Women and War Work

and a variety is arranged in the week's menu.

The Y.W.C.A. Huts are very popular. In some of them the girls get dinners for 10 cents, and the dinner includes joint, vegetables and pudding.

There are comfortable chairs in them in which girls can rest and attractive magazines and books to read in the little restrooms. The workers in charge of these canteens are educated women and the waiting and service is done by voluntary helpers. There is not only excellent feeding for our workers in these canteens, but there is great economy in food and fuel. To cook 400 dinners together is much less wasteful than to cook them separately, and the cooks in these are generally trained economists.

The children, too, are not forgotten. Our welfare workers follow the young mother home and find out if the children are all right and well taken care of. We have done even more in the war than before for our babies and the infant death rate is falling. We have established excellent creches and nurseries where they are needed.

It is impossible to overestimate the value of all this work in industry. The Prime Minister, speaking last year on this subject, said, "It is a strange irony, but no small compensation, that the making of weapons of destruction should afford the occasion to humanize industry. Yet such is the case. Old prejudices have vanished, new ideas are abroad; employers and workers, the public and the State, are all favourable to new methods. The opportunity must not be allowed to slip. It may well be that, when the tumult of war is a distant echo and the making of munitions a nightmare of the past, the effort now being made to soften asperities, to secure the welfare of the workers, and to build a bridge of sympathy and understanding between employer and employed, will have left behind results of permanent and enduring value to the workers, to the nation and to mankind at large."

I am no believer in the gloomy predictions of industrial revolutions after the war. We will have revolutions—but of the right kind and one thing has been clearly shown, that the workers of our country are not only loyal citizens but realize every issue of this conflict as vividly as anyone else. On their work, men and women, our Navy, our Army and our country, have depended—and they have not failed us in any real thing.

MINISTRY OF MUNITIONS.

DUTIES OF WELFARE SUPERVISORS FOR WOMEN.

NOTE.—It is not suggested that all these duties should be imposed upon the Employment Superintendent directly she is appointed. The size of the Factory will to a certain extent determine the scope of her work, and in assigning her duties regard will of course be had to her professional ability to cope with them.

These officers are responsible solely to the firms that employ them, and in no sense to the Ministry of Munitions.

The experience which has now been obtained in National and other Factories making munitions of war has demonstrated that the post of Welfare Supervisor is a valuable asset to Factory management wherever women are employed. Through this channel attention has been drawn to conditions of work, previously unnoted, which were inimical to the well-being of those employed. The following notes have, therefore, been prepared for the information of employers who have not hitherto engaged such officers, but who desire to know the position a Welfare Supervisor should take and the duties and authority which, it is suggested, might be delegated to her.

POSITION.

It has generally been found convenient that the Welfare Supervisor should be directly responsible to the General Manager, and should be given a definite position on the managerial staff in connection with the Labour Employment Department of the Factory. She is thus able to refer all matters calling for attention direct to the General Manager, and may be regarded by him as a liaison between him and the various Departments dealing with the women employees.

DUTIES.

The duty of a Welfare Supervisor is to obtain and to maintain a healthy staff of workers and to help in maintaining satisfactory conditions for the work.

In order to obtain a staff satisfactory both from the point of view of health and technical efficiency, it has been found to be an advantage to bring the Welfare Supervisor into the business of selecting women and girls for employment.

I. THE OBTAINING OF A HEALTHY STAFF.

Her function is to consider the general health, physical capacity and character of each applicant. As regards those under 16 years of age, she could obtain useful advice as to health from the Certifying Surgeon when he grants Certificates of fitness. The Management can, if they think fit, empower her to refer for medical advice to their panel Doctor, other applicants concerning whose general fitness she is in doubt. This selection of employees furnishes the Welfare Supervisor with a valuable opportunity for establishing a personal link with the workers.

Her function is thus concerned with selection on general grounds, while the actual engaging of those selected may be carried out by the Overlooker or other person responsible for the technical side of the work. In this way both aspects of appointment receive full consideration.

The Management may find further that it is useful to consult the Welfare Supervisor as to promotions of women in the Factory, thus continuing the principle of regarding not only technical efficiency but also general considerations in the control of the women in the Factory.

