THE CIVIL SERVICE AND THE ARMY.
EVENEVEN those people who oppose compulsory military can hardly approve of the action of the Government in making it impossible for Civil Servants to join the Army. It is true that a considerable number of Civil Servants have already enlisted. It is also true that a good many postal employees who were old soldiers have been called back to the Army under their obligation as Reservists. But when allowance has been made for both these facts, it remains true that an enormous number of men of military age are still being employed in Government offices and in postal work of various kinds. The matter is so serious, in view of our tremendous national need for soldiers, that it is worth while to examine closely the causes of this failure of the Civil Service to respond to the call of the'country. Partly the trouble is due to individuals holding back. In some offices where the clerks have been given general permission to enlist they have not yet fully availed themselves of that permission. So far as this cause operates, it is identical with the influences which are affecting thousands of young men in private employment. The influences are numerous. In some cases it may be that young men working in offices feel that if they serve in the Army at all they ought to obtain commissions, and they refuse to enlist unless commissions are available. In other cases there is probably a sheer reluctance to abandon even temporarily an easy job in order to undertake arduous and perilous duties. Beyond these personal causes, however, there is the fact that in many Government offices little encouragement has been given to employees to enlist, and in some cases permission has been refused. We do not suggest for a moment that in every case the heads of Departments have done wrong in refusing permission. Doubtless there are cases where it would have been practically impossible to carry on the work of the Department if any large number of men of military age had insisted on enlisting. Even in these cases, however, it is doubtful whether sufficient effort has been made to call back to the office older men familiar with its routine, or to employ for puvely routine work women clerks, who could be trained in a comparatively brief period. Where neither of these methods of dealing with the situation was feasible, it certainly is justifiable to hold back men of military age, provided the work is absolutely imperative. The case is, in fact, identical with that of skilled engineers employed on munitions work, The whole point is that no serious effort has yet been Made by the Government as a, whole to determine what classes of Civil Service work are at the moment imperative. The Departments have all been permitted to act as judges in their own cause. They may have made small adjustments of work to meet the necessities of the war, but in the main they appear still to regard their Departmental duties as more important than the nation's call for soldiers. The Post Office is a special offender. It is in peace time probably the largest single employer of labour in the whole kingdom. Its staff includes an immense number of clerks at the headquarters office at St. Martin's-leGrand and in other head offices throughout the country. It includes letter-sorters, letter-carriers, telegraphists, telephonists, and a large contingent of engineers and electricians. So far as the clerical staff is concerned, it is very doubtful whether even in time of peace such an enormous staff serves any useful purpose. Of all the Departments of the Government, the Post Office is probably the most expensively managed. Being a revenue Department able to show a big annual profit owing to its statutory monopoly, its expenditure is not criticized with the same care which the Treasury devotes to Departments which represent only outgoings. A great deal of the clerical work carried on in London under most expensive conditions as regards salaries and office accommodation could be entirely dispensed with if the Post Office were run as a business concern and the local officials were given a reasonable amount of discretion. As regards letter-sorting, letter-carrying, telegraphing and telephone work, this must go on as long as the public demand continues at its present height ; but there is absolutely no reason why a very large proportion of this work should not be entrusted to women. Take, for example, the telephone service. At present women operators work the telephone during the day, and work it extremely well. At eight o'clock in the evening male operators come on duty, and the efficiency of the service instantly falls off. The reason for this substitution of men for women after nightfall is the theory that our social system would tumble to pieces if women were employed on night-work. This theory apparently does not apply to hospital nurses, and certainly in time of war there is no reason whatever why women should not supersede men for telephone night-work. The same consideration applies to telegraphic work. Another Case where women are better than men at Post Office work is in serving behind the counter. In many offices women already do this work, and do it admirably; but in the more important offices, for some unexplained cause, men are employed to do the work, and do it sulkily and badly. No apology is needed for using the word " sulkily" ; for everybody who observes the male postal employee will know that he is, with few exceptions, a discontented man. Yet he is well paid in comparison with men doing work requiring much more skill in other employments. One can only imagine that this note of discontent which runs through the Post Office is due to the fact that the men are conscious that the work they are doing is unsuitable for their strength, and leads to no prospect in the future. Take, for example, letter-sorting. Much of this work is entirely indoor work. It is not heavy work, and there is no reason why the whole of it should not be loft to women. A slightly different issue is raised where the letter-sorter is in some cases also a letter-carrier ; but even lettercarrying, as the experience of the present war has proved, is work which women can undertake in an emergency. Indeed, on this point credit is due to the Post Office for the way in which it has already taken a good many women into employment as letter-carriers.
It is also necessary to add, in fairnees to the general administration of the Post Office, that tile whole problem is greatly complicated by political influences. The postal employees form a powerful Trade Union with considerable voting strength in many constituencies, and with an undisguised determination to use their votes solely for their own personal or class advantage. They constantly as voters resist any attempt to extend the employment of women, and have maintained that resistance even during the emergency of the war. That the individual employee of the Post Office should ask that if he goes to the front his place shall be kept for him is perfectly intelligible, and the State would be guilty of inexcusable meanness if it did not give this guarantee. In practice, however, the postal employees through their organization try, and try successfully, to prevent any general transference of postal work to women quite apart from the personal interests of the men who enlist. It is not too much to say that their view is that the Pest Office exists primarily for the benefit of postal employees, and. they are able to a large extent, by political pressure, to impose this view upon the Government. There is a further aspect of the postal problem .which remains to be considered—namely, the possibility of cutting down the total volume of work by diminishing the demands of the public. The Report of the Public Retrenchment Committee, which was published simultaneously with Mr. McKenna's Budget speech, indicated very great possibilities in. this direction. That Report proposed that the example of Canada should,. be followed, and a halfpenny war-stamp should he required for every kind of postal communication in addition to the existing rates. Such a proposal would have been :very easy to defend in the House of Commons, and very difficult to fight. No explanation has been given of the refusal of the Cabinet to adopt it. If it had been adopted, not only would many additional millions of revenue have been secured, but the total volume of Post Office work would certainly have been reduced, because the public would have economized in the sending of letters and postal communications of every kind. Stress has been laid upon the ease of the Post Office because it is the largest of the Civil Service Departments, and the one in which most hope of economy lies. Another Department which is a grave offender is the Board of Educetion. Here, too, an enormous number of clerks are employed in doing routine work, a large part of which need never be done at all. This Department has grown to its present magnitude largely because the very word " education " has become a kind of fetish. If anything could by any straining of language be called education, at once it became in the eyes of numbers of politicians semi-sacred, and no attempts at economy wore tolerated. Yet the people who really understand the needs of national education best are most emphatic in declaring that an immense amount of our present expenditure upon public education is purely wasted. Part of that waste is no doubt attributable to the local authorities, but it is interesting to note that many of these authorities are now engaged in making efforts at economy, while, so far as can be gathered, there are no corresponding efforts being made by the Department itself, The whole trouble is that, though Cabinet Ministers go about the country preaching the need for private economy, up to the present no serious effort has been made by the Government as a whole to insist upon economy in public expenditure.
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