"?>. ■•!>;y^<-u<>^c^u<> y/:. 
 
 UNeM PLOYED 
 
 A NATIONAL QUESTION 
 
 U^3^ 
 
 PERCY alden; 
 
THE 
 
 MARTIN P. CATHERWOOD 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 NEW YORK STATE SCHOOL 
 
 OF 
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND LABOR 
 
 RELATIONS 
 
 AT 
 
 CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 NEW YORK STATE SCHOOL 
 
 OF 
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND LABOR 
 
 RELATIONS 
 
 AT 
 
 CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924050067580 
 
THE UNEMPLOYED 
 
 A NATIONAL 
 QUESTION / 
 
 BY 
 
 PERCY ALDEN, M.A. 
 
 m 
 
 Late Warden of Mansfield House, 
 East London ; Member of the 
 Mansion House Unemployed Com< 
 mittee ; Hon. Sec, Guildhall 
 Conference, 1903 
 
 WITH A PREFACE BY 
 
 SIR JOHN GORST, MP. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 P. S. KING & SON 
 
 ORCHARD HOUSE 
 
 WESTMINSTER 
 
 1905. 
 
BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO. LD,. PRINTERS. 
 LONDON AND TONBRIDGE, 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Little practical progress has been made 
 in recent years in our country in solving 
 the problem of the Unemployed. When the 
 sufferings of the poor become acute com- 
 mittees are formed, money is subscribed and 
 distributed, and relief work is provided. But 
 as soon as the crisis is past the distress and 
 danger are forgotten, and nothing is done to 
 probe the sources of the disease and to pro- 
 vide a permanent and effective remedy. Yet 
 the problem is one upon the solution of which 
 the permanence of our existing social order 
 depends. If the number of the unemployed 
 and unemployable should increase beyond a 
 certain limit, if hunger, cold and nakedness 
 should overwhelm our temporary expedients 
 for their relief, society might be in imminent 
 danger, and might deplore too late its blind- 
 ness and self-complacency. The distinction 
 between the "unemployed" and the "unem- 
 ployable, "which isveryreal from an economic 
 point of view, is unstable and transient in 
 the individual. Nothing degenerates from 
 lack of use faster than the capacity to work, 
 and the unem^lR^Efyquickly,^£,into the 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 class of unemployable. There is every 
 reason to fear that under our present arrange- 
 ments this latter class is on the increase. 
 
 Mr. Percy Alden, the author of this work, 
 is well qualified, both by personal experience 
 and long investigation of the problem, to give 
 the history of the various inquiries that have 
 been made, and of the practical steps taken 
 by other Governments than our own.^ Some 
 causes of unemployment can be ascertained, 
 and preventive or palliative measures sug- 
 gested. These are fully described and dis- 
 cussed in this book. But one cause no 
 wisdom can foresee. In our complicated 
 industrial system, changes suddenly take 
 place in the demand for labour against which 
 no foresight of the wisest Government and 
 Parliament can provide. For such a con- 
 tingency there is but one form of remedy — 
 some occupation with an unlimited demand 
 for workers upon which everyone can in the 
 last resort fall back. Such an occupation 
 is the cultivation of the soil — the first and 
 the last resource of the human race. 
 
 JOHN GORST. 
 
 ' He resided, as Warden of Mansfield House, for 
 twelve years in West Ham— a borough inhabited by 
 the worst sufferers from lack of work in winter. He 
 was honorary secretary of the relief works there in 
 i8.93-4> is a member of the Mansion House Com. 
 mittee, and has recently visited the labour colonies 
 in Holland, Belgium, and Germany. 
 
AUTHOR'S NOTE. 
 
 On returning from a visit last autumn to 
 some of the Labour Colonies in Germany, 
 Holland and Belgium, I was repeatedly 
 asked to state my views as to the possibility 
 of adopting certain continental methods in 
 the treatment of the unemployed. I have 
 felt it better, however, to widen the scope of 
 the inquiry, and accordingly this little book 
 gives a brief resume of the practical sugges- 
 tions which have been made. These I have 
 systematised, adding a few of my own, as 
 the result of fifteen years' experience, twelve 
 of which were spent in East London in the 
 neighbourhood of the Victoria and Albert 
 Docks. 
 
 Any discussion of the effect Free Trade or 
 Protection may have on employment has 
 been intentionally omitted. The fact that 
 has to be faced is that in all great manu- 
 facturing countries there are periods of 
 trade depression, more or less severe, with 
 a consequent increase in the number of 
 the unemployed. This can be seen at the 
 present moment by comparing France with 
 
VI AUTHOR'S NOTE. 
 
 England, using the latest figures avail- 
 able which can be found in the Labour 
 Gazette, December, 1904. An examina- 
 tion of Part III. of the recent Report of 
 the Board of Trade (1904) on British and 
 Foreign Trade and Industry (^nd series) 
 will furnish nearly all that can be said upon 
 this subject. 
 
 I had hoped to have dealt with the 
 question of unemployment amongst women, 
 but understanding that the Women's Indus- 
 trial Council was engaged on this branch 
 of the subject, I have only referred to it 
 indirectly. 
 
 The Bibliography does not pretend to 
 be exhaustive, but it contains all the 
 most recent information published in this 
 country. 
 
 The Appendices will be found useful by 
 students of this question, and by members 
 of local authorities. 
 
 I am indebted to Mr. Llewellyn Smith, of 
 the Board of Trade, for the latest official 
 figures, and to my friend, Mr. G. P. Gooch, 
 not only for the correction of the proofs, but 
 for many useful and valuable suggestions. 
 
 PERCY ALDEN. 
 
 39, WoBURN Square, W.C. 
 January, 1905. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. THE RECENT HISTORY OF THE UNEMPLOYED 
 
 PROBLEM ...... I 
 
 ir. THE UNEMPLOYABLE 1 7 
 
 III. THE UNEMPLOYED : CLASSES OF UNEMPLOYED 
 
 AND INDIRECT METHODS OF DEALING 
 WITH THE PROBLEM .... 32 
 
 IV. SUGGESTED DIRECT REMEDIES FOR ALL 
 
 CLASSES OF THE GENUINE UNEMPLOYED 4 1 
 V. THE UNEMPLOYED : THOSE WHO ARE UNEM- 
 PLOYED OWING TO A DISLOCATION OF 
 TRADE, THE DEATH OF A TRADE, OR 
 CHANGES IN METHODS OF INDUSTRY . 66 
 
 VI. THE UNEMPLOYED ; THOSE WHO ARE UNEM- 
 PLOYED OWING TO TEMPORARY DEPRES- 
 SION IN TRADE, OR TO SEVERE WEATHER 
 DURING THE WINTER MONTHS . . 87 
 
 VII. THE UNEMPLOYED : THOSE WHOSE LABOUR 
 
 IS SEASONAL AND CASUAL . . .115 
 
 VIII. TYPES OF LABOUR COLONIES . . . 122 
 
 IX. SUMMARY OF MAIN CONCLUSIONS . , I37 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 I. COPY OF MR. chamberlain's CIRCULAR, l885 I45 
 
 II. EXTRACTS FROM REPORT OF MANSION HOUSE 
 
 COMMITTEE, I903-4 .... 150 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 APPENDIX PAGE 
 
 III. LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL REPORT ON LACK 
 
 OF EMPLOYMENT IN LONDON . . . 163 
 
 IV. GUILDHALL CONFERENCE, FEBRUARY, I9O3 . I70 
 
 V. REPORT OF THE MANSION HOUSE COMMITTEE, 
 
 1903-4 : MR. long's SCHEME . . 173 
 
 VI. SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE PHILA- 
 
 DELPHIA VACANT LOTS CULTIVATION 
 ASSOCIATION, 1903 . . . .180 
 
 VII. LUHLERHEIM — THE BEST LABOUR COLONY 
 IN GERMANY. BY G. P. GOOCH, M.A. 
 (reprinted from " THE FRIEND ") . 187 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY ig3 
 
 INDEX 197 
 
THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE RECENT HISTORY OF THE 
 UNEMPLOYED PROBLEM. 
 
 The unemployed problem in England dates back 
 in its main aspects to the break-up of the manorial 
 system and the decay of communal cultivation. 
 But while the sixteenth century witnessed an 
 agricultural revolution, a readjustment of labour 
 on the land took place during the seventeenth and 
 eighteenth centuries ; so that the unemployed 
 problem cannot be said to have been really acute 
 until some time after the commencement of the 
 industrial revolution which was followed by the 
 rapid depletion of the country districts during the 
 latter half of the nineteenth century. During the 
 last forty years the number of those engaged in 
 agriculture has decreased by nearly 50 per cent., 
 while the town population has grown by leaps and 
 bounds. At the present moment 70 per cent, of 
 the population of the United Kingdom live in urban 
 sanitary districts. 
 
 u. B 
 
2 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 The complete change in the conditions of manu- 
 facture from industries carried on in the homes of 
 the people often in small villages, to a factory 
 system with all its accompanying evils, together 
 with the decline of agriculture as a profitable 
 industry, must be regarded as the main causes of 
 the growth of the unemployed problem. The 
 results are too well known to need comment, but 
 they may be summed up in a few sentences. With 
 the universal introduction of labour-saving ma- 
 chinery, and the aggregation of huge numbers of 
 workers in the town, has arisen severe competition 
 not only between manufacturers for contracts, but 
 also between the men themselves for employment. 
 The more severe the competition between manu- 
 facturers, the greater the demands that have been 
 made upon the men, with the result that it has 
 been becoming increasingly difficult for any except 
 the young, the active, and the skilled to count on 
 regular and continuous work. Highly specialised 
 conditions of industry in many trades have placed 
 the workpeople engaged in such trades at a great 
 disadvantage in the event of a break-up in that 
 industry, or even during a period of severe 
 depression. 
 
 The strengthening of the Factory Acts and the 
 Employers' Liability Bills, absolutely necessary 
 as these reforms have been, have tended to shorten 
 the years of full efficiency in the opinion of the 
 employer, with the result that in times of depres- 
 sion consequent on a glut in the market, thousands 
 
RECENT HISTORY OF THE PROBLEM. 3 
 
 of surplus labourers past the prime of life, or below 
 the average standard in some respect, are thrown 
 on the streets, and compete with one another for 
 the chance of a day's work in the docks or in any 
 industry where casual labour is employed. The 
 longer and more severe the period of depression, 
 the greater the number of men discharged, all of 
 whom tend to become demoralised and degraded 
 by unemployment, some of them inevitably re- 
 maining as a permanent burden upon the rates. 
 
 The view held by the classical economists of 
 last century and by a good many philosophical 
 Radicals, was that the country for its own interests 
 must have cheap labour power. The manufac- 
 turers contended that their factories would have 
 to be closed unless cheap labour were forthcoming, 
 and therefore all trades organisations were banned, 
 and any attempt to provide work for the unem- 
 ployed regarded as mischievous ; In fact, a con- 
 siderable quantity of surplus labour was regarded 
 as a necessity. This view has only very slowly 
 been displaced. It is still felt in some quarters 
 that it is best to leave men to fight for their own 
 interests, since the most deserving are sure to 
 obtain employment, while the rest can, if necessary, 
 be provided for by the Poor Law. The exponents 
 of this view point out that the Poor Law has 
 declared once and for all that no man shall starve, 
 and they therefore are willing to leave the great mass 
 of the unemployed with their wives and children 
 to be dealt with by this authority as in the past. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 A far more scientific view of the problem is 
 becoming general. There is a rapidly growing 
 feeling that the community has a responsibility 
 for the unemployed, and must discharge that 
 responsibility, not by inflicting pains and penalties 
 upon the genuine worker, but by enabling him to 
 find work. A striking change in public opinion 
 in this direction has been manifested of late years. 
 It is felt that the well-meant efforts of charitable 
 persons to relieve distress are likely to intensify 
 the evil by lessening the independence of those 
 who receive assistance, while the Poor Law, 
 by inflicting upon the man who applies for relief 
 the stigma of pauperism, tends to place him 
 permanently in the pauper category. 
 
