Originally from Dispute Resolution Journal

The speech upon which this article is based was delivered at an AAA Arbitration Day conference held in Dallas, Texas, on March 27, 1980. At that conference, the author was presented with the American Arbitration Association's Whitney North Seymour, Sr., Award.

In 1972, Charles Killingsworth, speaking as president of the National Academy of Arbitrators, commented that "No other country has developed an arbitration system comparable to ours," and he suggested "that few institutions in our society today are as healthy and thriving as arbitration."'

In 1976, David Feller made a speech entitled "The Coming End of Arbitration's Golden Age." He prophesied a decline in the position that labor arbitration has achieved in this country. The decline would not be the fault of our arbitrators, he explained, but rather would be related to the increasing importance of public law.