The strike epidemic, which last week was localized in Dublin
and London, has spread to the Midlands and threatens to become general. In London the painters' strike _has been settled by the acceptance of the masters' terms. The dispute in the bookbinding trade is of negligible dimensions, though it raises the burning question of "tainted goods." Much more serious is the threat of a general strike of tram and motor-bus and Tube employees in consequence of the action of Messrs. Tilling, who dismissed some of their men for re- fusing to obey an order forbidding them to wear union badges with their uniform. On Thursday night it was believed that the dispute had been settled at a conference at the Mansion House, but the announcement proved premature. Messrs. Tilling agreed to allow their men to wear the union badge, but refused recognition of the union, and at the moment of our going to press the declaration of a general strike of omnibus workers seems probable. In Dublin the crisis con- tinues acute ; the employers have broken off negotiations with the Trade Union Congress delegates, and as the result of their locking out all members of the Transport Workers' Union, some fifteen thousand men are out, with the prospect of a fight to a finish attended by great destitution owing to scarcity of food supplies.
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