Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor

HEALTH AND WELFARE OF MUNITION WORKERS OUTSIDE THE FACTORYSource: Monthly Review of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Vol. 5, No. 2 (AUGUST, 1917),pp. 91-92Published by: Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of LaborStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41829382 .

Accessed: 14/05/2014 18:31

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve andextend access to Monthly Review of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.69 on Wed, 14 May 2014 18:31:26 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

MONTHLY BEVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS. 91

HEALTH AND WELFARE OF MUNITION WORKERS OUTSIDE THE FACTORY.

Housing, transit, and recreation are the three factors most vitally affecting the health and welfare of munition workers outside the factory,1 according to Memorandum No. 17 recently issued by the British Health of Munition Workers Committee.2 This study was made because "the necessity in the present emergency of trans- ferring workers from their homes to distant places where their labor is required has created an unparalleled situation, and problems of the first importance to the nation are arising simultaneously in muni- tion areas in various parts of the kingdom, especially as regards women and girls." While it is recognized that local agencies and volunteer societies, through the provision of hostels and clubs, are performing a useful work in this respect, the committee believes that such efforts must now be supplemented and reinforced by State action. The position is thus briefly stated :

By the agency of the State women and girls are being exported from their homes and imported into munition areas.

By the agency of the State the liberty of the individual to throw up her work and to take her labor elsewhere is restricted.

On the State, therefore, the responsibility lies not only for suitably housing these transplanted workers, but also for securing the safeguards needful for their health and morals, the maintenance of which is essential to the nation.

The problems presented for solution are grouped as personal questions, housing accommodation and transit, sickness, and leisure. Taking up the first group, the committee expresses the opinion that only normally healthy, clean, and wholesome-minded women and girls should be exported, involving necessarily the medical examina- tion of those who leave home for work ; and that mothers of infants or of families of young children should not be exported. Those sent to munition centers for work, especially if the distance is great, should be seen off and met at the station, and warned to provide themselves with sufficient clothing and with money to tide them over until the first week's pay is paid, which may not be for 10 days or 2 weeks. When the need is proved, the committee recommends that financial help should be forthcoming from a fund administered locally, safeguards being taken for the repayment of the loan from wages. 1 The committee has previously dealt with the health and welfare of these workers

inside the factory in three memoranda : Memorandum No. 2, Welfare supervision, notori in the Monthly Review for May, 1916 (pp. 68, 69), and reprinted in the bureau's Bulle- tin 222; Memorandum No. 4, Employment of women, in the Monthly Review for June. 1916 (pp. 74-76), and reprinted in Bulletin 223; and Memorandum No. 5, Hours of labor, in the Monthly Review for June, 1916 (pp. 77-79), and reprinted in Bulletin 221.

* Great Britain. Ministry of Munitions. Health of Munition Workers Committee. Memorandum No. 17. Health and welfare of munition workers outside the factory. London, 1917. 9 pp. This memorandum is reprinted in full in the bureau's Bulletin 2;»0.

[291]

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.69 on Wed, 14 May 2014 18:31:26 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

92 MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

When the workers arrive at the place of employment, the matter of housing accommodations and transit to and from work becomes im- portant, and the committee suggests that a reception or clearing house, in charge of an experienced superintendent, should be pro- vided where the women may stay for a night or two until suitable lodgings are found for them. These places should be clean and attractive, with appetizing food and adequate comfort accommoda- tions. As to the hostels, the committee suggests that as much free- dom as is compatible with good order should be allowed, and the need for rest and the companionship of a few friends should be met by a sufficient number of small sitting rooms. To obtain suitable and safe lodging places, local advisory committees òr other agencies should gather information as to the character of such places and make a list of those approved, the agreements as to terms being made, not between the lodger and the landlady, but between the responsible local organization and the landlady, thus protecting the latter. The matter of transit to and from work should receive careful atten- tion, because "health, timekeeping, temper, and output all suffer when to the day's work is added the discomfort and fatigue of a long walk to and fro in bad weather or in darkness, or a scramble to squeeze into a crowded railway carriage, tram, or omnibus, with a long journey in a bad atmosphere."

The following recommendations are made by the committee touch- ing the matter of sickness and leisure :

Sickness. - 1. Arrangements for the notification of illness in lodgings should be made and enforced. A special sick-room hostel or cottage hospital may be required.

2. A special committee of women (preferably married women and medical women) should be formed to keep in touch with maternity cases. A hostel, under the auspices of a philanthropic society, may be needed to provide for those who can no longer be suitably employed at the factory, and who can not return home. Arrangements for the confinement of inmates would be neces- sary.

Leisure. - 1. Organized means of recreation and of wholesome employment of leisure should be provided.

2. For the preservation of order and for preventive work, women police should be appointed, assisted where desirable by women voluntary patrols.

3. Questions regarding the sale of drink should be referred to the central control board (liquor traffic) for action.

SOCIAL INSURANCE BY THE UNITED STATEŠ GOVERNMENT.

Since September 2, 1914, the Federal Government through the Bureau of War Risk Insurance in the Treasury Department has been writing insurance on American vessels engaged in foreign trade, with their cargoes. This form of social insurance covering risks to prop- erty has been remarkably successful. If the Federal Government

[2Ô2]

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.69 on Wed, 14 May 2014 18:31:26 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions