THE COLONIST. Published Every Morning. FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 1910. THE BRITISH LABOUR EXCHANGES.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12757, 1 April 1910, Page 2

THE COLONIST. Published Every Morning. FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 1910. THE BRITISH LABOUR EXCHANGES.

Mb '■""Winston Chußcitibl's interesting experiment dealing with the problem of. unemployment in England is now -far operation, offices; having been opened in eighty districts, and if the ex-perience.-.if- their working which had been gained up to the time when the last English mail, left, the systje.ni will certainly justify Mr Churchill's opinion that it meets a felt want. On the day the system was inaugurated the applications for employment were very numerous. l'u London between 400 and 500 men registered at the Islington Exchange, and of :'these" fully one-half I were-kk iUed Vorkmen. Orders for hands had been •received 'from 14 employers. Of the "4oo applicants at Finshury 80 were women-, and 16 requests for skilled workmen and five for : unskilled labour were received to*)m -employers. Applications were sent in for 16 boys and 40 women. It was*' stated' at the head office of the exchanges at Caxton House that one employer in the country had asked to be supplied with 100 men. At Birmingham between 9 and 10 o'clock w the morning, there-were J 2OO workmen waiting, and several, applicants were sent to employers who had asked to bo placed in communication with workmen.' At Northampton more than 130 men, of whom about half were boot and elioe operatives, registered and' 12 manufacturers applied for workers. One boot operative obtained, employment half an hour after making his registration, and another man found a situation. Two men with clerical experience got good work at once. At Sheffield also a great crowd of unenTployed assembled, and the staff was busily employed until late in the afternoon. As soon as possible it is intended to open eleven divisional clearing houses, .which will ho. the centres for as many industrial districts into which the United Kingdom has been divided; some thirty first-class exchanges in manufacturing towns of over 100)000 poprlot:':.>n; a similar number of second-chits exchanges; and a. lesser number of third-class exchanges and sub-offices. Towns of from 50,000 to 100,000 population will have second-class exchanges, third-class exchanges being given to smaller towns and sub-ofb'ce-s to industrial townships which have a common centre in a larger tov.n possessing a first-class exchange that will overlook the work of the district. The divisional clearing houses will be established iii London, Dublin, Glasgow, Cardiff, Manchester, Liverpool, I/eeds, Newcastle, Sheffield, Birmingham, Nottingham, and Bristol. Returns will be regularly ma^e to these central offices from all the exchanges in the industrial division, indicating applications made, situations filled, and positions still open. Tho divisions will in turn report to the National Clearing House, and in this way information will be daily interchanged. London, in the larger sense, will eventually have some ten or twelve first-class exchanges. Mr Churchill urges the public not to expect, too much of the scheme at first, and not to judge it by any single exchange, or by any single day's working. "1 have never claimed for the exchanges," he says, "a higher position than they really can occupy with effect. They are a piece of social mechanism, and are, I believe; absolutely essential to any well-ordered community. ' But, of course, they ' will have all their difficulties at the beginning. No doubt there will be many disappointments, and mistakes will be made; but I .am confident that 15~or .20 years hence people -will as soon think of. doing.- .without a telephone exchange or electric train's as without any national system of labour bureaux. The success, of labour exchanges will depend upon the strict impartiality of the administration between capital and labour, between cm r ployers and workpeople. If that is maintained I believe we shall get ; a great measure of support from -employers throughout the country. It would be a great pity if labour exchanges were to ; sink into the mere distress machinery from which they have now been rescued. They are primarily agencies for dealing with employment rather than '-with, unemployment, and when lihemployment insurance comes into operation, as I trust it may within a short time, it will throw into the labour exchanges all the business of finding employment, in some. of the greatest trades, of "the country." ■