THE STRIKE SETTLEMENT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15370, 6 February 1912, Page 4

THE STRIKE SETTLEMENT.

Tin: news tliat a settlement has been efTeckxl which puts ail crnl to tho Wellington tramways strike will be received with satisfaction and relief throughout the community. Whether there will bo an equally general incasiuo of satisfaction over the basis of settlement is another matter. Probably divert opinions will be entertained on that point. The threat of a general strike undoubtedly appeared to luivo brought the jwsition to an acuta stage, creating considerable uneasiness ae to tho sequel of yesterday. This., as it now turns out, was in the nature of a rather unexpected denouement. No doubt the prosjwet of a serious spread of industrial disaffection.in the event of a contimmncc of the deadlock between the Wellington City Council and the Tramways Union quite justified the Prime Minister's intervention, and it eays something for his powers of diplomacy that he was so speedily enabled to announce that a settlement had been arrived at. As a matter of fact, however, the dispute in its later stages had been waged around one point only—namely, the future position of ■Inspector Fuller,—and had the tramway employees adopted a more rc,T6oiiiiblc attitude in this connection thev could have much earlier accepted >m agreement really according them practically what tlicy haw now secured in the way of satisfaction.! The inspector's own application for a transfer had simplified matters to the extent tliat the battle fought thereafter became merely ,i matter of whether the strikers should allow it to appear that the transfer was at his own., request or whether the Council should concede that it was the necessary consequence of the Union's demand. This, ii may be ilbsumed, was the point to the adjustment of' which Sir Joseph Ward devoted his fatuities as r» mediator. That the Council was justified in adopting the attitude it did of refusing to submit to dictation and to put itself in tho wrong- by admitting that the inspector •was to suffer pnnishment at tfie insistence of the Tramways Union there can be no

question. II now poems, however, that Sir Joseph Ward's intervention has only been crowned with success in bringing the strike to an end at sonic sacrifice after .ill of live dignity which the. Council had very properly endeavoured to maintain. There is some measure of eompromise apparently in the wording in which the clauw in dispute lias now found acceptance on both sides; but the strikers have evidently virtually gained the end for which they were striving in having it acknowledged that it is at the Union's request as well as his own that n transfer in Mr Fuller's case is to be made to a position' in which he will nov come in contact with the tramway employees. Such satisfaction as is associated with this concession may appear in a- general way of rather a barren order, but there will no doubt be a disposition on the part of the strikers to magnify it as a measure of victory attributable to the strength of their position if not as a vindication of the position they took up in ceasing work. Tn other words, it may be assumed that the strike leaders will be mow or less jubilant in the reflection that their "prestige," regarding which they arc coming to have peculiarly exalted ideas, has been maintained. Hut while this is apparently so, it doefl not follow that the settlement which has now been arrived at in conjunction with Sir Joseph Ward's intervention is not the most satisfactory solution of the dis. pule possible under the circumstances. In passing judgment 0 n that point the public will need to take into consideration the possible alternative. The people of .Wellington will no doubt be glad that the strain of an unpleasant situation has relaxed, and tho tramway employees will bo able to reflect more soberly on the results and the problematical consequences of their precipitate action.