Welfare Work
Part X and Conclusion to ‘England in Arms’.
From The
Canadian Magazine, February 1918.
Digitized by
Doug Frizzle, August 2016.
The
strident of industrial conditions in England during the war might well wonder
if Lloyd George has accomplished anything more promising for victory, more
beneficial to his country in such a period of stress, than the institution of a
new theory in industrial life based on the humanizing of toil. It was away
back in the early days of his acceptance by the Empire as the essential cog in
the machine of war. At a time when the German was threatening Paris and no
obstacle to his victorious march loomed above the horizon, the little Welshman
was called by his Premier—but more insistently by his country—to undertake the
revolutionizing of warfare in a country whose short-sighted lack of
preparation bade fair to be its death sentence.
Guns
were needed—more guns—and thousands
more. The victorious enemy was not only shattering his way to the capital city
of one of the Allies, but he was exacting a toll of the best fighters in the
world that threatened quickly to prove his invincibility. The British Tommy,
fainting from the fatigue of continued battle, but fighting on without a
thought of submission, ground his teeth at his impotence. Man to man he knew
his superiority. But man to gun was but fodder. Behind a barrage of murderous
shells the German soldier laughed at the puny opposition of a gunless army. The
strongest forts known to military science had fallen without a struggle. The
direction of the invading army was ever forward.
Only when its ammunition failed temporarily was it driven to retreat behind
the hills of the Aisne. And then England clamoured for the guns to give the men
a chance. Lloyd George the most aggressive politician in sight was given the
mission to get them!
Immediately
he recognized that the task was not so much a matter of material as of
workpeople and factories. And, with his own peculiar foresightedness, he knew
that success depended in the final issue on a workpeople contented and able to
undertake without more than the minimum of rest the great task of production.
To make the munition-makers contented and physically fit for their work more
than suitable wages was required. Hours of work must be, for the time subject
only to the limits of human endurance. The driving back of the enemy,
therefore, hung on the minds and bodies of the workers. And to ensure
co-operation of these two allies something in the way of innovation was
necessary.
The
solution of the problem, as it affected
the million women who have thrown themselves into the production of munitions
of war, was the creation of a new department in connection with the Ministry of
Munitions. As Lloyd George puts it himself: “I had the privilege of setting up
something that was known as a welfare department, which was
an attempt to take advantage of the present mallability of industry in order to
impress upon it more humanitarian conditions, to make labour less squalid and
less repellant, more attractive and more healthy.” And the results have so far
excelled even his hopes that the department is not recognizable to-day by its
ambitious creator.
The
Welfare Department in Great Britain is assuredly an innovation in industrial
life. There has been, and is, a prevailing idea that it is but an English
application of a phase of working life already developed in the United States.
A Government official modestly deprecated to me any idea of novelty. “You,” he
said, “know all about it already, of course. For it is not new in America.” And
he spoke of a certain great factory in the Central States that has for years
secured much valuable advertising through its care of its employees. But the
difference between any so-called welfare work in America and that developed in
Great Britain is sufficient to mark the latter as a distinct creation. Not only
is the work differently controlled, but its duties and the direction of its
efforts are essentially new.
“Welfare”
has been applied in England loosely to everything that introduces a new
office dealing directly with the employee of a factory. Jealous and selfish
employers have attempted to forestal Government interference by appointing
officials whom they dignify with the title of “welfare workers”, but whose
only duty is to secure larger dividends for the directors. But, strictly
speaking, “welfare” in England applies only to the appointees of the Ministry
of Munitions; and it is only with these this article will deal. The most dangerous
obstacle to the ultimate benefits of real welfare work is the disgust and
distrust aroused in the workers by officials who are responsible only to their
employers; and there has been more than a suggestion that the Government
protect the idea by copyrighting the term it has selected for its appointees.
The
welfare worker is a Government employee. The Welfare Department, through a
permanent committee, passes on every worker, by interview, by examination of
character, record and references. The aim is high, as it necessarily must be
to secure a woman whose influence on the munitioneers will be good. Apart from
the ordinary qualifications of official position of such authority, she must be
educated, dignified, sympathetic, independent, resourceful, diplomatic,
physically strong, competent to command, and capable of winning affection as
well as respect. It is a large order—so large that the calibre cannot be
maintained with any hope of filling the demand. The fact that almost all
munition factories are either Government-owned or controlled renders them
amenable to the regulation that, with more than a certain number of female
employees, one or more welfare workers must he engaged. And the supply is
greviously inadequate. It is a feature of English life that caste is another
requirement in the welfare workers. Unless the munition workers are sensible
of the superior station in life of at least the head of the welfare staff they
are reluctant to lend themselves to the relationship imposed by the new idea.
