Women and War Work Part 7

Mr. Ben. H. Morgan, Chief Officer, in a recent speech on Munitions and Production said:

"Labor had to be found to staff the thousands of factories in which this stupendous production was to be carried out, and it has been possible to find it only by subdividing work closely, and entrusting a large variety of machinery and fitting to women, with the help of the fullest possible equipment of jigs and all available appliances for mechanically defining and facilitating the work, and of instruction by skilled men.

By this means an output has been obtained that will compare favorably with that of any cla.s.s of workers in any country.

Comparing, for instance, our women's figures of output on certain sizes of sh.e.l.l and types of fuses with those of men in the United States, I found recently that the women's machining times were not only as good but in many cases better than those of men in some of the best organized American shops.

"This is an extraordinary result to have been obtained from women who, for the most part, had never known either the work or the discipline of factory life, and were wholly unused to mechanical operations. More than one circ.u.mstance has doubtless contributed to making it possible; but it is my a.s.sured conviction that foremost among the incentives by which women have been helped has been their constant thought of their flesh and blood, their husbands, brothers, sons, sweethearts, in the trenches. I know a typical example in a Yorkshire mother, who early in the war sent her only son to the fighting line. The lad was a skilled mechanic, and she took his place at his lathe in the Leeds shops where he worked. She is not only keeping this job going, but her output on the job she is doing is a record for the whole country."

The women workers' productions has been admirable and is steady and continues so. The _Manchester Guardian_ of November 15, 1915, astounded women and men alike by its announcement that "figures were produced in proof of the very startling a.s.sertion that the output of the women munition workers is slightly more than double that of men."

In the latest Dilution of Labour Bulletin this is recorded:

"A GOOD BEGINNING

"A firm in the London and South Eastern district making propellers for aeroplanes has recently begun the employment of women, and the results are exceeding all expectations. As an instance it is reported that five women are now doing the work of sc.r.a.ping, formerly done by six men, with an increase of 70 per cent in output."

The way in which managers, foremen and skilled men have trained and helped the women and work with them cannot be too highly praised--the success of "dilution"--the ability of women to help their country in this way, was only possible through the good will and co-operation of our great Trade Unions and skilled men.

Women supervisors and examiners are trained at Woolwich, and the first of these were found by "Women's Service," and we find women control and manage large numbers of women in the big works extremely well.

One girl of twenty-three, the daughter of a famous engineer, is controlling the work of 6,000 women who are working on submarines, guns, aircraft, and all manner of munitions.

One great engineer who believes in women and women's future in engineering has started what we might term an engineering college for women.

He has built a model factory away in the hills "somewhere in Scotland"

with four tiers of ferro-cement floors. It is built with the idea of taking 300 women students and eight months after it opened, it had sixty women students. It is a factory entirely for women, run by, and to a large extent managed by women, with the exception of two men instructors. In the ground floor the girls are working at parts of high power aeroplane engines, under their works superintendent, a woman who took her Mathematical Tripos at Newnham College, and was lecturer at one of our girls' public schools. The women rank as engineer apprentices and their hours are forty-four a week. The first six months are probationary with pay at 20/- ($5) a week, and the students are doing extremely well.

"Women are now part and parcel of our great army," said the Earl of Derby, on July 13, 1916, "without them it would be impossible for progress to be made, but with them I believe victory can be a.s.sured."

[Ill.u.s.tration: ROUGH TURNING JACKET FORGING OF 6-POUNDER, HOTCHKISS GUN]

Mr. Asquith, too, has paid his tribute to the woman munition maker and to others who are doing men's work. In a memorable speech on the Second Reading of the Special Register Bill, he admitted that the women of this country have rendered as effective service in the prosecution of the war as any other cla.s.s of the community. "It is true they cannot fight in the gross material sense of going out with rifles and so forth, but they fill our munition factories, they are doing the work which the men who are fighting had to perform before, they have taken their places, they are the servants of the State and they have aided in the most effective way in the prosecution of the war."

Our munition women are in the shipyards, the engineering shops, the aeroplane sheds, the sh.e.l.l shops, flocking in thousands into the cities, leaving homes and friends to work in the munition cities we have built since the war. When our great a.r.s.enals and factories empty, women pour out in thousands. Night and day they have worked as the men have and it has been no easy or light task. We know that still more will be demanded of us, but we think, as our four million men do, that these things are well worth doing for the freedom of the souls of the nations.

In the munition factories that feeling and conviction burns like a flame and the enemy who thinks to demoralize our men and our women by bombing our homes and our workshops finds the workers, men and women, only made more determined.

The women handle high explosives in the "danger buildings" for ten and a half hours in a shift, making and inserting the detonating fuses, where a slip may result in their own death and that of their comrades.

Working with T.N.T. they turn yellow--hands and face and hair--and risk poisoning. They are called the "canary girls," and if you ask why they do it they will tell you it isn't too much to risk when men risk everything in the trenches--and sometimes the one they cared for most is in a grave in France or on some other front, and they "carry on."

