RECREATION--MOTHERHOOD--THE FACTORY NURSERY
_Recreation_
The gift in the early days of munitions development of several thousands
of pounds from an Indian prince, the Maharajah of Gwalior, for the benefit
of munitions employees, helped to focus attention from the outset on their
needful recreation. The necessity for a maximum output, bringing in its
train long shifts, overtime, and a minimum of holidays, at first left
scant leisure at the munition girl's disposal, yet it was at once apparent
that some effort must be made to render that leisure healthful and
invigorating. As soon as the Welfare Supervisors took up their positions
in the factories and came into living touch with the needs of the women
employed, requests found their way to the Ministry of Munitions for grants
for recreation purposes from the Maharajah's fund.
At first, 'a piano for the recreation-room or canteen' was the more
general appeal; for, strangely enough, after the long hours in the
engineering shops the normal munitions girl craves most, not for passive
amusement, such as 'the pictures', but for free movements of her own body.
Above all, she desires to dance, or to enjoy the rhythm of physical drill,
or, in the summer, to swim or dive, or to chase a ball in one or other of
the popular team games. Within doors, the piano provides, as it were, a
spring-board from which she can jump into a leisure-time atmosphere of
merriment; it is the send-off to her dance, the guide to her song, and the
backbone to the joy found in the united action of physical drill.
The piano once provided in canteen, or recreation-room, you will find the
munition girl footing it in the dinner-hour, or tea-interval, or in any
other period when she is off duty. So long as the tune be bright, the
merry-hearted munition-maker will dance the old dances, or the more
complicated modern steps, as her mood suggests.
From self-taught dancing, the desire for a more perfect expression in
movement is a natural evolution, and in certain cases grants from the
Maharajah's fund have defrayed the fees of dancing mistress, or sports
instructor. Sums from the same source have been paid to assist the
organization of a club, for the provision of a recreation-room, for the
erection of swings and see-saws, for the installation of a swimming-bath,
for tools and seeds for factory girls' gardens, for dramatic
entertainments, for lectures for the instruction of apprentices, and in
Ireland, for the enlargement of schools for children of women munition
workers.
Side by side with these endeavours, other efforts to promote sane
amusement for munition makers have been fructifying. Many an enlightened
factory employer, studying the problem of woman-labour within his own
works, has come to the conclusion that 'if women are called upon to work
continuously, especially at repetition jobs, their pleasure in life must
be kept alive'. Being business men, they have soon turned the theory into
practice, and have encouraged, started, and financed recreation schemes
for their own employees.
In Sheffield, for example, successful dramatic entertainments have been
given, the actors and actresses emerging from the engineering shops; near
Birmingham, a firm has provided a cinema, an orchestra, and a dancing-room
for their workpeople, and on Saturday evenings, free conveyance in an
omnibus is arranged for those workers resident in outlying hostels and
married quarters.
At Norwich, another firm has appointed a woman recreation officer to teach
the girls physical drill, dancing, tennis, and other games. Dances and a
fancy-dress ball have been organized there, and in the summer, tennis,
bowls, and cricket are played in a large recreation ground. These are but
a few instances, typical of the growing understanding amongst employers in
this country of the value of playtime to a women's staff.
Outside the factory other agencies have been at work, voluntarily
attempting to provide rest and refreshment for the women whose sacrifices
for the war are so great and so patiently endured. Such bodies as the
Young Women's Christian Association or local Civic Associations have
opened recreation clubs--sometimes for girls only and sometimes
'mixed'--where concerts, dramatic entertainments, and lectures are given,
and classes in useful arts or games are held. Women from the aristocracy
and working women, civic authorities and the clergy, have joined hands
throughout the country to help forward this effort for the physical,
spiritual and intellectual recreation of the munitions worker.
The very spontaneity and eagerness of the movement have naturally led here
and there to overlapping, and in the spring of 1917 it was found advisable
to co-ordinate local streams of goodwill and energy. A branch of the
Welfare and Health Department of the Ministry of Munitions was thus
established to keep in touch with all agencies outside the factory which
deal with schemes regarding recreation, sickness, maternity-cases,
creches, housing, and transit facilities. Extra-mural Welfare officers
have since been appointed to undertake such duties in various localities.
These act as _liaison_ officers between existing associations of every
denomination in a given district, and centralize all outside efforts for
the protection and relaxation of the munition women of that area.
