The long and ruinous dispute in the engineering industry is
happily coming to an end. On Friday, June 2nd, the ballot taken by the forty-seven unions other than the Amalgamated Engineering Union -showed that 99,313 men voted for accepting the employers' modified terms while 46,881 voted against acceptance. All but two of the unions thereupon .decided to resume work. The Boilermakers' Society _declined to do so, inasmuch as their -members' voting had, by 22,433 votes to 4,195, rejected the employers' 'terms. It may be pointed out, however, that the vote, as usual, represented only a very small proportion of the members of the union, who seem to take less interest in ballots than do most trade unionists. The Foundry Workers' Union, whose members on a small vote rejected the terms, decided very sensibly to take another ballot• and to agree with the employers unless there was a two-thirds majority against a settlement. It is a pity that other union executives do not always display as much courage and good sense in inter- preting the results of ballots in which only a minority votes.
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