the same year. The Federal Arbitration Act passed in 1904 upplies, it should be noted, in cases only where the dispute extends Leyond the limits of any one state.

After the great strike of 1890-91 it was seen that the peaceful methods of adjusting disputes were more conducive to the welfare of the community generally than the suicidal methods of strikes and lockouts. The unions, therefore, turned to legislation as an effective means of improving labor conditions. Thus a general desire was shown for arbitration-compulsory, if not voluntary. Accordingly, the industrial legislation aims at the prevention of strikes and lockouts.

Strikes have not, however, altogether ceased, even in the places where heavy penalties prohibit them. But it has been noted that, owing to arbitration, there has been a steady diminution in the number of strikes in the skilled trades. The recent strikes have Leen mostly among coal miners and other unions composed mainly of unskilled laborers.

But while there have been numerous strikes of the latter class of workers, the penalties have not always been enforced, unless public opinion dictated them. More than one government in Australia has lost power through enforcing penalties on strikers against the wishes of public opinion.

There is no doubt that the arbitration acts have done much in the way of abolishing sweating in factories and other places. It must be conceded that the great expansion of unionism of late years has been aided by arbitration, because of its compulsory rule that all must register in an industrial body before they can come into the court. The whole matter of preference to unionists may be said to lie at the door of industrial arbitration, since it compels the men to organize themselves in a union to secure advantages which those outside the unions cannot obtain. That is, I believe, the general opinion in Australia. But for the arbitration courts and its compulsory registration requirements, it is doubtful whether we would have now had the preference to unionists' clause. Though at times it appears that the arbitration act does not work as well as it might, we must admit generally that we have secured advantages because of it. It has helped to make us strong industrially, and though strikes are not a thing. of the past in Australia yet, they are not so frequent as they were in the days when compulsory arbitration was unthought of.

Toward the end of last year we had a great coal strike involv ing for the first time in Australian history every miner in the commonwealth. Arbitration failed to settle that strike. The miners considered that they would not get a fair deal by arbitration, or at least they thought they would not get what they wanted, and refused to obey the mandate of the court. In the end, when the situation became desperate, the Prime Minister had to go to the aid of the court by personally ordering the coal owners to give way to the miners on every point. That proved conclusively that where a union is strong enough it can openly defy the court and get what it wishes.

There has been of late a growing desire on the part of the employers to drag every case in dispute into the arbitration court. The capitalists say that "arbitration has become an essential part of our social machinery and must be retained and assisted" simply because they have discovered that all they have to do is to floci the arbitration court with cases against the men and the court becomes congested, and the cases cannot be heard till some time in the future. There are cases now pending in the arbitration court which cannot possibly be heard within the next two years. Meanwhile the workers have to keep working under the existing awards, as any strike on their part, while a case is registered, means that they are canceled as a union and their awards are nullified, and they are again at the starting point.

To justify the arbitration system it remains now for the govern ment to appoint subsidiary boards to hear the fast accruing cases, but whether they will do this or not remains to be seen. It would seem then that the success of arbitration largely depends on the political party in power. Another difficulty which will have to be overcome is the action of the capitalists in prolonging the arbitration cases until union funds are depleted by law expenses. This is another favorite pastime with the wealthy institutions, and unless it is remedied, it seems apparent that by bringing endless cases into the court every union can be rendered bankrupt.

Arbitration has not done all that has been expected. It has not raised the wages of every individual in the land, but on the other hand, it has not retarded industry. It has arrived at a fairly scientific living minimum wage basis. It has, of course. shortened hours and forced payment for overtime at increased rates, while on the other hand it has had a steadying influence on business and helped to bring prosperity to the employer as

vell as to the employee. The status of the worker is far ahead of what it was twenty years ago, thus proving that the wages warded by arbitration have not been outpaced by the rise in the ost of living. The sweating system has been abolished, and comtition in the labor market is a great deal fairer than it was ears ago, inasmuch as female workers have been raised to a level which prohibits them being in direct competition to male labor, ile in many industries there is equal pay for both sexes. preference to unionists" experiment has succeeded beyond spectation, giving to the employee an added interest in justifying is position as a skilled worker, while to the employer it has secured a continuity of labor, and the co-operation of the unions in finding additional labor as required.

