The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-27

work, Fortunately 1t is likely that there
 VIII De plenty of work for the skilled ll
 men in the engineering trades The ship fl building trade, for instance, is expecting II such boom as has not been known | Tor many years. To begin with practical | Y no merchant tonnage has been built
 durlng the war, and there has been an
 enormous wastage, all of which will have
 to be replaced. The same applies to mo-
 tor vehicles of all knds. The army has
 been taking the entire output in Eng. land and has communicated thousands e
 of private vehicles. All these will have
 to be replaced after the war. Machinery
 of all kinds which has been running f with minimum of care and replacement during the war wifi have to be renewed,
 and so there is every prospect of lively i demand for labor The problem is to
 get the men who want jobs in touch | with the jobs that want to be filled, and | to see that they suffer as little hardship | as possible in the transition from mili- | tary to civil life.
 Already the committee, in conference | with the war office, has decided that 1 when the armies are disbanded-and, of | course, this will be done gradually-e |
 soldier will receive four weeks furlough |
 with full pay and allowances, including | separation allowance for his family, dur ing which he will be free to seek em- ployfnent. He will receive free trans 1 l. where he secures employment, and he | will receive a substantial money grant l in recognition of his services on a scale | to be fixed hereafter by Parliament. He
 will also receive a full paid-up insur- l ance policy against unemployment good |
 for one year from the date of his dis | charge from the army
 PREPARES PEACE BOOK
 The committee is also preparing a com
 prehensive peace book which will con- tain all the available in formation about
 the demand for labor of various sorts and the supply of it, both in and out of the army. In this connection the Ma ticnal Register made for recruiting pur 1 poses las proved very useful and it has 1 only been necessary to supplement it inl some minor respects. The machinery of the labor exchanges will be strength ened and extended to handle the greatly l 1 increased work which is expected as 1 soon as peace is declared.
 The board of agriculture has also had a special committee sitting under the 1 chairmanship of Sir Sidney Olivier, the famous Fabian socialist, to consider the i possibility of settling war veterans on the l land. It is not proposed, of course, tol dump indiscriminately on the land men who have had no experience of farming, | ] but it is felt that there are thousands of countrymen who would make good in- l
 
 chance, and who for their services to l the country deserve that chance. It is 1 not proposed to follow the lines of the l present small holdings act, which has | been a failure because of the oppositionl !
 of the landlord and larger farmer class, | l but to start afresh on a system which l | is a modification of the old system Of squire and yeoman, adapted to modern ! conditions. It is proposed that the board | | of agriculture should buy large tracts l of land and that each tract should be placed in charge of a director. skilled who shall take the place of the old squire. It will be his duty to advise l the small holders and see that they make l the most of their land and above all l l to see that they get all the land they require and can use profitably. Arrange ments will be made for the acquisition 1 | of the land by the holders on very easy terms.
 WILL WANT WAGE INCREASE | One of the problems which will have 1 to be faced is the demand that is sure
 to come from the lower paid laborers for higher wages and better conditions Para dcxical as it may seem, this war which | has involved hardships greater than in any previous war, has also established a much higher standard of comfort in
 the. country. The unskilIed or semi skilled worlIingman who has. never earned more than $6 a week in his life and | consequently has never known what tI was to have a really full stomach or warm coat to his back, has experienced
 both these sensations in the army and i he likes them. His wife and family have also been better off than ever before on l his separation allowances and they in- 1 tend that it shall continue, if possible | There will be an unanimous demand iron, 1 these men for higher wages after the war, and with the state bonus and a I years insurance against unemployment
 behind them. they will be able to make a good fight for it
 | l was talking in one of the London military hospitals the other day to such
 a man. He had been jobbing gardener before the war and his earnings had va fied from about $4 to $6 a week out of which he had to keep himself, a wife and two children. Since hS; joined the army his wife has had S week and 1 has not had to feed him, and as a sol 1 dior he has had more food for himself
 alone than he was ever able to buy for l lis whole family.
 1 I'm spoiled for civil life. That's what am,' he said. When I go home and l ask my old woman for my pound os beef day and my jam and my bread and vegetables and all the rest of it, there's going to be a rare old row know. She can't do it on the money and all there is about it is that we'll have to get more money, somehow. I never i knew what it was to be full fed before and If the country can afford to feed me well to kill Germans surely 1t can af- ford to feed me just as well to grow vegetables. There's going to be trouble in this country with us chaps who have just found out what it means to be alive We want to go on being alive and we don't intend to be put off with the old
 stories about bad trade and can't af- ford to pay We can't afford to starve any longer"