Equal Pay for Equal Work

From the Illustrated London News, 27th July 1918.

LADIES’ PAGE.

"EQUAL pay for equal work" is one of the standing mottoes on the "feminist" banner, and the concrete demand is now being urged by the must compact and distinctive body of women workers that we have—namely, the women public elementary school teachers.  The men teachers do not want the women to have it; in their trades union, of which both sexes may be members, the men teachers have proved strong enough to veto the demand of the women for equal pay, so far as their opinion counts.  It is not easy to see why they should thus object.  The wiser trades unionists generally perceive that a great check on the employment of women is to demand that they shall always receive equal pay with men.  The passing of the Education Bill in the House of Commons was then made an opportunity to urge this principle upon Parliament, but it was there rejected.  No valid argument was offered against the proposition; but the Minister in charge of the Bill urged that, before ordering local education authorities to give what would amount to a considerable rise in the salaries of women, the Government itself must show the way—the women Civil Servants must first be given equal pay for equal work with the men.  Finally, the London County Council was approached by the women teachers in its employ with a large petition for a rise in the women's salaries so as to make them equal with those of male teachers.  The County Council have refused the request, on a Committee's report that the women assistant teachers in the London schools get an average salary of just under £200. with provision for an annuity at a certain age of £128.  Moreover, they add, there are posts available for one in every ten of the women teachers carrying salaries ranging from £300 to £450 a
year. The Council observe that "there is no other occupation employing nearly 12,000 women at anything like such rates of payment," which is certainly perfectly true.  And as these salaries are wholly provided from the rates and taxes—which have to be contributed to by the single working women with salaries smaller by far than those of teachers, and by middle-class parents who are also bearing the cost of the education of their own families themselves—it is praiseworthy for a public body to stand firm against all unreasonable demands for rises in the pay of their employees, both men and women.

I know of but one valid argument against "equal pay for equal work," and that is that the salary or wage of a man has to be based upon the assumption that he will marry and maintain a home.  His money, you see, must suffice to cover the maintenance of a woman and children.  To make this a fair argument, the men who do not actually undertake to "raise" a family ought to be taxed extra for the benefit of the women whom they have not married—the poor elderly spinsters!  There is one instance of a man seeing this for himself.  After the great San Francisco earthquake, in which thousands of women lost all their possessions by fire, a wealthy bachelor of the State voluntarily taxed himself a very large sum to supply a complete new wardrobe to several hundred women, giving as his reason for this novel benefaction that he felt himself responsible to society for the fact that he had never provided for a wife and daughters of his own.

Telephone Manners

From Woman’s Weekly, 4th May 1918.

SMILE WHEN YOU TELEPHONE.

A BUSINESS GIRL’S SECRET OF SUCCESS.

A SWEET voice is much to be prized by its possessor, for one of the most charming social attributes of any woman is a musical speech.
But the commercial value of a pleasing voice is seldom considered. Yet a pleasant voice has its commercial value.
A man who is at the head of a very large business, in speaking of his private secretary, a woman of much poise and initiative, said that he was first attracted to her and made conscious of her good qualities by her pleasant voice over the telephone.  He said that he had had little occasion to speak with her himself, and would perhaps never have thought anything about it had his wife not said to him one day:
"I am so glad that you have got rid of that disagreeable girl who used to answer your telephone. The girl you have now has such a nice voice."
The business man was very much surprised.  He began to watch the new girl, to call her up himself, and he always found her invariably courteous, and her voice over the telephone most pleasing.
"How is it," he asked one day, "that you do not seem to have any telephone temper?"
The girl said:
"If you have ever worked, as I did, on the switchboard of a large telephone company, you would know that there is a real meaning in the phrase, 'When you 'phone, smile.'
"Some people seem to hide behind the telephone to be disagreeable.  So I have tried to cultivate a pleasant voice, for I know that the impression created over the telephone means a great deal.  It is very easy to have your feelings wounded, I know, for I have been sharply spoken to so many times. I used to be very indifferent about it, but one day it came to me that if I would try to be as pleasant as I could be over the telephone, perhaps other people would do the same."
From that little talk a new system grew up in that big business office.  The manager called in all of the employees and gave them a little talk.  He said:
"The war has made it impossible to carry along business on just the same lines as in former years.  Every department must be up to its very best efficiency standard if we are to get the results we should get, and one of the ways to do this is to keep ourselves in a good humour, for good humoured people can always turn out better work than those who are in a bad or an indifferent frame of mind.
"So I have decided to ask all of you to try to mend your office manners.  I do not mind asking you to do this, because I am going to try to mend my own.  I think we have all fallen into a habit of indifference, and at times of insolence, because we have felt that our business is a big business, and that we do not have to cater to trade.
"This is not true, for no business good as it might be, and unless we take a pride in our work we shall certainly lose in the end. "
So, from the pleasant voice of a girl over a telephone a movement was started in that concern which has added greatly to a successful business.  Won't you copy her?

