Good Show

The Ministry of Labour last week announced that 12,000,000 man-hours had been lost in 1,281 work stoppages in 1942, an increase from 8,800,000 man-hours lost in 1,241 stoppages in 1941. This seemed serious, but by no means scandalous, to a Great Britain immensely more industrialized and speeded up in its fourth year of war. Britons, in fact, have long expressed surprise that many a U.S. citizen and much of the U.S. press blow their tops at the number of U.S. strikes.*

Britons pointed out that the 12.000,000 lost man-hours represented just one-fiftieth of 1% of total man-hours worked, or one half-hour's work lost per worker during the year. Said a Labour Ministry spokesman: "Though this proportion is infinitesimally small, it is still looked on most seriously as it is equivalent to 5,000 workers working full time. While making no optimistic forecasts for a reduction in 1943, the present publicity is part of a campaign started by the Ministry to reduce losses as far as possible."

Generally, Britons thought that a loss of one-fiftieth of 1% of the long, grinding hours they work to lick the Axis is a pretty good show.

* At last week's end, the U.S. War Labor Board announced that preliminary estimates for both war and nonwar industries indicated a total of 3,000 work stoppages, involving a loss of 4,565,000 man-days. On the basis of an 8-hr, day, U.S. man-hour losses would therefore be about 36,520,000. With the U.S. population roughly three times greater, U.S. man-hour losses due to strikes closely approximated Great Britain's.

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