sell
their labour at the highest price they can get, both subject of course
to the legal notice of a week or fortnight.

#59. Conciliation.# Though the compulsory fixing of wages is evidently
objectionable, much good may be done by #conciliators#, who are men
chosen to conduct a friendly discussion of the matters in dispute. The
business is arranged in various ways; sometimes three or more delegates
of the workmen meet an equal number of delegates from the masters, who
place before the meeting such information as they think proper to give,
and then endeavour to come to terms. In other cases the delegates lay
their respective views before a man of sound and impartial judgment, who
then endeavours to suggest terms to which both sides can accede. If the
two parties previously engage that they will accept the decision of this
conciliator or umpire, the arrangement differs little from arbitration,
except that there is no legal power to compel compliance with the
decision. Discredit has been thrown upon this form of conciliation by
the fact that the workmen have in several instances refused to abide by
the award of the umpire when given against them, and of course it cannot
be expected that masters will accept adverse decisions as binding under
such circumstances. Thus I am led to think that the conciliator should
not attempt to be a judge; he should be merely an impartial friend of
both sides, trying to remove misapprehension and hostile feelings,
enlightening each party as to the views and reasons and demands of the
other--acting, in short, as a go-between, and smoothing down the
business as oil eases the movement of a machine. The final settlement
must take the form of a voluntary bargain directly between the employers
and employed, which will only have compulsory effect during the week or
fortnight for which workmen usually enter into a legal agreement.
Conciliation may in this way do much good, but it cannot remove the
causes of difference--it cannot make the men feel that their interest is
one with the interest of their employers.

#60. Co-operation.# Among the measures proposed for improving the
position of workmen, the best is co-operation, if we understand by this
name #the uniting together of capital and labour#. The name co-operation
is used indeed with various meanings, and some of the arrangements
called by it have really nothing to do with what we are now considering.
#To co-operate means to work together# (La