It was likewise anticipated that it would be particularly difficult for boys and girls dismissed at the end of the war to find new places. Not only would openings be few and the numbers of adults seeking work be large, but the high wages children had received for repetition work on munitions would make them unwilling to learn trades or to accept lower pay. When a number of boys were discharged from munition plants in 1916-1917, although labor at that time was very scarce, great difficulty was found in getting them new places because of their unwillingness to accept ordinary wages. To meet the crisis the Ministry of Reconstruction committee suggested a comprehensive program for unemployment prevention. The discharge of war workers should be regulated and placement centered in the employment exchanges, whose juvenile employment committees were to be strengthened. Government establishments should hold back dismissals until notified that places were open. A canvass for possible openings and for probable dismissals should be made in advance of the end of the war.

The second point in the committee’s plan was keeping newcomers out of industry. The exemptions allowing children under fourteen to leave school should be abolished, scholarships provided for many capable children at secondary schools, and the working weeks for all under eighteen reduced to forty-eight hours. For those still uncared for, training during unemployment should be provided. Training centers should be opened in all towns of over 20,000 population and allowances made to parents whose children attended. For the boys most demoralized by war work it might even be necessary to open residential training camps where they could remain at least six or eight weeks.

The third main point in the program was the improvement of working conditions, including for all occupations a week of forty-eight hours for work and continuation school together, the abolition of night work, and a searching physical examination before entering industry. A novel recommendation was that it should be made a legal offence to employ young persons under conditions “impeding their training.”

But as was the case with the women workers, the comprehensive plans worked out under the Ministry of Reconstruction had not been adopted when the armistice was signed, and juvenile workers were helped through the unemployment crisis only by the incomplete makeshifts hastily adopted in the first few days after November 11. Chief among these was the provision of unemployment donations, the payment of which was conditional on attendance at a training center wherever one was available. The donations were payable for the same period as those for adults, that is, for thirteen weeks during the first six months of peace, later extended for a second six months, but were less in amount, being 14s. 6d. ($5.48) weekly for boys and 12s. 6d. ($3.00) for girls. During the first few months of 1919, about 50,000 young persons received the donations.

The number receiving donations steadily declined until on November 21, 1919, when civilian donations ceased, there were 8,000 boys and 2,287 girls on the Labor Exchange donation lists.[289] By February of that year 116 training centers had been opened, providing nearly sufficient in London, and a smaller number elsewhere. More were opening daily, but it was hard to find teachers and rooms. The centers were managed by the Board of Education, in close cooperation with the employment exchanges. About 13,500 boys and girls were in attendance daily.[290]

The Fisher Education Law is, to date, the chief constructive measure looking toward a permanent improvement in the condition of juvenile workers. This measure was the result of proposals made by 1917 by an official committee on “Juvenile Education in Relation to Employment after the War,” which were strikingly like those put forward by a number of workers’ organizations. All exceptions allowing children to leave school before the age of fourteen were abolished. Any gainful employment by children under twelve was forbidden, and children between twelve and fourteen might work only on Saturdays and for a few hours after school. Attendance at continuation schools by all young workers was required, and the age limit will be eighteen years when the law goes into full effect. Eight hours a week and two hundred and eighty hours a year must be given to continuation school, the time for attendance being taken out of working hours. Unfortunately, those who in some ways most need the protection of the law, namely, the boys and girls who left school for work prematurely during the war, do not come under its provisions. Two special sections exempted those who had already left school from returning, and those fourteen years old or more when the law was passed, from attendance at continuation classes. Nevertheless by the enactment of this law the final effect of the war on English child labor standards should be to lift them to a higher level than ever before.

Even at this time of writing it is difficult to measure the final effects of the war upon the economic conditions of the women and children. Too many unfinished plans and unfulfilled pledges still remain for action by the government. Far reaching changes are, however, in prospect and some of them actually under way. Foremost among these is the aroused spirit among the workers, who are demanding and peacefully securing a real share in the management of industry. In this awakening the woman worker has fully participated. The disadvantages of war work, in long hours, overstrain, the disruption of home life, may pass as industrial conditions return to normal. The gains in the way of better working conditions, higher wages and a wider range of occupations seem likely to be more permanent. Most important of all is the fact that because of her broader and more confident outlook on life, the woman worker is able consciously to hold to the improved economic position to which the fortunes of war have brought her.

APPENDICES

Appendix A

The following table, from a “Report to the Board of Trade on the State of Employment in the United Kingdom,” of February, 1915, compares the number of males and females on full time, on overtime, on short time, and unemployed, between September, 1914, and February, 1915.