The dispute in the iron trade still continues. At a
meeting of puddlers held at Wolverhampton, it was resolved unanimously that the ironworkers of Wolverhampton do not return to work until masters and men agree to courts of arbitration, the strike in fact continuing in order to put down strikes. It appears from the speeches made—which we regret to perceive have been reported, like those of a secret society, without names—that the men wish for a court presided over by a county-court judge, with power to make its decision binding both on masters and men. They held it most oppressive that whenever a man wanted his "rights,"—i. e., we fear very often his own way,—he must strike to obtain it. This is, we take it, on the whole the most hopeless proposal made yet. The court to act at all would have to elevate the " custom of the trade" into a law on all points, while no legislature would exist to modify the law according to the needs of the hour. The scheme would either make the men slaves by giving their masters a penal machinery to enforce orders, or drive away capital by hampering its employment with endless law-suits. The former would in England be much the more likely consequence. Arbitration to be of any use must be at once voluntary and coercive, a result which, we believe, can be obtained only by a combined committee. It is a legislature the trades want, not a court,—a body to make laws, not a tribunal to interpret them.
