Chapter VIII: Section 1: This organization shall elect, at its annual meeting in

January, a standing committee of arbitration, consisting of five
members, to serve one year. The present standing committee shall
continue in office until the election of its successor, in January,
1888.

SEC. 2. The president shall be, ex-officio, one of said five
members. He shall be chairman of committee, and in his absence the
committee may designate one of its members to act in his place.

SEC. 3. Within one week after the election the president of the
United Order of American Bricklayers and Stonemasons shall certify
to the Chicago Master Masons' and Builders' association, and the
president of the Chicago Master Masons' and Builders' association
shall certify to the United Order of American Bricklayers and
Stonemasons, the fact that said committee has been regularly
elected, and give the names of members thereof.

SEC. 4. When notice of the selection of a committee of arbitration
by the other association shall be received, or as soon thereafter
as practicable, and within the month of January, the two committees
shall meet and proceed to organize themselves in a joint committee
of arbitration by electing an umpire, who is neither a working
mechanic nor an employer of mechanics. The umpire, when present,
shall preside at meetings of the joint committee, and have the
casting vote on all questions.

SEC. 5. Seven members, exclusive of the umpire, shall constitute a
quorum of the joint arbitration committee, and in case of the
absence of any member, the chairman of his committee shall cast the
vote for such absent members.

A majority vote shall decide all questions.

SEC. 6. The joint committee of arbitration shall have all evidence
in complaints and grievances of a member or members of one body
against a member or members of the other, or of one organization
against the other, referred to it by the president of either
association, and shall finally decide all questions submitted, and
shall certify by the umpire such decisions to the respective
organizations.

Work shall go on continuously, and all parties interested shall be
governed by award made, or decisions rendered, provided, however,
that work may be stopped by the joint order of the presidents of
the respective associations until the decision of the joint
committee is had.

SEC. 7. The joint committee shall have exclusive power to determine
and fix definitely from year to year all working rules. It shall
also have all exclusive authority to discuss and determine all
other subjects in which both organizations, or members of both
organizations, may be jointly interested and concerned, which may
be brought before the committee by either organization or the
president thereof.

SEC. 8. Working rules are rules governing employers and workmen at
work, such as the establishment of a minimum rate of wages to be
paid practical bricklayers and stonemasons per hour, and of a
uniform pay-day, to determine the number of hours to be worked per
day, the time of starting and quitting work, the remuneration to be
paid for work done overtime and Sundays, and other questions of
like nature.

SEC. 9. The subject of apprentices being a matter of joint
interest, and concern to both the union and the Master Masons' and
Builders' association, the joint committee shall have power to
decide from time to time the number of apprentices which master
masons may take in service. Until further action by said committee
all master masons shall be allowed a new apprentice each year, and
the term of apprenticeship shall be three years, but any minor
taken as apprentice shall be under 19 years of age. All apprentices
shall be allowed to join any organization of their craft, but to be
subject to the laws of this state and the contract of
apprenticeship made in pursuance of such laws.

SEC 10. This article having been agreed upon by the union of the
United Order of American Bricklayers and Stonemasons, and the
Master Masons' and Builders' association shall not be repealed or
amended by either organization except upon six months' previous
notice given to the other organization, and such notice shall not
be given until after all honest efforts to settle the grievance or
difficulty shall have been made.

In addition to the provisions for changing the constitutions of the two organizations it was necessary for the Bricklayers' union to make a number of changes in its constitution in relation to the walking delegate, stewards, foremen, etc., but these could not be made at once, as there was a provision in the constitution of the union by which it could not be amended, except after two weeks' notice. This notice was given, and the amendments were made at the proper time. In the meantime the proposed changes were recognized and put into practice.

The Bricklayers' union and the Master Masons' association met and ratified the action of the joint arbitration committee by unanimously indorsing the award and all accompanying recommendations. This ended the great strike and lockout.

In the settlement which was made the greatest accomplishment was the securing of a standing committee on arbitration to adjust all grievances before the employes are permitted to strike, or be locked out by the employers. This is a hard blow to the agitators, whose thrift largely depended upon their ability to create strife and contention between capital and labor. The establishment of a joint council of employers and workmen secures and protects free labor. Instead of the pernicious strike, it was agreed that arbitration should be recognized as the first move in the settlement of differences, and that it was the only true solution of all misunderstandings. As nations never take up arms against each other until they have exhausted the experiments of diplomacy, so the workmen, or their leaders, were made to understand that arbitration was the true course in the adjustment of differences between employer and employe. Associations of employers, as well as associations of employes, may well profit by the experience of the building trades in Chicago. It was a hot struggle, which, after all, was brought to an end by arbitration--an experiment which, however unsatisfactory to the hot-heads, might as easily have been resorted to at the beginning.

The employer, and not the Walking Delegate of the union, was given control over the employment of his own workmen. The declaration made at the first meeting of the Master Masons' association, that "the Walking Delegate must go," was put into force and effect by the award made. He has walked his last walk, and his finger has snapped its last snap in calling men off a job in Chicago. The tyrant's power was taken away. The foreman was made the servant of the contractor, who pays his wages, and is no longer the servant of the union, to which he pays taxes. The rights of the employer were recognized and harmony was secured.

OUT OF POCKET.

The losses to thirty thousand employes and seven hundred contractors during the lockout aggregated more than $4,000,000. They are fairly shown by the following statement:

4,000 Carpenters, 16 days, @ $2.50 $160,000
2,000 Carpenters, 30 days, @ $2.50 150,000
4,000 Hodcarriers and Laborers, 60 days, @ $2.00 480,000
3,000 Bricklayers, 54 days, @ $3.60 583,200
1,000 Brick Makers, 54 days, @ $5.00 270,000
8,000 Brick Laborers, 54 days, @ $1.75 756,000
1,000 Brick Teamsters, 54 days, @ $4.00 216,000
1,000 Stonecutters, 30 days, @ $4.00 120,000
500 Cornice men, 30 days, @ $3.00 45,000
500 Gravel Roofers, 30 days, @ $2.50 37,500
700 Plasterers, 30 days, @ $4.00 84,000
250 Lathers, 30 days, @ $2.50 18,750
600 Painters, 30 days, @ $2.50 45,000
1,000 Mill men, 30 days, @ $2.50 75,000
Iron men 10,000
Slate Roofers 5,000
Stair Builders 5,000
Lumber Yard Employes 5,000
Teamsters 5,000
Boatmen 5,000
_________
Total $3,075,450

The actual loss of the seven hundred contractors would average not less than $25 per day for sixty days, which would make their loss--exclusive of percentage on work delayed--$1,050,000. This sum, added to the loss of the idle man, makes a total loss in the building trades alone of $4,125,450. And this resulted from a demand for Saturday pay-day.

This calculation does not include the percentage of losses to the builders upon work which was in hand, and which could have been pushed to completion during the pendency of the strike. They would have amounted at least to $1,000,000. These figures should be a warning to projectors of strikes in the future, but when a strike is determined upon, the results, in a financial way, are never considered. Nothing is looked to but the present imaginary wrong, which reckless leaders insist must be righted without reference to the effect upon their own pockets or those of the employer upon whom their demands are made. It is about time for the strike and boycott days to end, in order that prosperity may be assured to both the employer and the employe--at least in the building trades of this country.