As we write on Thursday it is known that Mr.
Thomas has met the new Minister in conference, and there is reason for hoping that the railwaymen's threat to strike at noon on Friday will be withdrawn. The Union is said to have misunderstood the terms of the Government's offer. If there is any truth in this familiar excuse for bellicose Trade Union Executives, it is high time that Department officials were taught to write plain English. The Ministry of Transport states that the new standard rates offered are double the pre-war rates, and that the adult railwayman's minimum wage would be forty shillings a week. The railway wages bill, which was £47,000,000 before the war, would rise to £112,090,000, and would lead to an increase, by at least half, in the goods rates, thus raising the price of all food and other necessaries. Yet the railwaymen are so far from being satisfied that they threaten to bring trade to a standstill. Vital questions like this, affecting the whole nation, cannot be settled offhand by violent methods. Indeed, the remedy sought is not a cure. Until prices are reduced through increased production—until, that is, every man begins to work hard—increased wages will benefit no one.