The Traveller’s Aid Society

From Woman’s Weekly, 2nd March 1918.

Alone – And Nowhere To Go.

How The Travellers’ Aid Society Safeguards The Unprotected Girl in a Strange Town.

WE have seen her so often on our journeys, we elder folk; maybe she has reminded us of Little Red Riding of the dear old legend, with her innocent “morning face” and that childlike wonder which shows her inexperience.  And we have hoped that no cruel wolf will ever stray across her path to frighten or injure.  There are so many prowling wolves ready to take their toll of ignorance and youth in our big cities, you see.
And then, perhaps, we have sighed and wished that there were some means of protecting helplessness and guiding ignorance when obliged to travel alone; we know the risks and we wish they could be spared these “little ones.”
And all the while there is such a means, only it is not sufficiently known, despite the big framed advertisements in waiting-rooms and the leaflets published by its organisers.
Red Riding Hood can safely travel the length and breadth of the country, by day or night, if she will but avail herself of the kindness of that old-established and Royally patronised society, the Travellers’ Aid Society for Girls and Women.  She need fear no unscrupulous wolf in the apparent guise of a harmless sheep; she can rely upon aid exactly when and where she needs it.  She has but to ask, or get someone to ask for her, and all will be well.

THE POST IN LONDON. 
“I RECKON our Mary would like to take a post in Lunnon, but ’tis a powerful wicked place, and folks do tell such tales of young girls being lost there or worse,” says the village mother. “And what with fares being that high and food that dear, I can’t contrive to take her up meself. She isn’t over-sharp in strange places, and I don’t want her to come to no harm, so there ‘tis; she must bide at home.”
But there is disappointment on the faces of both mother and daughter, for that well-paid post would have been a godsend, with times so bad and a sick father.
And, like water on thirsty ground, comes the news that Mary can travel as pleasantly and safely as if she were the young lady at the Hall with her maid.  We will write, giving three days’ notice to the Society’s Secretary, at the Office, 3, Baker Street, London, W.1, and a friendly, helpful guide will meet Mary at the terminus, and see that she reaches her destination.

IS THE SITUATION GENUINE?
OR, maybe, the “place” sounds well, but the cautious mother hesitates; all is not gold that glitters, she knows.  How can she be sure that her lassie will not run her head into a noose of entanglement and misery?
And again the society will help; the situation will be put to the test, and Mary can enter upon it with a good heart.
Wonderful society!  It meets the bewildered girl whose train is late and, whose connection being lost, is stranded, penniless and helpless; it will take her to a decent shelter for the night at its own office or elsewhere; it will telegraph to her friends if need be; in short, it will “mother” her till she is safe once there.
The little booklet published by the society tells of a few of the splendid “rescues” that have been accomplished; of the young Belgian lassie who came from Boulogne at night too late to go on to Buckinghamshire, and who, but for the might have fallen indeed amongst wolves.  Of the little child-actresses, separated from their company, who were petted and sheltered and sent again on their way rejoicing.

