How to Solve the Unemployed Question.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2568, 31 July 1909, Page 3 (Supplement)

How to Solve the Unemployed Question.

The “Answers” 100-Guinea competition Winner

The Cause of the Trouble. A Comprehensive Scheme

By ALDERMAN CARDEN

The great problem of unemployment, ••is of a far wore serious nature than most people imagine. It is not a temv4fyorary matter, depending on the fluctuating state of trade, but is due to far more permanent causes. ' These causes 'may he summarised briefly as follovi’s: THE CAUSES. (1) The entire, lack of organisation in ’ trade. (2) To a large extent, a great deal of . the world’s work has been done. Take ils an illustration, the case of the town ‘<)f Brighton; the facts are practically similar in erery other town in the country. The Brighton Corporation have spent, during the last fifty years, a -capital expenditure of some four millions. They hare expended £BOO,OOO on '•waterworks; £750,000 on electric light; £250,000 on trams; £250,000 on building schools; £IOO,OOO on sea defences; £50,000 on a library; . £50,000 on a Town Hall; £50,000 on a sanatorium; £350,000 oh a drainage scheme, and so >ou. The expenditure of these large sums has provided work for a considerable number of men. This work has now ceased, and there is no new work to take its place. You cannot build another Town Hall or sanatorium; you cannot build the schools over again. Roughly speaking, every town is in a similar position, and they have got their waterworks, and their gas plant, their electric plant, their tramways, their schools, Town Hall, and so on. It is largely the same with private enterprise. You cannot build any ' more railways in England. America and Germany are fettling the same problem. -Germany has gone through a period of immense industrial activity, in which a large number of factories have been built and equipped, finding work ,for numbers; but this, work cannot be done over again, and you are hard up against this tremendous problem—that the bulk of these great expenditures have been incurred, and there will not be the work to be dono in the future that there has boen in the past.' MACHINERY r. MAN. (3) Another far-reaching cause is the introduction of labor-saving machin- ■ cry. This is taking place, to a very IJarge extent, in almost every depart- . S' 'went of life. The farmer now employs machinery, and displaces labor. Every tfp-to-dato factory adopts the same course. Automatic stokers and labor-: saving devices are. being more and more .< adopted every year. This cause has come to stay, and. will every year displace a larger number of men. (4) The formation of trusts and large joint-stock companies is entirely al-. tering the conditions of trade, and the ■ •economies effected are. displacing a iarge amount of labor. (5) The awakening of the "East- The •enormous strides Japan has made, the' great stirring that is taking place in ; China, and the unrest in India, all point . inevitably to the fact that before very 1 many years the cheap labor of these 1 pastern countries will be organised to ' (Compete very seriously with us, at any 1 Tate, in .the neutral markets of the ' ■world. In China, it is said, there are ; fifty million students at tne present ;timo undergoing instruction. There is nothing to prevent the building of large ! factories in China, India,, and Japan, where unlimited quantities of cheap labor can be obtained for a few penco per head per day, and this must, there- < lqre, aggravate the great problem of ; .unemployment in the near future. •

portion, and are a very heavy hindrance to the starting of new factories and businesses. Many, of' the services now iharged on the rates, such as education and Poor Law, should be made national charges to a much greater extent, and the rates levied should depend to a larger extent on the profits' earned. TAXATION REFORM. (7) Reform in Taxation. —Reform in taxation is urgently needed. At present the poor man with £1 a week income for himself and family to live upon is the most heavily-taxed man in the community. His beer is taxed, hiis tea, his tobacco, his cocoa, his sugar, his currants; and he is by far. the most heavily-rented man, paying at least a quarter of his income—and often a third —in rent, which includes a considerable amount for local rates. Taxes on the necessaries of life should be lightened and the burden thrown on those better able to pay. Death duties could be increased on the larger estates. The State should take 50 per cent, of all estates above a million pounds in value. No man can honestly use more than a nillion pounds. Here is an astounding fact: Out of 700,000 people who die every year in England, about 620,000 die without leaving any estate at all; 4,100 people die every year leaving estates amounting to £218,000,000. In imposing fresh taxation, such figures should be taken into account. A graduated income tax should also be imposed.

POOR LAW GUARDIANS TO GO. (8) Enlarged Areas for Local Authorities.—The areas of the larger local, authorities should be largely increased. The Poor Law Guardians should, of course, bo abolished, and their duties handed oyer to the town or county councils. There are at the present time Something like 50,000 local authorities ill England, which is devolution gone mad.' This should be altered. The powers; and duties of the larger local authorities should be increased. They should be practically masters within their own areas, and able to undertake what work they think fit, without having, to go to Parliament for special powers. To -a large extent, the German system should be followed, with some control on the part, of .'the central authority;, but, roughly speaking,. the large town or county, councils should be supreme in their own area, and they should be encouraged to" acquire by purchase, as and when the opportunity offers, all thfe land surrounding their towns, in order that they may have absolute control of the laying out of the new areas. This would undoubtedly stimulate building in every direction.