 In the present day it is not so much lack of 
 sympathy as lack of knowledge that is the obstacle 
 to reform. The great complexity of the unem- 
 ployed problem causes it to be neglected by many 
 of the very men who would be most inclined to 
 help if they only saw the way out. It is surpris- 
 ingly easy to confuse the honest unemployed with 
 the vicious vagabond and wastrel, and there are 
 still many who cannot escape from the feeling that 
 while the best men can get work, to make work 
 for second-rate men is not only extremely difficult 
 but economically unsound. A good deal of opposi- 
 tion to the attempt to give work to the unemployed 
 through the municipality comes from those who 
 take an atomistic view of society, who consider, 
 in the language of the Charity Organisation 
 
RECENT HISTORY OF THE PROBLEM. 5 
 
 Society, " character to be the condition of con- 
 ditions." They contend that such efforts weaken 
 the independence of the man and sap the roots of 
 thrift and providence. It is pointed out that 
 hundreds of men who make application for work 
 fail to do that work even when it is given to them, 
 or if they do make an attempt the result is very 
 unsatisfactory. We have all met such men, and 
 the explanation is comparatively simple. In the 
 first place it is obvious that those who are most in 
 evidence and most often found at the door begging 
 for work, are the men of no character and no 
 ability. It is to their advantage to ask for work 
 in order to get the charitably disposed to give 
 them money. They know quite as well as we do 
 how difficult it is to supply work, and they very 
 cleverly use that fact to their own personal 
 gain. 
 
 Another point that is apt to be overlooked is the 
 disposition of employers to " put off" during their 
 slack times the men who are least dependable, the 
 men who drink and are absent on Monday morning, 
 the men who have a reputation for irregularity or 
 laziness. They may not be bad workmen, but 
 they are relatively ineffective, and they are, there- 
 fore, the first to be discharged. But this in no 
 way touches the case of the genuine unemployed. 
 The first gang of men who are discharged naturally 
 consists of the poorest material, the second is of a 
 higher type, and the third may be the sort of men 
 the employer would wish to use if only he had 
 
6 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 work for them. Such men are rarely discharged 
 without being told that they will be taken on 
 again the moment trade revives. 
 
 In the next place unemployment itself frequently 
 produces inefficiency. They are related as closely 
 as poverty and drink. A large employer once re- 
 marked, referring to the numbers of men he had 
 been compelled to discharge : — 
 
 " Between 5 and 6 per cent, of my skilled men are 
 out of work just now. During the long spell of idle- 
 ness any one of these men invariably deteriorates. In 
 some cases the deterioration is very marked. The 
 man becomes less proficient and less capable, and the 
 universal experience of us all who have to do with 
 large numbers of working men is that nothing has a 
 worse effect upon the calibre of such men than long 
 spells of idleness." 
 
 In this connection it is worth while noting 
 the words of an expert in New York, the Warden 
 of King's County Gaol, who in 1899 made this 
 statement : — 
 
 " Men are constantly being committed here in large 
 numbers who have been charged with no crime. Over 
 50 per cent, of the commitments of this institution 
 are for vagrancy— the crime (?) of being out of work 
 and homeless. I am convinced from seeing the 
 efficient work of some of these men while here, that 
 they never would be here could they have secured 
 employment outside. By our tyeatment of the unem- 
 ployed we are making criminals of men who have hereto- 
 fore been honest, self-sustaining members of the community, 
 and who would be so again could they obtain work." 
 
 Social reformers and administrators are agreed 
 
RECENT HISTORY OF THE PROBLEM. 7 
 
 that the Poor Law offers no solution of the un- 
 employed problem. It is neither preventive nor 
 restorative; it neither checks deterioration nor 
 does it elevate those who are fallen into the ranks 
 of the unemployable. In fact the Poor Law makes 
 no attempt to give permanent help either morally 
 or economically to the genuine unemployed. It 
 is to prevent this process of demoralisation which 
 affects not only the individual but the community 
 that all the recent efforts on behalf of the unem- 
 ployed have been made. So urgent has the 
 problem become of late years that almost every 
 winter has witnessed the calling of Committees 
 and Conferences, the starting of Relief Works, 
 and the issuing of special reports dealing with one 
 branch or other of the question. London has 
 naturally become a sort of storm centre with 
 regard to relief work, and attempts have been 
 constantly made to give employment which would 
 lead up to remedies of a permanent character, and 
 not be open to the objections that have been so 
 often made against them. These efforts have been 
 successful as a rule in proportion to the amount 
 of time spent in preparing for them. Generally 
 speaking, however, neither public opinion nor the 
 local authority can be sufficiently aroused to 
 enable action to be taken until distress has actually 
 set in. The result is for the most part panic- 
 stricken attempts to overtake the evil, and not the 
 inception of well thought out and carefully con- 
 sidered schemes. 
 
8 THE UNEMPLOYED, 
 
 Of the Mansion House Fund of 1883-6 it is 
 unnecessary to speak. It is the universal opinion 
 that it did as much harm as good. 
 
 Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, at that time President 
 of the Local Government Board, issued a circular^ 
 on Pauperism and Distress, in which great emphasis 
 was laid on the importance, in times of exceptional 
 distress, of providing useful work for the unem- 
 ployed which would not pauperise. The circular 
 recommended " that the guardians should confer 
 with the local authorities and endeavour to arrange 
 with the latter for the execution of works on which 
 unskilled labour may be immediately employed." 
 It enumerated various kinds of work and laid 
 stress on the advantages of spade labour. It also 
 recommended "that the wages should be some- 
 thing less than the wages ordinarily paid for simi- 
 lar work, in order to prevent imposture and to 
 leave the strongest temptation to those who avail 
 themselves of this opportunity to return as soon 
 as possible to their previous occupations." Under 
 these circumstances the Local Government Board 
 promised to facilitate loans. The distress how- 
 ever was so great that the next year the Mansion 
 House Fund was revived in order to assist the 
 Metropolitan Gardens Association which had for 
 two previous winters given some work to the un- 
 employed; As the result of an appeal on this 
 occasion, 394 men were employed at a cost of 
 £5,303. Of these, little more than a hundred 
 ' See Appendix No. 1. 
 
RECENT HISTORY OF THE PROBLEM. 9 
 
 were permanently benefited, and the committee 
 pointed out that hardly any of the men belonged 
 to a trade or friendly society, a fact which may 
 be noted in nearly all relief works carried on under 
 the auspices of private charity. 
 
 In 1892 another Mansion House Conference 
 initiated the Abbey Mills experiment at Stratford. 
 In this case 865 men were employed, the cost of 
 the experiment being ;f 1,3x3, of which ;f732 was 
 spent on the test work. The same year witnessed 
 the presentation of the Royal Commission on 
 Labour, a great deal of the evidence bearing in- 
 directly on the unemployed problem. The interest 
 aroused was very great, so great, in fact, that in 
 November of the same year Sir Henry, then Mr., 
 Fowler, published a Local Government Board 
 Circular very much on the lines of Mr. Chamber- 
 lain's, laying stress on the necessity of co-operation 
 between boards of guardians and other local 
 authorities, so as to avoid pauperisation. 
 
 The following year the Board of Trade, published 
 a lengthy report, under the editorship of Mr. 
 Llewellyn Smith, on the unemployed problem. 
 Without accepting all the conclusions of those 
 who are responsible for the different sections of 
 that report, we may say that it is the most valu- 
 able contribution that has yet been made to the 
 examination of this question. 
 
 The winter of 1893-4 witnessed experiments in 
 relief works both in West Ham and Poplar. In 
 the case of West Ham, between £2,000 and 
 
10 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 ;f3,ooo was raised, partly by a grant from the 
 municipal exchequer and partly by charitable 
 gifts. Works were instituted upon Wanstead 
 Flats, with the consent of the City Corporation. 
 It consisted chiefly in digging and levelling the 
 ground and laying down cricket pitches, the men 
 being employed for four days a week, six hours a 
 day, at 6d. an hour. The work was considerably 
 more costly than it would have been if performed 
 under contract, but the following facts must be 
 borne in mind : In the first place, although these 
 works would not have been undertaken under 
 ordinary circumstances, the playing grounds thus 
 created are still a valuable asset to the community 
 as regards health and recreation. Secondly, a 
 large number of the men were so physically weak 
 that it was some considerable time before even the 
 willing were able to do a hard day's work. These 
 men must inevitably have received outdoor relief, 
 owing to the congested state of the workhouse, 
 but for the Unemployed Fund. It was far better 
 that they should make some return of labour for 
 the wages they received than take doles of food 
 and money from the guardians and be thereby 
 pauperised. It was about this time that Sir 
 Henry Fowler, President of the Local Govern- 
 ment Board, stated definitely that under section 12 
 of 59 Geo. III. c. 12 : — 
 
 "Boards of guardians have power to purchase or 
 rent land not exceeding 50 acres for any parish, and 
 to open workshops for setting destitute able-bodied 
 
RECENT HISTORY OF THE PROBLEM, ii 
 
 persons to work, and to pay such persons reasonable 
 wages for their labours."^ 
 
 During the first few months of this same year 
 (1895) a House of Commons Committee on Distress 
 from Want of Employment sat to consider the 
 possibility of giving satisfactory relief either in 
 the shape of work or in any other way, with a 
 view to tiding over the winter. The Local 
 Government Board addressed a circular letter to 
 the mayors of towns and the chairmen of district 
 councils, requesting information on the following 
 points : — 
 
 " (i) Whether there is any exceptional distress in the 
 district, and how far this is due to circumstances 
 peculiar to the locality or to the severe weather ? 
 
 " (2) What is being done to meet the distress by 
 public authorities or by voluntary agencies, and the 
 average daily number relieved by each of the agencies 
 during the week ended Saturday, the i6th February ? 
 
 " (3) Is an unemployed register maintained, and with 
 what result ? 
 
 " (4) Have you any suggestions to make for the 
 purpose of relieving such distress ? " 
 
 The result of the inquiry went to show that in 
 454 localities, with a population of 10,381,607 
 persons, there was exceptional distress, due solely 
 to the severity of the winter ; and that in 154 
 localities, with a population of 3,722,372 persons, 
 there was, apart from the want of employment due 
 
 ' Several boards of guardians are at the present time 
 considering the possibility of forming a group with a view- 
 to the purchase of farms from 150 to 250 acres, thus 
 carrying out this section, but at present wages so paid 
 would be parochial relief and involve disfranchisement 
 
12 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 to the weather, an exceptional want of employment 
 owing to slackness of trade, depression of agricul- 
 ture, or to particular local or industrial causes. 
 
 In July, 1896, the full report of this committee 
 was issued, and some of its evidence was of great 
 value. The main conclusion was as follows : — 
 
 "The desire which is felt by persons in distress 
 from want of employment to find a means of meeting 
 their needs otherwise than by having recourse to Poor 
 Law relief is inteUigible, and is a sentiment with 
 which your committee cordially sympathise. The 
 acceptance of Poor Law relief undoubtedly involves 
 a stigma, viz., the stigma of dependence upon persons 
 who have compulsorily to contribute the funds for 
 the support of the recipients of such relief, and it is 
 but natural that persons able and willing to work 
 should wish to maintain themselves in independence 
 and upon the fruits of their own labour. 
 
