UNEMPLOYED.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 111, 3 February 1908, Page 7

UNEMPLOYED.

IMPORTANT DIVISION. LABOUR PARTY ASKS FOR A BILL. BEATEN BY 49 VOTES. Nt TEr.EGUirU—rBKSS ASSOCIATION COPXtIGnT. s London, January 31. : In tho Houso of Commons Mr. Ramsay Slacdonald, Labour for Leicester, moved an amondmont to tho Address in Reply, regrotting tho absonco • from' ,tho King's Speech of any promise to deallegislatively with tho unemployed: question.; The amendment was negatived by 190 votes to 146. Tho minority all tho ■Labour mombers and tho Nationalists, and j a fow Unionist Liberals. | ■ : Many Liberals abstained from... voting. Several ■ newspapers • stato that ■ many TJnioiiists voted■ with the minority. •. .■ ■ Tho Right Hon. John Bums,' President of tho Local Government Board, .in attacking the'motion, said some,of tho aims of, Socialism' wero Utopian, v Incidentally ho mentioned that Mr. Asquith's Old-Ago Pensions Bill would provide for millions of people. Mr. Macdonald, interviewed on the result of tbo division, said it would oncourago the Labour party to, proceed witli their .Unemployed Bill.' .' : '

LABOUR v; MR. BURNS,

AN INDICTMENT : AND : A REPLY. ; The Labour' party has succeeded, m getting ti earlv with a'test of strength on the ..n----imploynient question,| and has come out of t so well thatjt i feels m rood heart to pro :eed with its Unemployed Bill. , /[he iccentuates thei .'broach ] \ otwe ® n c .^® !i l S. P rc iSrtv and tho Labour, Jwt non-Socialist Ji n ls stcrMr John B '.n-ns. The Labour part)-.has • iprsistentlv contended that the present Vn- re f, ?mp!wed Act? though ' could bo lo itUised with mnoh^ROodßeflect t°, ov what, is considered the-hostile . llr. Burns n3 President of the Board of mdfc pec heading the Parliamentary report at a con as erence of the Independent .Labour party, last p a] •ear Mr. Ramsai- Macdonald said: the "Democratic laws administered by perma- a S lent officials prejudiced against them aie not tin ikcly to produce the results which you and g a , ra desire. As an illustration of tlns. wo have C( , inly to turn to the Unemployed Let As'regards this Act,", tho Local Govern pr iieiit Board lias adopted an ive resistance. - Under' sympathetic. adminis- nu ration at. Whitehall that Act could have been ™ nade a' more •'valuablo instrument.' But .ex- C oi icriments' under tho' Act had been 'lmuted,. 0 f ind- orippled conditions had • been imposed sti ipon. grants which . were/never disclosed to <h 'arliamcnt. Lettors; from distress Committees be md -been misrepresented to Parharaonty Xui ;her, in order to prejudice tho 'W jublic against work done under tho Act, sen- 1c iational and. unsubstantial newspaper - repoits of lavebeon■ quoted;to ( tho House - though-they -ba vero authenticated/' IS . THE BILL. Pl Mr. Burns appears'' to haro endeavoured ,to f u winter'- the Labour party's. demand tor- an se Unemployed Bill with a reference to j the bene- •«, its to be conferred by. Mv. Asquith s old age hi tensions.' • But tho Labour; party s programme 'or this Eession has: in its forefront .both_anj )ld ago pensions and an Unemployed^ill.. liie atter has been sketched by Mr. RaiMay Maclonald, who states. -.that, it' proceeds: »nv;the> nain .upon, the idea that.waste p rod uc ts sh ou I a ! jo. organised, arid used. Ho writes i. . There , ire'three great classes of the. unemployed: .• "1 .The . skilled/and able workman ;.tern-, B lorarily out of work. Ho requires'temporary relief-.'to prevent 'him •' from sinking to v the rutter, where ho. .bcc-onies a chronic out-oi-ft-ork or l . adaptation of the Blberfeld "System v of relief -\nll best smb iind of;'man,, andour ?Bill gives -distress jo'mmitteos ( power, to-treat him in v thisi way. "2. .The workman who. has probably been ( s permanently displaced by machinery/ or who s too old to. take- a/further r », } t >f factory life. should;; bo drafted iway • in.-' the "County.. This/opens/out' the need ■of >viae con.tructivo work' in linking up pnd coun:ry/ establishing industrial villages based upon igriculturei also': carrying *'c(n 11 other, forms if:industry/:'.Thoso i-would -bo ; tho; .reservoirs, rorn which tho State would draw its healthy >opulation» .and' there special would .bo aken in educating and training children. ,"3. Tho class called unemployable.. aheso yould have to bo dealt with hs though they vere. semi-criminals, ' and penal: farm should bo established for their ■ discipline and Taming. That is tho idea of °ur Bill,\ which ias been described as 'not a doles Bill, put a vork Bill—not, a temporary relief Bill,-but a . argo social construction Bill.' ■.. 1 i "In connection with ouv unemployed pro- | josals ' tho :party- -is . advocating: national schemes of afforestation, tho reclamation ,of I ioreslidros ■ and. similar' works. of,. national utility, the: returns from .which ! must bo so long delayed' as: to, discourago private ; capitalists from embarking upon the work. With tho same idea in nnnd, tho party is,advocating small farms cultivated; by, tenants of the State/ , It is,,opposed to -.peasant-.proprietors, as they are no guarantee against "land, moilopoly.' as has been' proved both in New Zealand ;nnd Australia."- ..: . ■ ' '■; , MR. BURNS'S RETORT. i : The President of the Board of Trade, in his view of the unemployed ..question; puts-it that the trouble is that there "is in the United lOhßdom'.too 'much' casual labom—that is, too big a iproportion of -uneducated , labour—and that-.wSatvis,- wanted is more education and less 'mis-spending, 'In "a recent : speech he said: ■« •- . ' . "Sixty per.cent, of the m<in who appiy for work tb tho distress committees are under 40, and 90 ; pen cent.; are unskilled, casual, or general labourers.. • Speaking -of the ' unemployed .casual .labourer as an indmdual and not as a class; you found/that too often workmen are unemployed because, through s no fault of : their , own,, .they. are unintelligent, ; .uneducated, , ; unskillod ( , resourceless, hopeless, and uninspired. • ,".If Germany'.does leave Us. behind, remem- 1 ] bor. that wo have a hundred race-'meetings in this country and a tliousandV golf courses. (Laughter and -applause.) • Germany has a dozen, of either. . What right have we to spend ,£164,000,000 in' drink and iC50,000,000 directly a'nd indirectly in betting'and gambling? (Ap-; plause.) ;.. ." . . . - " You say, here is John Burns with a grant of ,£200,000 a year from the. Treasury for the purposes of the'unemployed. And you ask mo to'make a now heaven and a (new earth with that '.£200,000. ' Why..don't you do it yoursolves with '.the ' 000,000 a week you waste on drinking, betting; and gambling?" (Loud onlause.) . .