hich, at present,
are so wasteful and disorganizing. To accomplish this, there is
available a kind of arbitration which is voluntary, but has behind it
enough authority to make actual strikes very rare. By this plan the
state recognizes for an interim the laborers' tenure of place, on
condition that they continue working during the time occupied by the
adjustment. If they stop working before a decision is announced, they
forfeit their tenure of positions. When the tribunal announces a
decision as to the terms on which labor shall go on, the force already
working has the option of retaining the positions or abandoning them;
but if they elect to leave them, it must be with the understanding
that their departure is definitive and their right to tenure
surrendered. The state then uses its utmost power in protecting men
who may occupy the vacated places. The mere prospect of this outcome
will be enough, and the shifting of the force will not have actually
to be made, since the right of tenure is too valuable to be forfeited.
The system requires that prompt action be had whenever a strike or a
lockout is impending, but it enforces decisions only by imposing on
workmen who choose to be recalcitrant the penalty of forfeiting the
right of ownership of positions, the claim to which they esteem so
highly that they are ready literally to fight in defense of it.

_A Mode of Dealing with Rebellious Employers._--An employer might
refuse to accept the result of an arbitration. In view of the strong
pressure that public opinion would exert after the decision should
have been rendered, frequent refusals are not probable. If, however,
the employer should reject an award, the logic of the case would
require that he lose his tenure of place as the men do for a like
offense; and the only way to accomplish this is to throw him out of
his business connections. The tenure which an _entrepreneur_ most
values consists in his relation to his customers; and if the state
should see to it that the goods he makes could always be had from some
other source, the _entrepreneur_ would be unlikely to close his mills.
How the state shall keep the sources of supply open will become an
important question if it shall appear that producers do defy the
public opinion and reject the court's awards.[1]

[1] If the employer were a corporation possessing a monopoly
of its department of production, it would be difficult
quickly to open such new sources