THE TRAMWAY DISPUTE.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14290, 28 February 1912, Page 9

THE TRAMWAY DISPUTE.

JXTOGMEXT OF ARBITRATION COURT. WEARING OF BADGES UPHELD. United Press Aeaociation—By Electrio Tele*rrap_—Copyright. (Received February 27tb, 9-20 p-m.) MELBOURNE, February 27. In the Arbitration Court, Mr Justice Higgins delivered judgment in the tramway caso. He found that any regulation, bylaw, or order, made by any of the iespondents, which forbids the tramway employees,, when performing their duties, to wear badges, is unreasonable; also that the regulation of tho Brisbane and Melborune tramway companies, forbidding the wearing of badges, is unreasonable. He added that the members of the Tramway Employees' Association should be allowed to wear badges when in uniform or on duty, without any ■*.•> terference. He could do nothing regarding the reinstatement of the men dismissed at Brisbane. That was a matter confined to ono State, but he hoped that tho substantial success achieved by tho Association would allay embittered feelings and induce members to lot bygone be bygones. In tho course of his summing-up, he said that, instead of the badgo being a cause for quarrelling, it was moro likely to conduce to peace. It waa a grotesque mistako to suppose that unionists were always spoiling for a fight with non-unionists. Forbidding the wearing of badges was merely part of the policy of the companies to suppress unionism, especially federated unionism. The creating and fostering of rival unions by the Brisbane and Melbourne companies, had been the cause of all the bitterness. It was monstrous to think that the Union should bo forbidden to use the badges it favoured, while the companies used every effort against the Union, and favoured the parasitic growth which they had planted and fostered.