Apart from immediate rejection or acceptance, which we do not
expect, the possibilities are that the Conference of delegates will decide in favour of taking a general ballot or of requesting the Government to continue the negotiations. The Government proposals contain a scheme of conciliation, and a scheme for securing the representation of Labour on the Boards of Manage- ment. The willingness of the Government to accept representa- tives of the men as "Railway Directors," to use Mr. Thomas's phrase, is in itself a tremendous advance. It is an example which
if adopted would be bound to have its repercussions in every industry in the land. Moreover, it proves that whether the present settlement be satisfactory to the men or not, it is not final. Represented on the Boards, Labour would be in a far stronger position than ever before. For our part, we think that the trading interests of the country should not have been ex- cluded. But from the Labour point of view the proposed terms become for that very reason all the more attractive. It seems to us that the railwaymen would be mad to refuse them.
