CAUSES OF INDUSTRIAL UNREST.
(To THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR."' Sia,—The writer of the article on this subject in your ieaue of the 13th inst. very properly emphasizes the importance of a correct diagnosis. For this season it may be worth while pointing out that in the case at least of a large and important section of the foundry trade, one of the trades specially referred to in the article in question, the writer is certainly mistaken as to the chief cause of the present unrest. This he attributes to the monotony of the munition work; but it is no more monotonous or specialized than what was done in the foundries I refer to iu pie-war times, when the workman was often making the same article, or part of an article. for months, perhaps for years, and rarely, or never, saw the article in its completed or finished state. I cannot speak with the same confidence of the engineering trade or tke cotton trade; but is extreme specialization not the rule in the ordinary work in these also? And specialization means monotony of occupation.
The real cause of unrest in the foundry trade is undoubtedly the old one of the desire for—in many cases the need of—higher wages, accentuated by the present very abnormal conditions. The recent serious strike of moulders in Scotland was due to dissatis- faction with a Government award regarding wages. Munition work is for Government, and the workman thinks—and perhaps not without some ground—that he has only to insist upon his demands in that quarter and he will have them acceded to.—I am,
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