GERMANY'S EXAMPLE

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 155, 25 March 1908, Page 7

GERMANY'S EXAMPLE

IS IT A GOOD ONE?

WORKLES3 STATISTICS COMPARED. STEEL WORKS CLOSED. DY TELEGRAM —MtESS ASSOCIATION—COPTRIOHT. (Rec. March 2-1, 9.28 p.m.) London, March 24. A report of tho Tariff Reform Commission shows that, comparing tho German uiiioii membership of 1/135,000 with tho British membership of 039,000, tho pefcentage of German unemployment \Vas 23.5, while tho averago for a whole year, was. only 11.2. The British percentage Was 61.10, and for tho wholo ye/ir 41.5. 1 Indoor paupers in England and Wales in January iVoro 8000 moro than ill January of 1907, and 40,000 beyond tho averago of the decado. . Outdoor paupers were 6000 more than in January of 1907, and 28,000 moro than tho average of tho decado.

Tho announcement of the closing of Inrgo steel works for several months, owing to scarcity of orders, has causcd consternation in Barrow-in-Furness, tile iron and steel contre. , , / : . MR, A. CHAMBERLAIN ON GERMANY. Germany is continually quoted by public men both.-for find against tariff reform,at Homo. Tho prico of food ill Germany, Labour's protests against it, and tho collisions with tho Berlin police are quoted by fre6 -traders. An example of tho opposito sort of argument is provided by Mr; Austen Chamberlain (Chancellor of tho ■Exchequer ill the last ; Unionist Government) in : .his speoch in tho 'llouso of Commons on January 30. Ho is reported as saying:—' " Though tho Board of Trade said their ■ figures for Germany must not be taken as oxactly comparablo with their figures for England, it would be found, after making every allowance, that thero had been far less unemployment in Germany than hero.; Tho niombcr for West 11am, ho understood, maintained that the only permanent remedy for unemployment wan emigration. Ho for ono had no'desiro to do anything to discourago the Goi'ornmeilt. from lending its assistance to organised and, dircct emigration. . Bttt,' as compared With Germany, Dec. had already a gigantic emigration. 1 For Inaiiy years past Wlr emigration , had cmltiiiued t<) ho very large, Whilst tho'Gorman bmigratidh had been Steadily falling.' TJio' last figurci ho had seen were for oltr emigration' 40 per 10,000 of tho population, nftd for German emigration four per 10,000. Germany lmd boon able to absorb tho growth of her population in her industries without showing anything like the averttgo rate of tinoniployment which Wo shotted. 'Tho United States absorbed her immigrants, and wo lchow from tho statements of our, Consuls and tho reports of the American Labour Bureau that.practically all who had wanted wort and wore fit for work could find it; If oUr industrial development wero, keeping paoo with ' theirs, tho' unemployed. question, so'far as it was dependent oil the continuing and hot the momentary conditions of trade; \would havo ceased to oxist. Right lion, .goritlomen opposite went about the iountry saying that our expansion was larger than theirs; but tho President, of the' Board of Trade furnished returns" which said that it was not; The bOonl had, he believed. been very much exaggerated. Ho did not suppose any ono Would contend tlirit our homo market for our 6Wii goods hftd been growing as tho Gorman llotMß market had been growing for tho last f6tf years. If we were beating tho Germans out of tho field, it must bo in foreign trade. Ho Would consult, tlion, tho return of tho Board of Trado, showing tho not oxports of tlife United' Kingdom and Germany., Ifi tho five yealip clitliiig. With 1886 'wo had tho loild. of ■..Germany at an averago rato of'Bs millions'a year; iii the noxt fivo' years tlio lead had fallen to 81.; in tho noxt fivo,; to 02 ; in tho next to 33 ; and in tho fivo '.years onding with 1906 _to 25. Ito would not say that was conclusive proof that the German . system _ was right, arid our. system:was Wrong; but it was. coil' clusivb pi-oof -of the absurdity , of saying that the Gorman system 'was a hid oho and had not ; producfccl MafVelloUS effects which wero unrivalled by anything wo could produoe. Fiscal l'efortn was tho only euro which Parliament could apply,.to tlio : ovil of unemployment—the only means by which the, Legislature could stimulate and increase tho amount of work that was available for tho people of this country. ; '