THE UNEMPLOYED AT HOME.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12497, 25 March 1909, Page 4

THE UNEMPLOYED AT HOME.

T Mr Will Crooks, M.P., delivered a speech- at the Memorial Hall in ■ London the other day full of sym- ■ pathy for' the suffering poor. He related an anecdote of a little boy. whom a clergyman had seen crying in the street. The boy explained that, his brothers and sisters were I afc home hungry, and there was no food in the house., "Never mind," said the clergyman, "you knowj when the r Lord sends induthS. He Sends bread to fill them." "Yes," retorted the boy, "I know. He sends the mouths to our house, and the bread ..to yours." Mr Crooks, urged the creation of a '-'-Minister for Labour, whose first task should .be the. establishment of a universal register for thft unemployed in every town, parish, and city, of the country ■The, second task "-would be to send to every district a series of questions which would enable him to arrive at the kind of work available In each district, and whether it was to be paid for out of the local rates, the county rates, or by a grant from the national E> chequer. The speech was illuminated with anecdotes in -the speaker's usual vein One was of a man who, late one night, appealed to him on his own door step: "For — sake, buy a mat.. I'v-e hot taken a single bob tddav; and I left the wife and six children at home this- morning, and not a bite p* bread in the house;" _A few minutes later. Mr Crooks saw the. man sitting oh the shaft of his barrow crying like a child. He had sold a mat. '.._, "I would rather," he said, "help indiscriminately than not help at all L would rather help nine bad ones 'than miS3 the tenth good one." : .Speaking, to a company which included many ministers, Mr Crooks remarked, "What is the use of talkinc to these people of an awful hell? Do you think, your Hell has any terrors for them P. Not a bit of it. It is this :» W ( M earth that has terrors for them. > .And. let : ine remind you Christian men and women that while the House or Commons and the House of Lords are struggling and fighting with each other as to what kind of jcreed shall be rammed down little children's throats, Christ is crying aloud, 'Feed My lambs.'" Mr Crooks argued that there was plenty of work and plenty of money in the country to solve the problem of unemployment. What was.-want-ed was a statesman who would 'make it this w6rk of his life- to organise a system that would absorb surplus labour. If- the land was properly treated it would occupy all the unemployed la-bours-Schemes of road-making,, reclamation of land, banking of rivers, precautions against coast erosion, and afforestation might all be scheduled. Whatever disappointments might follow iii dealing with adults, something ought to be attempted for the sake ot the children. ■ ■ - • .