The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-07-27
AN INTERESTING REPORT.

A committee was appointed by the British Minister of Munitions with a y;ew of increasing the effIci- ency of the workers in muniticn plants aEd their reports have Eeen of very great interest.
 But nothing is more interesting that the personel of that commit tee. There were no lawyers or en- gineers or efficiency experts ap- pointed; there was not single man who could by any stretch of imagination be considered politi- clan and no scientific management expert at all.
 They were almost all physicians aided by factory inspectors and others familiar with working con ditions. Here are the names Sir Geo. Newman, M. D., Sir Thomas Barlow, M. D., G. Belhouse, Fac tory Department, Home Office, Pro- lessor Boycott, M. D., J. R. Clynes. M. D.. E. L. Collis M. B. Factory Department, Home Office, w. M. Fletcher, M. D., Leonard E. Hill, M. B. F. R. S., Miss R. F. Squire factory department, Mrs. H. J. Ten nant, E. H. Pelham. The first named was Chairman, the last Sec retary.
 The first thing that struck the at tention of the committee was the greatly increased number of women employed, the law against women being employed nights being sus- pended during the war. They found however that the twelve hour shift was useless because the last few hours yielded but little output
 They urged a shorter work day because they found that the hours that conduced most to satisfactory home life and to health, conduced also most to output. The three shift of eight hours each produced they said the best results. They also urged that portion of Saturday and all of Sunday should be devoted to rest. They made an especial note of the probability of the develop ment of physical disabilities from overwork and urged that precaC- tions again such must be taken. They oppose night work in genera! principles and offer the following objections:
 1. It is uneconomical. Though the wages paid are higher, the rate of output especially during the last few hours is lower.
 2. Supervision is always unsatis- factory.
 3. Workers experience grea: difficulty in sleeping during the day and their efficiency is impaired.
 4. The unfamiliar meal hour makes it difficult for the workers to consume substantial food, and the digestion is likely to become de- ranged.
 The most successful factory was that wherein the men employed were compelled to take fifteen ml' nutes rest during each hour of la. Dor. The employees were engaged upon piece work and objected ani the management had actually to employ a rest foreman who enforced the rest compulsorily. The result ! showed a greatly increased output.
 The committee investigated the evidences of fatigue and treated the matter as an industrial disease, go- ing to the length of making spe- cial report thereupon. They went further and insisted that it should be the duty of the management to detect signs of latent fatigue in em- ployees and to see that they were rested properly if necessary with They lamented that had the management foreseen the necessity exists for proper weekly rest, diminished capacity due to this would have been reduced to , minimum.
 The investigators went further. 4 special report was also devoted to diseases of the most nature and their recon are exhaustive. On rde whole the report is quite n extraordinary one in that it de otes itself almost exclusively to f