THE UNEMPLOYMENT BILL.

Evening Star, Issue 20555, 6 August 1930, Page 8

THE UNEMPLOYMENT BILL.

Tub Unemployment Bill has run the gauntlet of its second reading debate in the House. A good deal of attention Ims also been given to its proposals by bodies of all kinds in the country, and some of tho criticisms that have been made by local associations go quite as much to tbo point as any that have come so far from legislators. An example is furnished by a report which has been prepared by tho Unemployment Committee of the Hastings Chamber of Commerce, which had given no small thought to tho whole of this problem before tho Bill appeared. Without being blind to tho gravity of existing unemployment, and while admitting the necessity for remedial measure's, tho committee is convinced that there is no present need for either a flat rate tax or a scheme of national unemployment insurance. Whether the Government’s plans arc in advance of tho need must be a matter of opinion. The Government’s committee, headed by a leading business man, which went very thoroughly over a long period into tho entire question, did not think so. But there is force in the warning that “it is of imperative importance to avoid action which may increase tbo burden.” The first essential to betterment, it is urged by the Hastings advisers, is to open more doors to reproductive employment, and to help men to help themselves. That, in theory, will be the first object of tbo Unemployment Board proposed by the Government’s Bill. (Wo agree with a Labour critic that a preferable name for it would be tho Employment Board.) Tho danger is, however, that all the activities that are attempted to this end will prove much more difficult than the handing out, once a fund lias been established, of more unompb'yaient doles, and that that will become tho chief work of tho board and its sub-boards, ft is pointed out that they must hoar and make recommendations for the extension of unearned benefits beyond the prescribed

period of thirteen weeks. Will not most recipients claim such extension? And nro they likely to bo refused?

However the relief fund is contributed to, distribution of doles upon tho scale which tho Bill leaves room for can hardly fail to bo demoralising. The principle is unchallengeable which Mr Philip Snowden lias expressed in, saying that “social reform will bo a curse rather than a blessing unless the result is to call forth reciprocal action and co-operation on tho part of all those individuals upon whom it is conferred.” Tlio Hastings critics reveal one weakness in. tho Bill which must be amended when they point out that “ there are some seasonal .workers whoso earnings will run about £S per week, and who work at these rates for seven months per year. A fortnigln. after the cessation of their work the ■ workers are to have offered them by our politicians, at tho expense of some less fortunate folk, three months’ smtonanco pay without work. Affluence is no bar to tho issue of tho gratuity. ’ The Hastings Committee considers that, in place of a national scheme, tho Government should encourage the establishment of co-operative unemployment funds for each separate group of industries, so that each group may bo directly responsible for the reduction of unemployment within its own ranks. A suggestion from another ■ source is that each, borough council or town-.board should have its own unemployment fund, tho tax to bo collected by the issue of stamps of various denominations in ..proportion to income,' and t 6 be spent on employment. A good deal of working out might bo required for theso variants of tho Government’s scheme, but it is plain that too sharp consideration cannot ho given to tho Unemployment Bill by tho committee which will hear evidence upon it. Its provisions will bo a danger much more than a help if doles loom as more than the smallest part of tho scheme.