 " Your committee have not found it possible to 
 devise and recommend any scheme involving the com- 
 pulsory provision of work for wages for all applicants. 
 The whole question of the best method of dealing 
 with the unemployed is still in an experimental stage, 
 and the general application of any of the schemes 
 suggested to your committee would involve many 
 practical and economical difficulties. Under these 
 circumstances, whilst unable to recommend any 
 general or far-reaching changes in the present working 
 of the Poor Laws, your committee would desire to 
 see a continuation of experimental efforts to deal 
 with the problem in various localities and under 
 various conditions, and your committee consider that 
 the progress of such experiments should be carefully 
 watched, and as far as possible assisted by the Local 
 Government Board under its existing powers, and 
 that the results should be carefully noted for future 
 guidance. 
 
 " In recommending that franchise disabilities should 
 
RECENT HISTORY OF THE PROBLEM. 13 
 
 not, subject to certain conditions, follow upon the 
 acceptance of Poor Law relief, your committee 
 have done what appears to them possible to lessen 
 the stigma involved in the receipt by the deserving 
 unemployed of such relief, i.e., they would preserve 
 the recipients' rights of citizenship. It may be that an 
 enactment giving effect to this recommendation would 
 do something to remove the reluctance of the deserving 
 unemployed to have recourse to the assistance of the 
 Poor Law in times of need." 
 
 During the intervening years between i8g6 and 
 1903 a good many small experiments were made 
 in different parts of the country, but owing to the 
 prosperous state of trade and to the large number 
 of men who had been drafted off to the war in 
 South Africa unemployment was not so serious as 
 to require very vigorous action. At the close of 
 the war, however, on the return of the reservists 
 and a large number of the volunteer forces, un- 
 employment began to be felt, and this was rendered 
 more acute both by the tightness of the money 
 market and by the depression in trade. In the 
 spring of 1903 a National Conference ^ on the 
 unemployed question was held at the Guildhall for 
 two days. It was attended by 587 delegates repre- 
 senting 123 city and borough councils, urban and 
 rural district councils, boards of guardians, etc., 
 including the Corporation of the City of London, 
 and the London County Council, and 118 trades 
 unions and councils, employers' associations, etc. 
 
 The findings of the Conference are fully given 
 > See Appendix No. 2. 
 
H THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 in an appendix, the first and most far-reaching 
 resolution being as follows : — 
 
 " That this Conference, realising that the interests 
 of industry are the paramount interests of the com- 
 niunity, and that the problem of the unemployed 
 should be dealt with in a sympathetic as well as a 
 practical manner, urges upon the Government the 
 necessity of appointing a Minister of Labour with a 
 seat in the Cabinet, one of whose duties it shall be to 
 organise a special department of his ofSce to deal 
 with recurring periods of depression and distress, to 
 watch for and notify indications of approaching lack 
 of employment, to supplement the Board of Trade 
 statistics, to obtain and disseminate information as 
 to places where work can be had, to help in dis- 
 tributing labour where it is most needed, and, above 
 all, to devise and promote measures for the temporary 
 and permanent utilisation of the unemployed labour 
 of the nation." 
 
 Following on this Conference a meeting was 
 called by the London County Council of all the 
 administrative authorities in London to deal with 
 the lack of employment in London as distinct from 
 the rest of the country. The committee, of which 
 Mr. John Burns was chairman, drew up a report 
 which was submitted to the General Purposes 
 Committee of the London County Council, and 
 adopted by the Council on October 27th, 1903. 
 The report^ favoured the expediting of public 
 works, and urged that so far as practicable, suph 
 work be undertaken during the slack seasons. It 
 recommended that works of a local character 
 should be prepared which might usefully be carried 
 ' See Appendix No. 3. 
 
RECENT HISTORY OF THE PROBLEM. 15 
 
 out during periods of distress. The report further 
 suggested that the Government should take 
 action in the preparation of schemes of work of a 
 national character, in making the official Labour 
 returns more generally known throughout the 
 country, in adopting the recommendation of the 
 Committee on Distress from Want of Employment 
 with regard to disfranchisement following Poor 
 Law relief, and, finally, in instituting an inquiry 
 as to the duties of the Board of Trade and other 
 Government departments, in view of the desir- 
 ability of appointing a Minister of Industry. 
 
 In the winter of 1903-4 the Mansion House 
 Committee made a useful experiment in connection 
 with labour colonies. The report, which has 
 been widely circulated, seems to point to the fact 
 that the very best quality of men, especially trades 
 union men, will not leave the town for temporary 
 work in a labour colony, and that such schemes 
 of work are, perhaps, more suited to unskilled and 
 unorganised labour, where there is little prospect 
 of any permanent employment. The important 
 fact should be noted that there were only five 
 trades unionists among the 467 men who accepted 
 this rehef work. 
 
 In March, 1904, a Bill was introduced into the 
 House of Commons by Sir John Gorst, to amend 
 the Vagrancy Act of 1824, and to facilitate the 
 establishment of labour colonies. The Bill, which 
 was not discussed, was entirely the work of the 
 Salvation Army, which has been particularly active 
 in this matter, although it synchronised with 
 
i6- THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 a report by Mr. H. J. Torr and Major Marriott on 
 the working of the Belgian institutions at Merxplas, 
 Hoogstraeten and Wortel. 
 
 An extremely valuable account was issued by 
 the Board of Trade in the autumn of the same 
 year (1904) on " Agencies and Methods for dealing 
 with the Unemployed in certain Foreign Countries." 
 This report, bringing up to date and expanding 
 that of 1893, was edited by Mr. D. F. Schloss. 
 In the same month the Charity Organisation 
 Society published a report of a special committee 
 on " The Relief of Distress due to Want of Employ- 
 ment," in which a considerable advance on the 
 previous position of the Society is made. Then 
 followed Mr. Walter Long's scheme, and the for- 
 mation of a Central Committee for London, which 
 spent £52,000 and gave employment to 3,538 men. 
 The report of that committee is extremely valuable 
 as a guide on all future experiments. 
 
 These reports and experiments justify the grow- 
 ing conviction that the unemployed must be given 
 work if they are to be rescued from the danger of 
 sinking into the ranks of the unemployable. It is 
 widely felt that such men are not altogether to 
 blame if as a result of disorganisation in our social 
 system they become ineffective factors in the work 
 of production, and the main purpose of the recent 
 inquiries has been to discover some method 
 whereby, without doing injury to the community 
 or inflicting a loss upon the great body of citizens, 
 it might be possible to provide them with useful 
 employment. 
 
THE UNEMPLOYABLE. 17 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 THE UNEMPLOYABLE. 
 
 Now that the word "unemployable" has come 
 into common use, it is high time that we gave it 
 a definite signification. There are two classes 
 that may fairly be called unemployable : — 
 
 (i) Criminals, semi-criminals, vicious vagabonds 
 and the incorrigibly lazy; in a word, all able- 
 bodied men who refuse to work, or are refused 
 work, owing to defect in character. 
 
 (2) The physically and mentally deficient. 
 
 The latter may be divided into four other classes — 
 
 (a) The aged. 
 
 (6) The physically weak and maimed, including 
 the blind, lame and deaf, and men with 
 weak hearts. 
 
 (c) Epileptics. 
 
 (d) Weak-willed inebriates and the mentally 
 
 deficient. 
 
 For each of these some special remedy must be 
 devised, but perhaps the first condition of any 
 effective treatment of the unemployable is the 
 segregation of the criminal and vicious vagabond 
 from all who may be called in any real sense 
 irresponsible. In order to deal with this criminal 
 and vagabond class, which we must remember is, 
 
 u c 
 
i8 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 only a small percentage of the unemployed, the 
 present workhouse system must be abolished. The 
 casual ward not only fails to be a solution of this 
 problem, but actually encourages the criminal and 
 the loafer who has no intention of finding work, 
 by helping them to live without work. 
 
 We must differentiate between the genuine 
 ; unemployed man who is in search of work, and 
 the vicious vagrant who is in search of oppor- 
 tunities for plunder and who has not the slightest 
 intention of working. The latter type is a danger 
 to all peaceful citizens and a useless drain on the 
 funds of the community. He has been so long 
 neglected that his vices have made detention 
 necessary for his own sake as well as for the sake 
 of society. In dealing with him we must temper 
 judgment with mercy, for nothing is more difficult 
 than to discriminate between the sin of the indi- 
 vidual and the sin of society that has caused a 
 man to fall beneath the ban of the law. Never- 
 theless, just as strong measures have to be taken 
 on the outbreak of some infectious disease, so it 
 may be necessary not only to prevent for the 
 future the increase of this class, but also so far 
 as possible to remedy the existing evil by fixing 
 periods of detention in labour colonies. The 
 subject has come very much to the front of late, 
 owing to the publication of the Vagrancy Report^ 
 of the Court of Quarter Sessions (Parts of Lindsey), 
 
 > By H. J. Torr, J.P., and Major R. A. Marriott. Published 
 at office of Lindsey County Council, Stonebrow, Lincoln. 
 
THE UNEMPLOYABLE. 19 
 
 Lincolnshire, the Vagrancy Bill of Sir John Gorst 
 and the Inter-departmental Committee upon the 
 subject. The Lincolnshire Vagrancy Committee 
 points out the great need for revising our present 
 method of dealing with offences against the 
 Vagrancy Acts, and especially recommends the 
 establishment of such colonies in which the 
 vagrant, as distinguished from the industrious 
 unemployed, may be detained. 
 
 What, then, are the remedies for Class i ? 
 
 There are four which are worthy of consideration, 
 which to be effective must be taken together : — 
 
 (a) The abolition of the casual ward. 
 
 {b) Papers of identification. 
 
 (c) Relief stations in place of the casual ward. 
 
 (d) A system of labour colonies, to which the 
 
 Court should have power to sentence 
 
 habitual offenders. 
 {a) The Abolition of the Casual Ward. — All the 
 evidence that is at our disposal goes to show that 
 the present methods of treating the vagrant are 
 neither deterrent nor reformatory. Excluding the 
 bond fide man who is out of work and is walking 
 the country from town to town seeking for work, 
 a very large proportion of those who enter the 
 casual wards or who are committed for vagrancy 
 are found to be habituals. Frequent cases have 
 occurred in which tramps in the casual ward, even 
 when threatened with prosecution, have refused to 
 work, and because they have no fear of imprison- 
 ment, and sometimes openly avow their preference 
 
 C 2 
 
20 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 for the prison, it is clear that the casual ward only 
 furnishes them with an opportunity of living an 
 idle and vagrant life, and bringing odium upon the 
 character of the hard-working and industrious man. 
 But the casual ward cannot be abolished unless we 
 are prepared to substitute something for it, and our 
 substitute would be papers of identification, relief 
 stations, and compulsory labour colonies. 
 
 (b) Papers of Identification. — The ideal would be 
 that all men who are travelling about in search 
 of work should carry with them papers of identi- 
 fication, so that the authorities might immediately 
 know what sort of character they bore and the 
 kind of assistance they required, in order to enable 
 them to find work. The vagrant who did not wish 
 to find work could then be dealt with. This may 
 seem to be altogether impracticable in England, 
 although, of course, it is the regular custom on 
 the Continent. But it might at any rate be made 
 compulsory for all who had been convicted of 
 offences against the Vagrancy Acts to carry such 
 papers endorsed by the police and by the Poor 
 Law authorities as occasion arose. If the references 
 of such men could be carefully kept up to date, as 
 is the custom in Germany, it would be impossible 
 for them to wander about the country at large, a 
 constant obstacle to any effective treatment of 
 the unemployed problem. The type of vagrant 
 who deserts his wife and children would no longer 
 be allowed to escape and pass as an unmarried 
 man, He, would and should be compelled to earn 
 
THE UNEMPLOYABLE. 21 
 
 something towards their maintenance. Under 
 the present system in nine cases out of ten he 
 frequently eludes both the Poor Law officers and 
 the police. 
 
