The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30, 1909. UNEMPLOYMENT.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 547, 30 June 1909, Page 6

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30, 1909. UNEMPLOYMENT.

In another column we summarise the points of a plan which the British Government has dccided upon as a practicable means 'oflessening unemployment and alleviating the distress of such industrial congestion as cannot be removed. The system of labour Exchanges proposed , may work well in Great Britain, since unemployment there is in no small degree due to the immobility of labour: and to. the absence .of any meq,ns of letting men'who are unemployed know whore they are likely to find employment. " But one of'the outstanding .merits of ,tlie scheme—which, we must, point out, may easily be" made valueless if it finds ranged against it cither indifforenco'amongst employers or antagonism qn the part of the trades unions—is . the fact ; that it will .draw a clea.r t line' betweon the deserving: and the undeserving. ;A skilful system of registration will squeeze .out the. loafer who hates work. , It must not be supposed tha,t a network of labour exchanges that works well in Europe, and may work well in England, will be of any "use in this ■ country. A' moment's reflection! will show us, why. In Britain; the world 'of industry is: multiform and very , complex. The thousands of unemployed in one city, representing the "not-wanteds" of a hundred trades,, know little,' if ' anything,' about the . conditions, of labour in othor parts of the country.. Moreover, thore is i always a very large army of workless men; the size, and complexity of British industry make a big unemployed residue permanently inevitable. In this country, on the other hand; an. unusual volume of unemployment means simply that there'; is ! no demand of any kind anywhere iri the Dominion for .the .bulk of those Out of work. If there was 'work Available: they would soon learn of it. A system of labour exchanges here would supply practically nothing advantageous in the way of fresh organisation or; better intelligence respecting labour 'The conditions which the British proposal is framed to meet do not exist hero. Mr. Churchill explained that "to increase the' mobility of labours—his' main object—"was not to the; move-i ment of labour,; but only to render the | movement of labour when it became necessary . less painful. . . . Labour: exchanges would not to any large extent create now. employment. . It would be to invest tho : poliojf within air: of .humbug if they woro to protend that they'were i going to make more work." As our readers have seen ,for themselves, the current pinoli of unemployment in', this country can only berelieved by;the creation of employment that; would' iot Ordinarily be thought of. : Whother tho British plan of' labour exchanges plus: insurance against unemployment would do what is expected of it is open to doubt. . But tho system of vinsurancof contains- tho germ-of irt'sults.. To profit from the unemployment insurance, it will be necessary for workers to make use of the exchanges. Tho exchanges, in their turn, will supply the, facts upon 'Which, the ,'insurahcc Bchefne! will work.' The difficulties in the way of a plan of .insurance: are great and.numerous. There will be conflict with tho trades uniotis in the-"matter of Workmen on the margin of efficiency, as the econo-,-miists say, may be 'discharged when their employers, see that they need no' longer keep them on out of kihdliness.- Endlo'ss trouble will arise when it comes to settling the details of the rights to benefit by ! tho scheme, as well aa the extent of the 1 benefits to be given. The fundamental ob-1 jection to. a general system of insuranco against unemployment is in tho fact 'thati ultimately; it' amounts. to an edict that every industry mußt support everybody who is N capable of .working, or accust-omod to .work, in- that industry. It' is a, roundabout way,, of enforcing .the principle of "the. right to work,", inasmuch as it 'securos that no man'shall ever go unpaid, - whether he is working or not.--' In Bri-' tain, it must be added, there i 6 this.saving fact,: that industry is not "yet greatly, hampered by. statutory tamperings with tho law of-supply and demand. • In New Zealand. Buch a-scheme of industrial: insurance; could not, under presont conditions, be tolorated for a monient. . /Industries can only absorb their own workers if thoy• are given liberty of action. To bind an industry, so as to, sap its strength, and check its growth and. its ability to moot 'the strain placed upon it by cyclical vicissitudes, and thon to, ask it to carry a new burden, will be to > break it down altogother. So fa/ as Now -Zealand is concerned, tho conditions aro moro favourable than in any other country to the success,of tho natural way of making industries support those engaged in them. In normal times there is Very little, unemployment. • -Surely the;wi'so ,course is to oncourago tho, utmost production when trade is good in order that provision may bo made against periods of slackness. Tho trades unions are hopelessly hostile to exertion at any time; and took with,dislike upon piecework and overtime - labour. They oppose the policy of the ant as applied'to themselves', and when winter's bareness comes and they have nothing of their own to fall back on, they demand that the State and the private employers shall _do what nothing' but the ant's policy w.oula,enable them to do. ; -~ "