WAR AND THE WORKER

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 40, 15 August 1918, Page 11

WAR AND THE WORKER

SIGNS OP THE) REFOR-

MATION

AMENITIES IN THE MIDLANDS

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

LONDON 7, June.

It might be possible for some people to pass through tho engineering shops of Birmingham to-day without noticing the human element of the revolution which is going on.

There are people who cannot see the trees for the forest. But to me, what inspired the whole thing as admirable was the knowledge that in the great war both the chief parties to production have come so much closer together that they can quite generously see each other's point of view. It does one good to see, übiquitous in this old England .that lutherto has done co meanly by its working classes, evidence of the new spirit of tolerance and humanity that has already arisen out of the war. There are sordid people who s»y the employer is only treating his men and women well because he has to. I don't believe it. The workers are not free agents-to leave as they like. A new light altogether has come into the people's minds. Of all the employers I met during a week in No. 4 Munitions Area, not one spoke bitterly of his workmen, and very many of them spoke in open admiration of what labour has done in the war. They concede without reserve that the heart of the British worker is in the right place, and they have been laying themselves out to give labour something of what i 6 due to it.

Wages, of course, have gone up owing to the war rise in prices. For the same reason the employer is still able to pay the increase. There is not much virtue in that on either side. But wages can hardly remain at the same level after the war, and it is fortunate thereforethat the increase in wages represents perhaps the least important of all the concessions labour has obtained.

Tile real victory which the war has brought to the worker is the recognition that modern industry is so overwhelmingly monotonous, so deadly dull to the worker, that he can only be really efficient if he is well fed and well paid, if his hours are short, and. above all, if he had the means and the leisure for education, mental relaxation, and enjoyment. A highly intelligent democracy which is now knocking at our gates, and highly developed modern industry are absolutely incompatible. " Like machine-tools they will only act together by the help of liberal lubricant. And if we can judge England by the attitude of BirVnineham, I am 'satisfied the employer is prepared to give the .necessary lubricant in the way of better living conditions and better opportunity.

HOUSING FOB WORKERS.

When Coventry turned over from the motors and cycles of peace to the guns and aeroplanes of this year of grace a. steady stream of labour—male and female—set in towards Lady Godiva's city, so strongly that the best wits of the local authority were puzzled to know how to house them. For a while there was some hardship, and it was not any less for the fact that the .rationing of the borough looked back towards the last census when the population was only about half what it is instead if forward. No town in England has

bad more anxiety about food than Coventry, and that does not make for cunttnt amongst the workpeople.

'■' Blit the difficulties arie- now overcome. The Ministry of Munitions erected hutments in the beautiful outskirts of the borough for the accommodation of the surplus population. One firm after another had the same tale to tell. The Siddeley-Deasy Motor Car Co. had to provide housing for 1000 bands; White and Poppe, Lrtd., pioneers in the welfare .movement, to meet an eight-fold '■xpansion, erected 450 cottages and hostel accommodation for hundreds of girls. Yet 25,000 Coventry workers live elsewhere and come and g6 each day. Coventry is a very pleasant place, quite aasthetic compared with Birmingham, but the persiistent attraction of large towns in the vicinity has always pat the Coventry employers on their mettle to keep their work-people from hoing spirited away. Hence we find here to-day every amenity in the way of I'r.lly equipped welfare departments, cinemas, canteens, hostels, evening parties, dances, and concerts. And last, by no means least, the working men and girls of to-day demand education and reading.- The employers know very well that those things once given cannot be) withdrawn. But they are

racing the facts as part of the social reformation which they know to be going on. In the matter of surroundings, large parts of the Birmingham area probably vie with the Clyde and the Tyne for sheer killing misery. The impression obtained by passing through largo areas of Birmingham and of such oirtliers as Oldbury is nothing short of awful. Many Birmingham employers admitted quite frankly in our chats and in more formal speeches that these old conditions must change. One of the younger captains of industry made a statement, which was warmly applauded by a dozen or two older .men', that the reconstructed industry of the future must provide for workers some share of the profits of management. The old conditions, which inevitably produced a state of Capital v. Labour, are marooned high and dry. There must be a reorganisation in tho . interest of the country, and Capital must overhaul its views. I shrewdly suspect that Capital has already done so, and that the particular after-the-war probI lem which was expected to come from the demands of Labour is to that extent solved in anticipation.

