The daily Nome industrial worker., 1917-05-14
WOMEN WORKERS.

It is well known Lhat III Tiedt Britain now. with the males of mi litary age for the greater part at the front, all the lighter and some of the heavier forms of labor in the factories are taken up by women,
 Because it is suggested to do the same thing in the United States the possible result of this after the war; as well as during the var, are worth consideration.
 Tn Great Britain it was found i'm possible to work women in factories upder the conditions which men had labored. They could not stand it. and for that reason the govern mont had to undertake radical changes.
 Improved shops, better conditions of living. and higher wages, there are but few of the reforms, re- forms however that could only have been obtained by labor under peace ful and normal conditions of indus try after endless struggling, strikes and look outs innuIlerable.
 We cannot overlook the fact tha. is overlooked by those who tell us that labor and employers have everything in common, that labor has won practically everything only after almost interminable strife: strikes. locks outs, boycotts, agita- tion, blacklisting, lock outs ana serious disturbances of one kind or another.
 The reforms that have been talk ing place in Great Britain during the war are such as in many great industries in America would be in- conceivable.
 Usually when an American capi- talist with philanthropic notions be- gins to reform conditions he in- vents some new form of Bible class. He establishes a Y. M. C. A. close by his shops: he devises some Sun day School development. He has welfare workers with a profound anxiety concerning the soul ol Mcrkingmen or woman. He re- moves the temptation of strong drink and other obvious vices And then he builds church or two, subsidies a preacher or two. invites mission to establish lectures; goes even to the length of awakening to tLe needs of elementary santa ton and may approve the erection .of elegant little cottages all in a TOW, all sedately concrete and white and all with a settled rent per month with prizes thrown ill for the most ornate back yard and the best rose tree in the front. He himself will be given a daily paragraph in the press: the editor will devote an occasional article to his honorable, praiseworthy, more-than-genero woi'th-following policy and general ly place a series of halos on top of the head of the village philan- thropist It is all very noisy but very well advertised superficiality which does no manner of real good and the exploitation that proceeds is just as ruthless and reckless as if there was not any such thing as welfare work ever thought of,
 The reforms in British industry were not so completely superficial. They were directed towards the physical betterment much more strongly than the moral up-lift. They first of all provided sufficient food and good clothing. They shore. ened working hours to an inconceiv- able degree. They insisted upon -'rest period for workers during which refreshment physical and mental was provided. And when ihe days labor was over there were entertainments and amusements at hand to remove all fatigue that fol- lowed the workday and superior home accumulation to provide ample rest.
 The profit element was not elimi- mated. But the profit element was subordinated to industrial produc- tivity That was the reason for all of it. But it was desperate req son and only a desperate reason could accomplish what years at labor agitation had hardly accomp- Iished in the best organized in-