In any case, the care of the munition workers' children is attracting considerable public attention, since in spite of the war, or because of it, the importance of the health and well-being of the ordinary individual, and more especially of the young, is becoming part of the creed of the average citizen. CHAPTER VII: GROWTH OF THE INDUSTRIAL CANTEEN GENERAL PRINCIPLES--THE WORKER'S OASIS 'Money hardly counts; it is labour we have to consider nowadays', recently remarked the managing director of a large munitions works. It is this new conception that has given impetus to the development of the industrial canteen, now a feature of the munitions factory. In the opinion of Mr. John Hodge, M.P., Minister of Pensions, who since the war has acted for a long period as Minister of Labour, canteens in the engineering shops were 'necessary from the start', and one of the earliest investigations of the Health of Munition Workers' Committee was on the subject of the provision of employees' meals. The results of the inquiry are embodied in three valuable White Papers.[2] I have since been into many canteens connected with munitions works, and so far I have not met a factory manager who has regretted their introduction. Yet, only three or four years ago, the average employer would have told you that a dinner brought by a worker in a newspaper, or tied up in a red handkerchief, stored in the works, heated anywhere, and eaten near the machines, was 'quite all right': and, as for the boys in the factory, it was considered shameful to 'coddle them'; if necessary, a factory lad should 'eat his dinner on a clothes line'.