The Cotton Peace Rejected The delegate meeting of the Cotton
Spinners' Amalga- mation did their industry no good when they refused last Saturday to ratify the peace terms made by their leaders after many days of difficult negotiations. The settlement arranged included a reduction of wages which to most people in the trade and outside it seemed inevitable. But it was chiefly valuable because it restored the traditional system of collective bargaining in an improved form. That principle is once more gravely endangered by Saturday's decision. If the employers can never be sure that an agreement made with the operatives' leaders will be honoured, the cotton industry must revert to the chaos that has made its conduct almost impossible in the past year. Fortunately it needs an 80 per cent. vote to upset the leaders' decision, and there is little likelihood of that being secured.
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