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THE DISGRACE OF LEISURE

AN ARTICLE BY LADY SCOTT |Lady Scott, the widow of tho great explorer, who lost his life aftor reaching the South Pole, has been working in a munition factory for eleven months and embodies her experiences in the following arfciclo . lately published ill the "Daily Mail."] The Ministry of Munitions say that they want more women woftkers. I can understand this appeal and tho urgency of it, having myself worked'in a factory. On all women who still have leisure, who are not actually engaged in sojno necessary occupation, I urge, first tho duty of work, .then, the pleasure of it. It has come now to this, that war is not a war of armies but of nations. Man-power no longer suffices; womenpower must be utilised, and to tho uttermost. Man-power has been conscripted ; women to-day aro "where men stood a year ago, confronted with the call to servo but under-no obligation save that of honour! When it was a question for men the best women used .their influence to enforce the call to arms, saying, afad. truly, that it cost them more to send others into danger than to accept a sacrifice for themselves. Now their service also has grown essential; the call comes to their own door. The); are asked to face not danger but discipline—the ordeal, new to;many among them, of daily hard work—and it would be mean to apply tho obligation to volunteer less severely for .themselves than for their men-folk. _ Yet.their hesitation is not unnatural. ■There wore thousands of men who took long to realise the urgency and the universality of the need. Perhaps women do not yet understand that unless they go to make munitions soldiers must be kept froni the jf'ont to do work which women can do as well.' Again, thero were, thousands of men ■ who thought that to enter the ranks was a strange social departure, almost a social degradation., Nowadays, we all know that no man is too good to carry a rifle in this war. _But it is just as true that no woman is too refined to be a factory hand: the finest lady is the woman who has the finest' sense of honour.

Exemption can be had only from one's own conscience; and where the need'is so urgent I do not see who can be exempt except for some higher skilled utility. At such a time as this no ablebodied citizen has the right to leisure. .Ease and comfort for one can only be bought by strain, overwork, or death itself for someone else.'

1 ivould say this also; Parents have no more right to keep back their girls from tho factory than their boys from the ranks. The moral advantage of service far outweighs tie moral danger of changed conditions of life. Indeed, to suggest that girls cannot come and go about the business of real work unharmed seems to nib an insult-to our civilisation and l our race. \

So much, then, for duty; now about the pleasure. Factory work means acceptance of 'hard, monotonous, regular labour. At my factory we began at 7 and we worked till 6, with half an hour for breakfast and one hour for dinner ; but 1 can certainly testify that factory work has pleasure in it. I 'am very proud of one thing which was said to me: "Wo never knew it was fun being in the factory until you came.". And it was fun. Thero were days, of Course, when I counted the hours till I got away, but thero were days, too, when I was actually soriy to ho interrupted, to break off before I had' finished.

1 Ail honest pride in ono's work—tie desiro to excel—an honourable sonso of racing—those things mado the fun of it. When I began, of course, I could' not reach, the allotted measure of tho .day's task; it was a great ovent when I passed it and began _to earn a bonus. Afterwards I doubled, trebled, and quadrupled tho measure; hut there was always a girl who could beat me, if she tried, and the spirit of competition kept us alert. in munition work, generally speaking, intelligence and dexterity oount for moro than robustness. " Physically it is a strain just as the soldier's work is a strain for most men; but you train into it, aiid tho •uniformity of regular labour is good, and not'bad, for health. I was never better for so long a period than during the eleven months of my work .there. * ■'}* * * * For mo, too,; I confess the ehango to such unfamiliar conditions made an adventure of which; contrary to my expectations, the zest did not wane. Partly, I suppose, because I made., frieiids; they came and stay-' ed with me, I stayed with' them j they were now tome as Ito them; but wo liked.each other. There was a jolliuess about it all—arriving with daylight ,:into, : a warm room among friendly, faces and) in the 'evening hui'rying. eacE'bth'er up to get ready-so that friends could walk home in company."

la short, th'ero was real comradeship, and tho personal lives of my friends becamo of great importanco to mo. Beyondl all this thero was absolute freedom from that unrest which is a characteristic disease of this time. ■ The munition worker, liko tho man in the ranks, :is under orders, doing her piece of assigned work. There is no timo to bo anxious, to fr.ofc for news, to feel

the days drag heavily.- One gets home, eats, sleeps like a tired animal and; wakes fresh ready to go on again. Look-

ing back on it I would not for anything bo without the experience, and 1 honestly believe that no one who volunteers will regrot tho choice.

| Earning money; too, will be for many all adventure and not an 'unpleasant one. Men have, told mo. that they never valued anything more than their shillings drawn at the pay-table. AVonien havo the advantage of the soldiers, becauso what the munition worker earns is very appreciable. You go for six weeks to one of the schools established by the Ministry of Munitions and then you can go into a factory and start at £1 a week—earned hy making what your country , urgently requires; and you feel good about it. ■' But, above : all,' you will escape the moments which come to any self-re-specting girl or woman when she asks herself whether it is right or fair, or decent that sho should 1 bo having a good time while her men-folk are facing and sufferiirg what wo hear of—and much, too, that we do not, .It is no small moral comfort in those days to feel yourself clear of tho disgrace of leisure.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19161228.2.6

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2962, 28 December 1916, Page 3

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,122

THE DISGRACE OF LEISURE Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2962, 28 December 1916, Page 3

THE DISGRACE OF LEISURE Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2962, 28 December 1916, Page 3

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