A Women’s Labour Exchange

From The Times, 15th April, 1915.

IN A WOMEN'S LABOUR EXCHANGE.

WORK AND WORKERS OF EVERY KIND.

The most interesting of the women's Labour Exchanges is that at Great Marlborough-street, where women and “juveniles” only are registered, and the daily visitors include almost every type of woman, from the chattering char-lady to the B.Sc. looking for a school post.

This Labour Exchange is above all things, the great clearing-house for women's employment in the West-end, and the labour of various grades is sorted out with infinite tact, so that it shall not meet on the stairs or wait in the same waiting-room.

On the ground-floor at the Great Marlborough-street Exchange, where the chop assistants, clerks, dressmakers, milliners, teachers, social workers, and "superior" workers register, the steady flow of women begins at 9 o'clock in the morning, and continues until about 11; after that a desultory trickle comes in and out.  Dressmakers and milliners' assistants were the first comers yesterday morning.  There was a tremendous demand for both, and the assistants, taking each girl in turn, inquired where she had registered (all the Exchanges are in constant communication notifying each other of vacancies the moment they occur), what she had done before, her wages, and what she desired.  The rapidity with which the worker's capabilities are summed up and she is put in touch with a suitable employer is a continual marvel to the unsophisticated listener.  The result is seen when the shower of green introduction cards, without which a worker is not seen by the employer, begins to pour back with the note that the vacancy has been filled.  All the time the telephone keeps going asking for workers to be sent immediately or complimenting the Exchange on the workers sent.

The bell rings.  “Can you send us 25 motor-drivers and women porters to replace men going to the front?  Driving light vans and delivering parcels.” The call is from a big West-end firm.  The card-index is looked up.  This is something for the war-service women.  There is a lady chauffeur in a "private" job who is willing to give it up to take a man's place and who can do running repairs.  She is the first chosen; there are many society women willing to drive vans, but the "industrial” women who have been working come first.  Another ring-— "Wanted a woman to drive a pair of horses and wear livery, to replace coachman going to the front. Groom kept."  The subscriber holds on; the register is looked up; a woman used to horses who has never done paid work before but will "do anything" is found.

LIFT-WOMEN ENGAGED.

The girls come and go; things grow quiet.  The clerk has been waiting for the telephone to be free.  She rings a Mayfair number. "Hear you wanted two lift-men and couldn't get them.  Will you take two lift-women instead?  You will?  What?  Same as you have been giving the men?  Good.  Will send you two along presently.  Good appearance; suitable for uniform. Thank you."  The clerk is glowing with pride; the women are her protégées.  She is delighted when they get good jobs and new jobs.  She cannot insist on the wages being good, but sometimes her voice of pained surprise on the telephone when some small sum is suggested has the effect of moral suasion.

On the first floor arc the coat hands and machinists.  They are in great request; the tailoresses and their heads have been a little turned over all the money they can make on khaki.  An upholsteress comes in: clean, neat, capable, with considerable experience and used to a power machine for making embroidery.  The index is turned up; she gets a green card and goes off.  A girl wants a job as sweet-dipper, another as chocolate packer; quickly their wants are seen to.

The next floor has a character all its own.  You would think there was a mothers’ meeting going on, but the group of highly respectable ladies taking part in it are charwomen and daily workers whom the kindly clerk has invited to remain in case of something turning up later, as they have not been suited early in the day.  They all know each other, and their stream of family news sometimes calls for suppression.  On the other side of the “counter” are the waitresses &c. and attendants for tea-shops.

On the next floor the indoor servants, staff maids, corridor maids, housemaids, and linen maids apply for work.  On the fourth floor is the most interesting exchange of all.  Here the "juveniles" under 17 are seen.  But the small boy is a rare visitor nowadays.  Yesterday a tall, shy lad was an early comer.  He only wanted a job for a month until his next birthday, when he would be taken in the Navy, and he went away with a choice of work in a warehouse as a boy porter to ride a parcels tricycle or as a lift-boy.  A mother brought in her little girl, a pretty, shy child.  She had gone to a place the day before and found she would have to go out for the dinner hour.  “Her father doesn't like her walking about,” the mother explained, and a place was found in the index that seemed like Pandora's box, where she could "hot up" food she brought from home and have the use of a staff room in the dinner hour.  A tall girl was sent to a firm that wanted a girl in livery to open the door for customers to replace a boy who had enlisted, at the same wages.

A Workshop Making Comforts for Soldiers

From the Sunderland Daily Echo, 3rd March 1915. 

COMFORTS FOR SOLDIERS

TO THE EDITOR
Sir,—Will you allow me to suggest to those of your readers who are interested in knitting comforts for the troops that the need is still great?  Thousands of our men are being sent to the front within the next few weeks; the nights are still very cold, and not only our men but French and Belgians also much appreciate the English “chausettes” when they can get them.  May I further suggest that if generous givers would, instead of knitting so many mittens and socks themselves, give a part of their order to our unemployed women's workroom at Usworth, county Durham, they would also be helping to keep girls in work during the war at little cost to themselves, for the difference between the wholesale and retail price of wool would then be spent on labour?

We started this workroom in the autumn, when the pits were on very short time; all the profits go to the workers engaged, our running expenses being very low indeed, thanks to the kindness of the trustees of the Primitive Methodist Chapel, who loaned us two of their rooms.  We turn out really good work, either by hand or machines, and, as you will see by our price list enclosed, at very reasonable prices.  It bids fair to establish a permanent industry in a village where there are very few openings for girls, and is an excellent trade for them to have in their hands—a boon in these hard times.— Yours, etc.,
(MISS) F. G. DRING.
Organiser for the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.
Unemployed Women's Workrooms, Primitive Methodist Chapel, New Rows, New Washington.

Little Miss Telegraph.

From the Liverpool Daily Post, 2nd March 1915.

LITTLE MISS TELEGRAPH.

A NEW ROLE FOR LIVERPOOL GIRLS.

SHORTAGE OF BOY LABOUR

MORE WORK WANTED FOR FEMALES.

Twenty bright-eyed young girls cheerfully lent themselves to the Government yesterday, and took a part in the putting on of a great innovation by carrying telegrams from certain suburban offices in the South-end of Liverpool.  It was the first time that girls had ever been engaged in such employment in a large centre of population, and these smart and swift-footed maidens bore their part in the experiment with all the pride and enthusiasm of conscious pioneers.
It will not be many days before little Miss Telegraph, hurrying along the street will the familiar buff-coloured envelope in her hand, will be a familiar figure in the suburbs of Liverpool. Yesterday’s experiment was only the beginning of what promises to be a successful scheme, which will be extended as rapidly as necessity shall require. If the war lasts until July or August it is possible that Liverpool’s corps of telegraph messenger girls may number as many as seventy.

300 Postmen at the Front.

It comes about in this way.    About 300 of Liverpool’s postmen, including a number of the senior telegraph messengers, have joined the colours, and to fill their places there has been a general moving forward of the smartest youths in the telegraph messenger service.  The consequence of this has- been that many more messengers are needed for service in the suburban districts.   These vacancies will continue to occur, as there is still a goodly number of postmen who have volunteered for service at the front, and who are only keeping at their work until it is found convenient to replace them.  The demand for boy labour in offices and workshops is so great, and the wages offered in commercial offices is so much larger than the Post Office scale for messengers, that great difficulty is being found in inducing boys to enter the messenger service.  In some commercial offices, it is said, as much as 12s and 14s a week is now being paid for smart and intelligent youths.
As the boys will not step into the vacancies, the Postmaster has been obliged to make the experiment of recruiting messengers from among the girls.  In this novel scheme he has had the effective co-operation of the Juvenile Employment Committee, which came into existence two or three years ago, with Alderman K. J. Leslie as its chairman.  The committee has furnished the girls who have already been taken on, and has specially selected those on their list who were best suited for this class of work.  The innovation, so far as present arrangements go, will only last until the war is over and the soldiers return to their customary callings.  But the committee is prepared to recommend at least another 100 suitable girls from their list if the Post Office has use for their services.

Short Hours and Good Pay.

Every care will be taken to see that little Miss Telegraph is well looked after in her new sphere.  She will be engaged only in the better class residential distracts, and as she will wear no uniform she will be paid at a slightly higher figure than the beginning wage of a mere boy messenger.  Moreover, she will work only six hours instead of the boy's eight; and, so that her education should not suffer while she is in this temporary calling, special classes for her instruction are being arranged by the Education Committee.  When she is engaged on the morning shift, from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m., she will be able to go to a class in the evening; and when she is on the late shift, from 2 p.m. until 8 p. m. (and under no circumstances will she ever be asked to work later than 8 p.m.), a morning class will be provided for her.  In the residential districts she will generally be delivering messages to ladies, who are sure to be interested in her, and she will never have long flights of stairs to climb, as the boys in the city have to do.  All things considered, she will be rather a lucky little mortal.

A Plea for Girl Labour.

