381

A.—s

Mr. DEAKIN : The " submerged tenth." Mr. LLOYD GEORGE : The submerged tenth, but that is a question which has nothing to do either with Free Trade or Protection, because if you go to the highly protected countries in Europe you will find the churches swarming with men and women of this class, who go begging for alms. Therefore, it has nothing to do with fiscal considerations. lam sorry to take up so much of the time of the Conference. Mr. DEAKIN : It is very interesting to all of us. Mr. LLO YD GEORGE : 1 meant to have called attention to one or two other facts rather in reply to Sir William Lyne. He referred to the great question of unemployment in this country. At the present moment our unemployment has been reduced gradually to a minimum, because trade is good. Still, we have a percentage of unemployment which is rather unpleasant to contemplate. The only thing 1 can say is this, that after comparing the figures of unemployment for 20 or 30 years, it is not on the increase. Unemployment on the whole is very steady and the fluctuations in this country are less than they are in other countries, especially in very highly protected countries: our fluctuations are considerably less. It is very difficult to compare with Germany, until we have fuller facts, and that 1 hope to be able to get in the course of a year or two. Employment in Germany now is undoubtedly very good. There is as much work to do as they can find people to do it. Mr. DEAKIN : They are importing labour Mr. LLOYD GEORGE : That is purely in the case of a strike. They have done that in this country. Mr. DEAKIN : And for agricultural purposes. Mr. LLOYD GEORGE : From where \ Mr. DEAKIN : They are drawing from the partially German countries to the south. I have seen it stated that they are coming in by thousands for harvesting work. Mr. LLOYD GEORGE : That I have not heard of yet, but I accept the statement from you. There are two or three figures about employment which I think are rather important. There are certain classes of occupations which are a very good test as to the prosperity of a country —building, for instance. If you find a country which is not prospering, its buildings are.tumbling down; there is not much new building going on. When a man does well, the first thing he does is to go into a better house. If he builds, he does it because he has money to spare. On the whole, building is about the best test of the prosperity of a country. It means that you are puting up new factories, new workshops, new quays, and new railways. If you will compare the number of people employed in building, for instance, according to the census of 1901, with the number of people employed in building in 1881, you will find that in 1881 there were 926,000 in this country engaged in building, and in 1901 there were 1,336,000. That is an increase of 410,000 or 44 per cent., our population having increased 19 per cent. The same thing applies to trades like furniture.

Eleventh Day. 6 May 1907.

i'reeerentia' Trade.