Lord Claud Hamilton, the chairman of the Great Eastern Railway,
who presided at the recent Conference of the heads of the great railway companies, has issued a manifesto on behalf of his own company which puts the directors' case very clearly. The essential) point is the complete refusal of the demand of the Amalgamated Society for recognition. We see nothing in the manifesto to alter the view previously expressed' in these columns,—namely, that the case of the directors on the merits is a very strong one, and that in all probability it would be impossible for them either to yield to the specific demands put forward by the Society, or to allow any interference with their arrangements or with the disci- pline of their employes by the officials of the Trade-Unions ; or, again, to do anything which would make it impossible, or even difficult, for their men to remain outside the Unions. The more firmly, however, that we hold this view, the more unwise appears to us the action of the companies in choosing the narrow point of recognition as the battle-ground,—a policy which not only rallies the whole of Trade-Union feeling in the country strongly to the support of the men, but also tends to forfeit the sympathies of the general public.
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