The circumstances which have compelled the Postmaster to enter a near field for his messenger are not peculiar to the telegraph service.  All over the city there is now a shortage of boy labour as a consequence of the enlistment of so many young men.  On the other hand, it is harder than ever for girls and young women to find berths.  At the beat of times Liverpool, compared with other large cities, offers few opportunities for female labour, and it so happens that the factories and workshops in which females are engaged locally have been particularly hard hit by the war, with the result that there are more young women and girls out of employment than usual.  This dual problem of the shortage of boy labour and the surplus of female labour has now reached such an acute stage that the Juvenile Employment Committee are now seeking the assistance of employers in dealing with it.  Aldermen Leslie in a communication which we received yesterday, puts the position very clearly.
“A year ago at this date,” he points out, “we had on our books in the Juvenile Employment Registry at the Education Offices 202 boys wanting places, and 79 employers wanting boys.  Now the position is reversed, and last Saturday the record was 149 boys seeking employment and 305 employers seeking boys.  The placing of boys in good situations at the present time, therefore, presents no difficulty.
"But in the girls’ department last week we had 32 vacancies open and 455 applicants for them.  This disproportion has become more marked every week since the war began, and the problem presented by these hundreds of unemployed young girls is giving us the greatest anxiety.”
After referring to the Postmaster's experiment with girl messengers, Alderman Leslie's letter goes on to ask:—
“Would large firms or companies, hitherto employing boy labour, like to make a similar experiment?  If so, the director of education will be very glad to arrange, on hearing to that effect, for the superintendent of the Juvenile Employment Registry or the lady officer to call upon thorn and make the necessary arrangements. It is, of course, our duty to be satisfied that the conditions under which the girls will work are suitable.”

Why Domestic Service is Disliked.

In a short interview with a “Daily Post” representative yesterday, Alderman Leslie amplified the statements contained in the letter.  The reason why there were fewer boys on the books of the Juvenile Employment Committee, he explained, was that they were snapped up so quickly by employers.  Every year 6,000 girls left the public elementary schools of Liverpool, and a large proportion of them hoped to find employment of some kind somewhere.  Only girls between the ages of fourteen and seventeen came within the purview of the committee, the business of finding them employment being undertaken by the Labour Exchange when they reached the age of seventeen.
“While employment is so scarce isn't it possible to induce them to enter domestic service?” asked our representative.
“Even in the present state of affairs, I am sorry to say we have the greatest difficulty in the world to persuade young girls to take up domestic service.  Their prejudice is very deeply rooted, and we don’t seem able to get rid of it.  We have even tried offering them pocket money while they go and train for domestic service at the Education Committee’s institutions in York-terrace and Prince’s-road, but the number who avail themselves of the chance is disappointingly small.  The young women of to-day who want employment insist upon having their evenings off.  That, I should say, is their chief objection to domestic service.
“What sort of employment do we ask employers to give to girls.  Well, so far we have not made any definite suggestions.  The employers know their requirements better than we do, and we think it best, perhaps, that suggestions should come from them.  But there is surely much work which could be just as well done by young women as by men or boys.  There are the station bookstalls, for example.  When you travel in Scotland you find nearly all the stalls under the care of young women, who manage them very efficiently.  But in England it seems never to have been realised that that is a suitable sphere for women’s labour.”
“But if new employments are found for young women, where are the domestic servants to come from in future?” was our representative’s final question.
Alderman Leslie frankly gives it up.

Girls Leave For Australia

From The Labour Voice (Llais Llafur), 15th February 1915. 

GIRLS LEAVE FOR AUSTRALIA

A merry party of about 120 girls who have been thrown out of work by the war left London on Saturday for Australia, where they are to try their fortune as domestic servants.  They represent the first contingent of young women selected by the Queen's Work for Women Fund for emigration.   Each of the girls has received a complete outfit from the Queen's Fund, and, in addition, £1 towards her fare and £1 landing money.  The fare is £3 for every girl, and each emigrant is required to repay £2 from her wages to the State in which settles.

[It seems odd that girls were being shipped to Australia, as the best way of finding employment for them, when the shortage of men (who had volunteered in such large numbers) was beginning to create a demand for women as an alternative source of workers.  And later in the war, if not now, domestic service was increasingly unpopular because there were so many other opportunities, paying more and with better working conditions.] 

Distress In The Outer Isles.

From the Glasgow Herald, 4th February 1915.

DISTRESS IN THE OUTER ISLES.

EFFECT OF THE WAR.

The relief work organised in connection with the West Coast Mission of Scotland for the benefit of the fisher girls in the Outer Isles was described at the fifty-ninth annual meeting of the mission, held in the Christian Institute, Glasgow, yesterday. ...

