ABSTRACT
The experience of the United Kingdom and of the United States affords abundant proof that purely voluntary arrangements entered into by employers and workpeople, when worked in a friendly spirit, can do a great deal towards promoting industrial peace. When voluntary machinery within an industry is lacking or threatens to prove inadequate, something further is necessary if industrial war is to be averted. The solution which naturally suggests itself is that of friendly mediation. The ordinary Board of Mediation, whether voluntary or official, has not, as a rule, such distinguished names to conjure with, and is, so far, inferior. More frequently, however, mediation is authorised at the discretion of the public authority, whether it is asked for by a party to the difference or not. Experience shows that mediation, skilfully and sympathetically conducted along the lines, can often bring about the adjustment of differences that might otherwise very probably have led to a stoppage of work.