The Prime Minister paid a tribute to munition makers in one of his speeches when he said:

"I remember perfectly well when I was Minister of Munitions we had very dangerous work. It involved a special alteration in one element of our sh.e.l.ls. We had to effect that alteration. If we had manufactured the whole thing anew it would have involved the loss of hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition at a time when we could not afford it. But the adaptation of the old element with a fuse is a very dangerous operation, and there were several fatal accidents. It was all amongst the women workers in the munition factories; there was never a panic. They stuck to their work. They knew the peril. They never ran away from it."

THE PROTECTION OF WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

"Are our faces grave, and our eyes intent?

Is every ounce that is in us bent On the uttermost pitch of accomplishment?

_Though it's long and long the day is._ Ah! we know what it means if we fool or slack; --A rifle jammed--and one comes not back; And we never forget--it's for us they gave.

And so we will slave, and slave, and slave, Lest the men at the front should rue it.

Their all they gave, and their lives we'll save, If the hardest of work can do it;-- _Though it's long and long the day is._"

--JOHN OXENHAM.

CHAPTER VII

THE PROTECTION OF WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

The Ministry of Munitions has a great department devoted to the work of looking after our workers' interests.

This department of the Ministry was established by Mr. Lloyd George.

Mr. Rowntree, whose work is so well known, was put in charge.

The health of the Munition Workers' Committee was set up when the Ministry was established with the concurrence of the Home Secretary, "To consider and advise on questions of industrial fatigue, hours of labor, and other matters affecting the personal health and physical efficiency of workers in munition factories and work shops."

Sir George Newman, M.D., is chairman of the committee and the two women members are Mrs. H.J. Tennant and Miss R.E. Squire. Memoranda on various industrial problems have been drawn up by the committee and acted upon--the first being on Sunday labour.

In the early part of the war our men and women frequently worked seven days in the week and shifts were very long for women as for men. Practically no holidays were taken in answer to Lord Kitchener's appeals. The regulations preventing women from working on Sunday had been removed in a limited number of cases. The investigation of the committee in November, 1915, showed that Sunday labor when it meant excessive hours was bad and it did not increase output, that the strain on foremen and managers in particular was very great, and they recommended a modification of the policy.

In a later Memorandum, No. 12, on output in relation to hours of work, very interesting figures were given, practically all showing increased output as a result of shorter hours of labor.

The committee reported in Memorandum No. 5 that it was of the opinion that continuous work by women in excess of the normal legal limit of sixty hours per week ought to be discontinued as soon as practicable, and that the shift system should be used instead of overtime.

A special Memorandum, No. 4, was entirely concerned with the employment of women and dealt with hours, conditions, rest and meals, management and supervision, and it strongly urged every precaution and protection for women.

The Welfare Department meantime had started on its work of securing, training and appointing Welfare Supervisors, Miss Alleyne looking after that branch of the work.

The Department was "charged, with the general responsibility of securing a high standard of conditions" for the workers.

The growth of the work has been enormous. The Ministry of Munitions today has large numbers of Welfare Supervisors with every Government establishment and the controlled establishments have them also.

In Government shops they are paid by the Ministry, in controlled establishments by the management and their appointment is notified to the Welfare Department.

The Ministry has issued a leaflet on "Duties of Welfare Supervisors for Women," which is given at the end of this chapter.

It will be seen that the Welfare Worker must be a rather wonderful person. She must be tactful, know how to handle girls, and be a person of judgment and decision. We have succeeded in securing a very large number of admirable women and excellent work is being done. The Welfare Workers are in their turn inspected by Welfare Inspectors and Miss Proud, the Chief Inspector in dangerous factories, who sees the precautions against risk of poisoning from Tri-nitro-toluol, Tetryl, the aeroplane wing dope, etc., are all carried out by the management, has written an admirable textbook on welfare work. The country for this purpose is divided into nine areas, and two women inspectors work in each.

Woolwich a.r.s.enal is one of our great centres of women's work and the Chief Welfare Supervisor there, Miss Lilian Barker, is the most capable woman Supervisor in Britain, a statesman among Supervisors.

Any visitor to the a.r.s.enal cannot help being struck by the general impression of contentment, happiness and health of the woman worker there in her thousands. It is rare to see a sickly face among them, even among the girls in the Danger Zone. Miss Barker is constantly adding to her own staff of supervisors and training others for provincial centres. She and her a.s.sistants interview new hands and arrange changes and transfers of women. She enquires into all complaints, advises as to clothing, keeps an eye on the vast canteen organization of Woolwich, and initiates schemes for recreation--notices of whist drives, dances and concerts are constantly up on the boards. The housing of the immigrant workers--no small problem, she and her a.s.sistants deal with. They suggest improvements in conditions and are awake to signs of illness or overfatigue. They follow the worker home and look after the young mother and the sick girl and women.

Hostels have been built there and all over the country by the Government and by factory owners, and the Hostel Supervisors have a big and useful work to do.

They are very well arranged with a room for each girl and nice rest rooms, dining rooms and good sickroom accommodations. Rules are cut down to a minimum. Most Supervisors find out ways of working without them.