 (c) Relief Stations. — Relief stations should be 
 established all over the country at distances of not 
 more than a day's walk from one another. In 
 Germany any man who wants food and lodging 
 may call at such a relief station and receive what 
 is absolutely necessary. If he is a genuine man 
 he is assisted on his way and directed to the next 
 station and information is given to him. If he 
 has been a long while unsuccessful in his search 
 for work or is a vagrant in the bad sense he is 
 usually directed to a farm colony. Many of the 
 relief stations, especially those in Westphalia, 
 insist on some performance of work in exchange 
 for relief, although if the applicant for relief is a 
 man of good character the work does not take 
 long and he is also assisted at each stage of 
 his search by means of a labour registry. If the 
 distance to the next station is long a meal is 
 sometimes provided for him before his departure 
 or at some intermediate place. No man who 
 observes all the regulations in connection with 
 relief stations need stand in any fear of arrest as 
 a vagrant, neither need he, if his papers are in 
 order seek assistance from the ordinary Poor Law ; 
 but, on the other hand, if for any reason he should 
 wilfully break these regulations, he is certain to 
 find himself in the hands of the pdice, SO that 
 
23 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 the idle tramp cannot be said to be encouraged. 
 The great advantage of the whole system is that 
 it enables a workman travelling in search of work, 
 either by the payment of a very small sum or by 
 the performance of a small task of work, to walk 
 from end to end of Germany in his search of 
 employment, while every guidance as to where 
 work is likely to be found is given to him on the 
 road. If these relief stations could, be established 
 in England and papers of identiiication insisted 
 on, and if these stations could be placed in 
 regular communication one with another, there 
 ought to be no difficulty in putting a stop to the 
 wanderings of the type of man we have described. 
 (d) Labour Colonies. — By the Vagrancy Bill 
 which Sir John Gorst introduced last year (1904) 
 to amend the Vagrancy Act of 1824, it would be 
 possible for vagrants to be committed for trial, 
 and if convicted by the Court of Assize or Quarter 
 Sessions to be detained for three years. If a 
 vagrant consents to be dealt with summarily a' 
 court of summary jurisdiction is empowered to 
 deal with him in the same manner, A justice of 
 the peace is also empowered, if the vagrant wishes 
 to be detained, to order his detention in a labour 
 colony for twelve months. This Bill, with some 
 modifications, should be reintroduced, though it 
 is doubtful if it should be allowed to remain 
 merely permissive. This is very much the process 
 in Belgium, where the " juge de paix" has authority 
 by article 13 of the Law of 1891 to order his 
 
THE UNEMPLOYABLE. 23 
 
 removal to the great Belgian penal colony at 
 Merxplas, known as a " dep6t de mendicity." 
 
 In Belgium vagrancy is not, strictly speaking, 
 a penal offence, but it is regarded as so much of a 
 social danger as to require special treatment. The 
 methods employed appear to be much more strictly 
 repressive than redemptive. M. Stroobant, who is 
 at the head of this colony, stated emphatically 
 that the object of Merxplas was repressive. To 
 quote his own words : — " It taught men to work 
 and to work regularly ; it saved them from their 
 own vices — the vices that had brought them there, 
 but it did not seem to prevent them from going 
 back over and over again." The colony compels 
 men to work at agriculture, manufactures, forestry, 
 and household employment. Soldiers conduct 
 the agriculturalists to their various fields, although 
 it is not very difficult for colonists to escape. This 
 seems to cause no anxiety to the director, who says 
 that if they can get work and are willing to do it, 
 all the better, and that if they are unwilling to 
 work they are sure to fall into the hands of the 
 police and be returned again to the colony. 
 Merxplas is practically self-supporting, and as the 
 report of the Vagrancy Committee points out, 
 there is no comparison so far as cost is concerned 
 between the Belgian system and the casual ward 
 system of England. Including the small wages 
 that are paid to the colonists — and the wage 
 system ought certainly to be adopted in England 
 at a compulsory labour colony — and taking even 
 
24 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 the aged and infirm into account, the entire cost 
 is under ;£'io per head per annum, and the small 
 wages will account for at least half of this. 
 
 In addition to the colony at Merxplas with 4,500 
 men, there is one at Wortel and another at 
 Hoogstraeten, the three colonies between them 
 possessing about 3,000 acres of land. The two 
 latter colonies form one establishment and are 
 known as " Maison de refuge."^ They are not 
 penal in the strict sense, and are tending to become 
 rather the resort of the aged and the infirm. The 
 number of colonists is greatly increased by severe 
 weather. Hoogstraeten would have about 800 in 
 summer and about 1,500 in winter; Wortel 450 
 in summer and perhaps three times that number 
 in winter. Very few of the colonists are young 
 men, and the conclusion to which we are forced 
 -^and with this conclusion both M. Leroy, the 
 " directeur principal," and M. Stroobant, the 
 director at Merxplas, agree — is that the genuine 
 unemployed man is relieved outside the colony, 
 and that almost the only men who are sent to 
 the colony are professional beggars or habitual 
 drunkards. 
 
 Belgium is not the only country that possesses 
 this system. Denmark, like Belgium, shows little 
 mercy to the tramp who is unwilling to work. 
 For the respectable and industrious unemployed, 
 for " the poor by impotencie " as they were called 
 in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and for " the poor 
 
 ' See Table : Types of Labour Coloiiiea. Page 134. 
 
THE UNEMPLOYABLE. 25 
 
 by casualtie " they have nothing but the utmost 
 sympathy and regard, but in a very effective feshion 
 they deal rigorously with " the shiftless poore, the 
 rioter that consumeth all, the vagabond that will 
 bide in no place and the idle person." For them 
 there awaits the Tvangsarbejdanstalt or penal work- 
 house. By the Law of 1891 the Poor Law authori- 
 ties, acting in conjunction with the police, may 
 send to the penal workhouse all who have been 
 " guilty of breaches of order or of morals, or of 
 disobedience, insubordination, drunkenness, quar- 
 relsomeness, idleness, leaving the workhouse 
 without permission, damage to property, or other 
 irregularities, public or private." But Denmark is 
 wise enough thoroughly to classify not only the 
 unemployed but also the unemployable, and the 
 moment a man shows himself willing to work and 
 behaves in a quiet orderly manner, his treatment 
 is improved. He is transferred to one of the 
 upper classes and finally removed from the penal 
 workhouses to the ordinary workhouse, where he is 
 better fed and much more comfortable. 
 
 In Denmark, as in Belgium, workshops of all 
 kinds are carefully organised. Expert managers 
 and foremen direct the tailoring, shoe-making, 
 carpentering, bookbinding, weaving, glass-blowing, 
 and metal work which is always going on, and in 
 addition there is a good deal of-building, painting, 
 etc. Thus a skilled artisan has no need to break 
 stones, and, as in Belgium, he is practically no loss 
 to the community. In 1902 the cost of Ladegaard 
 
26 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 penal workhouse at Copenhagen was only iid. 
 per head per day, while the net profits amounted 
 to about ;f3,90o. 
 
 The penal workhouse in Denmark is not 
 primarily, however, a paupers' prison. The idea 
 is rather to keep out of harm's way those who live 
 at the expense of their fellows — the professional 
 vagrant and the bully who forces a woman to keep 
 him. Such a man is detained for six months, and 
 even then only transferred to the workhouse. 
 
 In Holland there are three colonies which may 
 be described as penal for beggars and tramps, 
 Veenhuizen and Hoorn, being for men, and the 
 national workhouse at Leiden for women. The 
 former is for vagabondage proper, while at the 
 two latter habitual drunkards are also admitted. 
 The present population of Veenhuizen is about 
 3,600, divided into three sections, and the work 
 consists chiefly of forestry, agriculture, gardening, 
 and various handicrafts, such as weaving, car- 
 pentering, masonry, smiths' work, and the manu- 
 facture of furniture, boots, and clothing. The 
 colonist prisoners enjoy a certain amount of 
 freedom within the colony, and have a very 
 small allowance for wages. 
 
 In Germany the same type of man is treated at 
 the " Corrections- Anstalten," the great majority 
 of them being men of weak character, and 
 irresponsible to a degree. 
 
 While not advocating the wholesale adoption of 
 any continental system, the need for some alteration 
 
THE UNEMPLOYABLE. 27 
 
 in the law is perfectly clear. The class with 
 which we are dealing is the very class which under 
 our present arrangements makes the unemployed 
 problem almost insoluble, because they discredit 
 the industrious and honest man in the eyes of the 
 public, and are themselves invariably the first to 
 receive any assistance which was primarily designed 
 for the willing worker. 
 
 What is proposed is that power to detain in 
 colonies shall be given to magistrates in England, 
 with due precautions and under all possible safe- 
 guards, and that for this purpose- boards of 
 guardians within county council areas shall 
 establish colonies which will offer the opportunity 
 of useful and honourable work on the land to a 
 class of man who at present is a drain on the 
 community and a real danger to its citizen life. 
 
 The great advantage that a farm colony would 
 have over the casual ward system lies in the fact 
 that the whole environment of this class of man is 
 absolutely changed. In the first place he is no 
 longer allowed his freedom after a few hours' work. 
 He would enter the colony for a certain definite 
 period, and his future would depend upon his 
 conduct during that period. In the second place 
 the work is useful and humanising, whether it be 
 in spade labour on the land, in forestry, in the 
 tending of horses, cattle, and pigs on a farm for 
 the best and most skilled of the men, or in the 
 manufacture of those things which are essential to 
 the conduct of a colony on a large scale. It 
 
38 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 should always be possible to provide a reasonable 
 amount of recreation for these men. They might 
 have their own band and their own library, and 
 the nominal wage system might enable them to 
 purchase such small luxuries as tobacco, and thus 
 offer an additional incentive to men to do their 
 best. 
 
 Some arrangement should be made whereby a 
 voluntary committee of workers be allowed to 
 bring the right kind of religious influences to bear 
 on such men. The religious service at stated 
 times, as carried out at Merxplas, has absolutely 
 no effect whatever upon the characters of the 
 men, and what is required far more is the kind 
 of atmosphere which is created by the German 
 Hausvater or the Salvation Army officers. After 
 all it must be remembered that these men are not 
 for the most part hopeless. Many of them are 
 men of weak character, easily swayed and led by 
 the baser kind. They need not permanently be 
 unemployable, and it might be left to the dis- 
 cretion of the director, when real improvement 
 is visible, to pass on such men to a free colony 
 with the possibility before them of rising to 
 independence and citizenship. 
 
 (2) The Physically Weak and Deficient. — For those 
 who are through no fault of their own unemploy- 
 able, every possible allowance should be made; 
 and notwithstanding the fact that our workhouse 
 treatment has changed for the better during the 
 last few years, there is still room for improvemetat. 
 
THE UNEMPLOYABLE. 39 
 
 What is wanted is a system which would allow us 
 to utilise to the full any powers that these poor 
 men and women may possess, at the same time 
 imposing upon them nothing in the shape of 
 punishment or of stigma for that which is entirely 
 beyond their own control. If once the casual ward 
 were abolished this might be possible. 
 
 I have referred to the fact that in Denmark a 
 careful distinction is drawn between those who 
 are responsible for their condition and those who 
 are not. 
 
