NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18827, 30 September 1924, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

UNEMPLOYMENT ASSURANCE.

'A new scheme of unemployment assurance, which is being' watched with interest in America, was initiated in May, 1923, under an agreement between the associations' of manufacturers of men's clothing in Chicago and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. The Clothing Union had acquired control of the allocation of labour in the Chicago market, employing about 35,000 workers, under a preferential; agreement signed in 1919. Anticipating the adoption of unemployment assurance, the union had organised a central 'employment exchange in 1922, and this plays an important part in the administration of the scheme. Under the . scheme each employco contributes 1-2- per cent, of his wages, and the employer an equal amount. About 80 of the larger employers have their own house fund, but the smaller houses have grouped themselves in pools. Employers who maintain, regular employment are encouraged by the provision that when a house fund has accumulated an amount sufficient for the payment of the maximum benefit for two years the contributions of. the employers and employees shall cease until- the fund has been depleted to the amount just- sufficient for one year's benefit. The joint contributions of the whole industry for the year ended April 30, 1924, totalled slightly over 1,000,000 dollars. Administration is vested in four boards, of trustees chosen by both parties, who have agreed on Professor J. R. Commons,. of Wisconsin University, 'as -tho president of all the boards. Payment of benefit began on May 1, 1924. The. benefits arc 40 per cent, of the full-time wages with a maximum of 20 dollars a week, but not more than two and a-half weeks' benefit may be paid in either of .the two working seasons, and not more than five weeks' benefit in the year. The apparent success of the scheme has , given pause to the demand for a Governmental scheme, and .tho future development may be in the direction of tho co-existence of some such plan of insurance by industry, and a Governmental scheme on the English model. CHECKS ON PILFERING. The steps taken by railway managements in Britain to cope with the pilfering evil are beginning to have a marked effect. A report, on the subject of pilferage and police work generally, which has been presented to the management of one of the railway groups, shows for the past year a marked reduction in the number of cases of pilferage investigated, the number being nearly 100,000 below that reached five years ago. That more rigorous measures are being taken to stamp out this evil is shown by the fact that in spite of the reduction in the number of thefts there was an .increase in the number of persons prosecuted. The comparative return of goods lost and pilfered and other offences coming within the same category was 32,877, compared with 46,293 for tho previous year, and 130,500 for 1920. This comparison takes no account of the fact that the 1923 figures includo reports from all the railways amalgamated in the group, whereas the figures for 1920 refer only to the principal company in the group. The amount of claims paid in respect of goods lost or stolen was £19,000, compared with £51,000 in 1922, and the parcel compensation figures £10,000, against £13,400. The sealing of vans as a precaution against theft has been continued and extended and during tho past year on the system to which the report refers, 241,000 vans were sealed, against 160,500 in 1922. Tho management are convinced that although the sealing arrangement entails a considerable amount of labour and time, its beneficial results arc unassailable. Mail bag robberies have not yet been stamped out, and the difficulty of detection is increased by the fact that they occur at irregular intervals and over a very wide area. In the case of a large number of postal orders which were stolen, tho thieves forged a Post Office stamp and succeeded in cashing a large number of the stolen orders. The railway police are keeping all Post Office mail vans under strict observation during their journeys to the principal stations. The reduction in the general cases of loss and theft is counter-balanced by a slight increase in the number of cases of passengers' _ luggage lost at stations and from trains. This may be accounted for by the increased number of passengers travelling. Plain-clothes officers of the railway police have been allocated to detect these thefts, and they move freely among passengers at stations, watching for. luggage thieves,