The work carried on included mission work, district nursing, the distribution of Gospel literature and clothing.  It was mentioned that over 5000 men from the Outer Hebrides had responded to the nation's call and joined the Army or Navy since the war began.  The fishing industry was almost a failure up to the time of mobilisation, when nearly every able-bodied man left his work to serve in the Naval Reserve or the land forces.

A serious situation also resulted from the suspension of the fishing industry owing to the war. Several thousands of fisher girls from the Highlands and Islands are engaged in the shore work connected with the fishing industry.  These women enter into contracts with the owners, and leave their homes in March for the early fishing in the Minch and at Castlebay.  From June to August they work at Lerwick, Wick, Fraserburgh, Peterhead, and Aberdeen, and then proceed to Yarmouth and Lowestoft, where they remain until November.  They return home in December.  Owing to the war they had to return home almost penniless, some of their employers having become bankrupt.  Many of the aged parents were dependent upon the earnings of their daughters. The provision of relief to these people became an urgent necessity.  As no assistance was then procurable from any other source the mission had to provide temporary relief to meet the urgent cases of distress.  Through the kindness of friends the mission had distributed nearly 7000 cuts of wool, and it had been able to keep some of the girls employed in knitting socks, body-belts, helmets, etc.  These knitted articles were gifted to Scottish and Highland regiments of soldiers on active service, also to the Naval Reserve men.  The Stobhill Military Hospital and the Red Cross Society also got a share of the gifts.  In that work the good effect was thus of a two-fold nature – by helping needy families and providing comforts for the forces.  More of such relief work could be undertaken if there were funds at the disposal of the mission.


[Earlier mentions of schemes to provide knitting work for the fisher girls appear here and here. 

A cut was a quantity of yarn - according to an edition of Woolcraft published in the early 1920s, it was two skeins.]  

Workrooms for Unemployed Women

From The Times, 10th September 1914.

WORK FOR WOMEN FUND.

PROPOSED OPENING OF WORKROOMS.

THE PROBLEM IN LONDON.

[The article begins by reporting that the Queen's 'Work for Women' Fund has already reached over £33,000 (in only a week).]

In London the Central Committee on Women's Employment for England and Wales will work in two directions:— Numerous occupiers of factories and workshops whose business is at a standstill have offered the free use of their premises and plant if employment can be found for their workers.  The Central Committee propose to take over a number of workrooms, paying, in special cases, a small amount to the proprietor for supervision, and to employ the workers in making garments to be distributed ... in cases of distress among our own people, and also among the refugees who are flocking to the country.

This policy... will not, however, meet the problem of the 45,000 women and girls already unemployed in London, and it is proposed that workrooms should be opened in different districts in London.... , to include training and instruction in certain skilled trades to semi-skilled or unskilled women.

The first articles to be produced under those schemes should, it is considered, be for the use of expectant mothers, a great number of whom are at present in the direst distress.  The Matron of the East London Lying-in Home states that 500 maternity outfits could be allocated in Stepney alone between now and Christmas, and she is prepared to guarantee that in every such case the child would otherwise be actually without sufficient covering to maintain it in a healthy condition.

[It is worth remembering that in at a time when there was no State support for the unemployed, and many of the poor did not earn enough at the best of times to have any savings, a month with no work would have left many families in a desperate plight.]

Effects of the War on Employment

From the Glasgow Herald, 7 September 1914.

[Extracts from a much longer article on the effects on different sectors of industry in Glasgow.]

THE WAR AND TRADE.

VARYING EFFECTS.

UNEMPLOYMENT AND RELIEF.

PREPARING FOR THE WINTER.

GOVERNMENT CLOTHING CONTRACTS.
The tailoring trade has suffered to some extent, but the amount of unemployment among the operatives has not been so great as in some other industries.  In tailoring there are a number of firms who provide by Government contract clothing for the Army and Nary. As the supplies required by these Services this year are much larger than those of ordinary times, a good many firms who are not regularly on the Army and Navy lists have been given contracts.  This distribution of the work available has helped to minimise unemployment.  A good many substantial orders were cancelled on the outbreak of hostilities, but trade has improved within the past week or two, and orders are beginning to come to hand more freely.  ...

Large numbers of women workers are being thrown out of employment in the Glasgow shirt-making industry, and the majority of the factories are already on short time.  Several firms who have secured Government contracts will be able to keep their workers for some time, but otherwise the outlook is rather gloomy.  Some attention has been directed to the appeals which have been made to home work-parties for the provision of articles of clothing for soldiers at the front, and it has been pointed out to the organisations concerned that the making of these articles by voluntary workers may result in the taking of employment from women engaged in the factories, thus increasing unemployment.  The authorities concerned appreciate the danger of causing distress in this manner, but they are hopeful that it may be avoided.