A TYPICAL CASE. 
A GIRL, eighteen years old, had come from America to go to her home in Kent.  The train from Liverpool arrived in London late at night;. and she found that she could not continue her journey till the next morning.  She had enough money for her fare, but not any to pay for a night’s lodging, nor yet for crossing London with her heavy luggage.  A “gentleman” who had travelled by the same train got her story from her, and offered to pay for herself and luggage across London and take her down by a night train which, he averred, would reach the town at 1 a.m., and she could stay in the railway-station waiting-room till it was light enough for her to get home.  Although not knowing that the “night train” was a pure invention on the part of her informant, yet the girl objected to arriving at a country station at one o’clock in the morning, and a discussion ensued.  While they were talking a station official came up to see what was going on.  He promptly dismissed the “gentleman” and put the girl in a cab and sent her to the T.A.S., where a night's lodging was given her, and she was seen off for home on the next day.  She wrote afterwards to announce her safe arrival, and to express regret that she and her parents had no means to repay the Society.

A DOUBTFUL SITUATION. 
THE danger to girls who take situations heard of only through advertisements and arranged only by letter is terrible to think of, and the pity of it is enhanced by the remembrance that it is just the simple and ignorant who are most surely entrapped in this way.
A French girl, whose parents were very poor and worthy people, had a narrow escape.  Tempted by the prospect of better wages, she came to London, and finding no one to meet her at the station, she took a cab and drove to the address to which she had directed her letters. It was a small shop.  She asked for Mrs. J.; Mrs. J. did not live there, but a man called for letters addressed to her.  He had been there that afternoon, but had gone away again in a hurry, saying that he must go to the railway station.  The cab-man had to take his “fare” back to the station, and the interpreter advised her to go to the Travellers’ Aid Society, which she did.  She was put into a home, a respectable situation was found for her, and she was most grateful to have been saved from what looked like a very doubtful engagement.  How would it have been possible for her poor parents to trace her had she once got into the hands of that man, who must have had reasons of his own for concealing his real address?

HELP FOR ALL. 
THERE are many school-children, too, who will speak gratefully of the kind helpers who made their journeys so easy and safe; there are countless women and girls who have read the placards of the society in waiting-rooms, and remembered in dire emergency, where they could summon help — help that has saved them from worse than death. Foolish children who have run away from home in anger, to find themselves stranded and penniless and afraid — they also would add their quota of gratitude if asked.
Often these befriended ones return to their good Samaritans of the society a tangible token of gratitude for their stay in the emergency rooms, but sometimes they cannot, for stress of poverty. It is all the same to thr T.A.S.; not means, but helplessness is the key to its heart.  Everyone who cares for others, especially for the weak and the ignorant, should remember that all they need do when they would help such on their way is to apply to this useful body of charitable folk, the Travellers’ Aid Society, on behalf of their proteges, giving a clear three days’ notice at the least.
It goes without saying that if they also can help by offerings of service or of money, they will forward a great work.  For until the wolf is extinct the lamb will be in danger; Red Riding Hood is just a pretty parable of a very real and grim fact of modern life.  And it is the T.A.S. that sees to it that there is a “happy ending” to the story, you know.

The Girl Who Gets Promotion.

From Woman’s Weekly, February 23rd 1918.

The Girl Who Gets Promotion.

How it is managed.  Why one girl will get on while another will fail.

“NONE of us can think why Madge Saunders was pushed up into the job!” exclaimed a girl-clerk the other day, when she was telling me of an extremely good promotion which had been given to one of her colleagues.  "Everyone thought Miss Whitty would be advanced," she went on.  "She has  been at the office ever so much longer than Madge, and never makes a mistake in her work, and has all sorts of certificates.  It doesn't seem quite fair that Mr. Davis should have passed her over when this vacancy came along. "

INDIVIDUAL MERIT COUNTS. 
ON the face of things, it did seem a bit of a conundrum, but later on in the day the business man for whom the girls worked gave me the key to the mystery.

"It is all true, so far as it goes.  A good many people seem surprised at my choosing Miss Saunders for advancement," he said thoughtfully.  "Some people can't realise that promotion is a matter of individual merit rather than of length of service.  The fact is, Miss Whitty is an efficient worker without initiative, while Miss Saunders combines resource with trained competency.  Routine workers are all right as cogs in the business machinery, but one does not usually choose them for filling posts of responsibility.  It is the trained girl who can use her brain who gets on in the world."

