WILL WOMEN WIN THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2724, 20 March 1916, Page 3

WILL WOMEN WIN THE WAR

DILUTED LABOUR

In tie last few days I have had the Opportunity of visiting a number of tho factories where munitions are being made in this country, writes the special commissioner of the "Daily Mail." The chief impression I got was that the final round of tho war will be won by women. It ■ will be won by women because only through the further dilution of labour in the workshops oan the continuous supply, of munitions needed to meet every accident of war and sufficient to ensure victory under ]any circumstances be turned out. When ,tbat point is roaehed the army of \votoen making shcils and other things will Jiot number about 250,000, as at present. It will number many times more. ,' '" '

In Woolwich Arsenal alone there is ■Work for all the women between the S-ges of 18 and.3s within a two miles > radius. They'are all wanted. There is room fcr every one of them, whether married or single, in the great army of women which is eoing to turn the tide.- So far only 15 per cent, are at work in the Arsenal, but they are coining in every day. If all cannot leave thnir homes, th«n those beyond the two >fiiles radius, will come in. Women In tho Shops. •' In most districts the men now wclfcome women to the workshops. Even tm the. Clyde they are beginning to Yealise that they cannot win alone, and ithat this can no longer be a war between men. Every day that becomes clearer. You have only to go into a tmnition~factory where many_ women re working; where, indeed, in some shops-tliey ore in the; great'majority, .'to realise that the war is inevitably passing from the hands of men into those of women. You see thousands

i>f women working on tens of thousands of shells which will some day be aimed a at tho enemy. You 6oe them making 'the things which are meant to kill Germans or Turks or Bulgars. You .see a pretty girl, slight, with golden hair and playful blue eyes, quietly putting the finishing touches to a. bomb which soma day in the nest few weeks will cause havoc in an enemy trench. -" And these women in the workshops know how much depends, on them. They take it very seriously. They work hard and for long hours. They know that the women of Germany are doing the same, and they know, too, that every day the Allies are depending on them

ond the women of France to a greater

degree. ~■'.- ' . , But much still remains to be done, land further sacrifices Temain to be

made, if women are to be given a fair 'chance to help to bring about that 'speedy victory which, they desire r not 'only in their own interests, but for the 'sake of their men at the front. J'hey 'can only be given that fair chance ;by employers and workers consenting to a further and more drastic dilution of labour. Only this further dilution, as the Prime Minister said the other day, can ensure a sufficient supply of munitions to enable the .war to be brought to a speedy and victorious conclusion. There is no difficulty with the women. They are anxious enough to go into the workshops. The only difficulty' is to persuade employers that further dilution is possible, and to convince the men that their interests will not 'suffer after the war. . •'• Machines standing Idle, What 1 have seen in the last, few days left no doubt of the urgent necessity for this further dilution. I have seen idreds of machines standing idle because of the lack of skilled men to set them going. I went into on© shop where there were two long lines of machines which had not been used since the day they arrived, many weeks ago. They were expensive machines. They had cost over "£SOO, each. But they 6tood there idle, because there were no skilled men to fit them-up and set them going. And I was told that the only way; to bring the needed men to those machines was '. by. dilution—which is essentially 'a - process for setting free .skilled men for the .work whioh they alono can do. In a properly diluted shop the skilled men do only that proportion of the work on each job which is essentially skilled. But .there are still employers who decline to give the whole-hearted help in bringing about that ideal, and there are still men who fail in the same way. Those hundreds of machines I saw will continue to stand idle if further steps are not taken to reach the ideal of dilution.

There is another and even more important point. When I started on my tour of factories I had the impression that night shifts were worked every* where. I had thought of the workshops of England a 6 places ivhere work went on day and night, where the machines never stopped, and where the furnaces never died down.

I had no idea of the faots.. Nothing surprised me more > than to find that

than the rule, and that 70 per cent, of the machines in munition factories are idle for at least eight hours out of the twenty-four; Every night tons of thousands of machines are at rest, and every night you could walk- for miles, for hundreds of miles, through silent workshops; where the machines stand idle in long avenues, and; there is no sign of life except the scurrying of an occasional mouse. Little more than 30 per cent, of the places where munitions are made are working substantial night' shifts. The id«al of having every machine working every hour of the day and night has ..been reached in many shops where employers and men have co-operated.whole-heartedly, and every effort is made to bring into line those who are still sceptical of the possibilities of dilution.

The problem of convincing' the men that they have adequate guarantees of the. temporary character of the necessary changes is no greater than tho difficulty of persuading employers of what can be done under diluted conditions by unskilled or semi-skffled men, and especially by women. , How to Multiply Output. That the difficulties will he overcome is certain. Tt is expected that in a short time onlv women.will be employed on operating the machines which turn out shells up to 4.5, and that on the larger shells, oven up to 9.2, it may be found possible for women to operate the lathes if one man is aonointed to ovary five to do the heavy lifting work. This economy of men, and especially of skilled men. is the whole secret of dilution. Without . dilution twelve skilled men are worth onlv twelve. With dilution +hev are worth between 72 and 96. Their value increases to that, extent bpcause thev can supervise the work of 72 or even in soni". cases of 9fi women. They set tho nvfhines and the women operate-thsm. The output of those 12 skilled men may thus be multiplied to nearly 100.