London has been the scene during the last ten days
of the largest and most orderly strike of which there is any record. Something like a hundred thousand men have been on strike, beginning with the dock-labourers, but the strike has extended to the men of all the allied species of tabour, the wharf-labourers, lightermen, stevedores, coal- porters, and many others, for a higher rate of wages. The -chief demands of the dock-labourers are for 6d. an hour instead -of 51, and 8& an hour for night-work, a minimum wage of 2s. for all dock-labourers engaged before they are again dis- missed, and a termination of the contract or sweating system under which gangers get a good part of the wages nominally given to the labourers whom they employ, and even pay back some of it (it is said) in the shape of a commission to those who entrust them with the job. The result of the strike has been an almost total suspension of all the vast trade of the Port of London during the week, a fleet of between two hundred and three bundred-ships lying idle without being able to either unship or ship goods ; long miles of East End streets empty of traffic, though now and then paraded by the men on strike ; and a heavy loss of perishable goods,—such as meat, vegetables, and fruit,—which have been utterly spoiled by delay in reaching their markets.
