The conflict between masters and men unhappily is not confined
to the railways. The disputes in the shipbuilding trade have been revived in the last few days by the action of the Boilermakers' Society. Last month a provisional agree- ment to the effect that there should be no stoppage of work until after the discussion of matters in dispute was come to at Edinburgh between the representatives of the Society and the Shipbuilding Employers' Federation. This draft agree- ment the members of the Society have now refused to ratify, with the result that the Federation has resolved to dispense with their services in the federated shipyards after Saturday, October 5th. This decision involves a lock-out of some forty thousand men at the East Coast ports, at Barrow, and in Scotland; but in view of the informal and partial nature of the vote, and the attitude of the boilermakers at Barrow, who are stated to be almost unanimously in favour of adhering to the agreement, it has been decided to take a general ballot, which may reverse the decision of the Society. We note that so strongly Radical a paper as the Star denounces the action of the Boilermakers' Society as anarchical. It is significant that the circular issued on Thursday by the Society's executive to the members states that if they now vote against the Edinburgh agreement the responsibility for a lock-out will rest upon themselves.
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