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Show COLLAPSES IN PARIS . Committee Decides to Call oft Employes and Makes Move to Settle Paris. March 21. Tho great strike of the employes of the postofllce department, de-partment, which has practically isolated iso-lated Paris and cut off France from communication with the outside world for the past week, collapsed today. to-day. The strike committee decided to call off the employes and made the first move to offset a seitlemeut. virtually vir-tually for peace. The government will meet the committee half way. This afternoon representatives of tho linemen called on M. Barthou, minister min-ister of public works, ostensibly for the purpose of protesting against the charges that they had cut the wires, but during the course of the interview inter-view they communicated to the minister min-ister tho terras on which the allied associations as-sociations collectively would resume work. These were, first, the resignation resigna-tion of M. Simyan, undor secretary of posts and telegraphs; second, thai no employes should bo dismissed on account ac-count of the strike. They also desired the assurance that the delegates of tho association hereafter here-after should be permitted to lay their grievances directly beforo the minister min-ister of public works. M. Barthou received the deputation In a conciliatory spirit. He said that the government could not discuss the resignation of an ofnctal except with parliament, but he practically gave the delegation the satisfaction they demanded on other points, explaining to them, however, that the government had not yet exercised Its right of dismissal. dis-missal. Premier Clemenccau later met the deputation and confirmed M. Barthou's . statement with regard to tho attitude of the government. At the conclusion of these private Interviews In-terviews with the ministers the strike committee met and decided upon the resumption of work tomorrow. This decision was announced at a mass meeting, at which 5,000 strikers were present. Already the strikers are returning re-turning to work. An official statement which was Issued Is-sued this evening reports that more than a third of the strikers resumed work in Paris today. All branches of the sen Ice, with the aid of the military, mili-tary, are beginning to assume something some-thing like normal condtons. Early In the afternoon several thousand thou-sand strikers, Inspired by the Union of Commerce and Industry, united in a demonstration against Secretary Simyan in front of the central post-office, post-office, but a large force of police stationed sta-tioned there found no difficulty in holding hold-ing the strikers in check. The publication In today's official Journal of a lengthy circular addressed to M. Simyan and the postal chiefs, minutely instructing them as to the manner of applying the promotion system recently inaugurated, is evidence evi-dence of the fact that the government has no intention of abolishing the system, sys-tem, which was repugnant to the men. The circular states that the object is to remedy the widely varying methods meth-ods employed in the selection of employes em-ployes for promotion which has caused most regretable Jealousies among the officials of the same grade. |
