The tramwaymen at Manchester, Oldham, Huddersfield, (udiff, and Swansea gave
a piquant exhibition of the futility of Socialism as a cure for labour unrest by striking last Saturday against their municipal employers, and deliberately causing the maximum of inconvenience to the public during the Easter holidays. There is a Whitley Council in the tramway industry. The Council, representing employers and employed, recently dealt with a claim for a further increase of ten shillings a week in wages, and settled it, to the satisfaction of the Union, by ordering an immediate increase of five shillings, with another shilling in June. It was pointed out that no further increase was possible because the tramway undertakings were not empowered to raise the fares until a Bill, now before Parliament, had become law. In face of these facts the tramwaymen of the five towns, defying their Union, the Whitley Council, and the Municipalities, came out on strike at a time when they were specially needed. It is a discreditable episode, but it is none the less instructive. National- ization or municipalization is clearly no remedy for the strike fever.
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