Many women, seemingly otherwise fitted to do effective work, have failed to
gain the respect so necessary for results. And as the work, if honestly
performed, is hard and often discouraging, with long hours and innumerable
worries, and with a strain that increases to proportions beyond the reputed
strength and competence of woman, even those few who might fill the position
with success hesitate before assuming the tremendous responsibilities.
The
true welfare official is selected by the Welfare Department of the Ministry of
Munitions, accordingly, and approved of by the management of the factory where
her work is to be. As a Government employee she is independent, save in
employment and discharge, of the management. Her position might
appear anomalous and impossible, but in reality, owing to the wonderful results
that have appeared, the munition firms have accepted the relationship with a
grace that grows to appreciation. As a Government official it is her duty in
general to see that the working conditions are reasonable and fair, that the
factory equipment is sanitary and safe, that dismissals are only for good
cause, that the moral atmosphere is satisfactory, that the girls are paid
according to established rates; in short, that every surrounding of the female
worker is suitable to her sex, her physical and moral requirements, and to her
protection. The value of the welfare worker to the management appears in her
ability to settle disputes, maintain discipline, raise the morale of the
girls, secure from them a full co-operation in production and in factory
interest, and protect the firm from the expense and loss of time arising from a
wrong mental attitude and from accident.
The
technical titles applied to the workers are somewhat descriptive. The head may
be a “supervisor” or a “superintendent”. The former works without assistants in
the smaller factories. The superintendent has directly under her a staff of
welfare assistants and auxiliary forces. Properly speaking, only her
assistants who have been approved of by the Department are “welfare workers”,
but a superintendent is usually considered competent to select assistants who
would satisfy the Department.
The
duties of the superintendent are too multifarious to be described save under
the general term “welfare”. Obviously there is little she can do which has not
some connection with the interests of her women munition-workers. Outside the
general authority secured to her by her official appointment, her powers rest
with the factory management. If the latter is sympathetic and satisfied with
her, she is sometimes given almost unlimited authority over the women in the
shops. The one Canadian welfare superintendent in Great Britain, with the
fullest recognition by both Government and factory officials, has practically
supreme control over every woman in the factory area, munition-workers and
office staff. In her rests authority to select and dismiss employees, to pass
on the dismissals by the foreman, to promulgate regulations
of any kind affecting female labour. As head of the Labour Bureau every new
employee must conform to the ideals she has established. The requirements in
this department alone, of 3,500 women workers, with the ordinary changes of
industrial life and the extraordinary and unexpected demands of war
conditions, is difficult to imagine. Lavatory, hospital and rest-room
accommodation is directly subject to her. She is one of a committee of three to
manage a canteen for 5,000 employees. She has charge of the cleaning staffs.
Her orders in the business office are obeyed as the manager’s. Female
employees obtain from her leave to pass from the building during working hours
and to remain from work for special reasons.
But
these are the mere outlines of her general work, the listed duties. They are,
in reality, the least of her real welfare work. Her main care is to secure the
confidence of her girls, to convince them that in her they have a friend. She
protects them from the momentary exasperation of worried foremen. Every
possible convenience and comfort she obtains for them. Rest-rooms and canteen
and lavatories, floors and windows of shops are kept under her eye for
cleanliness and fittings. A girl on work too strenuous for her strength is
transferred by her to easier duties. Petty thieving is controlled by the firm’s
police under her direction. Complaints of every kind are brought to her for
settlement, from a badly cooked meal at the canteen to the partiality of a
charge hand. She orders improvements to ventilation, heating and lighting,
and sees that the girls who have leisure to
sit are provided with seats. She inquires
into mistakes in pay envelopes and
advises the management on inadequate rates.
And
still the list is incomplete. She arbitrates
disagreements, not only between the foremen and the
girls, but between the girls themselves. She moves, when conditions warrant it,
girls into more congenial shops. She directs them to the firm’s hospitals in
case of sickness. She takes the children of mothers who must work for a living
and finds them good homes. She firmly dismisses girls physically unfitted for
their duties, but offers them re-employment when their health warrants it. She
keeps in touch with every sick employee, sending her assistants to their homes
to inquire their wants. She supervises the boarding-houses of the workers and
to some extent their homes. She encourages them to come to her in all the
petty troubles of life, whether in connection
with their work or not.
While
her office doors are frequently closed, by stress of work,
to the factory officials, they are always open to
the girls. To be a mother to them
is the highest aim and the most productive of the right kind of welfare
superintendent.
