The French railway strike, which began on Wednesday week and
ended on Monday, was an even greater failure than the railway strike in this country last autumn. It was deliberately provoked by a revolutionary clique, who found a pretext in the temporary suspension of a workman for deliberately absenting himself from work without leave in order to attend a Socialist meeting. The Paris-Marseilles line was thrown idle, thus hamper- ing the success of the Lyons Fair, which annoys the German allies of the agitators. Then the State railwaymen ceased work. Last Saturday the Railway Union ordered a general strike.
However, the strike order was not obeyed. Most of the railway- men agreed with their fellow-citizens in disapproving of such an unpatriotic and ruinous policy. M. Millerand acted with firmness and moderation. He called to the Colours those strikers who were liable ; he arrested five of the more violent agitators in Paris. At the same timo he negotiated with the moderate leaders of the Union, whose hands had been forced by the revo- lutionaries. By Monday the strike had collapsed under the weight of its unpopularity. The terms of settlement conceded nothing that had not already been promised to the railwaymen, except an inquiry into the future management of the railways with the co-operation of the General Confederation of Labour. which corresponds roughly to our Trade Union Parliamentary Committee.
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