Abstract
Two articles, by A. Shenfield and Prof. P. Sargant Florence, reprinted from the Review of Economic Studies (1944-45) ; Have a bearing on the siting and development of new towns. The first article, “Labour for the War Industries : the Experience of Coventry”, points out that the really important effect of the War upon Coventry is to be seen, not in the physical injuries which the city suffered, but in the conversion of its industries to war purposes and in their expansion to that end. Analysing the character and growth of the population of the city, Mr. Shenfield and Prof. Sargant Florence direct attention to the very high proportion of the workers of Coventry who at the beginning of the War were without roots in the city. This proportion was greatly increased by the enforced war-time expansion of its industries, and the existence of a highly abnormal proportion of such newcomers in the population is regarded as aggravating the problems of war-time production ; first, because the outward as well as the inward mobility of the immigrant tends to be higher than that of other workers ; and secondly, because with a population largely recruited by the attraction of high earnings and composed of those ready to snatch advantage from slack management, Coventry was likely to show higher costs thanvs6me other centres would have done.
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War Industries and Town Planning. Nature 159, 90–91 (1947). https://doi.org/10.1038/159090d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/159090d0