THE INDUSTRIAL RESERVE.
WE have dealt elsewhere with the main problem of increasing the national production of munitions of war. Here we desire to point out how voluntary effort may
supplement the efforts of Government and of private firms. capable labour, both male and female, throughout the An excellent example of the kind of voluntary organization we have in mind is furnished by the Industrial Reserve (227 Strand, W.C.), which was started eight weeks ago, and has already placed over nine hundred men in useful employ- ment, directly or indirectly concerned with war work. These men are for the most part drawn from classes who do not ordinarily come into the labour market. Many of them are middle-class men normally engaged in business or professions who have lost their work through the dis- organization caused by the war, but who, being useful with their hands, are able to take on skilled or semi- skilled work in munition factories. Many others are retired artisans who have saved money and were, until the war began, living upon their savings. Men of these classes, as soon as they heard of the Industrial Reserve, came forward and volunteered to help. They have been placed without difficulty, and are now busily at work. The Industrial Reserve from the outset has worked in close co-operation with Vickers, Maxim, and Co. and with similar munition factories. It is also in direct communication with the War Office, and has supplied many men for direct war work, especially in connexion with the Army Service Corps. It has also received frequent applications for the services of old men to fill the places of younger men who have gone to the front. This is becoming an increasing need. As the young bank clerks and clerks in commercial offices enlist in greater numbers it becomes increasingly necessary to call upon old men, or in some cases upon women, to fill their places. All this work the Industrial Reserve is able to undertake and does daily discharge. In addition, as each day brings fresh experience to the little band of volunteers who run the organization, they are able to launch out in new directions. For example, they have recently arranged for the employment of the staff and premises of King 'is College technical workshops for the training of young men to do munition work. The staff have patriotically offered their services and the authorities of King's College have offered their premises. All that is needed ie the purchase of some new machines estimated to cost about £150, and it is hoped that private generosity will meet this cost. In the same way, the Industrial Reserve has placed the London Polytechnic in communica- tion with Vickers, Maxim, and Co., with the result that a number of the students of the Polytechnic have been taken for Vickers's new factory, while the remainder are being employed at the Polytechnic itself on munition work.
When one small organization run by a few enthusiast. can do so much excellent work in so brief a period, it is possible to realize how enormously the productive capacity of the country could be increased if similar organizations were started in other parts of the country, or if this organiza- tion were more widely known. The Industrial Reserve is specially anxious to be in direct communication with more manufacturers of munitions, and particularly with small manufacturers, who are capable of adapting their work- shops to the special needs of the type of man who is not included in the ordinary labour ranks. There is a vast amount of work which can be done by technically uu- skilled men if the work is arranged in such a way as to suit their capacity. In addition, there is the tremendously important problem of part-time work. This is a problem which most manufacturers and employers generally are rather shy of touching, for it involves a troublesome reorganization'; but it is a problem which must be dealt with if we are to utilize to the full the industrial and commercial capacity of the country. It ought to be added that the Industrial Reserve makes a special point of only enlisting men for the period of the war, and of not interfering with the employment of ordinary working men. In the words of the circular issued by this organization, "the Industrial Reserve wilt not be used in any way to supplant the ordinary working men. Its object ie to supplement the present body of workers, not to supplant them. Our reservists will work side by side and for the same wages with the members of the regular industrial army, but they will do so as temporary workers, and it will be a condition of their enrolment in the Reserve that they are to be withdrawn from the industrial ranks as soon as the war emergency is over and their extra services are no longer required."
On such lines as these there is an immense reserve of country, and patriotic citizens cannot better employ them- selves at the present moment than in building up organiza- tions for the utilization of this reserve.
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