This intimate and authoritative
contact with her girls is not
maintained at the cost of discipline. Indeed, the welfare superintendent is the
source of discipline as well as of protection and comfort. In every
move she considers the rights and wishes of the foremen. Leave is given—except
for compulsory reasons—only as the demands of the shop
permit. The foreman’s authority is sustained in every reasonable instance. His
work is lightened by the application of discipline by one who understands conditions
and sympathizes with his difficulties
in applying his authority to a new
class of worker whom he
does not quite understand and is too busy to
study.
The
course of an ordinary
forenoon’s work is revealing.
1.
Arriving at 8.30, she examines the reports
left by her night assistants, nurses, women police and forewomen of the cleaners.
2.
Letters opened and answered.
3.
Twenty new girls engaged.
4.
Special committee meeting on air raid
protection.
5.
Trouble at the canteen made the dismissal of
the night cook necessary, after which application for a new one had to be made
to the Government Labour Exchange.
6.
Discharge granted to woman physically unfit—a
case to be followed up. Explanation made to foreman and superintendent of the
branch of the factory in which she worked.
7.
Girl released from one shop through lack of
work is found a place in another.
8.
Girl ordered off night work by her doctor is
exchanged to day work with another girl.
9.
Foreman came to explain absence of one of his
girls. Arrangements made to get her pay to her.
10.
Girl came to complain of her discharge by
foreman. Latter spoken to over telephone and found to be at fault, and girl
found work in another shop.
11.
Made out orders for several pairs of overalls
for girls.
12.
Two girls came to complain of treatment of
another girl in same shop. Note made to inquire into it.
13.
Underforeman inquired how to enforce
discipline among his workers. As many complaints of his severity had come in, a
friendly and satisfactory talk resulted.
14.
Injured girl reported no insurance received.
Gave orders to have it looked into.
15.
Girl absent the day before without leave or
excuse was warned.
16.
Sergeant at gate came for instructions about
passes out.
17.
Put through order for ambulance-room
supplies.
18.
Assistant reports.
19.
Two women discharged on tlie previous day
came to express their thanks for her kindness in paving the way
to other work. One brought her baby for inspection.
20.
Five minutes’ talk with the manager.
21.
In a hasty run through one of the shops
discovered girl with sore throat. Sent her immediately to the nurse.
22.
Girl injured a few days before came to say
her doctor said she might return to work in a week.
23.
Glanced over time sheets and sent assistant
to inquire reasons of absentees; also to get report on mistake in a girl’s
pay.
In
addition there were hasty telephone conversations with a dozen foremen. Every
afternoon much of the time is spent in the shops with the girls, watching them
work, studying conditions, inspecting the efficiency of the charge hands,
etc. Government officials must be seen and visitors entertained, purchases made
and plans developed.
For
the welfare work which is outside the strict limits of business the firm
provides her with a fund. It is perhaps the best proof of the growth of the
welfare idea. Old employees who cannot afford the expense of illness are
assisted. Others with unexpected temporary strains on their resources may
borrow and repay at their leisure. Even those necessarily dismissed by the
fluctuations of production are assisted until they obtain new situations. And
the welfare superintendent with her heart in her work is too apt to forget her
own pocket and expend a great part of her salary in this kind of help. Now the
idea has spread to the male employees, whose wives and families profit from the
fund.
To
assist her in these never-ending duties this welfare superintendent has a staff
of sufficient proportions to relieve her of what portion may be left to other
shoulders; but the intimate relationship with the girls cannot be dismissed by
any amount of assistance. Her private secretary is her immediate
representative. Three assistant welfare workers see that her instructions are
carried out, represent her at night, and visit the sick and absent. A Labour
Bureau assistant first culls out the applicants for work. Three trained nurses
are on constant duty for accident or sudden sickness, making their reports to
her and subject to her instructions. Three policewomen see to the direct
enforcement of her regulations, reporting to her and recognizing her authority,
although appointed (subject to her approval) by the Government organization
of policewomen. There are, in addition, clerks and office boys who do not
properly enter into the welfare work.
Her supreme authority is recognized by the title of “lady superintendent”,
every detail of the management of female labour being handed over to her by
the manager.
The factory equipment coming specially within her
sphere is the last word in welfare work. Through a sympathetic management every
provision has been made for the comfort of the women. Two large rest-rooms are
always open to those temporarily idle through accident to the machines or
illness. The rooms are bright and airy, fitted with easy-chairs, sofas, tables
and reading material. There are two hospitals or “ambulance rooms” equipped
with every modern requirement, with beds and other necessities and presided
over by trained nurses whose services are at the disposal of the patients until
recovery. A private ambulance is kept for rushing serious eases to the
hospital or home The canteen is one of the provisions of war which will
continue into peace if it is found to pay.
