Essen, Dec. 19.
The Socialist. Metal Workers Union, the biggest in Germany, has rejected the decision of the official arbitrator in connection with the iron and steel dispute. Tt will be recalled that the Rhenish and West-Phalian iron and steel industrialists fse rejected the arbitrator's award.
The arbitrator's decisiA was made in connection with the threatened lock-out on January 1 by employers, owing \to the trade unions demanding that the decree Iisued by the Ministry of Latour providing for an eight-hour day be trletly "executed from the begin= ning of next year The arbitrator declared that an aileronnd waze increase was. im practienble, since an eight-hour day would be n further burden to the industry. "He considered that an Increase' of two per cent. on the existing wages was appropriate. While insisting on the introduc of an eight-hour day and shifts at the Thomas Steel Works
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.