"The Ministry of Munitions has built, or is building, housing accommodation for 60,000 workers, and canteens and mess rooms in munition works now give accommodation for 500,000 workers a day. "All the workmen were assigned either to the works already in existence--which in many cases were short of hands and unable for this reason to fulfill their contracts--or else they were allotted to the new factories. "But in view of influence wielded by the labor unions, various provisions were inserted in the Munitions Act. They related to the settlement of labor disputes and to the prohibition of strikes and lockouts the grounds for which had not been submitted to the Board of Trade. "To obviate such disputes, which were generally called forth by the excessive profits accruing to the employers and the demands of the wage-earners, the system of 'controlled establishments' was instituted. Every establishment engaged on munition work was placed, so far as the regulation of profits and salaries was concerned, under direct government control. Any modification in the rate of wages had to be submitted to the Ministry of Munitions, which had power to refer the question to an arbitration board specially set up by the act. "To complete this rapid survey it must be added that a department was created by the Ministry of Munitions, under the control of an undersecretary, whose special business it was to examine war inventions." INDUSTRIAL DISLOCATION IN FRANCE When war was declared in 1914, the result in France was a complete disorganization. It must be remembered that workingmen from the age of 19 to 45 were called to the colors. This meant that the labor supply was reduced by about three-fourths. The revival of trade was very slow until the beginning of 1915. When it began to be realized that the war would be a long one, and when the consumption of ammunition and war materials was beyond all previous records, the Government was forced to prepare a program for industrial warfare. It was a hard task because much of industrial France was under enemy occupation. Munition work had to be undertaken in neighborhoods largely agricultural. Everything was lacking: labor, coal, raw material and transportation. As it became evident that the stoppage of industrial work was a serious mistake, an attempt was made to revive industries not connected with munitions, such as paper manufacture, glove and silk making. The operations undertaken by the Government are described in the following passage from M. R. Blanchard's article in the _North American Review_ (1917):