The railway strike in Queensland was settled last Saturday. The
men were reinstated and agreed to observe rules and regulations. Thus they escape lightly from the results of a foolish weakness rather than of any desire or determination in their own interest. The industrial dispute in the sugar-mill whence the trouble started does not seem to have affected the negotiations either way nor even to have been mentioned. It remained unsettled and the political nature of the railway strike is more evident than ever. There has been no evidence that the parties to the industrial dispute wanted to see the whole State paralysed, nor that the railwaymen as a body wanted to stop work. The agitation against Mr. McCormack, the State Premier, seems to have been' wholly political and artificial. Mr. Bruce, the Prime Minister, has spoken strongly upon such a reductio ad absurdum of the sympathetic strike and foreshadowed legislative action when Parliament meets at Canberra. We are aware that " Labour " Governments in Australia are not quite equivalent to a " Labour " Government here, but a strike of this kind by employees of the State on a national railway, directed towards upsetting national life as administered by a Labour Government, should be the plainest of object-lessons, if any is needed, to those who think that nationalization of industry under a. Labour Government will bring contentment to industry, or prosperity to anyone. The strike at the sugar mill was settled on Tuesday. * *
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