WELFARE WORK.

The new order of industry regards the worker not merely as a unit for eiglit or ten or eleven hours of the twentyfour, but as a wise farmer regards his animals. The workers, male and female, want to be kept decently comfortable and well fed and happy during the whole twenty-four hours, so that their work during the eight or ten or eleven hours will be good and efficient. There are Welfare Departments now in all factories worthy of the name, and the welfare staff is provided with offices, board and lodging and salary at the expense of the firm. Welfare deals not with wages but with conditions, sanitation, social •relations, living conditions, shopping facilities where there are no shops, transport to and fro, amusements, and so on. The verdict of the heads is unanimous that they are a good thing. As industry becomes more and more tremendous in scope,' ' more and more complicated in character, the management is anxious to shoulder off on to others the minutiae of dealing with individuals. The chairman of one of the greatest Midland 1 companies told me he would like to see companies employ welfare officials for the 7?ien also, and pay the head of the department £500 or £1000 a year if necessary. Ho was certain, it would pay. .

Welfare, of course, is not all a matter of concessions and financial help from the employers. There is a certain amount of discipline for the -workers. One of the duties, for instance, is to accommodate and keep watch over young people of either sex who are found loitering about the works at night. In one of t'no Coventry wsrke, where thera is footballj

cricket, and gymnastics, and physical training, and fine recreation rooms, tlm management has provided long washhouses with warm water always running, to encourage the workers to wash their ■ hands as they pass out to the canteen for meals. This, I was told, was done purely from the health point of view, a Kood deal of stomach disorders amongst tneta.l workers being caused by particles of metal getting into the food. The same thing was found in some acid works. The Austin motor works, near Birmingham, has one of the most complete systems of welfare and workers' amenities. Not only are all the usual attractions provided—canteens, cinemas, athJetic clubs, braes band, technical classes, library, and so on —but the company has established an immense store, with its own food buyer, to overcome the shopping difficulty for those of its 20,000 workers who live in the-locality, and it ie embarking on an expenditure of £500,000 in the establishment of a garden city about the works.

At Wliite and Poppe's, in Coventry, ttie workers are cultivating their own allotments, and more than providing for their own wants. They are keeping the three canteens —each for 2500 hands at a time—in green vegetables.

FEEDING THE WORKERS

The feeding of workpeople was until i the war not recognised as the responsibility of the employer at all. To-day he IB rather glad of the opportunity of doing it. For one thing, he knows they are decently fed, and for another, he is a good deal relieved in the matter of time-keeping. There are no half-dozen restaurants in London which hay« the uarne meal-time rush as the B.S.A. Company or tho Austin works in Birmingham, and none which gives .anything HkY the value for the money, for munition rations are a cut above those of the or-, dinary civilian. Rent free and furniture free, the Abingdon Eceo. committees can give five ounces of meat and two vegetables for 7d. The B.S.A. givee roast mutton and two vegetables for 9d; cottage pie and two vegetables 9d ; cold meat and pickles 7d; and women's and girls' dinners 6d. Of course, they could not do half so well outside, and the surroundings a-nd cookery are much more attractive.

But if the employer has made a bit; advance towards his workers, opinion is unanimous that the worker has well deserved it all. When Mr. Churchill suggested on Tuesday evening, three days, before the long-looked-for Easter holiday, that the shell-makers andi aeroplaneworkers should give up their spell to back up our eorely-tried armies at the front, I knew perfectly well they would do so. It is quite out of date to suggest that as regards the war the heart of English labour is anywhere but in the right place.