ceal:[53] it also reduced
the margin of unemployment on which he had always depended, and he soon
found himself obliged to return to the normal rate of wages which he had
paid before the war. He was disappointed to find that "Business as
Usual" meant wages as usual, but he struggled on, imploring the
assistance of the Government in order to "capture Germany's Trade."
Worse was to follow: after nine months of war recruiting for the army
had begun in earnest, and "there was on the whole less unemployment in
Great Britain than at any previous moment in the present century."[54]
But he was determined to "carry on," and for the sake of the Government
introduced child labour into his workshops.[55] Meanwhile, however, the
cost of living was steadily rising, and after a year of war, and of
profits, the labourers' demand for an increase of wages could not be
altogether ignored. The employer decided to carry the war into the
enemy's country. The nation must hang together, he said, and all work
was practically national work. So he boldly accused his workmen of lack
of patriotism, and roundly declared that "but for the trade unions the
war would probably have been over by this time, with a victory for the
Allies.... Organised labour is the rotten limb of the body politic,
which must be cut off if health is to be restored to the system."[56] It
was hard work, but in spite of the shortage of labour and in spite of
the rise in the cost of living, he managed to hold wages down by
repeating that any demand for a rise in wages was unpatriotic.[57] One
by one, on the plea of urgent Government work, he obtained the
suspension of all Trade Union rules and thus deprived his workmen of
even the natural rights of negotiation; and when after fifteen months of
war they again ventured to raise their voices on the Clyde, he openly
accused them of being paid by German agitators.[58] On the whole
therefore he has been extraordinarily successful in keeping his profits
to himself, and as the present demand is likely to continue for some
time after the war, his chief anxiety at present is to maintain after
the war the compulsory relaxation of Trade Union rules which nothing
less than war could accomplish. The slight danger that a prolonged war
may kill off a considerable part of his margin of unemployment is more
than balanced by his successful introduction of women's labour: and he
means that War, in addition to the actual profits of his Trade, shall