Mr John Burns on the Unemployed.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXV, Issue 9793, 19 March 1908, Page 4

Mr John Burns on the Unemployed.

.British Weekly.) 11,0 in..si important debate of the week in the House of Commons was that ol 'li.ui.vjav on the unemployed. Mr Ramsay Ma" douald's amendment, regretting t::'at the Government had not recommended anv legislation dealing with this subject, was "discussed for some hours, and was lost by the small majority of iortynine. When the division was taken about eleven o'clock, only 341 members voted. The speeches of the mover and seconder (Mr Curran). of Mr Masterman, Dr Maenama.ra. Mr Will C'rookes, and others, ] showed sympathy and knowledge. The disappointment of the evening was the speech of Mr John Brims, which, in its earlier paragraphs especially, was hard and lateral. Great amusement, it appears, was felt when Mr Hums described how on the day of his visit to Buckingham Palace as a newly-appointed Cabinet Minister, he took his place hi his Court dress at 1 a.m. in the long queue of 300 or 400 men who assemble nightly on the Thames Embankment. He mixed with these men for two or three hours, and no one recognised him as having come fresh from the Palace of his Majesty. "He turned up the collar of his coat, pulled! his bowler over his eyes, and looked as miserable as he could ; and at the end of the loin: queue, he. a Minister in receipt of £2OOO a year, held out his hand and received his portion of soup and his pound of bread. Was that a discriminating kind of charity?" Haroun-al-Rasehid or Prince Florizel would not thus have given away their poor brothers. Is it not to be feared that many a deserving sufferer may lose his dole because charitable people suspect him of being a John Burns in disguise'; Some of us have often seen during the bitterly cold and foggy after-midnight hours of January that sad -line of hungry and homeless on the Embankment, waiting for the- morsel of bread and the mouthful of soup whi.li the Salvation Army eupplies. It is clear enough that they are not waiting there for pleasure or for curiosity, nor is it to the honor of London that 'such night-birds should haunt her river. Genera! liooth. with his htrong practical sense, has 'replied u. Mr Burns. Speaking at Bristol on Monday, he said that even if Mr Burns' description of the wa : i's was err.-, t. they descry.d i-itv. and if thev abu.-ed it lliev still required persuasion. The Army.'as its leader justly claims, i-: the enemy of indiscriminate charity, "but the wretched, miserable drrclii ts i'.ii the Emhanlcmeiil are a i-iass apart t'r.nii the ordinary, and have to he helped ac ordinelv." Mr Burns must know how quickly even i i.e skilled: and respectable

aiti-an may sink, thr,.u_di thu (nations in trade, to the ranks ~f the hiiiejry. We h.ntd' .aI" sinh a Co.. last iiwit. in wlii. h i !:■■ iaiiiili of a ■.;.'•'..■)• workman w.re rcd.i.od. through r... fauli of his. !o Ihe verv point oi starvation. l'.nt [or private aid. which fame uik-vno tedlv and at tin- last moment, lint family would have hid no shelter o:o-.pt the workhouse, and when t:.-«H( employment oliered itself one., mr.re. money liad to he borrowed 1., take tile hleadwiliJlel'.S tools out .if pawn. .Silf.-ll oasen ai? not fanciful: I hey 1 ..imp mil from tim, to time before lhe'| oinan.i] notice .11 each of us. and the l.rave. independent spirit shown by many of lite suf(orcrs. puis their critic; to shame. There w.is something unpleasine. in Mr limn:;' lefereiiee to his own otMeial salary. 'l'he debate in genera! sail, iv,l from want of i>ra. tic:.] su-j-eslivone.-.s. I'll, re are nianv I'aas.s (or '.he deplorable la. !< .if employment among workers who arc far from "unemployable." '1'11... ivmuli.?.-, will have to he sought in many different directions, iintl. above ali, in the williiisiiics.- of every sympathiser to help the need whhh lies at his own door.