520 TRANSACTIONS OP SECTION F. 



1. The extensive emigration of women. At the close of the War a consider- 

 able proportion of the men discharged from the Army will have acquired a 

 taste for an open-air life, and may prefer the prospects offered by the Colonies. 

 Unless, therefore, the respective sexes are to be distributed over the Empire 

 even more unevenly than at present, steps must be taken to ensure the emigra- 

 tion of women in something like the same proportion as that of men. 



2. The better technical training of both boys and girls. There seems little 

 da,nger of a superabundance of highly skilled labour. It is the experience of 

 all trades that, except in processes which have been superseded, the supply of 

 highly skilled workers is usually less than the demand. If the materia) wastage 

 of the War is to be repaired, the need of the country for skilled workers will be 

 even greater in the future than in the past. There are signs that the trade 

 unions are entering upon a policy of preventing the undercutting of men by 

 women rather by regulating women's wages than by excluding them entirely 

 from the more skilled processes. The highly paid skilled workers as a class are 

 not likely to be detrimentally affected by the augmentation of their numbers, 

 whether the recruits come from one sex or both. It is the almost inexhaustible 

 reserve of cheap unskilled or semi-skilled labour which is their real danger; 

 the installation during the War of plant requiring only unskilled and semi- 

 skilled labour, because no labour of a higher order is available, has only increased 

 the difficulties. 



3. An extension of the policy of equal pay for equal work, and, as a corollary, 

 a minimum wage for unskilled labour both male and female. This policy, which 

 could be most effectively enforced by organised labour itself, should be so 

 framed as to prevent the employment of unskilled labour from being more pro- 

 fitable than skilled in those forms of production in which they can be alter- 

 natively emploved, e.ff., engineering. It may be desirable also to give further 

 powers under the Trade Boards Act and to extend it to other trades. 



4. A careful reconsideration of the ' half-time ' system in those industries 

 which still employ this form of child labour. 



5. The withdrawal of widows with young children from the labour market by 

 the institution of an adequate pension, scheme, at the same time introducing 

 further restrictions with regard to home work. 



Statistics. 



Appended are three tables. Tables I. and II. show the state of employment 

 for industry as a whole at various dates from July to February compared with 

 employment in July 1914. Table III. shows the state of employment for those 

 industries most affecting women's labour. The tables are prepared from three 

 Eeports on the State of Employment in the United Kingdom issued bv the Board 

 of Trade,!' which form the best available records of the economic effects of the 

 War on employment. The first (Cd. 7703) deals with the situation up to mid- 

 October 1914 ; the second (Cd. 7755) states the facts for December ; and the 

 third (Cd. 78501 is based upon an inquiry in the middle of February 1915. 

 There all information, as far as the public is concerned, stops short, though 

 comprehensive inquiries are still taking place. In these official Reports little 

 information is given with regard to non-industrial occupations such as railways, 

 docks, shipping, the carrying trade, agriculture, clerks, and distributive trades ; 

 nor is information with reference to Government employment in Woolwich 

 Arsenal or elsewhere, which has expanded considerably since the War, included. 

 The October return covered 66 per cent, of the workpeople employed in large 

 firms in industrial occupations and 10 per cent, of those in small firms. The 

 December Report was based upon returns received from 23.000 industrial firms 

 employing about 4,000.000 workpeople, or 43 per cent, of the industrial popula- 

 tion, and the February return was even more comprehensive. The quality of 

 the material thus provided is much superior to that upon which official unem- 



" See article 'The Effect of the War on Industry.' by W. T. Lavton, in 

 Oitarferly 'Rerh-ir, No. 442. Three articles on 'The Influence of the War o" 

 Employment.' by H. D. Henderson, in Economic Journal, December 1914 and 

 March and Jung 1915, are also interesting contributions to the subject. 



