The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1916-05-04
WOMEN AT HELM in
BRITISH INDUSTRIES
Is Estimated That 1000, 600
More Females Are Employed
Than Before War.

London-Hardly less remarkable
tina the swift transformation Of Eng
land into a powerful military nation
has been the silent upheaval thai has
placed the civil work and the indus
tries OF the workshops in the hands of
women 1t has been estimated from
official figures that there were fully
100000 more women in active en-
ploy on March /, 1916. than on the cor
responding day IL months earlier.
week by week.
Every class of ONE including
those previously regarded as leisured
and we'll to do, are adding to the total.
The call is reaching the remotest ham
J lets as well as the quiet market towns,
ard the women and girls are respond
ing. The women are mobilizing in a
great army, ready to serve wherever
they are most needed-eyen to the
hard b of the filling of the soil.
Such changes in the national, com
mercial and industrial spheres are nat
urally creating considerable readjust-
ment of social conditions with the re-
suit that the Young Women's Chris
tan association, women's unions, suf-
fragist organizations and scores OF
many new problems in helping to care
for the thousands Of women suddenly
thrown into a new environment.
The initial difficulty to be dealt with
has been that of housing the workers
in the munition factories. All sorts of
factories have been requisitioned in the
provincial towns up and down the
country, calling for large drafts OF
workers from outside. Lodgings have
been hard to find, and OF course fol-
lowing all law of supply and demand,
nave been costly, even if they could be
found at all. Railway communications
with places at any distance, have been
unsatisfactory, especially for hos on
the night shifts. Only in the larger
centers OF population has the services
or tram cars or omnibuses been Of any
help to those living at a distance.
thousands upon thousands of young
women and girls were suddenly shifted
from their familiar surroundings in the
larger cities to the new life in the
country where many of the huge NUM-
ton factories have been erected. The
manufacture Of high explosives is not
permitted in the vicinity of homes.
therefore canteens had to be estab-
l1shed close to such works SO hat the
women would not have to go long dis
tances for their meals and relieve them
of much fatigue and strain.
Perhaps the ideal conditions have
been reached by one famous firm en-
gagged in the manufacture Of cordite.
A colony for the workers was erected
in a long series Of wooden hutS, each
containing some % two-bedded rooms.
In the center Of all is a dining hall with
a perfectly equipped kitchen, a recrea-
ton room and a small model hospital.
AS soon as these plans had been ap-
proved he firm had one Of the wom-
ems organizations take up the respons-
Utilities for them in cha of the girls
employed.
Public imagination is more stirred at
the idea of women's labor in shell, fuse
and explosive making than it is over
the vast army engaged in the more
humdrum rOllnd of hllSinnS9 ro1ltipe
But the fact is that the woman who
is forced to work in the offices of the
government, municipalities, banks, fac
tories and stores, is much worse off
than her sister In the munitions works.
She receives less pay and very little
attention is paid to her welfare. But
she is sustaining the fabric Of the state
to no less extent.