CLERKS AND TYPISTS.
...So far as can be ascertained the actual numbers thrown out of employment are not yet very large.  A considerable proportion of male clerks are members of the Territorial Force, and these of course were called up at the outbreak of hostilities.  The vacancies thus caused were open to other clerks whose employment was immediately affected by the war situation, but this self-readjustment has been by no means complete. With the view of pressing home some such general arrangement on public bodies the Glasgow and District Council of the National Union of Clerks, whose local membership numbers about 3000, have addressed a communication to the Corporation of Glasgow urging that they should fill temporarily all places rendered vacant by men called up for service rather than inaugurate a system of overtime by other members of their staffs.  Representations on similar lines have been made to the Corporations of Clydebank, Coatbridge, and Stirling.

[The article backs up the letters previously published in the Glasgow Herald (here and here) about unemployment among women shirt-makers, and mentions that voluntary work-parties making shirts for the army may be making the situation worse.  The reported response by 'the authorities' (who?) seems distinctly feeble - they appreciate the danger but hope it won't happen, without apparently doing anything about it.

The two sectors here show the contrast between a largely female workforce in garment making, and a largely male workforce (at that time) of clerks and typists. The large numbers of men being called up or volunteering created vacancies that could be filled by men who had lost their jobs.  Ultimately, the shortage of male labour led to new opportunities for women, but at this stage of the war, most employers were not yet ready to employ women in jobs which had traditionally been seen as male.]  

  

The ‘Work for Women’ Fund

From The Times, 4th September 1914.

THE QUEEN AND WORKING WOMEN.

SCHEME FOR THE RELIEF OF UNEMPLOYMENT.

AN APPEAL FOR FUNDS.

Her Majesty the Queen has suggested and authorized the formation, and has graciously consented to become the president, of a committee for raising funds to find employment for women thrown out of work by the war.

In the following letter her Majesty explains her intentions in the matter:—

In the firm belief that prevention of distress is better than its relief, and that employment is better than charity, I have inaugurated “The Queen’s 'Work for Women' Fund.”  Its object is to provide employment for as many as possible of the women of this country who have been thrown out of work by the war.
I appeal to the -women of Great Britain to help their less fortunate sisters through this fund.
MARY R.

...The committee is a collecting and not an administrative body; and the large funds it may confidently count upon raising will be spent solely on schemes devised by the Central Committee on Women's Employment.  The Central Committee... is a strong and businesslike body, well supported by expert boards of commercial and official advisers.  Its hon. Secretary is Miss Mary R. Macarthur... Its treasurer is Mrs. H. J. Tennant.  The officials include Miss Anderson (H.M. Principal Lady Inspector of Factories), Miss Clapham (head, Women's Department Labour Exchanges), Miss Durham (L.C.C. Technical Training Organiser), Miss Mona Wilson (H.M. Insurance Commission)....

The primary function of the Central Committee is to think out and to put into operation schemes that, while avoiding any interference with ordinary trade, will provide work for women and girls whom the war has thrown out of employment....

There can be no more important work than this.  The sufferings of war fall harder on women than on men, but hardest of all on the women who are deprived of their means of livelihood.  They are as a rule but poorly organized, or not organized at all, their resources are of the slenderest, and they have next to nothing to fall back upon.  Moreover, in a great many cases they are compelled to suffer not only in their own persons, but, far more poignantly, in the persons of their children and the care of the home.  Every one of us must have come across pitiable instances of this kind during the past few weeks in his or her own experience—instances of women despairingly seeking the work that would just enable them to struggle along; and every one of us must have wished that some efficient and workable machinery existed to save them from the abyss of destitution.

The machinery does exist, and it is for the public to see that it is not thrown out of gear by lack of funds.  The Central Committee on Women's Employment is performing the most useful service that could possibly be rendered at such a time as this.  It aims not at the relief of distress, but at its prevention.  It offers not charity, but work.  The women who are out of employment do not want and do not ask for doles.  They do want, and they do ask for, work.  They want to keep going as self-supporting units in the industrial army, and not to become a burden on the community.  They want to be preserved from lapsing into the state where unearned financial relief becomes necessary to hold body and soul together.  It is obvious, moreover, that in so preserving them, and in securing employment for many thousands of workless women, the Central Committee on Women's Employment will accumulate a number of articles and garments that may fitly be given away to those who need but are unable to pay for them.  This, of course, would be done in cooperation with the existing local machinery for the relief of distress.