 (a) The aged, and (&) the weak and maimed, are 
 all regarded as a class apart, and have practically 
 nothing to do with the Poor Law. For the aged, 
 respectable poor, the worn-out workers, there is 
 an old-age home where every possible regard and 
 attention is paid to the inmates. It must be 
 remembered that wages are low in Denmark, and 
 that it is quite impossible for the unskilled worker 
 to lay up anything for old age. All the more 
 reason, then, that they should be well treated 
 when the time for active work has passed. They 
 are never allowed to become paupers, for the 
 respectable aged poor are of right entitled to that 
 relief in their old age. It is the business of the 
 officials to make the lives of the worn-out workers 
 as happy and comfortable as possible. In the 
 Copenhagen Home, for example, the food is of 
 the very best description, they are well clothed, 
 and supplied, with a fair amount of amusementj 
 " a military band is even told off to play to them 
 
3° THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 in their garden, and there is a special theatre to 
 which they are admitted free."^ In England for 
 a long time past we have been discussing the 
 question of "old-age pensions" on the lines 
 suggested by Mr. Charles Booth. It is to be 
 hoped that we shall speedily follow the example 
 of New Zealand, and institute a system by which 
 the worn-out veteran of industry may be freed 
 from the dread of poverty in his old age. 
 
 (6) For the maimed there should be special 
 homes, with medical treatment. As persons 
 " stricken by the hand of God," they are entitled 
 to maintenance at the public expense. The same 
 method of treatment should apply in other insti- 
 tutions to the blind, the deaf and dumb, and the 
 consumptive. It is not much that they can do, but 
 some of them could have instruction in light home 
 industries — some occupation that would employ 
 their leisure hours and prevent them from brooding 
 over their misfortunes. 
 
 (c) The epileptics are in a parlous plight in 
 England. Between the " Scylla " of an employer 
 who dismisses them the moment he hears of their 
 condition and the "Charybdis" of a lunatic 
 asylum, there is no remedy for them but a colony 
 Uke that of Chalfont or Lingfield, or better still, 
 like Pastor Von Bodelschwingh's colony at Biele- 
 feld. This colony of mercy, which is subsidised 
 by the Government, has accommodation for nearly 
 2,000 epileptic men, women and children, besides 
 'Miss Edith Sellers, " Danish Poor Relief System." 
 
THE UNEMPLOYABLE. 31 
 
 500 patients suffering from other diseases. Every 
 possible attention is paid to them, and no pains 
 spared to effect their cure, while a spirit of con- 
 tentment and happiness seems to pervade even 
 the worst of the homes. 
 
 In England epileptics are too often left to the 
 mercy of the world or driven into our workhouses 
 and lunatic asylums, but it seems probable that, as 
 a result of the Inter-departmental Committee at 
 present sitting on the subject, a change will be 
 made in favour of subsidising colonies like Ling- 
 field, on the precedent of the Inebriates Act of 
 1898. 
 
 {d) As to the weak-willed inebriates, the best and 
 almost the only remedy is removal from the town 
 to the country, where, in a farm colony of the 
 second type, working under healthy conditions at 
 suitable employment, and under strict medical 
 supervision, they may regain their strength of 
 mind and restore their wasted energies. 
 
 In the German labour colonies some of the 
 most valuable workers, both skilled and unskilled, 
 are reclaimed drunkards. It is not enough to 
 commit a drunkard to the inebriates' asylum ; it is 
 of the very essence of the cure that such a retreat 
 should be in the country, far removed from temp- 
 tation, in surroundings that are healthful, with 
 work that humanises, and with the right kind of 
 religious influence brought to bear. 
 
33 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THEUNEMPLOYED— CLASSESOFUNEM- 
 PLOYED AND INDIRECT METHODS 
 OF DEALING WITH THE PROBLEM. 
 
 When once the unemployable have been dealt 
 with, we are in a position to consider the serious 
 problem that is left to us of the genuine unem- 
 ployed ; but before we can rightly ask the ques- 
 tion, " What are the remedies? " we must define 
 our terms. We must discover and classify the 
 unemployed. Let us now leave out of account 
 altogether the so-called "unemployable" — the 
 unfit, the physically and morally defective, the 
 wastrel and inebriate — and let us confine ourselves 
 to the genuine workers who are unable to find work. 
 
 There can be no doubt that from the point of 
 view of the whole nation and, strictly speaking, 
 from the point of view of the economist, unemploy- 
 ment is the labour that might be utilised in the 
 production of wealth, that is not so utilised for one 
 cause or another, and is therefore wasted. This 
 is not, of course, the official view, which is thus 
 described in the "Unemployed Report"of 1893 : — 
 
 "Those members of various trades who are econo- 
 mically superfluous because there is not enough work 
 in those trades to furnish a fair amount to all who 
 
CLASSES OF UNEMPLOYED. 33 
 
 try to earn a livelihood at them. Those who cannot 
 get work because they are below the standard of 
 efficiency usual in their trades, or because their 
 personal defects are such that no one will employ 
 them." 
 
 There are many reasons for extending the area 
 of inquiry and the definition of the term, for we 
 have to take into account labour that is temporarily 
 displaced owing to changes in methods of industry, 
 or changes in the field of employment, for which 
 the workers are in no way responsible. We also 
 have to reckon with the labour that is " seasonal" 
 and can only find full expression at certain times 
 of the year. Then, again, there is the very large 
 class that is thrown out of work at times of trade 
 depression, which must in all fairness be included. 
 Having regard to the interest of the whole com- 
 munity, we might also include the idle hours of 
 those men who in certain trades at certain seasons 
 are only working half time. Mr. Carroll D. Wright, 
 in his report as Commissioner of Labour in the 
 United States in 1886, says that by unemployed 
 he means " those who in prosperous times would 
 be fully employed, and who during the time men- 
 tioned were seeking employment," but that this 
 definition is not sufficiently inclusive is evident from 
 the fact that there are even in times 'of prosperity 
 a very large number (2 per cent, of skilled 
 men, according to Mr. Llewellyn Smith) who are 
 unemployed, and who are frequently in receipt of 
 charity from individuals or assistance from the 
 State. 
 
 u. D 
 
34 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 So far as our present purpose is concerned, we 
 may break up the unemployed into the following 
 classes : — 
 
 I. — Those who are unemployed owing to dis- 
 location in trade, the death of a trade, or changes 
 in methods of industry, and are therefore super- 
 fluous in such trades. 
 
 2. — Those who are unemployed owing to 
 temporary depression in trade, or a severe winter. 
 
 3. — ^Those whose labour is seasonal or casual. 
 
 Of these three classes there are many sub- 
 divisions which we may, for the time being, 
 ignore. Both skilled and unskilled men are in- 
 cluded, although in any attempt to find remedies 
 for all three, we have carefully to consider those 
 suggestions which are likely to employ the largest 
 number of men. In actual practice it is impossible 
 to draw a hard-and-fast line between the skilled 
 and unskilled, however desirable such a distinction 
 may be. 
 
 Before proceeding to discuss the more direct 
 remedies, it would be as well to point out that, 
 in the opinion of many social reformers, direct 
 efforts are merely palliatives and afford no 
 true solution of this complex question. The 
 contention is that the unemployed problem is 
 rooted in our social system, and can therefore 
 never be directly attacked. Upon some of 
 these indirect remedies we are all more or less 
 agreed. Amongst a large number that have been 
 suggested are :— 
 
INDIRECT REMEDIES. 35 
 
 (i) Improved education and technical training. 
 
 (2) Legislative and other means of combating 
 drink and gambling, both fruitful sources of indi- 
 vidual unemployment. 
 
 (3) Effective trades organisation, especially for 
 unskilled labour. 
 
 (4) Reform of taxation. 
 
 (5) The checking of the exodus from the country 
 to the towns by such means as better housing 
 in the country villages, better provision for old 
 age, an agricultural post, local credit banks 
 on the Raiffeisen principle, and above all by 
 affording ample facilities for obtaining small 
 holdings. 
 
 I. Improved Education cmd Technical Training, — 
 Although there are a large number of skilled men 
 out of work, yet it is quite possible that better 
 technical and maiiual training and higher educa- 
 tion all round would have enabled a greater num- 
 ber of skilled men to find employment — would 
 have, in fact, enabled them to hold certain trades 
 which have gone to other countries. 
 
 The importance that Germany attaches to such 
 technical training is evidenced by the fact that 
 the Kaiser and his leading Ministers of State do 
 not consider it beneath them to make a long 
 journey to some comparatively small provincial 
 town in order to open a new technical college. 
 The importance of education is so fully recognised 
 on the Continent, and the opportunities are so 
 much more numerous, that the English workman 
 
 D a 
 
36 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 frequently finds himself handicapped in the com- 
 petitive race. We are not altogether blind to 
 the urgency of the need, but it is to be feared that 
 at present there is much lee-way to make up in 
 the training of our youth. The large number of 
 unskilled labourers who are out of work (more 
 than 50 per cent, are probably unskilled labourers) 
 emphasises the necessity for better education and 
 more thorough technical instruction. 
 
 2. Legislation against Drink and Gambling, — 
 No one who has had experience at a labour 
 bureau or with relief works would hesitate to say 
 that a considerable percentage of the unemployed 
 who apply for work are men who have lost situa- 
 tions through drink or gambling. It is useless to 
 inculcate self-control if men whose opportunities 
 of larger and higher interests are very limited are 
 at the same time surrounded by every form of 
 temptation to vice. Our workhouses, our asylums, 
 and our prisons are full of gamblers and drunkards. 
 They have now become both unemployed and 
 unemployable, and to prevent the wholesale addi- 
 tions to this class which are daily being made, the 
 drink traffic should be under stricter public con- 
 trol, counter-attractions to the public-house set 
 up, while more drastic legislation should be en- 
 forced against those who encourage the gambling 
 spirit. In addition, we must encourage in every 
 way, by individual effort, the spread of temperance 
 and of all societies making for temperance. 
 
 3. Effective Trades Organisation. — Effective 
 
INDIRECT REMEDIES. 37 
 
 trades organisation certainly tends to keep up 
 wages. Whether it can be said to decrease the 
 number of the unemployed depends upon two 
 circumstances. The first is, whether effective 
 trades organisation means more efficient work, in 
 which case a larger amount of work is sure to 
 come to this country ; and secondly, whether 
 reduced hours of labour, which may be considered 
 as a direct remedy, would in every case be to the 
 benefit of the trades concerned. It has also been 
 inferred that better organisation means higher 
 wages, and, therefore, larger purchasing and con- 
 suming power on the part of the working men. 
 Unskilled labour, on the whole, is no better 
 organised than it was twenty years ago. 
 
 4. Reforms of Taxation. — Mr. J. A. Hobson 
 and others have pointed out that in their view 
 unemployment is primarily due to under-consump- 
 tion, and that the direct economic cause of unem- 
 ployment is the relative inability of the wage 
 earners to consume. 
 
 "The refusal to recognise that industry, both in 
 volume and character, is directly determined by the 
 effective demand of consumers, with due allowance 
 for the prophetic or stimulative influence of producers, 
 is still the deepest source of error in the English theory 
 of the structure of industry." 
 
 According to Mr. Hobson, in all highly de- 
 veloped countries, consumption fails to keep pace 
 with production. The unearned elements of 
 income are being capitalised at so rapid a rate 
 
38 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 that the demands of ordinary consumption are 
 not able to proceed pari passu with the produc- 
 tion that results. The object of the statesman 
 should then be to make taxation tend to the 
 greater distribution of wealth, i.e., of power to 
 consume : — 
 
 (a) By the taxation of large unearned income, 
 especially such income as is obtained from the 
 enormous growth in the value of town lands; 
 
 (&) By the taxation of big monopolies which 
 prevent the wealth of the country from flowing 
 into natural channels; 
 
 (c) By a progressive income tax which would 
 also do much to prevent the growth of excessive 
 and swollen incomes. 
 
