anthracite regions since 1903, shows clearly, and, it seems to me, most emphatically, that the spirit of arbitration has been carried out during the past five years or more, and leaves no doubt of the desirability, even the necessity, of some such machinery as that which exists in the anthracite regions. Peace is desirable, but not peace with dishonor, even in industrial affairs, and peace has prevailed with honor to both parties. A very careful canvass of the situation shows clearly that both parties have endeavored to abide by the award of the commission. The mining industry is peculiar. There are very many irritating complications, resulting from necessary conditions that do not pertain to other industries. If therefore a system of arbitration and conciliation can be carried out, it is for the interests of the whole country, and especially becomes a most important factor in the advancement of the mining industry itself. The award accepted by both parties constituted a trade agreement. The trade agreement concerns the ethical and economic characteristics of men. It has been in practice. nearly forty years in England, and fifteen or twenty years in this country, and the instances of a breach of faith or a violation of the terms of the agreement are so rare that they need not be specified. The action of the bituminous coal miners during the strike of the anthracite miners is a splendid illustration of this. The bituminous operators were making money more rapidly than ever, on account of the anthracite strike, but they were not paying any higher wages. The men were working under their trade agreement. The proposition was made that they break this agreement and insist upon an increase in wages, a convention being called for this purpose, but it was voted nearly unanimously that the trade agreement should be held sacred. This did much to steady conditions in the mining industry of the country, but it did more. It emphasized the beneficence not only of trade agreements, but of industrial arbitration itself. What will happen when the term of the award expires in March, 1909, no one can predict, but the existence through these years without a break in any of the terms of the award is something very remarkable indeed, and again emphasizes the beneficence of that method of adjusting difficulties. But there is another side which appeals to many, and that is the advisability of some method which can be adopted for the settlement of trade disputes before the necessity of arbitration is reached. Arbitration is resorted to after war is declared, after the parties have exhausted their patience and their common sense. The lines of argument are clearly marked, the terms fairly stated, but the preliminary steps to arbitration ought to be avoided if possible. There should be a conciliation board, or a board of arbitration constituted through the provision of the trade agreement and looking to the avoidance of a resort to arbitration and the settlement of all the difficulties which arise, or the chief ones, by the very parties who are most interested, that is, the employers and the employees. Their reciprocal relations are thus brought out in a way that cannot be done otherwise. So the trade agreement holds out the greatest hope for industrial peace in the future; and the advancement of the mining industry that is so largely at the basis of our material prosperity, demands the recognition of these high principles of morals and economics combined. Another method is now projected in Canadian law, providing for compulsory investigation. The Canadian law is not a new idea. Hon. Charles Francis Adams, for years president of the Union Pacific railroad and interested in all such matters, many years ago projected the indea of compulsory investigation. It grew out of his experience on the board of railroad commissioners of the |