South London is threatened with a plague of darkness. The
gas-stokers employed by the South Metropolitan Gas Company recently asked for better terms, and the Directors, besides reducing their shift of work to eight hours, offered them a share of profits, which increased their wages by 25 per cent. They now receive about ls. an hour for each hour of actual work, or 5s. 8d. for the eight-hour shift, which includes three hours for meals and rest. In return, they were asked to sign engagements binding them to give twelve months' notice of their intention to resign. The men were delighted with the arrangement, and a great number of them signed the new terms ; but the long notice appears to have irritated the Gasworkers' Union, who call the men who have signed " blacklegs," and threaten, if they are not dismissed, that the gasworks all over South London shall be closed. The directors refuse to yield; indeed, they cannot yield without betraying the men who have accepted their terms; and they announce that they will do their best to continue to supply light. These very long engagements usually end in discontent ; but the case of gas- works is peculiar, and the conduct of the Union is entirely inde- fensible. We shall be curious to see, when the interests of the community are directly imperilled by a strike, what line the democracy will take. On their own principles, they ought to be dead against the Union.
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