II. THE MAINTAINING OF A HEALTHY STAFF.

The Welfare Supervisor should ascertain what are the particular needs of the workers. These needs will then be found to group themselves under two headings:

(a) Needs within the Factory—Intramural Welfare.

(b) Needs outside the Factory—Extramural Welfare.

INTRAMURAL WELFARE.

I. SUPERVISION OF WORKING CONDITIONS.

The Welfare Supervisor may be made responsible for the following matters:

(a) General behaviour of women and girls inside the factory.—While responsibility for the technical side of the work must rest with the Technical Staff, the Welfare Supervisor should be responsible for all questions of general behaviour.

(b) Transfer.—The Welfare Supervisor would, if the health of a woman was affected by the particular process on which she is engaged, be allowed, after having consulted the Foreman concerned, to suggest to the Management the possibility of transfer of the woman to work more suited to her state of health.

(c) Night Supervision.—The Welfare Supervisor should have a deputy for night work and should herself occasionally visit the Factory at night to see that satisfactory conditions are maintained.

(d) Dismissal.—It will be in keeping with the general suggestions as to the functions of the Welfare Supervisor if she is consulted on general grounds with regard to the dismissal of women and girls.

(e) The maintenance of healthy conditions.—This implies that she should, from the point of view of the health of the female employees, see to the general cleanliness, ventilation and warmth of the Factory and keep the Management informed of the results of her observations.

(f) The provision of seats.—She should study working conditions so as to be able to bring to the notice of the Management the necessity for the provision of seats where these are possible.

II. CANTEEN.

Unless the Factory is a small one it would hardly be possible for the Welfare Supervisor to manage the canteen. The Management will probably prefer to entrust the matter to an expert who should satisfy the Management in consultation with the Welfare Supervisor on the following matters:—

(1) That the Canteen provides all the necessary facilities for the women workers; that is to say, suitable food, rapidly and punctually served.

(2) That Canteen facilities are provided when necessary for the women before they begin work so that no one need start work without having taken food.

(3) That the Canteen is as restful and as comfortable as possible so that it serves a double purpose of providing rest as well as food.

III. SUPERVISION OF AMBULANCE RESTROOM AND FIRST AID.

While not responsible for actually attending to accidents, except in small Factories, the Welfare Supervisor should work in close touch with the Factory Doctor and Nurses. She should, however, be responsible for the following matters:—

(1) She should help in the selection of the Nurses, who should be recognised as belonging to the Welfare staff.

(2) While not interfering with the Nurses in the professional discharge of their duties, she should see that their work is carried out promptly and that the workers are not kept waiting long before they receive attention.

(3) She should supervise the keeping of all records of accident and illness in the Ambulance Room.

(4) She should keep in touch with all cases of serious accident or illness.

It would further be useful if she were allowed to be kept in touch with the Compensation Department inside the Factory with a view to advising on any cases of hardship that may arise.

IV. SUPERVISION OF CLOAK-ROOMS AND SANITARY CONVENIENCES.

The Welfare Supervisor should be held responsible for the following matters:—

(1) General cleanliness.

(2) Prevention of Loitering.

(3) Prevention of Pilfering.

The Management will decide what staff is necessary to assist her, and it should be her duty to report to the Management on these matters.

V. PROVISION OF OVERALLS.

The Welfare Supervisor should have the duty of supervising the Protective Clothing supplied to the women for their work.

EXTRAMURAL WELFARE.

The Welfare Supervisor should keep in touch with all outside agencies responsible for:—

(1) Housing.

(2) Transit facilities.

(3) Sickness and Maternity cases.

(4) Recreation.

(5) Day Nurseries.

In communicating with any of these agencies it will no doubt be preferable that she should do so through the Management.

III. RECORDS.

A. The Welfare Supervisor should for the purpose of her work have some personal records of every woman employee. If a card-index system is adopted, a sample card suggesting the necessary particulars which it is desirable should be kept by Welfare Supervisors is supplied to employers on request.

