The strike at the engineering works of Messrs. R. Hoe
and Co., in London, mercifully came to an end just before the national lock-out notices took effect. The strike was irregular from the beginning as it was a definite violation of the conciliation agreement, and it was only the threat of the union executive that the 'nen would be dismissed from the union that induced them to surrender. The discontent with the national scale of wages remains and we have not been convinced by the recent con- troversy that the employers are right on insisting on the national arrangement as opposed to district arrangements. Sonic firms are prospering yet the men who work for these firms are told that the national agreement bars the way to the higher wages which should be possible for them. This fact seems to us to tilt the balance against the employers' argument that the national agreement is not only a great convenience but has kept the peace in the industry for a long time: * *
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