“I believe, Mr. Chairman, in arbitration as a principle. I believe it should prevail in the settlement of international differences. It represents a higher civilization than the arbitrament of war. I believe it is in close accord with the best thought and sentiment of mankind; I believe it is the true way of settling the differences between labor and capital; I believe it will bring both to a better understanding, uniting them closer in interests, and promoting better relations, avoiding force, avoiding unjust exactions and oppression, avoiding loss of earnings to labor, avoiding disturbances to trade and transportation; and if this House can contribute in the smallest measure, by legislative expression or otherwise, to these ends, it will deserve and receive the gratitude of all men who love peace, good order, justice and fair play.” The bill was passed with amendments which made it conform more fully than it did originally to the views of Major McKinley. It was logical to assume therefore that as governor he would give to workingmen in all their acts the largest license which the security of society would permit. During the trying days of the summer of 1894 it is related that a man who employed a large number of men went to the governor and inquired what he would do about ordering out the militia in case certain contingencies arose. Governor McKinley promptly answered: “It is needless to ask what a public officer in Ohio will do. He does his duty. The practical question is, what can you do, and what will your employes do, what can we all do properly, to divert the necessity of using force? That is the question for immediate solution, at which I have been engaged for some days.” The same day, July 17, 1894, there was a meeting, called at his instance, in the governor’s office, between the employer, the State Board of Arbitration and citizens and business men concerned. Before midnight that same day the governor received a dispatch from Nelsonville, the headquarters of the strikers, announcing the end of the great American Railway Union strike on the Hocking Valley Railway.