B. The Welfare Supervisor should have some way of observing the health in relation to the efficiency of the workers, and if the Management approved this could be done:

(a) By allowing her to keep in touch with the Wages Department. She could then watch the rise and fall of wages earned by individual employees from the point of view that a steady fall in earnings may be the first indication of an impending breakdown in health.

(b) By allowing her to keep in touch with the Time Office she should be able to obtain records of all reasons for lost time. From such records information can be obtained of sickness, inadequate transit and urgent domestic duties, which might otherwise not be discovered. Here again, if a card-index system is adopted a sample card for this purpose can be obtained from the Welfare and Health Section on request.

(c) By keeping records of all cases of accident and sickness occurring in the Factory. Sample Ambulance Books and Accident Record Cards can also be obtained from the Welfare and Health Section.

CHAPTER VIII

"THE WOMEN'S LAND ARMY"

"If it were not for the women, agriculture would be at an absolute standstill on many farms in England and Wales today."

—President of the Board of Agriculture.

The Land Army of Women, which now numbers over 258,300 whole and part-time workers, has done splendid work. For some years before the war women had been very little used on the land in certain parts of England and Wales. In Scotland and in some of the English counties there had always been, and still were, quite fair numbers of women on the land.

Within eighteen months of the outbreak of war, about 300,000 agricultural laborers had enlisted and the work had been carried on with difficulty by the farmer in the first year of the war. The farmer secured all the labor he could, old men returned to help, and the army released skilled men temporarily, from training, to help. Soldiers were used in groups for seasonal work, the farmer paying a good rate for them. Groups of women were also organized for seasonal work by various voluntary organizations, two of these being the Land Council and the Women's National Land Service Corps. The Women's Farm and Garden Union also did good work. The Land Service Corps made one of its most important objects the organization of village women into working gangs under leaders. One interesting piece of work undertaken by the Corps last year was finding a large number of women for flax-pulling in Somerset. This the Flax-Growers' Association asked them to do as sufficient local labor could not be raised. The War Agricultural Committee made all the local arrangements. This was pioneer work of great value and importance as flax is essential in the making of aeroplane wings.

The Corps sent a group of 100 women under competent gang leaders. The workers were housed in an empty country house and the War Office provided bedding. The Y.W.C.A. undertook the catering at the request of the Corps. The work, which was a great success, consisted in pulling, gating, wind mowing, stocking and tying flax.

The Corps has already been asked to undertake this again next year. Owing to the Russian troubles and the closing of the Port of Riga, it will be necessary to put many more hundreds of acres under cultivation and it is probable four or five times as many women will be needed next year.

Some of the Corps members are doing good work in Army Remount Depots, working in the stables and exercising the horses. One of the latest interesting developments of women's work is in the care of sick horses, carried out in the Horse Hospital in London.

Within nine months of the outbreak of war, it was clear we must secure help for the farmers, in order to enable them to do their work. As the submarine menace developed, and the supply of grain in the world was affected by the numbers of men taken away from production, it was clear we must try to grow more food.

Our grain production at the best was only twelve weeks of our supply, and even to keep up to that seemed to be a problem.

It was clear that in agriculture, as in so many other things, women must fill up the ranks, and in the first official appeal of the Government for additional woman labor, the land had an important place.

Lord Selborne, President of the Board of Agriculture, drew up a scheme for the organization of agriculture throughout the country. It consisted of War Agricultural Committee set up in each county who look after production, use of land, procuring use of motor machinery, etc., and of Women's Agricultural Committees. The latter undertake the organization of securing women workers for the land, choosing them, and arranging for training and placing out.

The voluntary groups of women who have been working at the problem in the war are now practically all merged in the Board of Agriculture's organization. The Women's Branch of the Food Production Department now controls and arranged the whole work and Miss Meriel Talbot is the able chief.

The Women's Land Corps, like the other organizations, was prepared to be merged in the new Land Army of the Board and to cease to exist as a separate organization. Its members were willing to become part of the new Land Army.

The Board found there was a distinct need for a voluntary association which would continue to enroll women, who could not sign on for the duration of the war, and who were able to forego the benefits of free training, outfit and travelling given under the Government scheme. Over 100 members of the Corps did enroll and the original Corps members do not require to appear before the local Selection Committees nor to submit references, which marks the Board's confidence in the Corps.