WHY THEY "STICK IN THE MUD." 
IT is worth thinking about.  If you consider for one moment, it is not hard to see that the girls of the business world can pretty well be divided into two classes—the girls who progress, and the girls who stand still.  There are scores of well-trained girls who have been wage-earning for years, who have given up hope of making further headway in the world, and who think it is because "luck is against them" that they cannot find the key to open the gates of promotion.  Nothing of the sort.  The essential thing is to realise at the outset that training and proficiency certificates in shorthand and typewriting alone will not make a girl get on, unless she also has common-sense in dealing with everyday matters—and uses it.  Being a successful business girl is something more than writing letters correctly at dictation, being punctual at the office, and obeying orders.

A TRUE STORY. 
ONE girl obtained a first-class position through her tactful exercise of initiative.  One evening, after her employer had left the office, a telephone call came from another business man saying that he could not keep an appointment for the following day as he was going abroad in the morning.  The rule of the firm was for late 'phone calls to be kept until the next day, but in this case the girl used her common-sense, and herself carried the message to her employer’s private house, thereby saving him the loss of a most important contract.  Her action made the man watch her carefully.  He found that he never had to repeat questions or instructions to her, and that she never asked an unnecessary question; she was accurate at the work she was engaged to do, had a reliable memory, which she used, exercised resource, studied her employer's methods and peculiarities, and took real joy and interest in her work.  To-day the girl is in control of an important branch business.

Quite contrary was the case of a business friend who recently told me that: he wanted a private -secretary for some special work which he was about to undertake.  He would have liked to have given the job to a girl-clerk who had been with him for several years, but could not do so because "she seems afraid to do anything unless she is actually told to do it, and my growing work leaves no time for giving unnecessary orders.  If I ask Miss Blank to do something to-day which does not come in her ordinary routine work, she does it gladly enough; but it never seems to enter her head that she might do likewise to-morrow without my asking her."

Some girls are apt to think that this or that thing doesn't matter, because it "doesn't come in their actual work, " and is really a matter of no importance.  Or such girl systematically forgot that her employer took no milk in his afternoon cup of tea.  She was mentally marked by him as having an unreliable memory, and not to be recommended for responsible work.

“Wireless” Work for Girls

From Woman’s Weekly, February 16th 1918.

“WIRELESS” WORK FOR GIRLS.

THIS IS PERHAPS THE KIND OF WAR-WORK WHICH WOULD JUST SUIT YOU!

I HAVE learnt quite a new "war-work," something girls have never done before.  My friends, when they hear I am doing "wireless" work, of course, all think I am an operator, and spend my time sending and receiving important messages, state secrets, and all kinds of exciting things.  Well, they are all wrong.  I am not an operator.
But if it were not for me and my fellow workers there would not be any messages sent, so you see how important my work is.  My job is to keep in order and repair and clean the apparatus.
As you may suppose, the apparatus is of very delicate make, and has to be always in perfect working order.  Everything has to be always ready for the operator, and now that we have such a number of wireless going, it means keeping a big staff of workers looking after them, and, of course, in these days we women do the job.  It is very interesting, and it is quite light work.  Some girls cannot stand for such long hours others do, so it is just the right kind for them, for you sit while-you are at work — so different to standing at a machine all day.

SIX WEEKS TO LEARN. 
IT takes about six weeks to learn your job, and while you are being taught you receive 25s. a week maintenance allowance.  During this time you learn absolutely everything that is necessary for you to know, and then you are sent off to a post just wherever you are most wanted.
The "powers that be" are very well satisfied with the women already engaged on the work; they consider it is essentially woman's work; they think our "little" hands are suitable.  So that is satisfactory, at least that they think we all have small hands!

