The Tramway Settlement.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16406, 28 December 1918, Page 8

The Tramway Settlement.

Tho public will be very glad to know that the tramway troublo has been ended, and that the settlement is a just and reasonablo one. The Board has agr eo:l to reinstate the dismissed men, and to allow thom half-pay.for the period elapc-ed since their dismissal; and it has been agreed that the general question of wages shall bo referred to the Arbitration Court. Both sides have had to concede something, but the concession has in each case amounted to a retreat from an indefensible position. In the case of the men,

Lho concession is a practical recognition of tho unreasonableness and impropriety of putting a pistol at the Board's head, and making a demrtnd for pay which they did not attempt to justify, and which appeared to bo excessive. Tn the case of tho Board, the agreement to reinstate the men amounts to an admission that there was no good ground for making difficulties over this essential of a settlement. It must he said for the Board that it

was occupying a defonsive position. The quarrel wcg thrust upon it, and thero were public interests at stako which had to be protected against the spirit of unlawful aggrossion that animates no small section of trade union leadership. The' faults which led to tho prolongation of tho dispute, however, will be readily forgotton by the public, "whose regard for the men and sympathy -with their dosirc for increased pay was accompanied by a strong dosire that the Board should not bo "bulldozed into abandoning its responsibilities. The settlement satisfies public opinion upon both points.