Many of the Corps Workers are now organizing Secretaries for the Counties or Assistant Secretaries, or are travelling Inspectors under the Board of Agriculture.

The Corps still organizes the supply of temporary workers for seasonal jobs such as potato dropping, hoeing, harvesting, fruitpicking, potato and root lifting, etc., done by groups under leaders. The work of organizing in the Counties is carried out by the appointment of a woman as District representative. She is responsible for a general supervision of the work in all the villages in her district. Each village has a woman to act as Registrar and her duty (with assistants, if necessary) is to canvass all the village women and girls for volunteers for whole and part time work, and for training, and to canvass the farmer to find out what labour he needs, and in the beginning they had to induce him to use women. She puts the farmer and the women suitable for his needs in her own district, in touch with each other, and passes to the District Representative and to the Employment Exchanges the names of all women qualified to help and not placed, and of those willing to train.

All these committees, registrars and representatives are honorary workers. The Board of Agriculture appoints to each County for work with the committee a woman Organizing Secretary, and assistant also if necessary.

The Board of Agriculture, working through the Employment Exchanges and under the direction of their women heads, arranged a series of meetings and work of propaganda by posters and leaflets throughout the whole country early in 1916.

The Representatives and Registrars organized the meetings to which the farmers and the women were invited, and the whole scheme was explained. These were very frequently held in the market towns on market day and the farmer and his wife came in to hear after the sales. We had to assail the prejudices of some of our farmers pretty vigorously and of the women, too. We found the women who volunteered best for land work were in the class above the industrial worker, and that the comfortable and well educated woman stood its work admirably.

The farmers were stiff to move in some cases and especially disliked the idea of having to train the women. "They weren't going to run after women all day—they had too much to do to go messing round with girls!" This objection was met by the Board of Agriculture arranging training centres in every county. Some of the training was done at the Women's Agricultural Colleges and among places that arranged training very early were the Harper Adam's College in Shropshire (Swanley); Garford (Leeds); Sparsholt (Winchester); The Midland Agricultural Training College (Kingston), and Aberystwith.

The Women's Agricultural Committee have arranged a great many training centres at big farms and on the Home farms of some of our estates.

The girls volunteering for training must be eighteen years of age. They are interviewed as to suitability and references by the Selection Committee. They must have a medical certificate filled in by their own doctor or by one of the committee's doctors.

On being passed, they go to the training centre, the travelling expenses being paid by the Board. Outfit is free and the uniform is a very sensible one of breeches, tunic, boots and gaiters or puttees, and soft hat, breeches, etc., cut to measure for each girl. Training and maintenance are free and there is always an instructor on the farm in addition to the farmer and his workers. The travelling to the post found, is again paid by the Government, and if work is not found at once, on completion of training, maintenance is paid till it is.

The training is generally of four to six weeks' duration and in some cases longer, and over 7,000 women have been trained in this way and placed.

Appeals for land recruits were made in February, 1916, and in January and April, 1917, when the Women's National Service Department asked for 100,000 women.

The Land Army women after three months' service receive an official armlet—a green band with lion rampant in red and a certificate of honour. The Land women are the only women who receive an armlet—the munition girl wears a triangular brass brooch with "On war service."

To induce the conservative farmer to try the women, exhibitions of farm work were arranged in different part of the country with great success, and the girls showed they could plough, and weed and hoe and milk and care for stock, and do all the farm work, except the heaviest, extremely well.

The War Office in its official memorandum of 1916 gives a long list of the farm and garden work in which women are successfully employed, and they have been particularly successful in the care of stock.

The farmer who used to declare he would never have a woman and that they were no use, and who has them now, is always quite pleased and generally cherishes a profound conviction that the reason why his women are all right is because he has the most exceptional ones in the country.

Housing the worker and especially the groups for seasonal work has been a problem, but it has been done and the feeding of groups well has been managed, too.