THE GIRL WHO GETS ON BEST.
THE girls who get on best are those with useful hands —those who know how to use their hands, and it wants brains, too.
If a girl is lucky enough to have learnt anything of physics at school, there are a few plums to be gathered.  Also if a girl can draw, so that she can make copies of the machines; but the ordinary worker will get not less than 30s., 32s., and perhaps more.
In this, as in many other branches of work, the girl who works well, and is worth it, will get the best pay.  The hours are about the ordinary war-hours—eleven to twelve hours; but do not forget you will sit, not stand.

NO SPECIAL UNIFORM. 
THERE is no special uniform worn, but it is usual to wear an overall or a long coat.  You can choose your own colour.  Butcher blue always looks smart, and is quite the engineering shade of peace time; but whatever shade you select, avoid too light a one, and be very careful, for work of this kind, that the sleeves are short. It is best to have them tight-fitting, and to button, so that your blouse sleeve is kept up too.  For delicate work it is fatal if sleeves get in the way.

WHEN THE WAR IS OVER. 
"WHEN the war is over, what is to be-come of us and our work?"  That is what you want to know, I am sure.  Well, we have learnt, and are engaged on the job as "war-work;'' all the same, it may continue for a limited number of us when peace comes.
Everyone expects we are to be quite a flying nation, and that aeroplanes will play a large part in the daily life of the nation, for carrying mails and so forth.  Well, the aeroplanes carry wireless apparatus, and this apparatus must be attended to then as well as now; although, of course, the number of women workers will be small, still it will employ a certain number of us.
We work now in various different parts, both in London and elsewhere.  The Air Service use us to a large extent, and where there is wireless our services are wanted.  There are certain centres—or shall I call them bases—where the sick wireless apparatus are attended to.  In fact, we are a kind of Red Cross V.A.D. detachment for apparatus, and it is, I find, a very interesting form of sick nursing—quite one of the best kinds of war-work — useful, interesting work; quite good pay and just ordinary hours.  What more can any girl want in war time?  So come along, and join up— any woman medically fit, between the ages of 18 and 40.  You can get all particulars at the nearest labour bureau, and then you can start training at once and in six weeks you will be doing your bit, like all your girl friends.
And, besides helping to win the war, you can think that maybe hundreds of lives are being saved by your doing this work.  Think of the boats that have been mined, and of the thousands who would have perished had the wonderful wireless installation been out of order.

[This is another article in the series on new jobs for young women which Woman's Weekly was running. This one is particularly interesting for the discussion of whether the jobs would still be available to women after the end of the war.]

A Day in the Life of a Shell Girl

From Woman’s Weekly, 12th January 1918.

A DAY IN MY LIFE.

BY THE SHELL GIRL, WHO HELPS THE "MAN BEHIND THE GUN."

A munitions worker 

LIKE most English girls, when the call came for women to help in the Great War, my ambition was to make shells, and I joined the great army of munition workers. 

The work is hard— very hard—but the pay is good, and, what is more, the munition girl is always happy in the knowledge that she is "doing her bit" to help the boys "out there." 

My work was boring and screwing 6-inch shells, operations which require much attention and care, for the cap must fit exactly to be of any use.  When I joined I was put to watch a machine for a fortnight (during this time I 'was not paid), and after that I was allowed a machine of my own. 

The heaviest part of the work is lifting the shells by means of a chain hoist.  They weigh 186 lb. each—a tough task for a girl, but I was spared this, for the machine behind me was run by a man named Joe. and always when I attempted to get a shell he would say, "Eh, mate!  Let me do that!"  

Joe was quite a character in our room.  He was a discharged soldier, but would never talk of his experiences "out there." 

"You get on with them there shells," he would say.  "Time enough to talk when the war's over." 

Joe kept his eye on us during the night shift, and whenever he noticed a head nodding over a machine he was quickly on the scene with a can of tea, which he kept incessantly stewing over the hydraulics.  In the day time he always came well provided with apples and sweets, and in his unostentatious way he would hand them to the girls at lunch time, hurrying away before we could thank him.

The hours at our works were from seven at night until eight o'clock the next morning for two weeks; and six at night till seven o'clock in the morning for the next two weeks.  During a shift most of us were able to make from sixteen to eighteen shells, and this, at piecework rates, brought our wages from two pounds fifteen shillings to three pounds per week. 

