We are suffering severely just now from labour troubles. The combined strike and lock-out among the engineers who are standing out for an eight-hours' day threatens to result in a few days in the voluntary or enforced idleness of nearly a hundred thousand men, and the dislocation of trade all over the country. A con-iderable number of small employers have given way, but the big employers have banded themselves together and expressed their determination to fight to the last against' the demands of the men. Unfortunately the dispute is one which does not admit of arbitration, for the cause is so simple that no compromise is possible. Both sides seem to he determined to fight and the effect on the trade of the country, and of course especially on the working classes, must be extremely serious. Whether eight hours is a sufficient day's work isa question which is capable of much argument, but with the method which the engineers have adopted in order to gain their ends it is difficult for anybody not imbued with the spirit of trade unionism to sympathise. Then we are threatened with A POST OFFICE STRIKE, The postmen and telegraphists have been laying their grievances before the heads of the department; and although the Duke of Norfolk and Mr. Hanbury have formulated an answer in which they make many concessions, the men are not satisfied, and they have' issued a manifesto in threatening terms. But, as Sir Albert Rollit, who has posed as the men's champion in their demands, now warns them, they will get no sympathy in any action which would even temporarily reduce to chaos the postal and telegraphic system of the country. Government servants are the last who should resort to a strike. Apart from the fact that they are directly the servants of the public, they have such exceptional facilities for calling the attention of Parliament to their grievances that they have less reason than' any other class of men for resorting to this most wasteful method of settling trade disputes.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.