the decisions of the Committee of Arbitration could be made the basis of a judgment in a Court of Record. The plan authorized by this act was followed by the Chamber for twelve years and proved to be the most satisfactory so far tried. In 1874 the Legislature passed an act creating a Court of Arbitration. This was amended in 1875 by conferring additional powers. Under it the Governor appointed an official arbitrator and an arbitration clerk. This plan, under which Judge Enoch L. Fancher was appointed official arbitrator and the Secretary of the Chamber was appointed arbitration clerk, was in operation till 1879, when it was suspended indefinitely through failure of the Legislature to make an appropriation for its support. It was unpopular because it endeavored to cover and dispose of in court fashion every kind of commercial dispute, and gave to the merchants of New York a court whose creation was declared to be class legislation.

For several years after the suspension of this plan very little attention was paid to the question of arbitration by the Chamber. In March, 1910, a special committee was appointed to consider the need of re-establishing a Court or Committee of Arbitration, and, if such need existed, to report a plan. This committee made a report in January, 1911, in which it presented a plan of arbitration that was adopted and has since been in successful operation. In its report the committee expressed the opinion that "dependence on the Legislature for support, in the effort to make the award a binding one, is the rock on which most arbitration plans of this Chamber have come to grief. The enforcement of the award is recognized by your Committee as of great importance, but after consideration it believes that to rest the entire plan upon this phase of it is equivalent to sacrificing the whole to save a part.

Summed up briefly, the plan proposed a Committee of Arbitration, chosen by the Chamber, to which any matter in

controversy could be referred by disputants who should choose voluntarily to appeal to it for decision and who should sign an agreement, provided by the committee, not to withdraw from the arbitration after it had been begun, and to abide by the decision. The committee was required to compile and revise from time to time a list of not less than fifty qualified persons, members of the Chamber, who were willing to act as arbitrators under the rules. Disputants could select an arbitrator or arbitrators, from the committee or from the list of fifty, or submit their case to the full committee. The committee had power to make its own rules and regulations and to fix a schedule of moderate fees to be paid by the disputants. The Secretary of the Chamber was to be the clerk of the committee. The committee and other arbitrators were required to take the usual oath of office.

From the outset the committee demonstrated that it met a general desire for the kind of adjudication which it offered. During its first year it disposed of, either through the committee itself or through arbitrators chosen from the Chamber's list, a large number of important disputes, including one between the Public Service Commission and subway contractors. In every instance, there was a speedy trial and quick decision, and every decision was accepted by both parties and a settlement made. In addition to disputes arbitrated, nearly one hundred others were settled by the committee through conciliatory mediation. This experience has been repeated in varying degrees in the six subsequent years. The variety of disputes covers a very wide field and has involved amounts varying from sixty-nine cents to two million eight hundred thousand dollars. All have been settled with privacy, except in a very few instances when publicity was not objected to by the disputants, and with despatch and economy. In only one instance did a disputant attempt to withdraw before a decision was rendered, and he was easily convinced of the unwisdom of such a course.

The secret of the success of the system lies in the fact that the character of the Chamber is the foundation upon which it rests. This was recognized by the committee in its report of May 4, 1916, in which it said that "one of the most gratifying experiences which your committee has had in meeting men coming to us with their problems is the exhibition of complete confidence in the Chamber's even-handed and unbiased attitude."

By far the larger part of the committee's effectiveness consists in settling cases without formal arbitration, or by conciliatory mediation, usually by getting the disputants together for a frank conference. Of these cases the committee reported in 1917 that while there was in the settlement nothing binding but a gentleman's word of honor, it had yet to hear of a case in which the agreement had not been scrupulously observed. "Your Committee is convinced that the friendly intervention of our Chamber acts as an almost irresistible moral force."

Applications for arbitration are not confined to New York City, nor, indeed, to the country, but come from various foreign lands as well. The reputation of the Chamber's system has extended to all parts of the United States and to South America and Europe, and there are constant inquiries for information about its methods and for advice in the establishment of like systems elsewhere. Through its influence similar tribunals have been established in several Western and Southern States, and an Arbitration Committee was created in the New York State Bar Association, with which the Arbitration Committee of the Chamber held conferences and subsequently issued a joint report entitled Rules for the Prevention of Unnecessary Litigation" that was published in pamphlet form and very widely circulated. It also entered into correspondence with European Chambers of Commerce and other organizations in the interest of international arbitration and has outlined a plan for such a

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system. In its report for 1917 the committee expressed the opinion that there was developing among business men a conviction that an honorable and manly policy to pursue in commercial controversies was to endeavor to adjust them without resort to the courts; and, even in cases where recourse to the courts was necessary, to proceed in a friendly spirit and with a desire to preserve good-will and sound commercial relations.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE ATLANTIC CABLE

SUPPORT OF THE PROJECT BY THE CHAMBER-RECOGNITION OF CYRUS W. FIELD'S SERVICES

1858-1895

THE Chamber has, with excellent reason, always regarded the first Atlantic cable as an enterprise in which it took a leading and valuable part. Peter Cooper and Cyrus W. Field, its chief projectors, were members of the Chamber, and they secured its hearty co-operation in the work. When the cable was laid in 1858, a special meeting was called on April 21, to "adopt some suitable measures of respect to be paid to Captain Hudson and the officers of the Niagara, together with Cyrus W. Field and others, connected with the laying of the Atlantic Telegraph Cable." Mr. A. A. Low introduced a series of resolutions in a brief speech which expressed the fervid enthusiasm that the successful laying of the cable had aroused.

The resolutions which were adopted declared that the achievement, as the great event of the age, reflected honor on its projectors; united two continents by a new bond of union; brought two kindred nations into nearer alliance; would aid Christianity's best development by making peace and concord the common interest of all nations; and, because of the care, toil, and deep anxiety involved in the effort and of its final triumph, the Chamber would accord its meed of honor to Captain Hudson and his fellow officers, and to Mr. Field, "who has been the means of bringing into successful combination the money of the capitalist, the service and skill of the electrician, and the indomitable perseverance of the