.•ap>' '■*•■' 
LAND AND .WATER. 
October 2, 1915. 
WORKING MEN AND MUNITIONSw 
\The question has fuzsled many, why •working men, 
drawn from ike very classes ili^t have responded 
most willingly to the call for recruits, should have 
apparently displayed much slackness in the supply 
of munitions. In this article Mr. F. W. fowett, 
Labour Member for Bradford, explains the position 
as it presents itself to working men.] 
By F. W. Jovvett, M.P. 
Labour organisations, a thing which never ought to 
occur in these days when Trade Union leaders and the 
men's representatives are so anxious to help the Govern- 
ment and are so ready to associate themselves with the 
Government in the discovery and exposure of any breach 
of duty on the part of the men engaged on munition 
work. Under these circumstances there is no excuse for 
springing, by way of surprise, unverified cases of the 
kind mentioned at the recent Trade Union Congress and 
for founding thereon general charges of " slacking," 
which are reported through tlie length and breadth of the 
land. This is not. the way to get more work done but less. 
WHY is there all this trouble among the pro- 
ducers of munitions of war? The supply 
of munitions has been insufficient, yet in all 
the great munition-producing centres there 
is unrest among tiie workers which continu- 
ally tlireatens to break out into open rebellion in the form Freedom of Employers. 
of strikes or other expressions of protest not less detri- 
mental to the work in hand. 
The workers are blamed for the shortage. It is 
assumed, on the other hand, that the Government and 
the employers are doing their duty. But the workers 
deny that they are to blame, and they resent the assump- 
tion that the Government and the employers are doing 
their duty. It is not denied that some men have broken 
time without reason and that there are men who have 
"broken time for drinking, but when it is argued that 
these evils are sufficiently widespread to account almost 
entirely, or to any serious degree, for the immense defi- 
ciency in the supply of war material, munition workers 
generally feel that they are being unjustly attacked, for 
they know it is not so. Men who have been working 
on munitions for months to the limit of human endur- 
ance — in front of the fiery furnace, swinging heavy 
hammers, or moulding heavy castings, with little or no 
break except for eating and sleeping— resent the sort of 
charges that have been made against munition workers 
most bitterly; and, inevitably, the result has been to 
make them less willing to work their hardest and more 
ready to protest against other forms of unfair treatment, 
to which, also, they feel they have a right to complain. 
Growing Resentment. 
Ever since last April, when the attempt was first 
made to throw the responsibility for the lack of muni- 
tions of war on to the workers, resentment has been 
growing among the men in munition areas, and as the 
charges liave been revived from time to time it has struck 
root more deeply. The charges in question have been 
based in nearly every instance on reckless generalisa- 
tions from evidence collected from employers or persons 
dependent on employers for their information. 
Averages of the number of hours worked per week 
per man were given in a Government White Paper 
issued on May i, which took no account of 
very important factors which, if they had been allowed 
The ill-effect of the charges against munition 
workers has been all the greater on account of the com- 
parative freedom with which their employers have been 
allowed to tyrannise over them and to make profit not 
only as usual but with an added percentage for war time. 
Working men who are paying 34 per cent, more on the 
average for all the things they buy on account of the war, 
and who are not at liberty to increase their wages to meet 
the extra cost by changing one employer for another, are 
asking themselves why the employers should be allowed 
to make any extra profit out of the war at all. Moreover, 
tlie workers are not ignorant of the fact that statements 
concerning profits made by munition firms are con- 
stantly being made public which appear to show that 
there are ways of evading the object of the limita:tion of 
profits section of the Munitions Act, and, consequently, 
it would appear tliat the amount represented by 20 per 
cent, extra profits is subject to considerable addition by 
means unknown to the public, but which are quite effec- 
tive for the purpose of defeating tlie Munitions Act. In 
short, the provisions of the Munitions Act which purport 
to safeguard the public interest against the employer are 
not trusted by working men. Thev are regarded as mere 
capitalistic " bluff." 
On the other hand, tlie provisions of the Munitions 
Act which affect the worker are drastic, and they are 
bemg pressed very liard by employers who quite openly 
stand to gain by doing so. The prosecutions now being 
reported daily show this. Men have been prevented by 
employers from going to work elsewhere, although tiie 
employers who prosecuted had failed to give the accused 
men full work. Apparently the onlv object in one of the 
cases reported was to keep men in reserve lest peradven- 
ture the employer should be afterwards short of men 
Men have been prosecuted who liave changed their em- 
ployers with no other object than to get the regular Trade 
Union rate of wage. One firm the other day brought 
complaints against a large number of their men for 
losing ^ime. Fines varying from 5s. to £3 were imposed. 
Sifc=^^r:r:;t=^ !;££^!i^ =^^=^^t&^^^'^^^^^; 
ditterent result and one far more favourable to the men. 
!No attempt was made, for instance, to ascertain how 
many hours were lost through sickness, through lack of 
material, through bad weather and otlier unavoidable 
reasons. Where pre-war conditions as regards time- 
keeping were given by way of comparison no trouble 
emnlov^!] ^^'" -^^ ^^"""^ '^^ ^'^^""^ ^^ ^^^ich men were 
emolZd ''^^;" "°T^' '•■"'" ^^"''l "^t Ji«^« been 
bTcaSf M • °" '?' ^'"'■'^ '^^y ^«^« then doing 
because of their age or for other disabilities. 
Confess Ival T"^'''' *''' "^"'^^'^ ^* ^^^ Trade Union 
alS limTt^f- f "*" ^''*^'" '^'^ted instances of 
repr?st ed th'°- ^^^ '"^'''^ ^''^ ^'^^" «^ '^ ^^ey 
represented the conditions under which a large number 
ttnTre":^f SeS Z ''^ -^'^' /^ ^'« ^^^ 
stances of foolkh^l • *° f ""^ '"^'^'y 'so^^ted in- 
supply^of mLitlon? Ev^ Ts SL S S ins^ " *L" Ju'ST '"'^^^'^ 'P' •^'"P"^>'^^ '- ^ad a remedru'nd;-; 
Illustration., referred to were imSl i . ^"^^V.^^ *''^ ^'^ ''^^'"'* ^^^ '"-"^ '"'^'^ liad given the man work 
were immediately challenged b- nearer home. The cost of living constantly rises, and the 
18 
of protest because the firm concerned would neither paV 
wages equal to the wages offered elsewhere nor allow 
their men to go elsewhere for higlier wages which would 
willingly have been paid to them. 
Munitions Tribunals. 
The report of tiie proceedings at the Munitions 
Tribunal which tried these cases states that when the 
fines were imposed there was a scene of indescribable 
uproar. Men leapt to their feet shouting denunciation 
against their employers and declaring that the Court 
would cause a revolution by such findings. Before 
another tribunal a yoimg man was charged with leavin;r 
a job at 20S per week, out of which he had to pay 6s. a 
week travelling expenses. He had to start for his work 
at 4 a.m., and could not get back home before 8.30 p.m. 
