BY E. M. JOHNSTON, F.L.S. 



219 



the cost of living, has an immediate effect in checking, or, 

 rather, postponing marriages ; and in no trade has this effect 

 so immediately a depressing influence as upon the building 

 trade. 



A. — But things will take their natural course in time. 



B. — True, but in the meantime our trade, whether for work- 

 men or employers, suffers, and, as Jones has said, it will take a 

 long time for the better state of things, when they do come 

 about, to make good the losses of the present year of enforced 

 idleness and its evil consequences to both employers and 

 workmen. Employers now see, when it is too late, that it 

 would have been better for employers and workmen had they 

 approached each other at the outset of the strike in a more 

 friendly way, instead of fighting it out to the bitter end of a 

 nine weeks' struggle. 



Jones. — I say aye to that, too. 



A. — Then you, Jones, also think it was a mistake to enter 

 upon this strike without a serious attempt to gain your cause 

 by a more reasonable course ? 



Jones. — Aye, sir, I do, and I have always been of the opinion 

 that it would have been better to have settled our dispute by 

 a friendly conference, even if it were to end in a compromise, 

 rather than strike first and be obliged to confer when we were 

 embittered by a long and cruel struggle for victory. 



A. — And why, then, was the strike originated so suddenly 

 without an earnest attempt to settle matters by a friendly 

 council of conciliation ? 



Jones. — ■Why ? You well enough know that the thought- 

 less, and those not burdened with the cares of a family, form 

 the majority of workmen, and these are always too eager to 

 enter a conflict without counting the bitter cost. 



-B. — The workmen are not singular in this respect, for the 

 majority of employers at the outset were also too anxious to 

 precipitate a conflict without proper consideration, and are 

 also much to blame in their eagerness to fight out the 

 struggle rather than compromise or make any honest attempt 

 to approach the settlement of differences of opinion by con- 

 ciliatory conferences. I, too, am comforted with the feeling 

 that, although one of the minority of my class, I used all the 

 influence I could exert to promote a friendly conference at 

 the first ; but, as in Jones' experience, I and those who acted 

 with me were over-ruled by the majority, who were too eager 

 for conflict to give the matter the consideration that was 

 necessary. 



A.— Then both of you think that the strike might have been 

 avoided with advantage to all ? 



