LANCASHIRE LABOUR SUPPLY

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2579, 29 September 1915, Page 19

LANCASHIRE LABOUR SUPPLY

Inquiries made in typical Lancashire industrial areas tend to prove that fho shortage of labour 1 in 'tho cotton trade is likely to increaso considerably in the near future owing to the attractive prospects offered by many of the col-, liot'ios as compared with those which prevail in the cotton trade. Piecer's in cotton mills, for example; have always been very moderately paid, and their wages havo by no means kept pace with the rapid rise in tho cost of living caused by tho war. It has been found that cotton workers of this class aro migrating to the collieries, where their prospects are considerably brighter. In many districts, while there is no lack of |ialt-timo workers in tho cotton mills, it is found that the boys go to work on tho pit-brow as soon as they arc thirteen years old. In a typical' Lancashire school nearly GO per cent, of the cotton half-timo workers leave the mills for t'lie initios as'soon as they reach the i'lill-timo age. After a year or two on the pit-brow; these boys begin their work down the shaft, and in due course become skilled jolliers. The results of a wide inquiry "tend to show that the deficiency of labour in cotton mills is iikely to bo made good by the more general employment of women I r ,irls. —"Manolxester Guardian. l( - N |