The cab-strike has continued throughout the week, but without any
perceptible result, except a certain inconvenience at the railway stations. The associated cab-owners continue to declare that they cannot submit to the terms demanded, and the associated drivers have absolutely no means of enforcing them. The Magistrates punish intimidation by heavy fines, and threaten imprisonment, and in the absence of intimidation there are hundreds of qualified drivers ready to accept the owners' terms. It is believed that in a few days there will be as many cabs as ever in the streets, and that the trade will remain an attractive one to those who drive their own cabs, and a very hard and risky one for all but the pick of those who have to hire them. We are not quite contented with the result. Success is for the few in all trades and all professions, but if the State fixes prices it should see that the average man, who is then a servant of the community, secures an average liveli- hood. The result, if it is final, is one more proof among many that London is the worst place in the world to strike in. It is too full of men ready to do anything, and too haughtily indifferent to anything like menace. If all the horses in London were to die on Monday, by Thursday all who wanted • conveyance would be carried in skilfully contrived machines. The rush of London life is like the rush of water. It seems -to part for the man who swims against it, but he drowns.
Previous page