The Welfare officer at first surveys carefully the needs of the district,
and institutes an inquiry as to provisions for their satisfaction. If
necessary, a conference is then called of individuals and representatives
of local bodies dealing with these matters, and sub-committees are
appointed for each part of the work. When the numbers of women workers are
comparatively small in a given area and no adequate provision has been
made for their recreation, a central club is often opened. In other
localities, existing clubs, or institutions, are adapted to new
requirements, or new ones are added, according to local needs. Where night
shifts are worked in the local factories, it is usual to arrange the open
hours of the club to suit the workshop leisure hours. Thus, a club may be
open from 6 to 8 a.m.; at midday, for two hours, and again from 4.30 to
9.30 p.m. In such cases, it is often necessary to employ paid club
managers, as well as local voluntary help.
The clubs, however, vary, both in scope and management, the general
principle followed by the Welfare officer being to ensure provision for
recreation, and then to leave the administration to local effort.
Encouragement is given by the Ministry of Munitions to employers of
Controlled Establishments and to the management of National factories to
help forward the movement for recreation for their staffs by allowing
Treasury grants out of excess profits to be made towards approved schemes.
In many districts the grants are 'pooled' for recreation purposes for the
whole area. Recreation for the munition worker thus rests on a secure
basis. In the winter months, dancing, physical drill, theatricals, games,
and classes are in full swing in the principal munitions areas, and in the
summer, outdoor sports are encouraged, as well as the tending of vegetable
plots and flower gardens.
_Motherhood_
A more difficult task falling to the 'Outside Welfare' officer is the
supervision of maternity cases arising among munition workers. The
all-important question of motherhood necessarily crops up in the factories
where hundreds of thousands of women are in daily employment. Numbers of
them are wives of men hard at work in war industries at home; others are
war-widows, and while the illegitimate birth-rate has not gone up
disproportionately in munitions areas, the unmarried mother, from time to
time, presents a special problem.
The care of the expectant mother necessarily begins within the factory
gates. We have so far no published conclusions from an authoritative
survey of this question, such as Dr. Bonnaire (Chief Professor of
Midwifery at the Maternity Hospital, Paris) has provided for France, yet
scientific investigations and experiments undertaken by the Health of
Munition Workers' Committee are in progress. As far as possible, the women
Welfare Supervisors within the works keep their management informed of
maternity cases as they are noted, and, where possible, the expectant
mother is placed on lighter work.
No woman known to be in that condition is, after a certain period, kept on
at night work, nor is she allowed to work in an explosives factory, nor
yet to handle T.N.T. 'We send the girl to the doctor and we act on his
advice. If we can keep her, we always take her off night work and heavy
machines and where there is a good deal of exertion,' is a report typical
of the procedure in such cases in many factories. 'It is too risky for an
expectant mother to stay on at all,' is a characteristic opinion from a
Filling Factory; and from a high-explosives factory comes the verdict that
an expectant mother should, after a certain period, be discharged from the
works in view of the occasional occurrence there of small explosions. Such
maternity cases are, when possible, transferred, through local agencies,
to lighter national work outside the factory.
_The Factory Nursery_
Closely connected with the safeguarding of motherhood is the case of the
munition workers' children of pre-school age. After two months' interval
from the baby's birth, many of the maternity cases from the factory return
to their previous work, and the infant must, in the mother's absence, be
nursed by others. A similar condition applies to the work of other mothers
whose labour is required for munitions production.
It sometimes happens that in a given area the call to the munitions
factories has been answered by practically all the available women in the
neighbourhood whose home ties are light, and the local labour reserve is
found amongst the women with one or two young children. If these women are
to offer their services, it is essential that their young family should
not be neglected. Sometimes, the mothers are able to make their own
arrangements and a 'minder', either a relative, or a neighbour, is
forthcoming, but, generally speaking, such a plan is not satisfactory in a
locality where every active individual is undertaking urgent war work.
Thus has arisen in many districts the claim that a nursery for munition
workers' children should be established. A local association, or an
individual, often finds it possible to finance such a scheme; in other
cases, monetary aid is required and obtained from the Ministry of
Munitions. In the latter circumstances, the Ministry of Munitions,
co-operating with the Board of Education, grants 75 per cent. of the
approved expenditure on the initial provision and equipment of the
nursery, as well as 7_d._ a day for each attendance of a child, the
balance of the expenses being met partly by fees (varying from 7_d._ to
1_s._ a day, or from 7_s._ 6_d._ to 9_s._ 6_d._ a week) charged to the
mothers, and partly by contributions from the local originators of the
scheme.