 No. 5. The Checking of the Exodus from the Country 
 to the Town. — The unemployed in the town have 
 been in the past recruited from the agricultural 
 labourers in the country, especially from the 
 South of England, where the wages are low. A 
 visit to the London docks is sufficient to convince 
 one that side by side with the rural depopulation, 
 there has been going on an increase in the number 
 of casual labourers and of the unemployed. If, 
 therefore, by wise legislation backed up by sound 
 administration, we can check the rural exodus, 
 we shall have materially contributed to the 
 solution of the problem, or at any rate made it 
 easier for us to keep the problem within limits. 
 Country life must be made both possible and 
 pleasurable. In the first place a sufficient supply 
 
INDIRECT REMEDIES. 39 
 
 of houses for the agricultural labourers is required, 
 and here the county councils with money 
 borrowed at low rates from the Government 
 should be able to supply the need. If necessary 
 the byelaws could be relaxed and wooden or 
 concrete houses built. 
 
 In addition to these very much needed reforms, 
 he must be given the opportunity of either owning 
 a small farm, or better still, of renting a small 
 holding with absolute security of tenure, so long 
 as he treats the land fairly and satisfies all reason- 
 able requirements. The example of the South 
 Lincolnshire and Norfolk Small Holdings Associa- 
 tion, also of the Holland (Lincolnshire) and 
 Norfolk County Councils might well be followed. 
 State credit should be used, as in Mr. Wyndham's 
 Purchase Act of 1903, to make it possible for 
 authorities to get possession of the land. It may 
 be necessary, as in New Zealand, to break up large 
 farms into smaller holdings which can be worked 
 by the tenants on co-operative principles. This 
 subject we shall return to later on, but meanwhile 
 let us say that Denmark again affords an illustra- 
 tion of how to deal with this question. About 
 five-sixths of the land is occupied by peasants 
 with small holdings, while dairy-farming on co- 
 operative lines, encouraged by the Government, is 
 pursued with almost unparalleled success. Of the 
 total exports of more than sixteen millions a year, 
 over fourteen millions are accounted for by agri- 
 cultural produce, a large proportion of which is 
 
40 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 exported to England. Very much the same 
 methods are required both in Great Britain and 
 Ireland if ever the agricultural labourer is to 
 be inspired with the hope of one day achieving 
 his own social salvation. 
 
SUGGESTED DIRECT REMEDIES. 41 
 
 CHAPTER IV, 
 
 SUGGESTED DIRECT REMEDIES FOR 
 ALL CLASSES OF THE GENUINE 
 UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 The remedies that would be of value to the 
 unemployed as a whole are naturally very few in 
 number, but the few that can be recommended 
 are of great importance. They are as follows : — 
 
 (i) The appointment of a Minister of Commerce 
 and Industry, together with the reorganisation of 
 existing departments dealing with labour. 
 
 (2) Municipal labour bureaux. 
 
 (3) Public relief stations and travellers' homes. 
 
 (4) Extension of insurance against unemploy- 
 ment. 
 
 (i) The appointment of a Minister of Commerce 
 and Industry is desirable in order that the un- 
 employed problem may be placed in its proper 
 position in relation to the other social evils with 
 which we are confronted. The President of the 
 Local Government Board is chiefly responsible 
 for the unemployed by virtue of the authority 
 which he has over the Poor Law and indirectly 
 over municipal bodies ; but three departments, at 
 least, are concerned with labour, (i) the Home 
 Office, (2) the Local Government Board, (3) the 
 
42 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 Board of Trade, while the Commissioners of 
 Woods and Forests and the Board of Agriculture 
 are directly interested in rural industries. "What 
 is suggested is such a reorganisation of these de- 
 partments as will render it possible to treat all 
 distinctly labour questions from one centre. 
 Reference has already been made to the resolution 
 passed by the Conference which was held at the 
 Guildhall on February 27th and 28th, 1903, regard- 
 ing the appointment of a Minister of Labour, one 
 of whose duties it should be to organise a special 
 department of his office to deal with recurring 
 periods of distress due to lack of employment. 
 To carry such a resolution into effect is an ex- 
 tremely difficult and complicated matter, since it 
 involves changes in so many other departments ; 
 but it is doubtful whether the problem will ever 
 obtain adequate treatment until this course has 
 been adopted. Failing this drastic measure, the 
 irreducible minimum of reform must include a 
 definite scheme in which a special department and 
 the head of that department will be held responsible 
 for the whole question of unemployment. 
 
 Mr. Keir Hardie, M.P., has suggested in addi- 
 tion a series of "elective administrative councils"^ 
 to undertake or supervise public works which have 
 for their object the relief of the unemployed. He 
 would propose to invest his councils with full 
 powers to administer in whole or in part the Acts 
 
 * "The Unemployed Problem, with some Suggestions 
 for Solving It," by J. Keir Hardie, M.P. (November, 1904). 
 
SUGGESTED DIRECT REMEDIES. 43 
 
 that most affect the well-being of the agricultural 
 labourer. To quote his own words : — 
 
 " The new councils to be invested with full powers 
 to administer or co-operate with other like councils 
 or existing authorities in administering, in whole or 
 in part, the Allotments and Small Holdings Acts ; the 
 Housing Acts ; technical instruction — having special 
 reference to the training of both sexes in dairying, 
 the rearing of poultry, fruit culture, market gardening, 
 bee-keeping, forestry, etc., the powers presently pos- 
 sessed by boards of guardians for acquiring land and 
 establishing industries for the employment on wages 
 of the able-bodied poor ; the maintenance of labour 
 registries ; and generally such further powers as may 
 be necessary to aid in re-creating a race of peasant 
 cultivators of the soil, including power to levy and 
 administer rates and receive and disburse Government 
 grants for carrying out any or all of their objects. 
 
 The new councils would be further empowered to 
 acquire by purchase or lease waste lands for reclama- 
 tion purposes and afforestation, and would be linked 
 up with such departments of the Government as are 
 in any way connected with the enforcement of any 
 of the acts or powers referred to." 
 
 Whether councils should be elected for these 
 specific purposes is a matter of opinion, but there 
 can be little doubt that larger areas are required 
 if the difficulties arising out of unemployment are 
 .to be dealt with in a less spasmodic and parochial 
 fashion. The Unemployed Workmen Act of 1905 
 is not altogether satisfactory, because it fails to 
 include in London the extra-metropolitan dis- 
 tricts like West Ham and Tottenham. Sooner 
 or later the Act must be strengthened in this 
 and other directions. Any scheme for London, 
 
44 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 to be quite satisfactory must cover these distressed 
 districts which are in reality taking the burden 
 which London itself ought to bear. 
 
 No one city and no one district can be said to 
 be entirely responsible for the unemployed in its 
 midst. If distress owing to want of employment 
 were closely confined to certain localities, there 
 would be little or no difficulty in solving the 
 problem; nevertheless, should the distress become 
 acute, it would still be the duty of the Govern- 
 ment to intervene. The real danger consists in 
 regarding it as either local or temporary. As a 
 matter of fact, it is due to a great variety of causes, 
 and whatever may, in our opinion, be the primary 
 cause, we have to deal with the results of depres- 
 sion in trade, of over-piroduction, of dear money, 
 of surplus labour resulting from the consolidation 
 of businesses or the introduction of labour-saving 
 machinery, all of which may be symptoms of a 
 disease, but a disease which is general, and not 
 merely local in character. The community is 
 responsible for the unemployed problem so far as 
 a community may be said to be responsible for 
 anything, and therefore the very essence of the 
 question is that there should be Government action 
 and Government intervention. It is with cities 
 and districts as with individuals — the weakest go 
 to the wall. Huge areas, thickly populated and 
 teeming with manual workers, are subjected in 
 times of severe depression to a strain which is 
 simply unbearable, to which sooner or later the 
 
SUGGESTED DIRECT REMEDIES. 45 
 
 majority must succumb. The poorest districts, 
 which are the most heavily rated, are compelled 
 by the very necessities of the case to rate them- 
 selves still more heavily in order to provide relief 
 works, or even if relief works are not established, 
 the Poor Law authorities must find relief in the 
 shape of food. As an illustration of this, we may 
 quote the case of West Ham, where the rates are 
 nearly los. in the £. Two years ago the borough 
 council of West Ham, in accordance with a reso- 
 lution of the council, made arrangements for an 
 official census of the unemployed. The number of 
 occupied houses canvassed was 20,638, and the 
 number of unemployed in these houses was 
 returned by the official canvassers as 5,383. Of 
 these 3,602 were married, and 1,749 single. In 
 addition, there were 31 female factory hands, and 
 the number of children depending upon the 
 married unemployed was 7,870. The census also 
 gave the information that there were 495 men 
 employed whose work was distinctly casual. It 
 will thus be seen that " over 23 per cent, unemployed " 
 is the result of the census, more than 50 per cent, 
 being labourers — a sufficiently appalling result 
 even if we make ample allowance for the excep- 
 tional nature of a dock and shipping district, and 
 for the mistakes that naturally arise in a somewhat 
 rapidly-planned census. At the present moment 
 something like 40,000 people are suffering in South- 
 West Ham alone as a result of this disorganisation, 
 in which the whole community has a share. 
 
46 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 But it is not merely individual districts that 
 suffer. Let us regard the problem for a moment 
 from the point of view of official statistics, virhich 
 will give us an idea of how it affects the nation as 
 a whole. The figures furnished by the Labour 
 Department of the Board of Trade in the Labour 
 Gazette represent with a fair amount of accuracy 
 the degree of distress prevailing amongst certain 
 sections of skilled labour, but they do not give 
 any clear idea of the number of the unemployed 
 as a whole, although they indicate the directions 
 in which distress is most likely to be found. Less 
 than 606,000 men are represented in the returns 
 of 225 trades unions made to the Board of Trade, 
 and of these men we know that during 1904 there 
 has been an average of over 6 per cent, unemployed. 
 In any endeavour to ascertain the percentage of 
 the unemployed in all trades, we must take into 
 account not only the figures supplied by the Board 
 of Trade, but also the figures — inexact, no doubt, 
 but approximately correct — supplied by the secre- 
 taries of the unskilled trades unions, and also by 
 those social workers who have been brought into 
 contact with unorganised labour. Taking the 
 official figures from 1893 to 1903, varying from 
 7'5 in 1893 to 2*4 in 1899, we have here a mean 
 percentage of between 4 and 5. If we add to this 
 percentage that which is gained by an examination 
 of the statistics of unskilled unions and unskilled 
 labour generally, we may safely infer that in any 
 one average year certainly not less than 6 per cent. 
 
SUGGESTED DIRECT REMEDIES. 47 
 
 of all the manual workers of the United Kingdom 
 are unemployed. The number of wage-earners is 
 estimated at between thirteen and fourteen millions, 
 but this number would include women and some 
 grades of labour not, technically, industrial, and 
 therefore we cannot with absolute certainty draw 
 any conclusion as to the exact measure of unem- 
 ployment. It is probable, however, that something 
 like three-quarters of a million of men and women 
 are idle at the present time. 
 
 We might test this estimate by the figures of 
 official pauperism, were it not for the fact that the 
 Poor Law deals with a class which would scarcely 
 be included. But if we take the Poor Law figures 
 as affording some degree of guidance as to the 
 amount of unemployment, we find that during the 
 last three years the total number of paupers in 
 receipt of relief, indoor and outdoor, has increased, 
 and this notwithstanding the fact that the working 
 class organisations, especially co-operative and 
 sick and loan societies, are gradually extending 
 the area of their operations, and are aiding the 
 genuine poor to avoid the stigma of pauperism. 
 The figures for October of last year (1904) show 
 that the return of pauperism per thousand is higher 
 than it has been since 1874 for London, and for 
 the whole of the country. 
 
 To sum up the reasons which may be adduced 
 in favour of some radical change in the Govern- 
 ment Executive. In the first place it is necessary 
 to make it clear that a definite department is 
 
48 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 responsible for the whole problem ; secondly, 
 unemployment must be regarded as a national 
 question and not treated as a local disease which 
 affects certain districts during a hard winter or 
 severe weather; and finally, official statistics prove 
 that in times of severe depression nothing short of 
 Government action is equal to dealing with the 
 widespread distress for which the nation as a 
 whole must endeavour to find a remedy. 
 
