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The Labour Supply Board
“Then the next step I had to consider was as to what form of organization I could create in the Ministry for which I was responsible. I came to the conclusion that I must establish a central pivot over which I shall preside myself. It will be called the Labor Supply Board. That Board will survey the use of labor.
“This is important. I do not want to go mad on dilution for dilution’s sake. There is not time. I must utilize the skill I have got, and the facilities I have got, to the utmost capacity immediately. If we resist the enemy successfully now, and there is further time, and the war then reverts back to a long-term war—and it may well do, one cannot tell—then the other side of training for production will have to be considered. But for the moment we have to try to utilize every bit of available skill that we have got, and every available bit of machine tools and equipment. Machine tools today are more precious than all the banks of England. The skill of our men is the wealth of our country and our defense, together with the bravery of our troops and the other forces fighting with us.
“There will be four men who will form the Labor Supply Board and survey for me the use of labor and the transfer of labor, and before any regulations are made or there is any movement of labor they will satisfy themselves that the other Departments are not acting on any freak claims, but that labor in the district is utilized.
“The War Cabinet has, in addition, imposed upon me by the new Bill the duty of dealing with all labor, including mines, agriculture and the Mercantile Marine.
“With regard to the mines, they gave me power to delegate my responsibility, and I have already met our old colleague, David Grenfell, and with him I am trying to work out a scheme in which I shall agree with him the total labor force required for the mines; we are going to try to bring men back by removing other restrictions arising out of previous Acts and various other things, and, if it is possible by a system of temporary training of men who have been kept out of the mines a long time but are still living in the district, give them a chance to come back and give me their skill to carry over this difficult period. I came to the conclusion, having established this labor force for mining, that it should be handed over to the Mineworkers’ Federation and the Mines Department to discipline it and handle it on my behalf. The reason why I am very anxious to exercise very great care in the mining situation is this: I do not want by any stupid action in forcing too many men back into the mining districts to create the position that we had previously. And here I appeal to the Mineworkers’ Federation, and say it may be better for them for the future to extend their hours and their production temporarily rather than create derelict areas again after the war. I do not want to force pople back and then have them stranded again in the situation that we had on the last occasion.
46With regard to agriculture, I have told the Government that before I can make any Order a proper equilibrium must be established, not between town and country exactly, but in what I will call rural England. In other words, this difference between public employees and those in factories and the people in rural England itself must be obliterated, and the old conception that agriculture is an industry of servitude must go, and go for all time. I hope not only to make a contribution to produce the necessary food, but I hope to remove a grievance which, as a country lad myself, has always burned in my bones. I am happy, as one who was born on a farm, to be given the opportunity to wipe that blot out of our industrial life.
“Then in the localities I have made the divisional controllers of the Labor Exchange the responsible divisional supervisors of the whole scheme. They will take over immediately the Ministry Supply Committees which were set up with the Trades Union Congress and have not been given much to do. I hope they will have plenty to do now. But the key point of the scheme is the local bodies themselves. I know the differences that exist. I know the difference in the attitude of mind in the different parts of the country, and therefore I brought it down to the local district, and there the Labor Exchange manager will be my chairman.
“There is the question of the relaxation of the Factory Acts. The present method is clumsy and unsatisfactory. You never know whether an employer is pulling your leg or not. Before he can relax or send his case for relaxation on to the Home Office for relaxation, it will be the duty of this Sub-Committee to investigate the facts and to send their recommendation along. They will know whether the factory is suitable, whether there is other labor in the district, and where tne labor can be got. All these considerations will come in before there is any relaxation of a single rule.
“Then they will have the problem of welfare, and this is very vital. If this war goes on I shall have to call upon thousands of women to come into industry. These women have homes, and when a woman has worked in a factory all day long, cleaning the house is a problem, and I have to relieve her. I am therefore sending instructions to the local authorities through the Ministry of Health to survey the whole of the billeting arrangements in the munition centers. I believe we can get a much better result if we can provide lodging accommodation—so that the woman in the home is not called upon to cook and do all the other things as well—if it is purely a question of sleeping, and a cup of tea or something of that kind. I therefore propose to ask the local committees to examine the feeding arrangements. If necessary, I am prepared to take works canteens, not only for the people in the works but for people in other works, to use the great canteen accommodation and to establish new canteens in the districts where the people are lodged, in order that they can have communal feeding and food cooked under proper conditions.