NO CHILD LABOR

(9) Abolish Child Labor.—-As far as possible, married women with families should be prevented from, working. Their best value to the State i b in bringing up their families at home. Child labor should bo prohibited. This will find room for more adult workers, and the children would receive a better education. Trade-schools should be established for teaching children proper trades. More attention should be paid t-o physical culture. Every boy and girl should receive proper training of the body, and cadet corps should be. established in connection with all the elementary schools, and a certain amount of compulsory military training, on the Swiss system, should be adopted for young men. This would improve the physique of the workers, and prevent them lapsing so readily into loafers. (10) State to Acquire all Now Inventions.—All new inventions should vest in the State, which should pay the inventor adequate compensation, and then either work the new invention itself, or should license the right to work the now invention for a term on payment of a rent. This is a most important matter. The source of all the vast accumulations of capital which have taken place during the last hundred years is tlm application of mechanical invention and science to industry. The next fifty years will bring many great discoveries, and it is pretty safe to prophesy that there is no industry whose appliances will not be made obsolete by new inventions within fifty years.

THE CURE

(!) National System of Insurance. — The first, and immediate, step to bo :taken is the introduction of a great national system, of insurance against sickness, accident, old age, and unemployment, to which every adult person in the country should compulsorily contribute affixed portion of his or her income and a minimum allowance should bo granted from this fund to every man or Woman out of work. The amount would necessarily hare to bd fixed low, m orcldr not to offer inducements for shirking work. I would suggest an additional income tax of one shilling in the pound on all incomes, starting from the 'lowest weekly wage-earner. In the -e?tse of the weekly wage-earner, the amount to be deducted from the wages each week, and paid over by the employer to the Post Office. The amount -q¥/tho allowance would be proportionate fA the amount paid, with 1 a maximum .and minimum, so as to cover the middle classes. The scheme should bo worked by the local authorities, and I would suggest the services of the police should be largely requisitioned. They are in touch and are acquainted with vast numbers of the workers. There would, of course, have to be drastic provisions for providing for those who would not work, and penal colonies would have to bo established for their benefit. LESS LABOR.

PROTECTING INVENTORS

Electrical power, electric light,, the motor-car, wireless telegraphy, are inventions of yesterday. The airship is on the point of becoming an accomplished fact. The discovery of radium is fraught with immense possibilities; in fact, it is clear the future belongs to scientific and mechanical invention. The progress of the last hundred years, will be eclipsed by the next hundred years, and we ought to take care that the benefits fall into the hands of the people, and not into the hands of private monopoly. The acquisition of future inventions by the State will be one of the easiest and most powerful methods of transferring wealth in the future into the hands of the State—and this without injustice to anyone, as the inventor will be compensated. It must be borne in mind that, in the past, it is perfectly clear the inventor has, in nine cases out of ten, not xeapod the fruits of his invention , which has nearly always been exploited by the capitalist for .his own benefit. The inventor himself will be better off if his invention is in all cases taken over by the State, as he will bo sure of adequate compensation, without having to incur, the risk of finding capital to work it. (11) Afforestation and Canals.—The Government should undoubtedly undertake a national system of afforestation. This would employ a considerable amount of labor. The Government should also take over the canals of the country, and forthwith reconstruct same, and give the trade of the country the great benefit of cheap water carriage. Trade at present is tremendously handicapped by the heavy charges imposed by the railway companies.'

(2) Reduction in Hours of Labor.— Hours of labor must be gradually reduced in all departments of work. (3) Minimum Wage.'—There must be a gradual raising of wages, the establishment of a minimum wago, and the ■abolition of sweating. (4) Nationalisation of Railways.— The railways throughout the country should undoubtedly be nationalised, following the example of most European countries and our Colonies. This would undoubtedly mean the shortening of hours for a large number of workers, increase of pay, and the employment of workers. The economies affected by the reduction dii the number of directors—now some 1,300; by the saving of large slims which are now paid by <one company to another, in order to avoid competition, such sums amounting to some £500,000 a year ; the saving of interest, which would be made 'by the Government guarantee of, the stock, would largely pay, for the improvements in the conditions of labor. doho railways would, of course, bo paid v-fpr by the issue of Government securities, 'in the place of the existing share and debenture capital. Such Government securities should take the form of (guaranteed annuities, terminable, say, : XVfifty years. , _ ... ?•". '• (5) Extended Municipal Trading.— The national Government and the municipalities should be encouraged.to undertake as much work themselves as they profitably can. This would un- • doubtedly insure better organisation and better conditions of labor. (6) Reform of Rating System.—An entire alteration and readjustment of the rating system of the country. At present the burden of rates is ontiroly '■unjust, and hampering to trade. The 'local-rates hare frycwti out of all pro-

MAIN-ROAD IMPROVEMENTS. ; (12) Coast Erosion and Main Roads. —The prevention of coast erosion is also another, matter w r hich should bo dealt with ,by the national Government, though the work should be entrusted to the-county councils in w'hose area the work is to take place. The main roads ,of the ..country. should also be widened and improved, and the surfaces constructed of tar, or other substance of a non-dustless character. This v work should also bo carried out by the county councils, and, wherever possible, it should be taken as an axiom that work is better carried out by the local authorities on the spot than by a central. Government-

