of the bills of her allies. Already her millions have been poured into
the allied defence; many more must follow.

Hence, the relentless energy of her throbbing mills; the searching
appraisal of her resources; the marshalling of all her genius of trade
conquest. Dominating all this is the kindling idea of a self-contained
empire, linked with the slogan: "Home Patronage of Home Product." The
war found her unprepared to fight; she is determined that peace shall
see her fit for economic battle.

This is what she is doing and every act has a meaning all its own for
us. Take Industry: Forty-eight hundred government-controlled factories,
working day and night, are sending out a ceaseless flood of war
supplies. The old bars of restricted output are down; the old sex
discrimination has faded away. Women are doing men's work, getting men's
pay, making themselves useful and necessary cogs in the productive
machine. They will neither quit nor lose their cunning when peace
comes.

I have watched the inspiring spectacle of some of these factories, have
walked through their forest of American-made automatics, heard the hum
of American tools as they pounded and drilled and ground the instruments
of death. What does it signify? This: that quantity output of shot and
shell for war means quantity output of motors and many other products
for peace. You may say that quantity output is a matter of temperament
and that the British nature cannot be adapted to it; but speeded-up
munitions making has proved the contrary. The British workman has
learned to his profit that it pays to step lively. High war wages have
accustomed him to luxuries he never enjoyed before, and he will not give
them up. Unrestricted output has come to stay.