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.

(Sometimes called employment superintendents.)

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.