• The Employers' Federation has not. improved matters by its
comment on the demand that is to be made by the trade unions for a Court of Inquiry, which will examine the causes of the dispute. The employers say that, if a court is set up, they will no longer feel-bound by any terms that they have proposed. Such a caveat is doubtless customary in legal proceedings, but it suggests, perhaps quite unconsciously, a certain hostility
to the proposed inquiry. The employers add, possibly not without reason, that the dispute has arisen not out of discontent among the workmen but out of political and international intrigues, but they would have done well to abstain from such provocative language if they really wanted a speedy, settlement. Further, they suggest that they may have to consider the desir- ability of making individual agreements with the workmen. In other words, they threaten that they will not recognize the trade unions but will institute what Americans call the " open shop." Thus they stiffen the backs of the trade union leaders at the very moment when most of the leaders are probably depressed and anxious to end a ruinous controversy.
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