WORKLESS MEN.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12901, 12 February 1906, Page 3

WORKLESS MEN.

HOW GERMANY DEALS WITH THE UNEMPLOYED. _.l !:--■ -utitude of the most enlightened ui.i: : . .u Germany towards the problems rai.-e.i !.y the unemployed is best expiessed in i'pj-jssor Shanz's -words, " Unemployme;.i ; s the terrible curse of our -working who thereby incur the danger of •::;:■ o;i i and moral ruin. Most of us are i.s; • ic straight paths by regular «m----j3;o\-nie;'.t and x regular income; we get into oy-patiis as soon as this regularity is interrupted and want knocks at our gates.". The n.eaiment of the uneinpioved in Germany ]S .cue of those few social questions wmch stih remain practically untouched by ths Governments of the different Statesm tact it is-usually regarded as a matter ia wiiioh Governments are interested only in an indirect way. The question, it is iett, must be met by the communities, tile Gemsmden. in towns and' rural districts, and does not- properlv come under aie immediate, cpgnisadce. of the central Government. Besides, it is doubtful whether the communities ate yefc sufficiently: alive to the importance of providing fori the unemployed. There is certainly no! mmorm course of action. Hamburg, for example, pursues an" entirely different policy ■■ from Stuttgart, and the rural districts on! the treat their unemployed on alto- j geiher separate lines frcm the practice pursued, say, in East' Prussia,

As .ore as iii>re:i years ago no (German ccTToniiEity thnng!i J of any other treatment that pieseifbed bv the Poor Law. 1 et la this short space of time the support and care of the unemployed on lational hnes eaters iato the budget of n-sarly every urban and rural community o*f importance throughout the empire. ft is now recognised that the unemployed do not want charily any more than thev want " bread and circuses." They want work, and to provide work is the nrgent duty of society. The unemployed are the victims, for the most part, cf the econcmie development of the country. 1

It is difficult to obtain any reliable statistics giving the number of unemployed in Germany in any given year; but I do not think., says the Berlin correspondent of r. London paper, I am far from the truth when I place the average number'of winter ■unemployed at close on one .million. In bad years it probably exceeds this .number. In good years it may fall to half a million. The average. number of the summer .unemployed ought not to exceed 400,000. By far tie greater majority of the winter unemployed belong to the" building trades and their dependent industries. This is a rule in. all countries where the carrying on of these trades depends on the weather. Unemployed masons, biicklayers, carpenters, etc., constitute quite 50 per cent, of the entire number, and they are out of work for a period ranging from sixty to seventy days.

It. is interesting to examine some of themethods employed by German conumunities in dealing with the unemployed. The rich' and important city of Frankfurt-on-llain has elaborated very careful conditions which it imposes on all unemployed to whom it gives work. In the first" place, the candidate for employment must have his home in Frankfurt. He must be a supporter of a family. For six previous months he must have had constant work within the community, and must not be in receipt of any provision from the poor funds. Darmstadt and make it a condition that the unemployed, if they-are to receive work, must not be out of "employment by their own fault, and a large number of otlcer towns add strikes as occasions for excluding those seeking work from communal employment. Several communities seek to divide the unemployed into eeveral classes, according to character, antecedents, willingness to work, and so on, graduating the work to each class and the remuneration as well. Elberfield takes up a position against the unemployable. It makes it a condition that all candidates for work shall be physically sound, and ..Cbarlottenburg and Karlsruhe add that they shall not be tramps or gaol-birds.: .In .general these, sum up the conditions usually imposed, single exceptionof -sex. In-hardly any.community is there provision made for the. employment; of : ■ .Equally interesting to";rkrte. is: the-aature °M . provided, by"the. ccropfunfties. Digging is ' hv general favour. I -In all towns there are drains to dig, tracts of land to level, etc. The making of roads and new streets employ a large number. Then we have stone-breaking, wood-chop-ping, loading sand and gravel, repairs of waterworks, the laying of public parks and gardens, the sanitation of unhealthy streets, and where private enterprise fails the building of houses for the poor. In rural districts the works moetly engaged in are the planting of. waste districts with trees, the drainage, of swamp lands, building, dams against inundations, the making of canals, the purifying and deepening of rivers and streams. A large number of the more populous centres-control several factories. Care is taken that orders are given by municipalities to these factories, not when ■work is most easily obtained, but when, work is scarce and badly paid. The communities, in providing work, try to arrange the unemploved in 'classes as regards their various abilities. Care-is. taken, for instance, that men with fine hands and hitherto emploved on fine work do not get the coarsest kinds of labour allotted to them. It is recognised that the manual skill of these men must be [.-preserved- as .-muchw-oa- possible., . Severil cities attempted to provide what is ikncrrrn |£s the. black-coated proletariat- with work, ! t>u| the success attending their efforts in ! : thw direction was not such as to encourage other towns to follow their example. Stuttgart, ior'instance, opened rooms in which unemployed clerks were engaged in addiessmg envelopes, but the experiment was a failure. The regular addressers of lopes protested tint their occupation wis gone. Indeed this is one of the chief difficulties in the way f: f communities providing this distress " work—the danger „f taking the bread from the mni'ths of Hthe's. Following the example set by Zurich and other Swiss towns, n number of German communities -.provide. h<v.i>es- for- these they "-employ'"- a.f distress' woik. -especiallv. wher- the men are t:»ken av.-ny fivm their families.. Xot ouh-.is tin's <]nr;e. but eveiv ■opportunity is-.given them Ho get warn and dry their.. ..!{»;. nor a fejr'dfs% ..hay«;'. ahto.- be*P -made to. reliaye thVtediomgiesß of. the l«n£

wiuier evenings by simple gaieties which will help the men to resist the temptation of alcohol.

; liut as 1 have said, these alleviations i are only granted when the men, are aw.iv ; horn iheir own homes. It is a l so j ni g. ; lesiing to note that in all these efforts 1 ai mitigating distress tne principle is gaiu- ; ii)g ground that the work given is to be of a useful productive natuie, villi nothing, :it possible,* ci an elcenios.yr.ary character ; about it.

Tiie wages giver to the unemployed diifer ia diilerent districts. As a rule "the daily wage is a triJie lower than the recoguL-ed local late i-.f pay for heavy manual labour. Thi.- distress work i.s not provided except in emergencies, ihe labourer therefore Ls not, to expect pay out of which he can save. His pay is calculated to keep him and his family from actual want. More ought not to be demanded. Besides, a higher rate of wages would only tempt men to remain, lenger "unemployed." A low rate is regarded as a spur to a mac to keep a sharp look out for suitable permanent work. The average wage paid to the digger and ditcher is 29 pfennige an hour, or 2£ marks a day. The skilled stone-breaker sotuetirr.ss earns on piecework as much as 3.50 marks a day. M-;n employed at clearing away rubbish and in planting trees are paid 2.20 marks. From twelve to fifteen marks a week is therefore the average, taking the entire empire. Tlk- average working day in winter is SA hours.