The housing conditions for the girl going to work whole-time are investigated by the Board organizer, and the representatives of committee. Very frequently a small group of girls have a cottage on the farm.

The Inspectors of the Board are in charge of three counties each and look after all conditions.

The girls are now being trained to drive the motor tractors for ploughing, and for women who understand horses there is at present a greater demand than supply.

The Women's Branch of the Board is also at this time appealing for well-educated women to aid in Timber Supply for two pieces of work—measuring trees when felled, calculating the amount of wood in the log, and marking off for sawing, and as forewomen to superintend cross-cutting, felling small timber and coppice and to do the lighter work of forestry.

Girls and women are in market gardens and on private gardens in very large numbers. The King has a great many women in his gardens and conservatories. Most estates are growing as many vegetables as possible to supply the many hospitals and the Fleet, and girls are helping very much in this. A great deal has been done by work in allotments, plots of land taken up by town dwellers and cultivated. In one part of South Wales alone 40,000 allotments have been worked and the allotment holders are organizing themselves co-operatively for the purchase of seed, etc. We have Governmental powers now not only to enable Local Authorities to secure unused land for allotments, but to compel farmers to cultivate all their ground. We have fixed a price for wheat for five years, and a minimum wage for the agricultural man and woman.

The girls on the land improve in health and increase in weight. The work is not only of supreme usefulness to the country—we have the submarine ceaselessly gnawing at our shipping and making our burden heavier—so we must produce everything possible. It has improved the physique of our girls—they like it, and many will permanently adopt it. Our Board of Agriculture is also encouraging, for the benefit of the country woman, the formation of Women's Institutes, like those in Canada and America.

In the Lord Mayor's Procession in London, on November 9, 1917, with the men-in-arms of all our great Commonwealth of Nations, with the Turks and the captured German aeroplanes and guns, the munition girls and the Land girls marched. No group in all that great array had a warmer welcome from our vast crowds than our sensibly clothed, healthy, happy and supremely useful Land girls.

CHAPTER IX

WAR SAVINGS—THE MONEY BEHIND THE GUNS

"You cannot have absolute equality of sacrifice in a war. That is impossible. But you can have equal readiness to sacrifice from all. There are hundreds of thousands who have given their lives, there are millions who have given up comfortable homes and exchanged them for a daily communion with death. Multitudes have given up those whom they loved best. Let the nation as a whole place its comforts, its luxuries, its indulgences, its elegances, on a national altar, consecrated by such sacrifices as these men have made."

—THE PRIME MINISTER.

"Deep down in the heart of every one of us there is the spirit of love for our native land, dulled it may be in some cases, perhaps temporarily obscured, by hardship, injustice and suffering, but it is there and it remains for us to touch the chord which will bring it to life; once aroused it will prove irresistible."

—Sir R.M. KINDERSLEY, K.B.E.

To win the war, we must save. There is no task more imperative, no need more urgent, and there is no greater work than the work of educating the peoples of our countries, and inducing them to save and lend to their Governments.

The first Government Committee set up in Britain to do propaganda work for war loans was established shortly after the war under the title of the "Parliamentary War Savings Committee." It did some propaganda for the early war loans. At the same time a very interesting group of people associated with the "Round Table," and including in it many of our most able financiers and economists—such men as the future chairman of the National War Savings Committee, Sir Robert M. Kindersley, K.B.E.; C.J. Stewart, the Public Trustee; Hartley Withers, Lord Sumner, T.L. Gilmour, Theodore Chambers (now Controller of the National War Savings Committee), Evan Hughes (now Organizer-in-Chief), Lieut. J.H. Curle, Countess Ferrers, Basil Blackett, C.B.; William Schooling and Mrs. Minty, Hon. Sec. Excellent articles were written, leaflets published and meetings held at which many of us spoke throughout the country, and valuable work was done towards educating groups of useful people in the country.

In 1915 a committee was appointed by the House of Commons to go into the whole question of Loans and Methods. The committee was presided over by Mr. E.S. Montagu, and its findings were of great interest. It advised the immediate setting up of a committee whose task it would be to create machinery by which the small investor might be assisted to invest in State Securities, and secondly, to educate the country as a whole on the imperative need of economy. The Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury set up the National War Savings Committee in March, 1916, and in April, 1917, it became a Government Department. The first chairman was George Barnes, Esq., M.P., but very soon the chairmanship was taken by Sir Robert Kindersley, a director of the Bank of England, who has spent himself unceasingly in his great task.

