"But in view of influence wielded by the labor unions, various provisions were inserted in the Munitions Act. They related to the settlement of labor disputes and to the prohibition of strikes and lockouts the grounds for which had not been submitted to the Board of Trade.

"To obviate such disputes, which were generally called forth by the excessive profits accruing to the employers and the demands of the wage-earners, the system of 'controlled establishments' was instituted. Every establishment engaged on munition work was placed, so far as the regulation of profits and salaries was concerned, under direct government control. Any modification in the rate of wages had to be submitted to the Ministry of Munitions, which had power to refer the question to an arbitration board specially set up by the act.

"To complete this rapid survey it must be added that a department was created by the Ministry of Munitions, under the control of an undersecretary, whose special business it was to examine war inventions."

INDUSTRIAL DISLOCATION IN FRANCE

When war was declared in 1914, the result in France was a complete disorganization. It must be remembered that workingmen from the age of 19 to 45 were called to the colors. This meant that the labor supply was reduced by about three-fourths. The revival of trade was very slow until the beginning of 1915. When it began to be realized that the war would be a long one, and when the consumption of ammunition and war materials was beyond all previous records, the Government was forced to prepare a program for industrial warfare. It was a hard task because much of industrial France was under enemy occupation. Munition work had to be undertaken in neighborhoods largely agricultural. Everything was lacking: labor, coal, raw material and transportation. As it became evident that the stoppage of industrial work was a serious mistake, an attempt was made to revive industries not connected with munitions, such as paper manufacture, glove and silk making. The operations undertaken by the Government are described in the following passage from M. R. Blanchard's article in the North American Review (1917):

"The first was to take men out of the army and send them to industrial work. This was done with great caution during the winter of 1914—15. The proportion of the men thus taken increased more and more during the year 1915 and reached its fullest extent in 1916. The specialists in steel work were the first to be taken out of the trenches; these were far from being sufficient, and common workmen were added to them. Then chemists and workmen trained in the manufacture of explosives were recalled; electric engineers were sent back to the hydro-electric plants; miners above thirty-five years of age who belonged to the territorial regiments were sent to the mines; paper-makers and cardboard-makers who could be employed in the preparation of explosives were put to work; cabinet-makers were put to manufacturing rifle stocks; wood-cutters were brought back from the front in order to see that there was no waste in providing the enormous amount of wood needed in the army. All this recalling of mobilized men was effected at first according to the need, and without method. By degrees it became clear that the output would be greater if these soldier-workmen were assigned to the plants or factories where they were working before the war. As it would have been unwise to take too large a number of men out of the fighting units, hundreds of thousands were taken from the auxiliary troops of the interior, men who through lack of physical ability to fight were employed in sedentary tasks. Thus in 1915 and 1916 auxiliaries were swept away to become workmen, foremen, secretaries, bookkeepers, accountants, etc. Finally the administration decided to draw from the oldest classes of men still under the military law. These were called in 1915 and sent to the factories—men born in 1868, either bachelors or married men without children.

"Another draft was made on the civil population. To make up for the absence of male help, women were called upon for a great number of occupations. Along with the women the refugees were to do their part. After a rather long period of unsettled life these refugees took again to regular occupations, some working in the fields as agricultural hands, others in factories. Today it is difficult to find unemployed people among them.

"The alien population for France is also large, considerable numbers of Italians, Spaniards, and Portuguese being employed in the southeastern region. A newer element was provided by natives from French colonies, namely, Morocco and Algeria. Since the war started large numbers of Greeks and Armenians had been imported into France; and during the last two years somethink something like 200,000 Chinamen had been brought to France for unskilled work. The last resource was the enemy itself. There were in France more than 250,000 German prisoners engaged in various work and receiving a salary for it."

Germany's industrial mobilization was picturesquely described by the head of the General Electric Co., Dr. Walter Rathenau, who was appointed at the beginning of the war to superintend the supplying of the German War Office with raw materials. He told the officials at the War Office that Germany was provided with more war materials only for a limited number of months. Accurate statistics were prepared in a short time on the power of production in various German industries. Then all the raw material was put where it could be commandeered. The flow of products was restricted, so that the raw material and also half manufactured products could be automatically diverted to articles needed by the Army. New methods were discovered and developed. Where former technical means were insufficient substitutes had to be found. Where it was prescribed that this or that article was to be made out of copper or aluminum, it was permitted to make it out of something else. All the laboring power of the country, including men from 16 to 60, were enrolled and controlled from the central organization called the War Office, described by General Gröner as follows:

"The new War Office represents Germany as a colossal firm which includes all production of every kind and is indifferent to the kind of coat, civil or military, which its employes wear. The new measures are intended to mobilize all effective labor, whereas up to the present we have only mobilized the army and industry. The whole war is becoming more and more a question of labor, and in order to give the army a firm basis for its operations the domestic army must also be mobilized. All the labor, women's as well as men's, must be extracted from the population, so far as possible voluntarily. But if voluntary enlistment does not suffice we shall not be able to avoid the introduction of compulsion."