 2. Municipal and other Local Labour Bureaux. — 
 One of the first measures of the Government depart- 
 ment must be to insist that every town and city, 
 and, indeed, every considerable local authority, 
 shall have its own labour bureau, managed by a 
 joint committee representing the city or the 
 district council, the employers, and the trades 
 unions. These bureaux must be carefully and 
 scientifically planned for the collection of accurate 
 statistics and for the provision of all possible 
 information as to where labour is wanted or where 
 work can be found. At present these bureaux are 
 a hastily devised adjunct for relief work, started 
 because the pressure of public opinion is so great 
 that some works have to be set on foot. They are 
 really unemployed registries and little more, as 
 can be seen from the London County Council's 
 report on " Lack of Employment in London." 
 What is really needed is a " clearing-house " in 
 each district, which not only registers the unem- 
 ployed, but systematically classifies them after 
 investigation, and furnishes the Government with 
 
SUGGESTED DIRECT REMEDIES. 49 
 
 a statement of the numbers of unemployed, both 
 skilled and unskilled, in the district under con- 
 sideration, and finally, brings together employers 
 in need of men, and unemployed in need of situa- 
 tions, in the briefest possible space of time. With 
 all the information at their disposal the bureau 
 could at least prevent good men from walking the 
 streets for months at a time when work was really 
 available if they only knew where to look for it, and 
 if more was needed than mere direction it might 
 provide in certain cases railway fares to other parts 
 of the country where work was more abundant.' 
 How far the few bureaux in existence fall short of 
 the ideal it is unnecessary to state, but, compared 
 with Berlin or Munich, London, notwithstanding 
 the Labour Bureaux Act (London), 1902, has 
 much to learn in this direction. 
 
 The German labour bureaux or labour regis- 
 tries are of seven principal types. Of these the 
 most important are the public registries controlled 
 jointly by employers and employed. They are of 
 two kinds : — (a) voluntary association labour 
 bureaux, and (6) municipal labour registries. 
 But apart from the public registries a great deal 
 of valuable work is done by trades union labour 
 bureaux, the guild registries, and the travellers' 
 
 ' See " London County Council Report on Lack of 
 Employment," page ig; Labour Gazette, December, 1904; 
 " Board of Trade Abstract of Labour Statistics" (1901 — 
 1903), pages II — 15. From October to December, 1904, 
 about 48 temporary labour bureaux have been opened in 
 London and the Provinces. 
 
 U. E 
 
59 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 homes and relief stations. In connection with 
 466 lodging homes distributed throughout Ger- 
 many, there are free labour bureaux, and the 
 average number finding employment through these 
 labour bureaux during the year is about 155,000. 
 They are all in telephonic or telegraphic communi- 
 cation, and thus the very latest information can 
 be given to the man who is seeking for work, and 
 he can be set on his way with some chance at any 
 rate of finding the work that he seeks. 
 
 (a) The voluntary associations are for the most 
 part subsidised by municipalities and provincial 
 governments, and some of them make a small 
 charge to the workmen of 20 pfennig (z^d.), which 
 is levied as a means of controlling statistics. 
 
 (b) The municipal labour registries, on the 
 contrary, are nearly all free, but in both cases the 
 working men as well as employers are represented on 
 the committee of management. These labour regis- 
 tries are now federated in seven different districts 
 or provinces, and there is a growing tendency to 
 link them up one with another so that the area of 
 employment may be as wide as possible. The 
 federations aim at the exchange of experiences, the 
 collection of uniform statistics, and a general 
 increase in the number of registries. As to the 
 results that have been obtained by these labour 
 bureaux we may say roughly that while trades union 
 registration affects about half a million workers in 
 Germany, the remainder (nearly fourteen millions) 
 have access to the public registries, of which there 
 
SUGGESTED DIRECT REMEDIES. 
 
 51 
 
 are more than 100 in existence. A tew figures are 
 useful if only to show how sadly lacking in enter- 
 prise our few puny and inconsequential labour 
 bureaux are. 
 
 
 Number of 
 
 
 Proportion of 
 
 Town at which 
 
 
 
 
 
 Registry operates. 
 
 Applica- 
 tions for 
 Situations. 
 
 Situations 
 ofiered. 
 
 filled. 
 
 Applica- 
 tions for 
 Situations 
 satisfied: 
 
 Offers of 
 Situations 
 satisfied. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Munich (M.) ... 
 
 83.170 
 
 63.334 
 
 50.254 
 
 60-4 
 
 79-3 
 
 Berlin (A.) ... 
 
 54.595 
 
 41.552 
 
 32.697 
 
 59-9 
 
 787 
 
 Frankfort - on - 
 
 53.012 
 
 29,725 
 
 24.079 
 
 45-4 
 
 8i-o 
 
 Main (M.). 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Stuttgart (M.) 
 
 48,206 
 
 37.174 
 
 22,828 
 
 47"4 
 
 61-5 
 
 Dresden (A.) ... 
 
 21,149 
 
 16.535 
 
 16.290 
 
 770 
 
 98-5 
 
 Leipsic (A.) ... 
 
 16,803 
 
 17.451 
 
 12,997 
 
 77 -2 
 
 74'4 
 
 Freiburg (M.)... 
 
 20.947 
 
 12,603 
 
 9.883 
 
 47-2 
 
 78-4 
 
 (A.) Maintained by voluntary associations, but subsidised by 
 municipality. 
 (M.) Purely municipal institution. 
 
 On an average the proportion of skilled labour, 
 as placed, was about 50 per cent., and if women 
 are excluded, about 57 per cent. To give just 
 one illustration alone of the cost of running a 
 municipal registry, we may quote the expenses of 
 Munich in 1903, which amounted to gf 1,741, of 
 which sum £1,164 went in salaries of the perma- 
 nent staff. This works out at an average cost of 
 8d. per situation procured, or yd. if we take the 
 net cost after allowing for a grant of £225 from 
 the Bavarian Government. Agricultural labour 
 bureaux are maintained in different parts of Ger- 
 many by the Chambers of Agriculture, but it is 
 
 E 2 
 
52 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 generally being admitted that registries would 
 not serve for purely agricultural purposes, but 
 that "the general bureaux and their own affili- 
 ated branches should occupy themselves with the 
 placing of labour on the land." Thus the urban 
 bureaux in Bavaria, modelled on those of Munich, 
 pursue a common policy " in endeavouring to 
 provide rural applicants for situations with rural 
 rather than urban employment, and in sending 
 certain surplus urban labour into the country." 
 
 In France, free municipal registries have been 
 in existence for many years, and the Board of 
 Trade report of 1893 mentioned the fact that 
 twenty-four labour registries making returns to 
 the French Labour Department succeeded in 
 filling some 11,000 situations, all permanent. In 
 1903 thirty of the French municipal registries 
 reported that during the year 58,752 situations 
 had been filled, but the situations found are gene- 
 rally for domestic servants, clerks, etc. On March 
 14th, 1904, a law was passed which enacted 
 that :— 
 
 " In every commune there shall be established at 
 the mayor's office a register in which shall be entered 
 the offers of and applications for employment from 
 time to time received, which shall at all times be 
 open to the inspection of the public, free of all cost. 
 In this register there shall also be entered a classified 
 list of all such conditions as persons applying for 
 employment shall think fit to annex to their applica- 
 tions. All communes having more than 10,000 
 inhabitants shall be under the obligation of estab- 
 lishing a municipal labour registry." 
 
SUGGESTED DIRECT REMEDIES. 53 
 
 If these bureaux could be established every- 
 where in England and well managed, they would 
 in time gain the confidence of employers and 
 workmen, and both, as in Germany, should be 
 represented on the committee appointed for that 
 purpose. It would enable the employer who needs 
 men to find the workers most suited to his pur- 
 pose without going far afield. It would enable 
 the working man — especially the labourer, whose 
 mobility is not very marked — to obtain whatever 
 work was going in the vicinity of his own home. 
 Being in touch with other labour bureaux in all 
 parts of the country it would readily supply the 
 information that even the mechanic sometimes 
 lacks, and being also in touch with the central 
 Government it could at any moment, when distress 
 became unusually acute, appeal to the depart- 
 ment responsible for the problem of the unem- 
 ployed for temporary assistance in connection 
 with the larger schemes which, it is to be hoped, 
 would be set on foot. Let us suppose a labour 
 bureau in each big industrial centre, established 
 on the most scientific lines, and possessing the 
 confidence of the public. The immediate result 
 would be that every man who wanted work and 
 was willing to do it would have to register his 
 name at the municipal bureau. Men who had no 
 character or were unwilling to work would still be 
 compelled to register, although they would be 
 carefully classified. If they were unwilling to 
 register then it would be possible by means of 
 
54 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 legislation to deal summarily with them as idle 
 and vicious persons. The labour bureau, in fact, 
 would do two things. In the first place it would 
 give us statistics, classification, and some means 
 of identification ; and in the second place it would 
 act as a medium of communication between em- 
 ployers and employed, and would save the time 
 both of workman and master. In support of this 
 contention one or two remarks may be quoted of 
 the late Rev. Wickham Tozer, of Ipswich, who 
 was most successful in the management of a 
 private labour bureau : — 
 
 " One of the most useful iinds of work which a 
 labour bureau can do is to collect statistics. Say that 
 you want to know how many men are out of work 
 in Ipswich, I could tell you how many are in our 
 books. If they are unemployed and have not 
 attempted to make use of our medium of finding em- 
 ployment (which costs them nothing) they deserve no 
 pity. The value of that to the municipal authorities is 
 enormous. The moment there is any stir the authorities 
 come to me and know the exact state of things. On 
 one occasion of unusual distress we induced the cor- 
 poration to find work, and found reliable men for the 
 corporation by whom the work was done. / consider 
 the question of unemployment to he of national import- 
 ance, and altogether too big for any private person to 
 carry through. It is greatly to be desired that insti- 
 tutions like this should be brought under municipal 
 control. To make a charge would limit their useful- 
 ness. If supported out of the rates the bureau would 
 be paid for by all." 
 
 In connection with the labour bureau it may 
 also be suggested that the sphere of the Labour 
 Gazette could profitably be extended if it 
 
SUGGESTED DIRECT _ REMEDIES. 55 
 
 could act as an intermediary between the various 
 bureaux, supplying the information which each 
 bureau in its own district could utilise, very 
 much as Der Wanderer serves as a medium of 
 communication between the various labour 
 colonies in Germany. 
 
 (3) Relief Stations and Lodging Homes. — One 
 other direct remedy for all classes of the unem- 
 ployed would be the formation of relief stations 
 situated within a day's walk of one another, to 
 facilitate the search for work, and to serve at the 
 same time as labour bureaux for their immediate 
 district. These relief stations are common in 
 Germany. There is a network of over 1,000 
 " verpflegungs-stationen " supported by com- 
 munal funds, in connection with the workmen's 
 lodging-houses. Any unemployed man can get 
 free board and lodging at such stations in 
 exchange for a task of work, and be directed 
 as to where he is likely to get employment, and 
 where the next station is. 
 
 This system was introduced in 1854, ^^^ 
 although the method of conducting the relief 
 stations is not uniform throughout Germany, yet 
 in all cases it does afford food and shelter and some 
 direction and guidance for the genuine unemployed 
 man. In Westphalia the conditions as to relief 
 are strict, and work is always exacted in exchange 
 for food and lodging, the cardinal principle being 
 work in the morning and travel in the afternoon, 
 though in cases of emergency the unemployed 
 
56 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 man is allowed to leave at an earlier period. 
 When long distances have to be travelled to the 
 next station *' light refreshments or an order for 
 a meal at some intermediate place will also be 
 supplied to the itinerant." 
 
