The Dominion. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1908. THE WORKLESS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 120, 13 February 1908, Page 6

The Dominion. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1908. THE WORKLESS.

An ' interesting companion picture to the march of; the Manchester unemployed'"upon London and Windsor comes iu a cable message; from New York to-day. , Up-to-date in most ■things,, America' is peculiarly; up-to-date in her unemployed. TJnemploy-jnent-is in the United States.not a subject for mere confused. agitation, disorderly. mass meetings, and straggling processions. It is made'. the occasion of a '' National Congress, of Unemployed," conducted, presumably, with the pomp and circumstance*.of those other ' unofficial parliaments which, especially in England, are graduallygrowing into serious . rivals of the national legislative assemblies. ■ The promise of originality held out by the title of the , at, St. Louis, is amply . fulfilled in the resolutions which this Duma of the Workless lias sprung, upoa a surprised world. "The Congress," we are told, "will demand that. the unemployed shall be State-supported during the period of inactivity like soldiers, and that' they should have free transportation when seeking employment." Prom this demand it was an easy step to the request for " an. appropriation of one hundred and fifty .million dollars' for ;tlie organisation of work'for the idle." . To'llave demanded less would have been to fall short > of . the . dignity of a National Congress of Unemployed, but, extraordinary as tli'e expectations of the Congress may appear;• they are really no more extraordinary than the desire of the Christcliurcli Labour Conference for a practical recognition by the State of " the right to work." The Congress is merely, the magnifyingglass necessary for a.true view of the aims of our own Socialist theorists. The labour market in America is so seriously-congested by the wholesale dismissal of operatives from the factories that the resolutions': of' the Congress are not, subjects for merriment only. _ In England, as well as. in America, statesmen must, before long, seek out means of removing the social evil of unemployment. While' publicists everywhere are busy devising remedies, there is no lack of practical methods in operation. In New Zealand we have our Labour Bureau, which is understood to be doing useful work as a kind of registry office, but its sphere of operations is, of course, very limited. In Austria there has for years been in existence a method of relieving unemployment. The Austrian relief system is based on the assumption that' a man out of work may often be eager and willing to labour. _ In every district in Vienna there is ah official labour bureau, in such close and constant communication with all the chief employers of labour in the district that an applicant can learn without delay whether there is work for him. If there is no opening, he may set out for other localities, : and _ the bureau director, a trained official, can inform him to a nicety exactly where hands are at a discount, and where at a premium, throughout the whole of Austria. For the man "on tramp" there are stations throughout the Empire, casual wards to which is admitted any " trampcr" of good character who. has been in regular work within the preceding forty-three days. At the station he is lodged free of charge for a. day, and sent in search of work. Having once been at a station he may not return there for three , months. There is also in Vienna an

Asyl, at whicli a work-seeker may be kept for seveii days, provided lie lias been doing liis best to secure employment. Tlie Vienna " workhouse " is the last resort of the willing but uuemployed worker, and it is supplemented by a penal workhouse for the unemployed who prove lazy or dissolute. So far as can be ascertained the Austrian system has been a decided success, and it is no*y attracting attention in Great Britain. Advocating the adoption of this system, the "Glasgow Herald" recently quoted a striking example of what can be done by organisation. In a certain city an engineering shop employing 150 men was burned down. There was no work j?, c %> an d no prospect of any. I.ne men immediately registered at the Labour Exchange, and in five days every man found a new berth. The working of the Unemployed Workmen Act of 1905 is found unproductive of really good , results in. Great Britain. That Act empowers distress committees to raise money, by rates, to' further emigration,. and the establishment of farm colonies. The Austrian'system's success seems due to its foundation on the principle that the State_ should charge itself, not with the invention of artificial openings for work, but with the opening of those avenues of industrial intelligence which are closed! to the willing worker out of employment. The invention of artificial fields of labour simply means economic waste.