"
If such a commission were fairly organized, the risk of a loss of
popular support and sympathy resulting from a refusal to submit to
so peaceful an instrumentality would constrain both parties to such
disputes to invoke its interference and abide by its decisions. There
would also be good reason to hope that the very existence of such an
agency would invite application to it for advice and counsel, frequently
resulting in the avoidance of contention and misunderstanding.
If the usefulness of such a commission is doubted because it might lack
power to enforce its decisions, much encouragement is derived from the
conceded good that has been accomplished by the railroad commissions
which have been organized in many of the States, which, having little
more than advisory power, have exerted a most salutary influence in the
settlement of disputes between conflicting interests.
In July, 1884, by a law of Congress, a Bureau of Labor was established
and placed in charge of a Commissioner of Labor, who is required to
"collect information upon the subject of labor, its relations to
capital, the hours of labor and the earnings of laboring men and women,
and the means of promoting their material, social, intellectual, and
moral prosperity."
The commission which I suggest could easily be ingrafted upon the bureau
thus already organized by the addition of two more commissioners and by
supplementing the duties now imposed upon it by such other powers and
functions as would permit the commissioners to act as arbitrators when
necessary between labor and capital, under such limitations and upon
such occasions as should be deemed proper and useful.
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