and on the work bench before each operator in a brass fuse filled with water to serve as a vase, was a flower, fresh and fragrant! Great beautiful La France roses, splendid roses de gloire, bride roses and spicy carnations made lanes of bloom up and down the workroom. I turned to the foreman: "Is it some fête day?" He shook his head: "The flowers are renewed each morning. We do it every day. Because the women like it."
In England one of the important duties assigned the Welfare Supervisor is to teach the employés to play: "Familiarise the working woman with methods of recreation hitherto unknown to her," the instructions read. So they have organised for her dramatic entertainments and choral classes and they are even teaching her to dance. One factory recently announced: "We have decided to erect a large theatre as a cinema and concert hall." Really, Alice in Wonderland met with no more amazing surprises than has Mrs. Black.
And to make sure that she misses nothing that is coming to her, the Home Office arranged its "follow-up" system. A large staff of women inspectors are travelling up and down England stopping at the factories. In 1915 alone, they made 13,445 visits. Is there anything more the working lady needs? the Government always inquires when the woman factory inspector returns from a trip. And it was the woman factory inspector who brought word early in the war, "Why, yes, the lady should have a new dress."
