htly disregarded.
If it is still disregarded and if violence is resorted to, the
forfeiture of public sympathy is so complete that there is little
danger that violence will be winked at. The action of such a tribunal
may be nearly as effective as that of one which has full coercive
power.

_Why Compulsory Arbitration is less Certain to give a Just
Award._--Arbitration by a court that has full compulsion behind it
does not theoretically need to satisfy the contending parties. If it
can fine or otherwise coerce the party that refuses to accept its
mandate, and thus insure a forced compliance with its orders, it is
conceivable that it might announce rates of pay entirely at variance
with prevailing ones. It might announce arbitrary rates or make a bold
effort to discover and introduce those which should coincide with the
ultimate natural standards--which would mean a relentless reducing of
some rates and a raising of others. In a democratic country, however,
such a court would have to satisfy the contestants and the public or
forfeit its existence, and the only mode of insuring its continuance
would be a more conservative policy and a respecting of the _status
quo_. It might appeal to the probable result of violent contests
somewhat less than a purely voluntary tribunal might do, since it
might venture to give offense to employers or to workmen, and trust to
the support of the general public; but in the main it would have to
let the existing rates of wages continue with no radical change. Even
though it were able by some statistical test to discover the natural
rates of wages, it could not be bold enough rigorously to apply them
without forfeiting its existence. Under any system, then, whether it
be crude contention, conciliation, voluntary arbitration, or
compulsory arbitration, the rates fixed by the present half-savage
process would be allowed to rule till the process itself should be
freed from the perversion that monopoly causes. Inequalities of pay
would be tempered in different degrees by the various tribunals, but
the existing rates in each employment would continue to furnish a
basis of adjustment.

_The Most Available Plan of Arbitration._--Since there is little
prospect that compulsory arbitration will give rates of wages which
will differ materially from those secured by arbitration of the
voluntary sort, the latter kind has the preference, so long as it is
able actually to prevent the strikes and lockouts w