THE printers’ strike which is harassing so great a part of the Provincial Press shows some signs of coming to an end, for the staffs of several newspapers have returned to work on the basis of the award by the Industrial Court on which the employers are determined to stand. It is to be regretted that the decision of the Court to which the dispute had been referred should not be accepted by the party to which it is not satisfactory; that is to repudiate altogether the principle of official arbitration and to make the settlement of all industrial disputes more difficult. The compositors seem also to ignore another and very important consideration. Since the strike began many papers have contrived to appear punctually by filling their columns with reproductions of typewritten matter. In this they follow the example of papers in the Manchester and Liverpool district, which had to face a similar strike a few months ago, and met it in the same way. Necessity is the mother of invention, and a method which is now used as a make-shift may have come to stay. It is quite possible that a very few years may see a wide application of the method of reproducing by process-block matter typed on machines specially designed for the work. In that event compositors will find that the strike has affected them permanently and disastrously.

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