(13) Allotments, and Small Holdings.—Every endeavor should be ,ma,do to provide land for the working classes, both in the shape of small holdings and allotments. There iB immense scope for development in this direction. Town and county councils should at once acquire the land, and offer it' in allotments. The experience of the Brighton Town Council is that there is no difficulty in letting any amount of land in allotments, at a rental of Is per rod — i.e., £8 per acre—provided the land is really accessible, .it is quite clear that, by intensive culture, extraordinary results can be obtained from small plots of ground in the neighborhood of towns. There is a man at Brighton—Mr Henry Vincent—who undoubtedly has produced £SO a year profit from half an acre on one of the Corporation allotments. He has published a sixpenny book, which should be read by all interested in the subject. I showed Mr John Burns and Mr Villiers, M.P., over Mr Vincent’s allotments, and they wero struck with- the amount of produce growing on it. There is also scope for small holdings, particularly in the vicinity of 'arge towns, close to good markets for the produce, and we find that men are willing to pay a ‘rental of 6d a rod — i.e., £4 per acre—for up to five acres of good land. Practically all the land acqu’red by the Brighton Corporation Tor allotments pays the Corporation very we 1 !, and is a vast boon to the allot-

ment-holders ; but the question of getting the people back to the land is often very much over-emphasised. It scarcely touches the fringe of the problem of unemployment, though England could undoubtedly grow enough food within its area to maintain the whole of the population. NEITHER FREE TRADE NOR PROTECTION.

(14) Co-operation and Co-partnership. —Co-operation and co-partnership between labor and capital" is excellent, but it can only be applied in private enterprise.to a limited extent. Every opportunity should be taken for labor and capital to enter into co-partnership on the lines of that adopted by Sir Christopher Furness in the North of England, and the late Sir George Livesey and his gasworkers in South London. (15) Tariff Reform no Cure. —Neither Free Trade nor Tariff Reform is a cure for unemployment. This is pretty obvious,_ if one considers the state of affairs in Germany and America at the present time under their systems of Protection. The introduction of Tariff Reform into England, while it would, of course, benefit some trades, would seriously injure England’s two largest industries—namely, cotton and shipbuilding—and would, on the whole, probably throw as many men out of employment in these and other trades as would be employed in the trades' protected by tariffs; but it is quite possible that, for a time, in order to protect the workers of this country against cheap foreign labor, some modified form of Protection might have to be resorted to- in some particular cases-—for instance, to protect us against the cheap labor of Japan and China. But this is a weapon which should only be used as a last resort, and then as a temporary measure, as the introduction of Protection undoubtedly encourages the formation of trusts, and the mass of the population would have to pay dearer for the protected articles.

THE COUNTRY’S POVERTY

(16) The Abolition of Poverty. —This is :the ultimate goal to be aimed at. The following figures show the poverty of the great mass of the population: Total population of the country, ■ 43,000,000. Poor—i.e., these who do not pay income tax—3B,ooo,ooo. Middle class —incomes from £l6O to £700—3,750,000. Rich—incomes above £7oo—-

The wealth of England has been computed by competent observers at somo £16,000,000,000 —sixteen thousand' million pounds. Millionaires die every year in England, and the wealth and luxury of the rich and upper classes increase every year. You have only to go into the West End of London and seo the constantly increasing number of vast, palatial hotels, restaurants, and theatres, to realise that there is tremendous wealth in the country. At the same time, there are probably more men out of employment than over before. There is heart-breaking poverty in all the larger towns, and the condition of the immense number of men who are out of work ; with their wives and children depending on them, will hardly bear thinking about.

THE ONLY PROBLEM

There is no other problem worth talking about at the present time. Everything must give place to solving this. The local authorities throughout the country are at their wits’ end to know how to deal with the thousands of men out of employment in their towns. It is quite useless to sit still and wait for bettor times. We have just passed through a record trade boom, and all through it thousands of men were out of work. Undoubtedly, the root-cause of the trouble is because capital belongs to a very few individuals, and, before the problem is entirely cured, there will have to take place a transference of a considerable amount of' capital from private into public hands. It, is cleat that all capital so transferred must bo paid for by the State; 1 and when the State acquires railways, canals, coal mines, land, or any other form of capital, "it must compensate the present owners fairly. But such compensation should take the form of terminable annuities, which should amply compensate the persons concerned, and tneir children; but further than this the compensation should not go.

FINAL.

If this course were adopted, the State would, -in a short time, find itself in possession of vast revenues, out of which it could relieve taxation, and find the funds for undertaking further national works. It should be borne in mind that local authorities have spent, during recent years, no less than £560,000i000 on capital expenditure. This money lias been laid out wisely and well, and, in the course of forty or fifty years, the municipalities will be in possession of £560,000,000 worth of valuable assets. What this means'very few realise at the present time. _ While, of course, the ideal of soino Socialists that private capital and private ownership should be abolished will never be realised, there is ho ddubt that State and municipal ownership must largely increase, if the State and tlio municipality are to undertake tho work of curing this great problem of unemployment.