The

But withal, with what objections there might be to the arbitration system, and I am inclined to think these are largely the result f war influences, there is not by any means a desire on the part of the Australian people to go back to the days of unrestricted. etapetition in labor, or the period when a strike was the only riethod of settling a dispute.

W. FRANCIS AHEARN, in American Labor Year Book,

1917-1918, pp. 145-148.

CHAPTER XIV

Guild Socialism and National Guilds

A very recent solution is that proposed in Guild Socialism Its exponents have a complete program for securing control o society, both economic and political. It is peculiar to England where the ancient guild system lasted longer than on the Con tinent. The plan is a radical one. It combines Syndicalism and I. W. W.ism with Trade Unionism and State Socialism in a progressive fusion. It is more a "high-brow " theoretical move. starting from above, than a spontaneous worker's movement. I has not yet taken a strong-hold in the United States but might d so at any moment, so that its origin and character are important questions to careful observers.

The National Guilds' League of Great Britain is conducting a strong propaganda. It has issued special pamphlets appealing to the general public, to the trade unionists, to the miners, to the railway men and on these pamphlets the following statement is largely based, the quotations being from the pamphlet addressed to the trade unionists.

The proposal of the National Guilds' League is that the trade union should recognize their mistake in adhering to the wage system; should see that only by abolishing the wage system can the selling of labor as a commodity be brought to an end; should see that in order to accomplish this Labor must assume absolute control of industry in "conjunction" with a democratized state.

In order to accomplish this the trade unions must make two fundamental changes in membership; must not be constituted merely or mainly of skilled labor but must admit on the one hand unskilled labor and on the other the brain worker.

This means the change from Craft Unionism to Industrial Unionism, with "a widening of the whole labor outlook." The end "to be achieved is freedom for the whole community, and no narrow view of industry will serve as a means. Preoccupied with the problems of the manual worker, industrial unionists have been inclined to forget that the true industrial union must include everyone who is engaged in the industry concerned, whether he work with hand or brain. Labor organization must not cease when every manual worker has been brought into the unions: clerks and foremen, works managers and managers, stationmasters and draughtsmen. designers and architects must be enrolled in their

ppropriate industrial unions, for they are no less essentially a part of industry than are the manual workers.

Again Industrial Unionism means solidarity not in each inInstry alone. It implies: the linking up of all the reorganizations of provinces in one solid body, in the interests of society as a whole. For the moment, indeed, effort must be mainly concentrated on organizing the manual workers who are still unorganized and on bringing in the lower grades of professionals whose status and rates of pay make them the natural allies of the manual workers.

But in every attempt the ideal of complete solidarity must be kept constantly in view. Only a body including every grade can undertake the full management of an industry. Out of the fighting industrial unions will come the managing and producing guilds, and Industrial Unionism is the first step towards national guilds. In a free society the organized producers must control their own life and work, and such control can only come through the development of Trade Unionism. Out of the trade unions must come the guilds - by a change in purpose and structure, and by a widening of membership.

As the workers realize that only by complete unity can capitalism and wage slavery be overthrown, reformism will give place to a more revolutionary ideal: the attempt to ameliorate will be replaced by the attempt to attain freedom through the destruction of the wage system.

The workers are ceasing to look upon mere nationalization as an ideal to be striven for. The state and the municipality as employers have turned out not to differ essentially from the private capitalist. In public employment, the worker has less freedom than under private capitalism.

The only hope for the workers lies in controlling national and municipal as well as private enterprise. Political democracy by itself would never secure more than better conditions of wage slavery. The only way in which the workers can secure freedom in their work is by fighting for control. Economic power precedes political power, and the road to freedom lies through industrial self-government.

The social and political organization planned by the guild leaders places the individual factories and workshops as producing units in relation with a central organization or national guild which secures co-ordination and exchanges. But each factory will be governed by its own local officials who will preserve its