French Arbitration Laws

Washington, June 20.- (Jonsul Whiley, at St. Etienne, France, has sent to the ■tato department a report upon labor arbitoation in Franoe for the year 1894. The l'rench law has beon in operation for two years. It contémplales the voluntary submission by the partios interested In the questious at issue between theni, flrst to & committee of conciüation consisting of delegates choson by the respective parties, and secondly, in case of a failure to astree on the part of such commltt.ee, to a council of arbitration. The prooeedings may be initiated by either party, or in case oL a strike upon the invitación of the justice of the peace of the district, but in all cases the afrreement of both parties to submit the question is essential. The facts in the report are taken from a report recently published by the depart■ment of commerce and industry. It appears that whiie there has been a great ducroase in the number of strikes in 1894 as compared with 1893 the proportion of casos under the arbitration act wns coneiderably in excess of the past year. It pears that there were 634 strikes ia 1893 and 391 in 194. In 1893 there were 109 proceedings under the ace and 101 cases in 1894. In .1803 proceedinga were invoked 66 times by workmen, 46 by the justioo and ■5 by eniployers. In 1894 there were 61 by workmen, 4 by einployers and 44 by the justice. Workmen refused to submit the question 6 times in 1893 and employers 37 times, while iu 1894 workmen refused in 4 cases and employers in 34 The oomjnitiee of arbi rators reaohed a solution in 30 cases in 1893 and 33 cases in 1894. The nuinber of workmen takin part in the Is91 strikes of 1894 was 54,576; number of stablishments closed during the continnance of the strikes, 1, 731, and the agigregate days' work lost by the workmen 1,062,480. In the 32 cases where solution f tho tlifflculty was reached the demanda f the workmen were granced in 10 cases, refused in 1 and a compromiso reaohed in 21.