Reference is made above to the part which was played by the Federation in keeping down the price of bread. In November 1914 the price of the 4–lb. loaf was increased by a halfpenny; in January 1915 another halfpenny advance took place; and in March of that year another halfpenny; while by the month of May the price had risen to 8d. per 4–lb. loaf. In February 1916 another halfpenny was imposed, and in May of that year yet another halfpenny; while before control came into operation the price in Glasgow and Clydebank had risen to 11½d. and in Belfast to 1/ for the 4–lb. loaf. A rather remarkable note in one of the board minutes for 1916 is that which states that a letter had been received from a co-operative society, protesting against the action of the Federation in refusing to consent to an increase in the price of bread. The secretary of the Federation mercifully kept the name of the society out of the minute of the meeting.

Prior to the beginning of 1915, the catering for the meals of the employees had been done by a committee of themselves, but in March of that year they approached the board with the request that the Society should take over and carry on this work. During these years the output of the Society was increasing gradually but surely. For the year which ended in January 1915, the output was 230,780 sacks, an average of 4,440 sacks per week for the year, and an increase of 440 per week in three years. On the 3rd of April, it was reported that during the preceding week 5,351 sacks had been baked. This constituted a record week’s baking for the Society, but for some time afterwards, until the coming of Government Regulation flour, record after record was made only to be broken. By the month of September 1916, the turnover had risen to 5,410 sacks per week, or almost a thousand sacks of a weekly increase in eighteen months. In the end of that month, the output was 5,925 sacks, and by the end of February 1917 the record figures of 6,012 sacks were reached. In these increases all three bakeries participated, and the rapid increase for 1916 and the early months of 1917 is all the more remarkable in view of the fact that the amount of baking which was done for the military was not nearly so great as it had been in the earlier months of the war. On the last Saturday in 1916, 21,546 dozens of bread were baked and seventy bridecakes made. There had evidently been an epidemic of war marriages at this Hogmanay.

BISCUIT AND TEABREAD TRADE.

In the biscuit trade as well as in the bread trade, the directors carried out as far as possible their policy of keeping prices as low as was consistent with securing the Federation against loss, but the rapidity with which the various ingredients for these luxuries of the baking trade increased in price caused the prices to the societies to be raised shortly after the outbreak of war. In March 1915, it was decided to reduce the discount allowed on teabread by two and a half per cent., in order to compensate in some measure for the increases in the cost of materials. Toward the end of 1915 the Society found that their stocks of biscuits were falling very low, owing to the shortage of labour, as about 30,000 tins of biscuits were being sent out every week. Systematic overtime was worked in the biscuit factory with the object of overcoming the shortage. The Society were also faced with a serious shortage of biscuit tins, due to the fact that societies were not returning the empty tins promptly, while the manufacturers were not able to supply the demand for new tins. To meet this difficulty the directors authorised the purchase of a machine for the manufacture of the tins. By the beginning of 1916 the shortage of materials necessary for the manufacture of pastries, and especially of sugar, was becoming very marked, and in March of that year it was decided to stop the manufacture of a number of the varieties of which sugar was a considerable ingredient. In May, it was found necessary to advance the price of biscuits by, on the average, nine shillings per cwt., yet, notwithstanding the high price, the Society were having difficulty in fulfilling their orders. Earlier in the year it had been decided to look out for suitable ground for an extension of the biscuit factory, and at the quarterly meeting held in September power was granted the directors to spend up to £9,500 in purchasing land for this purpose. By October, the price of biscuits was advanced other eight shillings per cwt., but as this was four shillings per cwt. below the price which other merchants were charging the societies were getting a very good bargain. In November, it was decided to cease the manufacture of all French, iced, and sugar-coated pastries, owing to the increasing shortage of sugar.

THE SOCIETY AND ITS WORKERS.

At the outbreak of war many employees joined the Army or Navy, and to these the Society decided to pay half-wages. As the months passed, more and more of the younger men joined up, first under the Derby Scheme and later under the Conscription Act, so that the carrying out of the policy of paying half-wages meant the disbursing of a considerable sum every half-year, and by the end of 1916 the sum of £10,628 had been so expended; £7,892 being paid to dependants and £2,736 retained in the hands of the Society at the credit of employees serving with the Colours. At this time, 304 of the Society’s employees had joined the Services, and eighteen had made the great sacrifice.

This drain on the male workers of the Society brought troubles of its own in its train. We have already seen that considerable difficulty was being experienced in meeting the demand of customer societies for biscuits, while the difficulty in meeting the demand for bread was equally great. Toward the end of 1915, the Operative Bakers’ Union consented to allow their members to begin work one hour earlier on Saturday mornings, while a number of men who had been formerly employed as “jobbers” were given full-time employment. In the beginning of the following year an attempt was made to induce the Bakers’ Union to permit the employment of women in the bakery, but this permission they refused, although they admitted that “dilution” was in operation in similar establishments. In July of 1916 an agreement with regard to dilution was reached, whereby it was decided that, after all reasonable efforts had been made to obtain male labour, females should be appointed in the same proportion as apprentices; that two girls could be appointed for every man who left, and that the arrangement was to continue for the duration of the war or of conditions created by the war.

In that year some difficulty was experienced in getting the bakers to come to terms with the employers in the Glasgow district on the question of wages, but the dispute was finally adjusted after notices to cease work had been handed in. The terms finally agreed on were substantially those which had been offered by the Federation, and gave the bakers an increase in wages of four shillings per week. The bakers did not take kindly to the proposal to introduce female labour into the bakehouse, and when the directors proposed to take that step protested strongly, notwithstanding the agreement which had been arrived at on the subject, and although they were working very many hours of overtime each week. The directors therefore decided that the question of the employment of female labour should be referred to the War Emergency Committee, and that committee gave their award in favour of the introduction of female labour into the pastry and smallbread flats, but would not allow them to take part in the baking of loaf bread.

DELIVERY DIFFICULTIES.

We have already seen that the needs of the war transcended all other considerations in the opinion of the War Office officials, who commandeered many horses and vans from the Society at the outbreak of war and later. The difficulties of delivery thus created the directors endeavoured to overcome by the use of motors for delivery. But even machinery will not go on for ever without requiring repairs, and as breakdowns became more frequent increasing difficulty was being found in having the necessary repairs done, because of shortage of labour of the necessary skill, and because also of the shortage of the necessary material. Another delivery difficulty had a different cause. The shortage of labour was general, and the retail stores were as greatly handicapped as were other businesses. In 1916, with the view of overcoming this handicap to some extent and at the same time ensuring as far as possible that the shops should not be open in the absence of skilled supervision, the societies adopted the policy of closing their shops during the lunch hour. To some extent this policy attained the object which the societies had in view, but as soon as it was put into operation the Baking Society found their delivery difficulties increased, for their vans had to stand idle while the shops were closed. Representations on the subject were made to the various societies, which gave very favourable consideration in most cases, and the practice grew up of leaving one employee in each shop to take delivery of goods which arrived during the lunch hour.