There were nice recreation rooms in which we could rest during dinner hour, and for a quarter of an hour at tea time.  There are attendants these rooms who, for the charge of a penny, will heat up any food you may bring. 

MY "MATES." 

My "mates," as they called themselves, were a strong, free-and-easy lot, very intolerant of my finicky ways, and some of them looked with scorn at the clean serviette I brought each day, and my cup and saucer in place of a can for my tea; but they were a very kind lot of girls, as the following story will show: 

There was one little woman whom the girls, for some reason or another, did not like.  She was not interested in their stories of the fine clothes they were buying, and the surprises they had "up their sleeve" for "George" when he came home.  All through the long shift the little woman would stand silent, her eyes glued to her machine; and during the dinner hour she never entered the recreation-room.  I learnt afterwards it was because she only had a crust of dry bread to eat, and didn't want anyone to pity her poverty.  One day she completely broke down, and I saw the girl at the next machine, after a little hesitation, turn to her. 

At lunch time that day this girl called her mates and told them the story.  The little woman's husband had deserted her.  She had six children, and the eldest, a boy of eighteen, had just joined up.  She was trying to keep things going, but her strength would not allow her to make more than ten shells a day, and the order was that twelve must be the minimum per shift.  Unless she could do better she was to go. 

Without any more ado, and, of course, against regulations, a group of girls banded themselves together and pledged themselves to put at least six shells to the little woman's total. 

And they did; and, what is more, would not listen to the little woman's thanks.  "Garn,'' said one girl. 'it doesn't matter who makes 'em, long as Kaiser Bill gets it in the neck!"  

The munition girl keeps herself and her friends alive with her high spirits and her unbounded energy.  She means her man to win the war.

WOMEN MUNITION WORKERS.

Women desirous of doing War-Work are now being offered every facility for training in the Engineering branch of Munition Work.  No charge is made for the training, and a Subsistence Allowance at the rate of 25s. per week is paid to students from the date of enrolment.  Overalls and caps are also provided free.
Women are urgently wanted, and all particulars of training. wages, hours, etc., may be had on application to: The Education Officer, L.C.C. Education Offices, Victoria Embankment, London, W.C.2.

Bad Language To A Lady Conductor.

From the Halifax Courier 7 October 1916.

BAD LANGUAGE TO A LADY CONDUCTOR.

John Dewhirst, 36, St. Paul's-road, Halifax, was summoned for using offensive language to a lady tram conductor on. Sept. 13.  Mr. W. H. Pollitt said that on Sept. 13 defendant got on a car at Mytholmroyd; and put a basket of fowls on the tram front.  He paid 2d. for his fare to Luddenden Foot.  A lady conductor told him she wanted 1d. for luggage.  He replied with offensive language, and would not pay.  She went for the driver, and defendant used offensive language to the driver, also to another driver who was called.

Mr. H. Boocock for the defence, pleading guilty, said the dispute arose about the penny.  She evidently thought it should be paid, and he didn't.  There was no disrespect intended to her.  Defendant was "a farmer sort of chap," and didn't know exactly what he was saying.  He was a respectable man, and had been in the employ of the Corporation a good number of years.
The Chairman said the Bench considered it a very serious case.  Lady conductors would have to be protected by the authorities.  It was very disgraceful on the part of a man to terrorise a girl who was simply discharging her duties in a proper manner.  They wished it to be thoroughly understood that the Bench would deal severely with cases of that kind.  In this instance, defendant would be fined £1, and 6s. costs.

Women Spinners Brought to Huddersfield

From the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 7th April 1916.

MORE WOMEN FOR THE HUDDERSFIELD TRADE.

FIRST BATCH TO ENGAGE IN SPINNING ARRIVES TO-DAY.

LODGINGS URGENTLY NEEDED.

The dearth of labour in the textile trade of the Huddersfield and Colne Valley districts is to be made good by the introduction of a large number of women from East Coast and East Midland towns.  The first batch of these women arrived in the district to-day, and the importation will proceed as rapidly as the new operatives can be absorbed to the industry and lodging or housing accommodation provided for them.