The committee started its work with a very small staff, Mr. Schooling being one of the original half-dozen in it, and the schemes and methods of work were evolved. It works in its organization by setting up committees. The County is the biggest unit and the Hon. Secretary of the County works at setting up Local Committees, which are established in towns with under 20,000 of a population, and we put a group of parishes together in rural districts under one Local Committee. All towns, cities and boroughs over 20,000 population are set up by Headquarters and have Local Central Committees. There are now in England and Wales over 1,580 of these committees. Scotland is worked by a separate committee. Linked up to these committees and represented on them, the War Savings Associations work, and there are now altogether over 40,000 of these with a weekly subscribing membership of over 7,000,000 people.

The committees also did the propaganda work for the January-February Loan of 1917, when five billion dollars was raised (£1,000,000,000) and over eight million people (out of our population of forty-five millions) subscribed to the loan.

The work of the committees was admirable at that time and assisted materially in the success of the loan.

The National War Savings Committee was also asked by Lord Devonport in April to assist the Ministry of Food by doing, through its committees, a great food-saving propaganda. This request was made, because, it was explained, the War Savings Committees are the best organized and most thoroughly democratic Government organization in the country. This propaganda was also done with marked success. In autumn of this year the committees have done an extensive campaign of education, and of work to strengthen and enlarge their associations, and also to push the sale of the new War Bonds.

The Treasury's policy now is to raise all the money needed by the wisest borrowing from the people—day by day borrowing.

The entire work of the committees and associations is done voluntarily—nothing is paid in the whole country for the work, and the only charge is Headquarters Staff and propaganda expenses. The County Secretaries are in most cases Board of Education Inspectors whom the Board has generously allowed to help.

The War Saving Association is the body that sells the War Savings Certificates, which are very much like the American ones. These are also sold at all Post Offices and Banks. They cost 15/6 each, and in five years from date of purchase are worth £1. The interest in the fifth year is at the rate of £5.4.7 per cent. The interest begins at the end of the first year and the certificates can be cashed at any time at the Post Office with interest to the date of cashing. The War Savings Certificate has the additional advantage that its interest is free of income tax, and in a country where income tax begins above £120 ($600), and is then at rate of 2/3 in £1 (over 10 per cent) on earned income and 3/. on unearned, its advantage is very clear. The interest does not need to be included in income returns—but no one may buy more than 500 certificates. It is a specially good paying security intended only for the small saver.

The War Savings Associations can be set up by any group of people, ten or upwards, who wish to save co-operatively. They must establish a committee, small or large. They must appoint a Secretary and Treasurer and then apply for recognition to their Local Committee, or if there is not one, to the National Committee. They are given an affiliation certificate by their committee and receive free all the books, papers, etc., necessary for carrying on an association. These are all supplied by the National Committee to Local Committees.

The 40,000 Associations are in the Army, Navy, Munition Works, Government establishments, Railways, Banks, Mines, Churches, Shops, social groups, clubs, men's and women's organizations and 10,000 are in the schools. The schools, where we receive subscriptions down to 2 cents have done wonderful work and the teachers have done a great deal to make our movement what it is. We find the children do the best propaganda in the homes. One teacher, after explaining to his children what it all meant in the morning, in the afternoon had dozens of subscriptions, and among them a sovereign which had been clasped tightly in a hot little hand for a mile and a half's walk. The little boy said, "I told Mother about it and she gave me that for fighting the Germans."

Our Associations have unearthed piles of gold, one village association alone getting in £750 in gold ($3,750). Old stockings have come out and one agricultural laborer brought nine sovereigns to one of our Secretaries one night, and asked her to invest it to help the soldiers. She said, "Why did you bring it to me?" and he said, "Because its secreter than the Post Office." And the Association has the advantage that all its affairs are confidential, and though figures and amounts are known, no single detail need be.

