WOMEN AND WAR WORK.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 237, 4 October 1916, Page 8

WOMEN AND WAR WORK.

It forme, a weighty commentary. on the far-reaching importance of women in the war. that Mr. Lloyd S <xeorge should ] Himself -write a foreword to a new book about to be published on "Welfare Work."- He - save:—"Among * all —the ,' changes which the great -war has : brought in its train, none is more signi- i Scant, and none more likely to have lastling effect than the revolution in • the structure of British/industry. For-the firet time in our history many firms hare ! submitted-to a general control by the. State; many-workers hare desisted-from-i : the endeavour to regulate-the'supply j iand restrict the output of labour. The J ' factories are alive with new. workers; • [the State assumes new responsibilities; : frceh needs and opportunities arise; in- j I dustrial conditions are in solution. In jno reepect has the change in our factories been more marked than in the character of the labour employed." Men of all descriptions, drawn from every i walk in life, half-skilled and unskilled, I have poured into munitions works, j > Even more remarkable has been the ad,'vent of women. From the shop, from) j the workroom, from domestic service— j J many of them utterly unaccustomed to J j factory or even manual work —they have J I come in their thousands and hundreds { of thousands. There has been no readier patriotism. It is a strange irony, but no small compensation, that the makinjr of weapons of destruction should afford the occasion to humanize industry. Yet such is the case. Old prejudices lave j vanished, new ideas are" abroad; employers and workers, the public and-the .State, are all favourable to new methods. The opportunity muet not be allowed to j slip. It may that, when the , tumult of ivar is a distant , echo, and the j making of munitions a. nightmare of the j j past, the efforts now being made to j 'soften asperities, to secure the welfare J of the workers, and to build a bridge of ; sympathy and understanding between I employer and employed, will -have left j behind resulte of a permanent and enduring value, to the 7 workers, to the nation, and to mankind at large."

An agreement has been arrived; at between the executive of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, the Tyne" District Committee of the Society, and • the Gorernment Commiseion-to effect dilution of! labour in the Tyne district, ac to the' •wages ,to be paid to women '-replacing. skiUedj men. The agreement, ; which is J6ubjecs to the approval of the Minister of Munitions, provides for payment of a' minimum wage of £1 weekly, increasing during a period of three montas-until the rate of the skilled man is reached. . ;

The- idea of the Economy Exhibition: was excellent, but I doubt (writes * lady correspondent) whether the right kind of J public attended. The Queen came on the i first day. and seemed genuinely inter-; ested; but neither ehe nor most of. those; whom one saw thereafter can .have any; : pressing need to light fires with old tea-j [leaves, to make dolls from derelict stock-; ings, babies' cote "from-roughsboxes dis-_ carded, by greengrocere, and father** Eneient ffannel "shirt intp a new *uitfoT Tommy. With. few." eteeplioneVthe- visitors eeemedf-well-to-do-yeople, y&oee ser-j vants -would; not he .found 'dead' in * the' ccmpany. : of;a".hayf3>bx,-*eid-those • eer- , vants and .poorer housewives • ;who Vsaif the hay-box af work' seemed only_aalf converted.'- , .-■*■. -'—•--■'■■ '" : ~ "''.)