UNSETTLED ENGLAND

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 229, 21 June 1919, Page 8

UNSETTLED ENGLAND

A FATEFUL INTERREGNUM

AS VIEWED BY THE AMERICAN

i. It is impossible for any man, woman s /r girl who has done any -work in the • (rest war, cither as a soldier or a faei :ory worker, to bo without money in ! England (writes Mr. W. 0. Shepherd for the-New York "livening Post").' Tho i government gives money free to those i ex-war workers who need it. It has beon | doing so sinco tho armistico and it will 1 ' :ontinuo to do so until nest May, ac- ; ;ordiug to present arrangements, "if it j didn't givo away money to ex-soldiers and [ sx-war workers no ono knows what would i havo happened in .England by this time. I l'lie point is, it is doing so. : Looking facts in the face, tliero aron't j. , jobs .enough in England for tho. dernobj ilised'men and women; at least, not tho sort of jobs they want. It is ail established fact that girls ivill not so back ! into domestic service; tho new England ; will have to be built up, in part, on ! that fact. ' Factory hands cannot find ! ! places because manufacturers, through ! lack of raw matorials, cannot mako contracts. The careful "Times" estimates j that soon there will be a million men : N and women out of employment in Ungj Jand. Tho astonishing fact is that theso. ■unemployed will all have money enough \ to live on until May whether they work !v or not. I 1 'A Stranga Unsettlodness. ! lit is this fact that gives tho nowj 1 comer (©'England a-Btrange sense of unsatj tledness. There is a holiday feeling everyj where; an atmosphere of waiting and exI pectancy. One at first attributes this to the fact that peace is not yet signed; tho : 'American visitor here is inclined to be- !•■' lieve at first that England will not really } celebrate tho end of the war until the 1 peace papers are 'signed iu France. But ■ ,1 believe that this judgment is wrong. !■ England is not waiting for signatures; j fhe knows, as well as any of tho rest. !. of us that the war is over. England is ! .1 .unsettled beoause so few of her folki havo settled down to steady lives, and so ! ■ few of them see any way of doing so. ' The British Government to-day is payj ing to every discharged soldier about 7.25d01. a week, and it will continuo I to do so for six months after his dis- : charge, or until he finds a job; Every. ; man who worked in munitions will receive the same sum per week for ft ! quarter of a year after his w'sr work ! ends, or until ho finds a peace-time job. i Every woman or girl who worked in tho ; war factories will'receive Gdol. 25 cents. «, week from the Government for halt a year, or until she finds ft position. It

Has 'not yet. been publicly stated ho many milliona will fiud their way tv the non-employment jwnsiou list of the r Government. _ />

; Vouchers for Eaoh Day's Pay. Eaoli person who dvawg this allowance from the Government must report daily to nil allowance office in his district ana ■ sign a voucher for that day's pay. In some districts, 1' am told, there are so j manv pensioners that tho office force cannot handle tho crowds Mid, in the good old British fashion of slushing your way through ft cocoon of red tape when jt 'gets too thick, the unemployed are !- told to call .every two or threo days i instead of daily. • .With these hundreds of thousands 01 i working men and women on tho Goverxii went pay-roll, living without producing, ! .the question arises as to what will hap- ■ pen next May when those who first be- ! gan"to draw tho non-employment pension find that their allowance has been with- ; drawn. Of:course, hy that time it is hoped that tho industries of England : will have begun to stand on their own ' legs.' There is a tendency among the ■ labour unions and the men ;n tho faci tories to "move over a bit and give somebody else a bench in the . factory too." This tendency, expresses itself in ! the manv strikes for shorter hours. No- ; body, so "far as I can leam, in any Eng- ! lish factory or on any Kuglish railway 1 or in'any'English mine wants hereafter • . to'work'moro. than forty-seven hours a week, and there have been many strikes [ nnd will ho more for this demand; ..The, I labour leaders give as ono of tlio chief I fea'sons for this scale of hours the fact i" that "shorter hours mean jobs for' mora i. jjeople. ' Those who are working" in England ' Beam to be able to' win anything they J strike, for. The result is one gets tho | impression that they have I come to -tho ; place where they don't know what more ! to ask for, and still feol that they'must I ask in order to keep the upper hand. ! Too Early Breakfasts, Say Wives. . i The winning of the eight-hour day, for ; instance, brought a|jout a peculiar eom- ! plication. In the old days when an j English factory hand went to work at six his wife put up his breakfast for him the night before, and lio took it to work , ..with-him, and ato it about 8 o'clock. If ho lived near the factory he came home ; at B,.and,had breakfast there. The new ] eight-hour day doesn't give him the 8 ' ■ o'clock breakfast hour. He must be at ■ ■ work at 8 o'clock, ready to work on. until noon. . Ho must, therefore, have breakfast before ho leaves home, .-That means that his wife must get up as early in the ; morning as he does, if not earlier, and prepare the morning meol. And fills : .has declared against this. The British workingnwu went anoad and got union hours for himself thai suited ihis own fancy, but he had forgotten- to tako his wife's wishes into 1 account. When blio discovered after her : husband had won his eight-hour day that ' jit meant for her an eai-iy rising ahe put ! ;iher foot down on the whole tiling, 1 and [ many.of the unions, 'as a result of [ ''trouble .with tho women folks at home," are preparing to ask for'a working day ! ithaf. begins at 8 o'clock in the morning, i -'If they do ask for it, they'll get it, too. .The Shop Steward. ; Recently the union leadojs have found their men. setting out of liaiid. j The shop steward system, -which grew up | in the war, and which is soinotvliat like ! the system which John D.' Rockefeller, ;, jun., advocated at tho -Atlantic City busi- • ness men's conference in December, m ! threatening in' some districts, like ilia !;. Clyde ship work, to overturn tho clcl ! -union system. Under the shop steward I system a representative of tbo men in ; each department of a factory,' known m ■ ft shop steward, stands between them and ; ,-their employers and speaks their wishes ■directly' to the employer, without tlio • medium of a district union leader, in ! tho great factories the various stewards in cach department, elect a head steward, who is known as tho governor. His power in a factory is tremendous, as la speaks directly for the men or lor any group of tlio men. : . Under the union system as it works | in England and America union leaders in distant places aro called in to deeido as to whethor or not the men shall fitriko in caso of griervanco, but under : the steward system it is all done right off tho trigge-r. The men pay no union dues; they meet during working houis if they choose, at the drop of a hat. In the ehop steward eystom many employers iind members of tho Government soo a < -Russian tendency, highly Bolshevistic, to gain control of tlio factories for tlio i workmen. A careful resume of liie labour situation in England does iiot i disclose any suggestion of real Bolshevism in England ns I saw it in Russia, except for this one thing of shop stowardism. The British 'labouring man is notagainst | tho Government; ho venerates tho King; i 'he is not against capital; and ho is i.ot. ; nt heart against his employer so long r,s i he is.well paid and has good hours. Kus- ! jian Bolshevism can bo headed off everywhere by food and employmont. The ;' . British Government is successfully, just now at least, heading it off by tlio good • )ld full-stomaoh method.