NEWS OF THE WEEK.
TRIKES have again been the topic of the week. The South kJ Metropolitan Gas Company, having offered its men a share of profits on condition that they engaged themselves for twelve months, the Gasworkers' Union have ordered the stokers to strike, on the distinct ground that profit-sharing and Unionism -cannot long continue to coexist. The men, therefore, struck on Thursday, and by irritating and inconveniencing all South London, hope to induce the public to coerce the Company. The public, which Is sensitive about light, is much more inclined to coerce the men ; and intimidation will be put down with a sternness not displayed during the dockers' strike. The Company declares that it has engaged sufficient experienced men for the work, and undertakes to hold out longer than the Union can. We cannot, on reflection, deny the right of the men to strike for what they deem a great cause ; but the incident demonstrates how little either ideas or feelings of pity move the democracy when interests are 'concerned. The men are willing that the community should suffer, if they retain their right to strike; and the public are willing that the gasmen should puffer, if only they may keep cheap light. In Manchester, where the citizens own the gasworks, the strikers have been defeated, and will suffer much, few of them regaining their forfeited positions.
