It  applies  quite  as  much  to  the  results  claimed  for  the  French
Conseils  des  Fruif  hommes.  For  instance,  we  read  that  the
Durham  Joint  Committee,  set  up  in  the  coal-mining  trade,
arranged  as  many  as  390  labor  disputes  in  the  year  1881,  493
in  the  year  1892,  and  563  and  629  in  the  two  following  years,
respectively.  In  the  Northumberland  coal  trade  it  was  stated,
three  years  ago,  that  no  less  than  3,000  disputes  had  been  ar-
ranged by  joint  committees.  We  read  tliat  the  French
Conseils  dcs  Prud'hommeSy  of  which  there  are  140,  deal  with
between  40,000  and  50,000  cases  a  year.  But  it  would  be  a
delusion  to  suppose  that  many  of  these,  for  the  most  part
trifling  differences,  would,  but  for  intervention,  have  led  to  a
strike  or  lock-out.  It  is  precisely  the  greater  sort  of  labor
quarrels  which  forms  the  problem  which  distresses  philanthro-
pists and  perplexes  statesmen.  It  is  they  which  are  a  menace
to  enterprise  and  a  disturbance  to  industry.
Praiseworthy  as  are  voluntary  boards  of  conciliation,  we
want  something  more  permanent  and  powerful.  Useful  as  are
cheap  and  informal  French  tribunals,  which  embody  both  the
principle  of  voluntary  conciliation  and  that  of  compulsory
arbitration,  they  only  deal  with  minor  trade  disputes.  An-
other step  is  required.
WHERE  VOLUNTARY   CONCILIATION   FAILS.
