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Show ENGLAND'S PROBLEM. Owing to tho war many of Great Britain's Brit-ain's manufacturing plants have greatly great-ly multiplied their equipment and enormous enor-mous new plants, employing thousands of operatives, have, been established. Great quantities of machine tools have been purchased in the United . States and hum! reds of thousands of women have taken the places of men in the mills and factories. According to recent re-cent reports' these women workers have in many cases shown their superiority over men in tho amount of output. It is also claimed they have been less influenced in-fluenced by the labor union idea of restriction re-striction of production, a sentiment heretofore very strong in England. It is certaiu that the manufacturers of Great Britain will be able to supply foreign markets to a much greater extent ex-tent than before the war, if conditions at home are satisfactory. The unknown factor at the present time is the attitude atti-tude of labor and the question is asked, 14 Will working men be content to accept ac-cept a reduction of wages and the retention re-tention of thousands of women employees em-ployees in the shops?" This is supplemented supple-mented by another question, "Will labor listen favorably to appeals for greater efficiency and materially increased output?'' out-put?'' It is probably true that the millions mil-lions of workmen will return from the war with a broadened outlook on life and with a greatly increased initiative, but it is equally certain that, having fought for their country in her darkest hour, they will feel themselves entitled to a greater share in the gains made possiblo by their labor and that many of the industries of Great Britain will have more trouble than ever over the wage question. But the manufacturers and the government gov-ernment of England will not attempt to cross the labor bridge until they come to it, and in the meantime they are bending every energy in the direction of securing as much of the world's trade as possible, both during and after the war. The other countries also have the labor problem to face, and there is no reason to suppose that the German working men, who have been literally forced to accept much less wages than their fellows in the United States and Great Britain are paid, will be kept under un-der by the iron heel of the military. In fact, we look for more difficulty iu Germany Ger-many than anywhere else over the labor question. |