Where night shifts are worked, the munition workers may claim night
accommodation for their children; arrangements are also made to board the
infants by the week. In the schemes approved by the Ministry it has
generally been found possible to adapt existing buildings, but where no
suitable accommodation is available within reasonable distance of the
mothers' homes a new building is erected.
Such a nursery has been erected near Woolwich and provides a useful model
for this country. It is a long low building of bungalow type, surrounded
by a small garden. The main room, the babies' parlour, is a long apartment
enclosed on two sides by a verandah, and on the third, by a wide passage
well ventilated at each end. The room itself is full of light and air,
there is plenty of play room, and no awkward corners to inflict bruises
unawares. A lengthy crawl brings a baby-boarder into the sunshine of the
verandah and the safe seclusion of its play-pens, and a longer crawl and a
hop is rewarded by entrance into the surrounding garden, where a
delectable sand-pit is a permanent feature.
Brightly-coloured flowers enliven the garden in spring and in summer and
attract bird and insect visitors, companions often more interesting to a
two-year-old than the most sprightly of humans. Mattresses occupy part of
the floor space of the nursery, and at night-time are developed into
full-fledged beds. At one end of the room are cupboards let into the
walls, at the other, furniture fashioned for the needs of each 'two feet
nothing'. There, instead of being perched on a high chair to feed with
giants from an elevated table-land, the infant visitor sits on a miniature
arm-chair at a table brought to the level of childhood. The low tables
are, in fact, kidney-shaped and hollowed on the inside, so that a nurse,
or attendant, seated in the centre, may feed half a dozen children in
turn. The toddler's dinner in this retreat recalls the feeding time in a
nest. A smiling nurse in the centre feeds, turn by turn, her open-mouthed
charges whose satisfaction is expressed in human 'coos'.
Another room in this delightful babies' house is devoted to infants: a
brigade in cots, of which the advance-guard, during fine weather, invade
the verandah. The daintiness of the room with its blue curtains and
cot-hangings and the chubby satisfaction of the cot-dwellers must be a
constant inspiration to the visiting working mothers. Spotless kitchens
for the preparation of the children's meals are situated in the rear of
the nurseries; there is also an isolation room where suspect infectious
cases are detained, and a laundry with an indefatigable laundress. The
bathing room, fitted with modern appliances, is in many respects
excellent. The whole establishment is warmed by a central-heating
installation, the radiators being well protected with guards.
It may not always be possible, through lack of funds, to reproduce these
ideal conditions, but where the accommodation is less and the ground space
more limited, every care is taken that the factory nursery shall have an
ample provision of fresh air. Efforts are also made to obtain as much
local support as possible.
In some districts, the whole of the clothing provided at the nursery is
made by the little girls from a neighbouring Elementary School. At Acton,
Middlesex, for example, I was shown piles of the daintiest little
underwear, diminutive shoes and charming cotton frocks, all made in the
sewing classes at their school, by pupils of eleven to thirteen years of
age. The boys of the local manual schools--not to be outdone--contributed
to this nursery all the carpentry for the cots for the elder babies. These
small beds, fashioned out of hessian cloth, swung on long broom poles,
with a wooden board at head and foot, seemed of a particularly economical
and practical pattern.
The factory nursery is certainly gaining popularity as a war-time measure;
as a permanency in peace times it is recognized that there are some
objections to its establishment. An alternative scheme, even in the war
period, is being mooted. The suggestion is made that babies should be
'billeted', or boarded out in the munitions area amongst women who are not
employed outside their home. Supervision of the baby boarders, it is
thought, might be undertaken by inspectors under the Local Authority. This
scheme might, it is true, largely prevent the congregation of many
children in one nursery and the resultant danger of the spread of
contagious infantile disease. On the other hand, the proposal, if
accepted, might open the doors to overcrowding in thickly populated areas
and to the neglect of the baby boarder, undetected by a local
inspectorate, already overstrained by war-time conditions. The scheme is,
however, only at the discussion stage, as I write.
In any case, the care of the munition workers' children is attracting
considerable public attention, since in spite of the war, or because of
it, the importance of the health and well-being of the ordinary
individual, and more especially of the young, is becoming part of the
creed of the average citizen.