The schemes are two and apart from schools, the minimum weekly subscription is 12 cents. There is a Bank Book scheme and a Stamp scheme in which the member holds a card which takes thirty-one 12-cent stamps, and when filled up is handed in to the Secretary and a War Savings Certificate is received.

The financial advantage to the members of forming an Association is quite easy to understand. Every week the takings are invested by the Secretary (using a special slip given by the National Committee) in War Savings Certificates, so that when members finish subscribing for a certificate, instead of getting one dated the day they finished paying for it, as it would be if they saved by themselves, the Secretary has a store of earlier dated certificates on hand, and the member receives one of these.

This works out quite fairly if one rule is observed—never give any one a Certificate dated earlier than the first week they started paying for it.

The people of England needed a great deal of education in war saving. We had to fight the strongly held conviction that of all sins the most despicable is "meanness," and that too much saving may seem mean.

No Englishman will ever really admit he has any money, and he was inclined to question your right to talk about the possibility of his having some—and your right to tell him what to do with it, supposing he had any. Some of them were a little suspicious that it was the workers we were talking to most—it was not—and some of them were not quite sure they wanted their employers to know how much they saved. That is entirely obviated by the men running their own associations. Other people told you the people in their District never did, could, or would save and were spending their big wages in the most extravagant way—that pianos and fur coats appealed far more than war savings certificates. The official people in the towns when we approached them about conferences said much the same in some cases, but, yes, of course, you could come and have a conference and the Mayor would preside and you could try. And you did, and in six months they had dozens of associations and thousands of members and had sold some thousands of certificates. We sell about one and a half million certificates a week and have sold about 140 millions since March, 1916. The appeal that won them was not only the practical appeal of the value of the money after the war for themselves, to buy a house, to provide for old age, to educate the children. The strongest appeal was the patriotic one. Save your money to save your country. Throw your silver bullets at the enemy. We have not been content to say only "save," we have tried to educate our people on finance and economics. We have tried to show them that no country can go on in a struggle like this unless it conserves its resources—not even the richest countries. We have tried to appeal to the spirit behind all these things and our Chairman in one of his admirable speeches said:

"It is upon these simple human feelings of loyalty, comradeship and patriotism that the great War Savings Movement is founded. Because of the strength of this foundation I feel convinced that we shall succeed in the great national work we are setting out to perform. However difficult our task may prove, however serious the times ahead, this spirit will carry us safely and triumphantly through everything, and in the end we shall find ourselves not weakened but strengthened on account of these same difficulties which we shall most surely overcome."

The problem before us is the problem of finding ten times the amount of money we did before the war for National purposes. We are spending over $30,000,000 a day. By our taxations, which includes an 80 per cent tax on excess profits, we are raising over 25 per cent of our total expenditure. We have met some other part of our expenditure in the three years of war by using our gold reserve very heavily; a great deal of it in payments in America, where you now possess more than a third of the gold of the entire world. We have also used a portion of our securities, our capital wealth and past savings, and we have had to borrow heavily. Our National Debt is now £4,000,000,000. It was £700,000,000 at the outbreak of war. £1,000,000,000 has been lent to our Allies and the Dominions.

Numbers of people have an impression that Governments can find money. They can, to a certain extent, but only in a very limited way, without great harm. There is in this creation an addition to the buying power of the community, but if everybody goes on spending no addition to the productive power, so it only creates high prices and hardship. The inflation of currency caused by it is a risk and an evil. The sound way is to get the money by taxation, from resources and in real voluntary loans.

America's burden is very much the same as our own, and the need here also of voluntary saving and lending to the extent of more than half the expenditure is clear. America, like ourselves, is very wisely trying to democratise its war loans. Nothing is wiser or sounder or more calculated to make progress, and the changes after the war which will come, sound and steady than widely-spread, democratically-subscribed loans. These vast debts will have to be paid by the ability, productiveness and work of all, so it is in the highest degree desirable that the money and interest to be paid back should go out to every class of the community—and not only to small sections. It is well to remember, too, that the country that goes to the peace table financially sound is in a position to make better terms.