CHAP. 1,—SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

7

(¢) Home-work trades and women’s trades (as covered by the
:aws of the United States, Canada, and most countries on the European
 Continent, and by the British trade boards act of 1909) are
practically immune against strikes; the industrial “peace of the
cemetery ” prevails. Minimum wage was introduced against sweating,
 not against strikes. In passing, reference will be made only
to the statement of the chairman of the wages board of Ontario
that the boards educate employers in a way favorable to industrial
peace.
(8) The insufficiently organized trades covered by the British trade
boards act of 1918 (protecting also men in factories) and by the
British agricultural wages boards are more liable to be disturbed,
out the danger has never been very great. The evidence before the
Cave Committee shows that industrial relations have been bettered.
[n Victoria, boards were established first for unorganized and then
for organized trades; the questions of both are settled before they
grow into conflicts.
(¢) The highly organized trades of New Zealand, of most States
of Australia, and in Russia ® and Italy, are covered by compulsory
arbitration. In the experience of Australasia the fixation of basic
wages of general application by the arbitration courts of New
Zealand and of the Commonwealth of Australia has proved to be
more practical than specific settlements of specific disputes between
workers’ and employers’ unions.
The arbitration courts settle wages as Parliament settles general
problems, without waiting for disputes. Victoria, however, gives
autonomy to the different trades; the representatives of employers
and workers feel that they have made the laws they will have to
obey, Strikes have been practically eliminated. The preventive
and autonomous system of the wages boards of Victoria practically
guarantees industrial peace.

¢ See restrictions, on p. 107.