The purpose of “The Queen's 'Work for Women’ Fund” is to raise funds that this admirable work may greatly extend its beneficent scope; and the purpose of this appeal is to urge upon every one the supreme and urgent need of supporting it.

[I like the idea of Queen Mary saying "Why don't we have a committee! Let's do it!  I'll be President."    (That's the 'suggesting/ authorizing/ graciously consenting' bit.)

 It seems odd from our point of view to say "The sufferings of war fall harder on women than on men" about the First World War, when we know how long it went on for, how many men eventually were sucked into the army, and how many of them were killed or wounded on the Western Front and elsewhere, but in 1914, that was all in the future.  At this point, the majority of men were not much affected, and it was not expected that it would go on for such a long time. ]  

Prevention of Unemployment

Letter to the editor in the Glasgow Herald, 3 September 1914. 

PREVENTION OF UNEMPLOYMENT.

172 Buchanan Street. Glasgow,

September 1. 

Sir,—As a women's trade union, we heartily agree with the letter from Mrs Billington-Greig on "Prevention of Unemployment" in to-day’s "Herald."  We are already feeling the burden of unemployment and short time among our members, who comprise shirtmakers, hosiery workers, blousemakers, confectionery workers, etc.  We feel that voluntary workers in their patriotic enthusiasm and desire to help are in danger of missing the real idea of relief in this crisis—to prevent rather than to remedy distress.

With Mrs Billington-Greig, we do not condemn voluntary garment-making; but we must protest against this network of sewing parties which is being so rapidly spread over the country.  Our objection to these is not entirely from the point of view of their competition with paid labour; we do not think that many voluntary workers will keep up to the standard of producing one dozen well-fitting shirts in one day—the output of a good shirt-maker.  We urge rather that for the amount of money contributed for materials, etc., better supply of garments for our soldiers could be obtained; these, being made by skilled workers, would reach a higher standard of perfection, and a number of women now partially or wholly unemployed might be kept on in their paid jobs.  We must repeat that we have all sympathy with the enthusiasm and good-will of the voluntary workers, but surely the money given is not being spent in the way most profitable to the nation as a whole.  We must not augment the ranks of the unemployed by women for whose work there could be a demand were the funds necessarily involved in these voluntary schemes organised.  To prevent distress by keeping up the volume of employment is as much the purpose of the national scheme in this crisis as the relief of distress.
The formation of a committee on the lines proposed by Mrs Billington-Greig would have our hearty support and co-operation.—I am,
LOIS C. P. YOUNG. Scottish Secretary,
National Federation of Women Workers.

[This letter was in response to Teresa Billington-Greig's letter in yesterday's post. Again, it makes a very good case.  Presumably most of the volunteer needleworkers had no experience of making man's shirts - possibly little experience of making garments at all.  I used to make a lot of my own clothes, including shirts, but I would have found it hard work to finish a shirt in a day - a dozen would be out of the question.  You might reach that speed if you made shirts all day and every day, but the volunteer ladies were never going to do that. ]  

The Dangers of Voluntary Garment-Making

Letter to the editor, in the Glasgow Herald, 1 September 1914. 

PREVENTION OF UNEMPLOYMENT

The Myth, High Possill, 

Glasgow, August 31.

Sir, -- There must be many men and women who feel that with the best intentions a great number of voluntary workers at this crisis are following a course which will create and increase unemployment.  The wholesale making of garments for the troops is a special case in point.

Letters have already appeared in the press emphasising this danger, and some correspondents have indicated that they were determined to purchase the garments or comforts they could afford to send to the troops and to the Red Cross agencies through the ordinary channels of trade.

I suggest that this course is one to be immediately adopted on a large scale and in an organised manner.  It is in the better interests of the country as a whole, and of the working women in particular, that machinists, seamstresses, and hosiery workers should be kept in employment rather than that they should be a burden upon distress relieving agencies.

The hand labour of amateur workers has a very low market value, calculated by a Yorkshire manufacturer at 1d per hour, while proficient machinists earn from 12s to £1 per week, and in many cases the garments produced are superior in shape and finish.

I do not desire to be understood as advocating a complete cessation of voluntary garment-making.  Many home-women are only able to give their own time to good causes, and for them few other opportunities offer.  But I do suggest that a very large body of women having money as well as leisure could better assist their country at this juncture by contributing the money they would otherwise expend on wool and materials to a general fund for the purchase of goods from the manufacturers.  In all probability dozens of these employers will come forward in Scotland, as they have already done in Yorkshire, offering to provide the goods required at a merely nominal profit or at cost price.