It was high time some action on these lines was taken, for the scarcity of male labour had become intensified, and a large amount of machinery in the trade is idle.  It is estimated that about 8,000 men from the Huddersfield district are now serving with the forces.  Of that number probably about 5,000 were engaged in the woollen and worsted cloth industries.  Until recently, by resorting to various expedients, the depleted ranks were filled up, but the problem has now become acute, and it is no longer possible to carry on the industry with anything like efficiency without making an extensive demand upon female labour.  Important Government contracts for army goods are at present being seriously delayed by the lack of skilled labour.

The revised list of certified occupations has not improved matters; indeed, so many occupations in the textile industry are now unstarred that it is inevitable that in the near future further large numbers of men engaged in the woollen and worsted mills will be called up for military service.  One effect of the changes which have been made is that very shortly 600 men will be taken out of the spinning department, a department which has been more severely hit than any other by the withdrawal of men.  So inadequate is the staffing of spinning machinery at present that there is a great shortage in yarn, a circumstance which is responsible for keeping a large number of looms idle.

It is in the spinning department that the women now being imported are to be engaged.  They will take the places of the 600 men as the latter are called up or transferred to departments in which heavy manual labour is involved and in which the services of women can not very well be utilised.  In the Huddersfield district women have somewhat singularly held aloof from piecing and spinning; way, it is difficult to say, because it is work which they can do, and in other districts mules are run almost entirely by women.  It is obvious that some time must elapse before the re-organisation of the industry can be carried out on the lines indicated, but arrangements have been made with the authorities whereby it is believed that this will be successfully accomplished and without undue interference or hardship.

The employers can count upon the support of the Home Office and the Board of Trade, for only recently Mr. Herbert Samuel (the Home Secretary) and Mr. Walter Runciman (President of the Board of Trade) issued an appeal to employers, in which they stated that there was only one source from which the shortage of Labour could be made good, and that was the great body of women who are at present unoccupied or engaged only in work not of an essential character.

Proper safeguards for the future have been provided, an agreement between employers and workpeople having been entered into.  The agreement provides that substitutions of men by women are temporary, and that those men who have joined the forces shall be entitled to be reinstated in their former employments if and when they return fit for resuming them; men thus reinstated to receive the rates of wages to which they would have been entitled had they remained in continuous employment.  The provisions as to wages are:—That where women are employed to take the place of men the rate of wages for such women shall be (a) If at piece-rates the same as for men, unless women's rates are already established for that class of work, provided no woman shall receive less than the district rate for women. (b) If at time rates for day-time work, and one or more women replace an equal number of men, they shall be paid the same rate of wages now being paid to males for an equivalent quantity of work, and in any case not less than four-fifths of the rate preciously paid to the men they replace. (c) If at time rates for day-time work, and a larger number of women are required to replace a smaller number of men, the aggregate wages paid to the women shall not be less than the aggregate wages paid to the men they replace, and in no case shall the wage paid to an individual woman be less than four-fifths of the wage previously paid to the man replaced.

The women who are coming into the trade are from Harrogate, Scarborough, Bridlington, Goole, Grimsby, Hull, Mansfield, and other towns.  A local Advisory Committee has been set up, but it is likely that considerable difficulty will arise in finding lodgings and housing accommodation for the new arrivals.  On the other hand, few families are now complete, and the room which is available should, wherever possible, be utilised.  Those who can find lodgings for the women now arriving will be performing a national service.

[Conscription, initially only of single men, but soon extended to married men, had been introduced in March 1916.  Some occupations were exempt form conscription, or 'starred', hence the reference to occupations becoming 'unstarred', and the predicted shortage of men in the textile trades. It's interesting that the Examiner says that the shortage of labour in Huddersfield to operate the spinning mules was entirely due to local custom and practice, and in other areas women were already doing that work before the war. ]

Protests at Low Wages for Making Uniforms

From the Huddersfield Examiner, 24th February, 1916.

NEW KHAKI CONTRACTS.

