A strike, neither particularly large nor heretofore regarded as specially significant, has just come to a close in Shanghai with results which, if correctly reported, constitute a huge temporary triumph for labour, the strikers having succeeded in asserting principles which no other labour organization, except possibly in Russia, has achieved. The strike in question was on the part of the local dye-workers, and the terms of its settlement include ar. undertaking on the part of the employers not to discharge any of their employees without the consent of their fellow-workers, nor to engage any workman from the outports unless he is in possession of a certificate issued by the local association, the cost of which is said to be $120. It is a perfect example of the tyranny of labour, for it leaves the employers powerless. None but an unpopular workman, it is easily seen, can in future be discharged, and the prohibitive cost of the certificate alluded to, as well as the probability of an absolute refusal to issue it in any circumstances, binds the employers hand and. foot fo the local trade union. The one fortunate thing about it is the excessive nature of the concessions the men have wrung out of the dispute. for the position they have brought' everybody concerned into cannot last long. Either the men will behave in a reasonable manner and continue loyal to their firms, thus making the agreement a dead letter, or they will carry their tyranny still further and by a steady increase in their demands cause bankruptcy to ensue, so bringing trade to a standstill. The latter, we fear, is the spirit of the age. but. as has happened in other countries, if will kill itself when unemployment with its attendant hardships restores the reign of common Sense.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.