There are surely enough of us sharing these views to form in Glasgow, without delay, a committee having for its object the prevention of evil results from our own war gifts to the nation.  Funds could be collected and disbursed on the lines suggested and the work of the committee could be extended into other obvious channels if a sufficient response were forthcoming.  I am prepared to give my services to such a body if it can be formed.—I am. etc.,

TERESA BILLINGTON–GREIG.

[This struck me as a very well-argued case for employing skilled workers to make shirts and other garments for the Army, rather than voluntary workers attempting to do it themselves.  Then I did a web search for the name Teresa Billington-Greig and found lots of information about her - see for instance her Wikipedia entry.  She was a well-known socialist, suffragette and feminist.   She was born Teresa Billington and married Frederick Greig in 1907, when they both adopted the name Billington-Greig.

The British Red Cross were already encouraging people giving garments for the sick and wounded to pay "women who would otherwise be unemployed" to make them (e.g. here), but Red Cross working parties across the country continued, ignoring this advice.]

Patriotic Work for Women

From The Times, Thursday, 27th August, 1914.

PATRIOTIC WORK FOR WOMEN.

CLOTHES AND COMFORTS.

Into the work of providing clothes and hospital comforts for our soldiers and sailors women have thrown themselves with ardour. Many have formed working parties; others have ordered things from the makers, or collected unemployed sempstresses and thus done good in two ways at once.  More might be accomplished, no doubt, in this last method, if it were easier to find unemployed sempstresses; but the Women's Local Government Society ... reminds us ... that, until the relief committees take this matter up, unemployed women and girls can always be obtained at the Labour Exchanges, and that 10s. a week and tea would be a fair wage to pay. ...

Besides clothes, there are a hundred things that would be welcomed by our soldiers and sailors, sick or sound.  Tobacco is most important (the Misses Thackeray, Lumville Hut, the Curragh, county Kildare, are appealing for tobacco, which will be sent out under the Red Cross Society); Colonel Hassard has reminded us that pipes are necessary; and Mr. Septimus Bright, 19, Dover-street, appeals to private persons and firms for pouches and other smokers’ requisites, new and old, among those old pipes which every woman is so anxious to clear out of the caches of her menfolk.

[10s. (10 shillings) translates to 50p - not a lot to live on even in 1914, and  I doubt if it was a 'fair wage', though it seems to have been a common weekly wage for women at the time. Perhaps the 'tea' made it more generous.    

Most soldiers in the trenches smoked and tobacco was one of the comforts most in demand.  The Curragh of Kildare was a huge army camp (and is still used by the Irish Army). The idea of using someone else's old pipe strikes me as moderately disgusting. ]    

Hebridean Fishergirls in Wartime

Letter to the editor of the Glasgow Herald, 24th August, 1914.

BARRA FISHERWOMEN AND THE WAR.

North Bay, Isle of Barra, August 21.
Sir.-—At a time when so many people are interested in the unemployed women of this country I wish to make an appeal to your readers for a fishing community in the Outer Hebrides.  The fishergirls of the Island of Barra at this time of the year and onward till Christmas earn their living, and in many cases that of a whole family, at the East Coast herring fishing.  At the best of times the struggle for life in these Hebridean islands is a severe one.  At present—their own home fishing this year being almost completely failed and their only other source of income being closed—distress is certain.  If a small fund could be raised to buy wool and to pay these women a small sum for what they knit for our sailors and soldiers this distress would be lessened.  If anyone interested in our Hebridean islands and in their very fine and industrious population feels inclined to help them through what is certain to be a very hard time I shall be most grateful to receive their subscriptions at the above address.—I am, etc.,
MARION C. CASSELS.

[This letter gives a specific example of women's unemployment caused by the war.  It seems that later in the war, some Scottish fishergirls found their traditional work elsewhere:  Alice Starmore, in her book on Aran Knitting, says that during the war the Aran fishing industry was far busier than before, and attracted Scottish fishergirls ("herring lassies") to gut, fillet and pack the fish.  She thinks that the women of Aran may have learnt to knit ganseys from these fishergirls.  This development of the fishing industry would have taken some time.   Presumably it arose because the seas around Aran and the sea route from the Hebrides were not as threatened by German U-boats as the North Sea.]     

Lady Volunteers and Unemployed Women

VOLUNTARY HELPERS.

THE QUEEN'S WISH TO AVOID UNEMPLOYMENT.