During the war most firms are content to lose—sometimes as much as a thousand
dollars a week—for the immediate profit in other respects from this feature of
welfare work. Long hours, fewer holidays and the unusual strains consequent
upon the war make it doubly necessary that special provision be made to fit the
munition-maker for the unending needs of the armies; and the
woman worker, unaccustomed to the demands upon her strength, is more
susceptible to the limitations of her methods of life. Under the welfare
worker these girls have been induced to govern their meals by the requirements
of their bodies, not by the custom of their class or the momentary taste of
their palates. Pudding and cake have given place to meat, and the canteen meal
is the main one of the day. Never in their lives have the working classes of
England been offered such meals as are served them so cheaply in the canteens.
Never again will they be willing to return to the former comfortless,
insufficient fare of pre-war days. It is a welfare work that in itself
justifies the new industrial department.
In
explosive factories the duties of the welfare worker are directed more towards
the health and protection of the girls, one great difficulty in the employment
of female labour on explosives being their slowness to realize the danger of
disobeying regulations. The welfare worker impresses the necessity upon them
and protects them from their own carelessness.
There
are features of welfare work which have received much greater fame than those
outlined above, but only because they are more unusual and spectacular.
Organized dances, dramatic clubs, swimming and other classes, entertainment of
various kinds—these are the novelties of welfare work which have been pictured
in the papers. But they are really only the frills. The welfare worker with
time and strength to throw herself into such extraneous luxuries must be
neglecting the more intimate and effective side of her work. Provide a girl
with healthy surroundings, a clean moral atmosphere, sustaining food,
sufficient rest, protection from tyranny and injustice, and a human heart to
seek for advice, and her relaxation is not apt to go far astray. The original
idea of welfare work, as practised, was amusement. It has altered to personal
care and sympathy. The earlier form of welfare worker is finding a more
congenial sphere in organizing bazaars and entertaining the soldiers. The new
worker does not neglect entertainment, but she has discovered how little it
serves to secure the hold she desires.
In
the search for judicious welfare workers England is handicapped by the
prevalence of caste. While it is for the present necessary, owing to the
peculiarities of English life, that the welfare superintendent be obviously of
a higher social standing, the granite walls between the classes in England are
too high to permit of the fraternity and unsullied sympathy that must exist
between munition worker and welfare worker, except in cases all too few. And
the fault is as much of the working people as of the women who have offered
themselves for this grand work of industrial improvement.
The
welfare idea would be abortive, especially in time of war, did it not express
itself in terms of efficiency and production. It is in increased output, as
well as in its moral effect, that it faces the opposition of labour agitators
who see in it the lessening of their influence for evil. It requires little
insight into psychology to appreciate that the contended, healthy worker,
whose moral sense is cultivated, is the most productive. The aim of the
welfare worker is best tested by the results of the improvements she has
introduced; and concerning that there is no question. So emphatic is the
average employer in his praise of the new idea that hundreds of them have
expressed their determination to continue it after the war. Strikes among the
girls are almost unknown. Discipline is simple. Idling is infinitely less than
among the men—especially than among the young men who have found in munition factories
their exemption from the trenches. The discipline of the welfare worker is an
appeal to the girl’s moral sense rather than to force.
And
the girls are proving the richness of the soil in which the new idea is
spreading seed. The old frivolous conception of munition-making as the means to
a gay, extravagant life of pleasure is passing. The girl who once put her money
in a new hat every fortnight and a pair of boots a month now probably lends it
to her country for the winning of the war. Her nights, that used to be occupied
in cinema or dance halls or street loafing, are spent in sewing and profitable
entertainment. “We never knew there were women in the world like you” is the
cry of their souls to the new sort of woman who has come into their lives.
Less
sentimental and appealing, perhaps, may be the revolution the successful
welfare worker is introducing into industrial
relationship. Her consideration for the foremen is engendering
a new spirit in the workshops. Co-operation is taking
the place of petty jealousies. What was
once a medley of shops is now one
combined factory. The focus of the
female labour of the factory in the one
head is encouraging a similar desire
among the men. And when shop
works with shop the result to Great Britain
in the rivalry of peace times cannot
he overestimated. With this new spirit of
co-operation must arise a new relationship between
capital and labour. It is in this
rests the future of the industrial and
commercial life of Great Britain.
From an older post and research: “…Graduating
in 1899, he married as his first wife Lillian Eva Payne. Mrs. Amy was a
personality in her own right. During World War I, she was the first Canadian
woman ever to be made a Member of the Order of the British Empire, an honour
awarded to her in connection with her work with the Massey-Harris Hospital at
Dulwich and later as Lady Superintendent of one of the largest munitions
factories in England, where she was in charge of more than 3,000 women.” /drf
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