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Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 267, 4 August 1908, Page 6

and other wares for the poor to work on. The other day two men applied to the West Ham Board of Guardians to. have this old Act put into force for their benefit. The Guardians resolved "to apply to the Local Government Board for powers to act, so as to put these men to work n at reasonable wages," and the result we have not yet heard.' The London Times, in its comments on this most interesting incident, pointed out that in asking, not for' directions, but for " powers to act," the Guardians had conceded tho whole principle of the so-called "right to work," which had been rejected by Parliament not long before. The Times doubted, moreover, whether the " right to work " was established in the Elizabethan Act. From the terms of that measure, and from the whole tenor- of previous legislation, so the ' Times contended, the " right" that was ; created was not so- much' the right' of unemployed persons to be given employment 'at the fcxpense of the parish as the right of the parish to make idle people work., In view of the recent "unemployed " agitation, it may be worth while recalling a famous example of what hap- ■ pens when the " right to work " is admitted by a State. In the June Nineteenth Century, Me. J. A./R. Marriott describes the operation of the Ateliers Naiionaux established at Paris in 1848 when the abdication of Louis Philippe made way for the Second Republic. The introduction of steam had brought about an economic crisis, and Paris was full of out-of-work artisans, who forced from the Government a proclamation guaranteeing work to all citizens. On February 28 it. was proclaimed that on .March 1 important works would, be organised at different points for the unemployed. Ap- . plications poured in, but the only wo'fcks that ■ could absorb the applicants were , earthworks. In a moment 6000 men found work, ' but thousands more clamoured for employment: As there was nothing for them to do, the Government was driven to provide pay without work, and the. mayors paid 1.50 francs a day. to any applicant producing a ticket showing that 'there, was no vacancy for him a't the national works. The rate of pay on ' the works was two francs. Still the ap-' 'plicants increased,: an'd the scheme was costing 20,000 francs a day tinside a fortnight. By March 21, 30,000 men were ! on the pay sheets; by thcmiddle of April thero were over 60,000; before the end of May there were-115,000. Men left work to draw the 1.50 francs for nothing. " A prolongation of the fantastic experiment threatened' France with industrial chaos, if not with economic ruin." The end carno in June, when a proclamation was issued ordering the Director to substitute task for day work, to draft some of the applicants to the provinces, and to dismiss all young men who refused to enlist in the army or to work under private employers. Two days later an insurrection broke out in Paris, and after three. days of carnage—lo,ooo, insurgents • wore killed—the revolt, was stamped out, and the reign'of Socialism ended with the election of Louis/Napoleon as^President. , Some of the English Socialists'still demand the recognition of the " right to ' work," but—and this should interest our local Labour leaders—this demand is opposed by some of the most ardent andsincere friends of the Avork'er. The effect of a recognition iby a municipality or a State of the " right to work " was admirably summarised by Mr. Asquith, in words that it is not superfluous 'to quote■ It comes to. this (ho said), that as a remedy for tho problem of unemployment you aro to give to every man or woihan who registers himself or hersfelf as an unemployed person the right to demand and to impose on tho local authority in the. district or area in which ho or sho resides the obligation to provide-work . or in default of such work to maintain him;or her and all those• dependent on them. . . This is a principle which,involves .■ . . the complete ultimate control b,v the State of the full machinery' of production, and which, in my opinion . . . so far from remedying or'helping to remedy the problem of unemployment, will vastly agjrravato it. . ~ I believe these conclusions,- if carried'into practical effect, will, have consequonces which . . •• would prejudice no class of the community more-seriously than the working class. It is .not callousness and - indifference to suffering, but a 1 dread of still greater, suffering; and a memory of the Parisian Ateliers Nalinmiux that moves the opthe " right" which certain of our Labour leaders so airily demand.