Queen Mary's Needlework Guild has received representations to the effect, that the provision of garments by voluntary labour may have the consequence of depriving of their employment workpeople who would have been engaged for wages in the making of the same garments for contractors to the Government.  A very large part of the garments collected by the Guild consists, however, of articles which would not in the ordinary course have been purchased by the Government.  They include additional comforts for the soldiers and sailors actually serving, and for the sick and wounded in hospital, clothing for members of their families who may fall into distress, and clothing ... for the prevention and relieving of distress among families who may be suffering from unemployment owing to the war.  If these garments were not made by the voluntary labour of women .... they would not in the great majority of cases be made at all. ... 

The Guild is informed that flannel shirts, socks, and cardigan jackets are a Government issue for soldiers; flannel vests, socks, and jerseys for sailors; pyjama suits, serge gowns for military hospitals; underclothing, flannel gowns, and flannel waistcoats for naval hospitals.  Her Majesty the Queen ... desires that the workers of the Guild should devote themselves to the making of garments other than those which would, in the ordinary course, be bought by the War Office and Admiralty.  All kinds of garments will be needed for distribution in the winter if there is exceptional distress.

The Queen would remind those who are assisting the Guild that garments which are bought from the shops and are sent to the Guild are equally acceptable, and their purchases would have the additional advantage of helping to secure the continuance of employment of women engaged in their manufacture.

(The Times, 22nd August, 1914.)

[There seems to have been a lot of confusion at the start of the war about what volunteers should be contributing, and what could be left to the War Office - presumably in part because the War Office was struggling to equip the huge numbers of new volunteers.  For instance, the above implies that volunteers should not be knitting socks, because they were already provided, but in fact there was an official appeal for socks in September 1914, and demand for extra socks continued throughout the war.]  

Mills Closed in Brighouse

DISTRESS IN THE BOROUGH

MANY MILLS CLOSED

Hundreds of people are idling about the streets of Brighouse to-day.  The reason for this is that trade is bad and many of the mills are closed down for an indefinite period.  In the cotton industry trade has been on the decline for some time, and masters were looking forward to the local holidays, which are due this week-end, so that factories could be closed down for a short period, at any rate.  But the war has urged matters to a climax a little earlier, and all the cotton mills in the town are closed until further notice.  A principal at one of the mills told a “Courier” representative on Monday that if they went on working it would take warehouses as large as the factories themselves to store the manufactured article; and then they were not quite sure whether the stock produced would be of the quality or kind demanded.  So there was nothing else left but to close their premises.  Quite a lot of business was done for Continental export, and not a small proportion with Germany.  Under the present state of international affairs it is impossible to get orders delivered, not to mention the difficulty of receiving raw material.

The silk industry, one of the chief trades of the town, is also undergoing a slump.  One can quite readily understand why this is the case.  In times of general depression, naturally only the necessary things are worn, and silk to most people is looked upon as a luxury.  ....

So serious is the position locally that the Mayor and Corporation have considered it needful to ask employers of labour to meet them and discuss together the best ways and means of alleviating distress in the district.  On every hand can be seen signs of distress, and Brighouse would appear to be one of the local areas to be most seriously affected up to the present.

To a man with a spark of humanity in his heart the scenes are distressing. Young men in the bloom of health, strong, hearty and well, are by the score wasting time because there is nothing to do.  Women and children are perambulating the streets, picking up stray morsels of coal and coke, and bearing upon their faces the pinch of hunger.  A mite of less than twelve summers pitifully pleaded with our reporter this morning to be told where she could get "some cinders to make a fire at home."  Just then a coal cart passed along, and away shot the little girl looking wistfully at the coal which refused to tip over the edge of the cart.

(The Halifax Courier, August 15th, 1914.)

[I wonder how many of the young men who joined the army in August and September 1914 had lost their jobs at the start of the war and so might have felt that the army was their best option.] 

The State of Trade in Halifax

LOCAL TRADE REPORT.

Wool. – Business seems to be at a standstill.  The international position being unsettled, there seems to be no indication of the market improving, and there are no new orders to hand.  Wool prices remain remarkably firm.

Yarns and Pieces.—Worsted coating manufacturers are finding business very bad.  Everybody seems to be waiting to see what will happen, and thus there are no new orders.  Much machinery has therefore to be idle, and the outlook is dark.  Worsted spinners too, find trade dull, owing to the imminence of war and the holidays.  There are very few inquiries, and very little business is being done. The immediate outlook is anything but rosy. 

(Halifax Courier, August 1st, 1914 - report dated previous night)

[Interesting that war was viewed as imminent, but that the holidays were apparently an equally important influence on trade.]