MEN. WOMEN, AND MACHINES.
'FROM all parts of the country, encouraging reports are coming of the way in which employers and work- people have responded to the call for agreater output of munitions. Doubtless some of the old Trade Union troubles still linger, but the position as regards these seems to be distinctly better than it was. A more important fact is the way in which new types of work- people are being employed upon the manufacture of muni- tions. Men who previously belonged to the commercial or professional classes have taken up manual work, and experience shows that in a very brief time they are not only equal to skilled workmen of the older type but are even superior, and quickly become promoted to be foremen. But the overwhelming fact is the way in which women have responded to the call, and are now everywhere being employed on the manufacture of munitions, and are doing magnificent work. The well-informed writer in the Times who has been describing his own experiences even goes so far as to say that in some classes of work one woman is the equivalent of two men. This is possibly a picturesque exaggeration, but there seems to be little doubt that women, coming to this new work with fresh minds, unen- cumbered by old traditions, have thrown themselves into it heart and soul, and have succeeded in producing results which have surpassed all previous expectations. This new phenomenon, gratifying as it is for the immediate emergency of the war, creates a number of problems which will have to be solved when the war comes to an end. It is worth while even now to look ahead and consider how some of those problems can be dealt with, especially if we can devise methods of dealing with them which would also be beneficial at the present. moment. If we look at the problem of modern industry as a whole, the broad fact which impresses itself is the small extent to which human beings have yet adapted their lives to the call of the machiue. We are still all of us mainly regu- lating our lives by the rising and the setting of the sun, and everywhere there is a perfectly intelligible resistance to the proposal to introduce shifts of work ranging through the whole twenty-four hours. Of course at the present time many factories are working night and day, while even in peace time many industries must by their very nature be carried on continuously. But there has been hitherto no general recognition of the fact that the call of the machine and the natural habits of the human being are at variance, and that unless they can be reconciled it is impossible to obtain full value out of the machine or full satisfaction for the human being. From the workman's point of view the demand has been for a shorter working day in order that each individual may obtain more leisure for enjoying life. As the wage-earning classes have strengthened their posi- tion through Trade Union and political action, the eight hours movement has rapidly extended, and bids fair to extend still further. That means that expensive machines are only being run for a third of their possible working period. It is for this reason that employers resist the movement for shorter working hours, for they understand, even if the workman does not, that the standing charges which each machine involves must be met out of the work which the machine produces. These standing charges include Hot merely interest and depreciation upon the machine itself, but also similar allowances for the building that houses the machine and for the engine that drives it and the plant that lights it. In addition, there is the managing and commercial staff to be paid, all out of the product of the machine. These charges must be debited to each machine, however brief the period for which it is working. Consequently the longer the machine can work the greater margin is there to be divided between the owners of the machine and the factory hands who tend it. That is the case for the shift system of working, and the only answer to it is that it involves domestic inconvenience to the worker, Therefore the practical question to be considered is whether it is possible for the population as a whole so to regulate their habits of life as to reduce this domestic inconvenience to an endurable strain, and thus permit the practically universal establishment of the three-shift system in all our industries.
People who hastily say that this is impossible may be recommended to consider that already night and day work, or its equivalent in inconvenience, is very widely extended.
Our milk is brought to us every morning as the result of the work of milkers who, through the greater part of the year, have to get up before the dawn. Policemen watch our houses all through the night. Postmen are sorting letters and trains are running on the railways all through the twenty-four hours. Many journalists do not finish their work till the small hours of the morning* and after they have finished compositors and machinists are still working. When they in turn have stopped the publisher's department continues to handle the papers and distribute them rapidly to the railway stations so that in distant parts of the country people may have their newspapers with their breakfasts. Among other examples of all- night work or continuous work may be mentioned the glass industry, the gas industry, and the iron-smelting industry ; while latterly the three-shift system has been introduced into certain coal-mining districts, in spite of much pre- liminary opposition on the ground of domestic incon- venience.
Therefore we are justified in assuming that the thing can be done if the nation generally will give its mind to solving the problem. The advantages of solving it are enormous, especially from the point of view of the wage- earner. The utilization of machinery through the twenty- four hours means an enormous economy of capital. It means also that each machine will be demanding three workers instead of one. Thus the demand for capital will relatively decline and the demand for labour will relatively increase. The importance of these two facts after the war, when capital will be dear and labour will be cheap, need not be pressed. They mean that the wage-earning classes as a body will certainly be able to command higher wages than would be possible if our existing wasteful system of using machinery were continued. They also mean that the burden of work will be distributed over a larger human area, with the result that more people will be doing some work, while the general body of workers will have more leisure than they now possess. To secure a larger number of workers is a matter of the greatest importance at the present time. In spite of the splendid response which women have wade to the call for munition workers, it is obvious that there still remains a very large number of unoccupied women, and it is at least conceivable that a considerable percentage of these women would be willing to undertake industrial work if the hours of labour were lessened. It is no small matter for a woman who has been accustomed to a leisured—or, in many cases, it must be frankly said, to an absolutely idle—life to turn to suddenly and work for ten, eleven, or twelve hours a day. There are only a few women of this leisured type who could stand such a sudden strain, and from the general point of view of the well-being of the nation it is undesirable that they should he asked to stand it. If, on the other hand, the shift of work were generally reduced to eight hours, it is reasonable to believe that very large numbers of women who are at present virtually idle would become active workers. If machines were run through the twenty-four hours, the actual shift—after allowing necessary intervals for cleaning machinery—would prob- ably be little more than seven hours. The question is so important that we venture to urge individual manufacturers to give their minds to the problem even at the present time of crisis. Already the crisis itself has produced many most valuable change.. Employers who in the days of peace, which now seem so remote, Dever troubled to think about the personal convenience of their workpeople are now providing dining-rooms and rest-rooms, If this can be done amid the pressure of war, the further question of a complete redistribution of the hours of labour can also be considered. Doubtless there are districts where the supply of labour at the present moment would be insufficient to supply three shift, of
workers, but there are other districts i
where even now a sufficient supply could be obtained. Finally, if steps can be taken now to solve the problem, we shall reap the advantages in manifold ways when the war comes to as end.
Previous page