CRITICISM OF GOVERNMENT ARRANGEMENT.

The terms upon which the Government have let the new khaki contracts were the subject of protest at a meeting of Leeds Trades Council last night.

Miss Quinn, on behalf of the Shop Stewards, said that during the boom last year the Government offered all contracts on a flat rate, and it was said at the time that that arrangement paid the Government thousands of pounds.  The recent contracts, however, had been let by tender.  The result was that women workers were being sweated.  Wages had dropped by one-half.  A tunic for which 1s. 6d. was paid a year ago was now down at 1s., and in some cases 10d.  Regulation trousers had changed from 7s. to 4s. 6d.  It was nothing short of a public scandal.  The contracts were certainly covered by a fair wages clause, but the only clause existing was a minimum of 3½d. per hour, which no one could say was a fair wage to-day.

Miss Holmes quoted a case where the wages had dropped 75 per cent., but here the women refused to continue work, and they got all the rates advanced to the old prices in one section.  She did not blame the Government altogether.  There was a basis below which the Government would not go, and the contracts were not so low as such manufacturers would have the workers believe.  The Trade Board rate of 3½d. was not a living wage, and some employers were paying even less than that.

A resolution of protest was carried unanimously.

[Again, this shows that women workers did not always earn higher wages during the war that they had done previously - an earlier post said that some women munitions workers were also badly paid.]   

Lack of Accommodation for War Workers

From the Birmingham Daily Gazette, 11th December 1915.

BEDS MADE ONCE A WEEK.

Lack of Accommodation for War Workers.

COVENTRY INVASION.

Coventry is at the present moment faced with a problem more difficult probably than any it has hitherto had to tackle.  Thousands of workers have been drafted into the town for employment on various forms of munition work, and within another month or so, a "Gazette" representative learned yesterday, some 6,000 women are to be brought in for a similar purpose.  In addition there has been a great influx of men employed in the building trade owing to the extensions that are being made to existing factories and the erection of new buildings, and with no houses available for their accommodation, practically every house where lodgers are taken is full up, and the common lodging-houses crowded, the problem of housing the extra crowds has become critical.

As far back as last August, when the National Registration was made, and before the invasion really commenced, it was estimated that the shortage of houses could only be represented by big figures.  Indeed the enumerators had instances where beds were being used by both day and night shift men, and were only really "made" once a week, Saturday being the only day they were not occupied.

Special Trains.

Since then other steps have been taken, and a great number of the munition workers are housed in Rugby, Nuneaton, Warwick, Kenilworth, Leamington, Bedworth, and even as far as Atherstone, and for these special trains are run night and morning by the railway company, whilst accommodation on the ordinary trains has been increased.

The Corporation have, at the request of the Local Government Board, commenced a scheme for the immediate erection of six hundred working-class houses at Stoke Heath, in close proximity to the Coventry Ordnance Works, whose employees will be given preference in the letting.  These will be let to munition workers only, for the period of the war.  About fifty acres of land have been acquired for the purpose at a cost of £200 on acre, and though the Ministry of Munitions are not contributing to the cost of the site, they are giving financial assistance towards the cost of the houses, streets, and sewers.

In order to get over their difficulty to a certain extent one of the munitions firms is erecting hutments to house about 2,000 women workers, whilst 300 temporary self-contained dwellings are also being provided in the same locality. These will be of the bungalow type, containing three bedrooms kitchen and scullery.

Skilled and Unskilled.

It has been stated that a large number of women workers are being brought in to release men for the Army, but this is not quite true.  What is happening is that a "dilution" scheme is in progress, by means of which each factory will have such a proportion of skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled men and women, as will give the greatest efficiency to every one, and it is mainly owing to the excellent concessions made by the trade unions that this has come to pass.

It is unfortunate for Coventry that sufficient accommodation cannot be found for all these workers within the town.  It is estimated that already there are some 6,000 or 7,000, or even more, extra workers in the town which, if even only a small proportion of them are married, would mean a huge increase in the population.  What it would mean with another 6,000 or 7,000 coming in during the next month can easily be imagined.