The picture of transportation difficulties given by the committee forms an interesting sidelight on conditions in and about the new munition centers:
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. In the darkness of early morning and at night, when no lights are allowed to be shown on the railway, separate compartments for women are desirable, and no traveling without a light inside the carriage should be allowed; in some places carriages without blinds or other means of shading the windows are used for the convenience of work people of both sexes. Under these circumstances artificial light cannot be used and the journey is made crowded together in total darkness.[211]
In the more crowded centers living accommodations were equally overtaxed. “The sudden influx of workers in several districts has so overtaxed the housing accommodations that houses intended for one family are now occupied by several.”[212] And “beds are never empty and rooms are never aired, for in a badly crowded district, the beds, like the occupants, are organized in day and night shifts.”[213] High charges and poor service added to the discomforts of the overcrowding:
About eighteen months ago I visited a Midland town where the girls, although they were earning from twenty-five to fifty shillings instead of the fifteen to eighteen shillings which was their weekly wage in peace time, were living in conditions more unhealthy and uncomfortable than they had ever endured before. It was common for a girl on the day shift to go back to a bed from which a worker on the night shift had just arisen. Girls on a twelve hour shift would have to lodge an hour and a half from the factory, so that their working day amounted to fifteen hours. To get a roof over their heads they would have to put up with dirt, bad cooking, rowdy companions and above all extortionate charges; the poor also can cheat the poor. I have known the wives of foremen earning over five pounds a week to charge a girl fifteen shillings a week for bed and breakfast.[214]
The housing situation, however, was taken in hand by the Ministry of Munitions on an extensive scale. Sometimes it was relieved by the improvement of transit facilities or the payment of workers’ fares to outlying districts. It is claimed that in the first year after the passage of the munitions act accommodations for 60,000 people were provided, and that “whole villages were built.” In some cases the government advanced money to local authorities or philanthropic organizations and in other cases itself undertook the work. The accommodation provided especially for women workers generally took the form of large dormitories or “hostels.”
A comprehensive description of the hostels, drawn from two unpublished reports of the “hostels subsection” of the Ministry of Munitions Welfare Department, was published by the Monthly Labor Review of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.[215] According to this account, the hostels subsection had 276 hostels for women out of a total of 494 under inspection in May, 1917. About half were private, most of which were owned by employers and a few by charitable or benevolent associations. Accommodations were provided for from twenty to several hundred women, the government hostels being the larger. Most of the buildings were one story, and of temporary wooden or concrete construction. Sometimes existing buildings like board schools were remodelled into hostels. The majority did not even pay expenses, and only one was reported to return a commercial profit. Some served merely as clearing houses, keeping girls one or two nights on their first arrival at their new work places, until they found permanent lodgings. The temporary clearing house work was considered one of the most important functions of the hostels.
The success of the hostels was, however, doubtful. In May, 1917, they were said to be only half filled, although this is ascribed in part to the policy of building them in advance of the demand, so that there might be no excuse for delaying the progress of dilution and the introduction of women workers from other communities. In January, 1918, the hostels were two-thirds filled, but this was perhaps rather caused by the greater housing shortage than by their increased popularity. Particularly in the north of England and Scotland, where they were associated with the idea of reformatories, the women preferred lodging with a family even where “they had to pay 12s. ($2.88) a week for a third of a bed.” Representatives of the Ministry of Munitions believe that the partial failure of the system was due to the rules and regulations necessary when large numbers of women were brought together, the difficulties arising if even one woman of questionable character got into a dormitory, and the lack of privacy and of a homelike atmosphere.
There was much criticism by trade unionists of the hostels, especially when these were under company control. It was not considered wholesome or right that girls should eat and sleep with their work mates. A girl who lost her position lost her board and lodging at the same time, and, if far from home, might be in a helpless and dangerous position. The girl in a company hostel was “under the firm’s forewoman by day and the firm’s matron by night, and all the time under the firm’s welfare supervision.” The official rejoinder to these criticisms, as illustrated by the attitude of the welfare department of the Ministry of Munitions, was that hostels were regarded “as a temporary war expedient and as a means of keeping up efficiency and output because they provide proper housing and feeding of the workers. Hostels are in no sense regarded as a permanent solution of the housing problem.” But it was believed that because they provided better accommodations than many of the workers had previously enjoyed, they might serve permanently to improve their standard of living.
The Billeting of Civilians Bill, which went into effect May 24, 1917, represented still another effort to solve the housing problem in the crowded munition centers. Civilians engaged in war work of national importance, might, at the request of the government department concerned, be billeted like soldiers[216] with householders in the vicinity. Local committees were organized to administer the law and fix the scale of payments. But up to April, 1918, no use had been made of the power of compulsory billeting. “It is doubtful how far it is workable in practice,” said the Health of Munition Workers Committee.[217]
Other interesting points in the work of the Ministry of Munitions for “welfare” among women workers outside the factory included provision for recreation and for day nurseries. Especially in the hostels attention was given to recreation. The long hours and hard work did not leave much energy for classes, but modern books were in great demand and gardening was popular. A Hindu prince, the Maharajah Sandia of Gwalior provided a fund of £6,000 for the development of recreation schemes. Lectures and concerts, library books, lantern slides and a holiday camp for boys were among the items provided out of this fund. At a few of the large establishments, such as Woolwich Arsenal, clubs were organized and recreation grounds were arranged.