 Every itinerant is required to produce his travel- 
 ling pass, and if he has not got one, he must obtain 
 it by the payment of 6d., or by the performance of 
 at least four hours' work. These passes are only 
 issued to men who can establish their identity, and 
 by showing the official receipt for contributions 
 under the insurance laws, certificate of employ- 
 ment, etc., proving that they have recently been 
 engaged in labour. In Bavaria, out of 457 relief 
 stations in 1902, only 102 exacted work in 
 exchange for relief, and only 127 were in connec- 
 tion with a labour registry. 
 
 Of the travellers' homes throughout the country 
 231 are connected with relief stations, and 320 
 of the homes have accommodation for passing 
 travellers who pay, or travellers who give work in 
 exchange for board and lodging, and boarders who 
 pay for a longer period. The usual charge for a 
 bed is 3^d. or 4|i. per night. That these homes 
 do supply a real want is proved by the fact 
 that in 1902, 2,101,281 visited the homes and 
 paid for their board and lodgings, as against 
 834,788 who gave work in exchange for this 
 assistance. 
 
 In Denmark the genuine unemployed man is 
 never compelled to become a pauper. He receives 
 
SUGGESTED DIRECT REMEDIES. 57 
 
 temporary relief from a Free Fund which every 
 parish possesses, and shelter is found for him by 
 the Free Fund officials, whose business it is to help 
 him on his way. Relief from the Free Fund does 
 not carry with it any stigma or disability. In 
 England, provided that we could eliminate the 
 vicious vagrant class, there is no doubt that public 
 opinion would immediately consent to a generous 
 and sympathetic treatment of the unemployed by 
 means of such a Free Fund in connection with 
 relief stations and lodging homes. A reform 
 of this nature would have the effect of prevent- 
 ing many a decent man from losing caste and 
 character. 
 
 We have already institutions in connection with 
 both the Church Army and the Salvation Army, 
 which have done an immense deal in the large 
 towns to supply the want of such lodging homes 
 where work can be obtained. If nothing else be 
 practicable at present, the Government or the 
 municipalities, or both combined, should grant 
 subventions to such institutions and encourage the 
 formation of others where none exist. In Man- 
 chester there is a Central Mission which gives 
 board and lodging in exchange for work to about 
 100 men a day, and allows these men to spend the 
 whole of the morning in the search for work. 
 This workmen's home seems to be self-support- 
 ing, as is also the best of the ^ three town colonies 
 in Germany, namely, Magdeburg. 
 
 'The other two are Berlin and Hamburg. 
 
58 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 (4) Extension of Insurance against Unemployment. 
 — No attempt has ever yet been.made in England, 
 apart from the work of the trades unions, to 
 insure against unemployment, but the achievement 
 of these organisations is worthy of praise. Cer- 
 tain of the unions of skilled men make a definite 
 charge upon their members which is in the nature 
 of insurance against unemployment, so that when 
 the period of depression comes, the union may be 
 in possession of funds that will enable them to tide 
 their members over a bad time. There are over 
 200 unions giving unemployed benefit, these 
 unions being chiefly found in the engineering, 
 iron, ship-building, building, textile, clothing and 
 printing trades. As a rule the payments to the 
 unemployed are graduated on a descending scale, 
 but there is no uniform rule, and there is a growing 
 feeling amongst trades unionists that a high scale 
 of payment established at the outset tends to 
 encourage the malingerer. 
 
 The highest rate of payment with which any 
 society begins is i8s. (London Coachmakers'), the 
 lowest 3s. 6d. (a union in the textile trade). At 
 the present moment nearly 300,000 members are 
 entitled to receive out-of-work benefit, and in igoi 
 the amount so distributed was £325,866. The 
 following table will give an idea of the expenditure 
 on unemployed benefit of the 100 principal unions 
 in each of the years 1892 to 1903. The table shows 
 that in 1903 the expenditure of these unions on 
 unemployed benefit was a considerable increase on 
 
SUGGESTED DIRECT REMEDIES. 
 
 59 
 
 n 
 u 
 
 < 
 
 M 
 H 
 
 n 
 
 O 
 ■J 
 
 s 
 
 2 
 O 
 
 
 a «> 
 
 a, < 
 
 8 ^ 
 
 M H 
 
 H b 
 
 o 
 
 H 
 si 
 
 a 
 z 
 m 
 p. 
 
 U 
 o 
 
 ? 
 O 
 K 
 n 
 
 H 
 
 z 
 
 H 
 S 
 H 
 H 
 
 < 
 
 m 
 
 hi 
 
 ^ c^ o o\ 0\ tn\o ■* m ■* in tsoo 
 *^o ooooooooooo 
 
 
 »o -"i- -* fnoo rn\o mv^vo m m 
 >HS°^*^ «_ tn m Cn ■*!- m\o oo m « 
 
 w in -^i- H vo M moo \D « « o 
 PO-*Ti--^M rn« M M rOTj-in 
 
 
 in u^ tN.00 moo vo m ri- « in m 
 . -vo M Th -^ m o a» pooo vo m oo 
 
 c^ocT cS is\£r«r tC -# in uS oied" 
 
 Wood- 
 working 
 and Fur- 
 nishing. 
 
 -<i- o 00 00 ■^vo tn o »n N -d- ;n 
 
 ^ ^ ^^-*? ? *? "^ ?^^ o 9, 
 
 d\ «" m" cK »nvd"\o" t^ cS fo*©" t^ 
 
 MM M W M 
 
 Printing 
 
 and 
 Allied 
 Trades. 
 
 00 'i-t^ ■* in inoo o o vo -^ i>* 
 
 min>ot^N0Q oi\o mi^« M ^ 
 
 invcT -^ c5" t^ ■<? inod iri«5" rCoo 
 
 H 
 
 r^i>.N inH t^o^t^N o ino 
 
 o^o c^o o^ine^H moooo a\ 
 
 <siq^q;w_ino_fOt^ q^vq^ ii- m lo 
 
 ^o"lorn^nf«Su^tCpn^o^n^Sco 
 
 ii 
 
 in -^vo w o »n w o>oo M t^vo 
 ., O -^M o o o\N t^roN inM 
 ^^\o »n « q\ Tt; o^ M_ ro\q^ t^ m m 
 
 cfro'^ercfMcThri-ri-rHrH' 
 
 to 
 
 3 
 
 rrj O C>. H t^OO 00 Ch O -^ H o 
 
 wONH Tj-mmo fnw mm 
 
 ^^vo M w H tN.\o « o\ o w lo m 
 
 ■<f t^ n" di -^ d" -^^vo o" if »n cT 
 
 M 
 
 
 OH o\inN oowNfoiofn 
 o -^vo ro o vD \o moo t>. c>* o 
 a\ in"0 o^M o\Ooo o\ rn o n 
 
 H«WHMMM HW« 
 
 Mining 
 and 
 
 Quarry- 
 ing. 
 
 00 moo >o vo t^ m r^ o\ c-^vo o 
 
 SiVO -^l-VO O oo 00 t^ « -^c^^oo o 
 
 tC pTvcfocT cf tF fo o" -^ tCoo"od~ 
 
 VOWVO-tJ-eiMH MMM 
 
 1 
 
 ov o -Tt-mo^vo oi t^ moo «^^ n 
 
 W fOO^^Oll-^ ■^t^mM O O 
 
 <sjt^o t^mo « « « rn«oooo 
 M d" fo cf m '«F cT -trvd" tC rn 6" 
 fo^mmw w M « '^j-vo t-.oo 
 
 1 
 
 « fo '«^ tnvo tNOO o^ o m « en 
 
 OtC10vO^O^OlO^O^O O O O 
 OOOOOOOOOOQOOOOO OiClO^OV 
 
 o 
 
 I 
 
 a 
 o 
 
 ■a 
 
6o THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 any previous year. Nearly ^84,000 was expended 
 in addition to that paid out in 1902 for the assistance 
 of unemployed members, the total amount per 
 member being 8s. lof^. 
 
 Certain of the German trades unions also have 
 an unemployed benefit for their members, statistics 
 for which have recently been published in the 
 Reichs-Arbeitsblatt. These figures seem to show 
 that for the year ending March, 1904, with a 
 membership varying from 213,962 to 446,712, 
 £72,881 was paid in unemployed benefit, while 
 something like £20,000 was paid in addition for 
 travelling benefits to enable men and women to 
 seek work in other parts of the country. This 
 seems to show that the trades unions have, at any 
 rate, made an attempt to cope with the problem 
 of helping their own unemployed, and the real 
 difficulty is that these efforts leave untouched the 
 great mass of the unskilled workers. 
 
 Insurance against unemployment is to be found 
 in several forms on the Continent, in Germany, 
 Switzerland and Belgium, In Germany, two 
 towns have made the experiment, Cologne and 
 Leipsic. In the former city an office for insurance 
 against unemployment was established in i8g5. 
 The rules have been amended on several occasions, 
 but the object remains the same, " to provide, 
 with the assistance of the Cologne labour registry, 
 an insurance against unemployment during winter 
 for male workpeople in the Cologne district." A 
 man must be at least eighteen years of age, and 
 
SUGGESTED DIRECT REMEDIES. 6i 
 
 must have lived for at least a year in Cologne. 
 The present rate of premium is 3ji. per week for 
 unskilled, and 4f<?. for skilled men, and in return 
 the insured workman receives, if out of work for 
 not more than eight weeks in all, a daily amount 
 which is 2s. for each of the first twenty days (not 
 Sundays), and then is. on each subsequent day. 
 These payments begin on the third week after the 
 date on which the man has reported himself out 
 of work. He must report himself to the office 
 twice daily, and if work is offered he must take it, 
 providing that the nature of the employment and 
 the rate of pay, so far as practicable, are similar 
 to what he has been getting while in work. If 
 unmarried he may be required to take work away 
 from the city. He cannot, however, be asked to fill 
 a place left vacant in consequence of a trade dispute. 
 On two occasions the executive committee found 
 it necessary to decline to make any further insur- 
 ance contracts owing to the drain upon their funds. 
 In 1903 the number of persons insured was 1,624 
 and 1,501 remain insured ; 1,105 received allow- 
 ances, not more than a quarter of them being 
 unskilled men. Towards the expenses of the 
 office the municipality granted £1,000; the sub- 
 scriptions of persons insured amounted to the 
 same sum ; honorary members contributed £152, 
 and the interest was £269, During that year 
 (1903), the excess of income over expenditure 
 was £217, but this, of course, is entirely due 
 to the large subvention received from the 
 
62 THE UNEMPLOYED, 
 
 municipality. The office at present has a 
 balance of ^5,682. 
 
 The Leipsic experiment was only started in 
 April, 1903, with a guarantee fund of ;£'5,ooo, and 
 up to the present no information is available as 
 to the measure of success which has attended 
 it. 
 
 There are two or three illustrations of insurance 
 against unemployment in Switzerland : — 
 
 (i) Voluntary Municipal Insurance at Berne, 
 established in 1893. — The premium paid is 6s. yd. 
 per month, and the amount of the annual grant 
 made by the municipality towards the deficit on 
 the working of the office was £528 in 1900 — 1901. 
 The insurance fund is worked in close connection 
 with the Berne municipal labour registry, and 
 is under the control of a sub-committee of the 
 committee which manages the registry. 380 out 
 of the 597 persons insured reported themselves as 
 unemployed, or 637 per cent. The financial basis 
 is obviously not very sound. Municipal employees 
 are compelled to insure with the fund. 
 
 (2) Trades Union Unemployed Insurance at Bale. — 
 In 1901 the Bale Labour Federation established an 
 unemployed fund on the following basis — member- 
 ship to be open to all working men living and em- 
 ployed in Bale, whether trades unionists or non- 
 unionists, the funds to be raised [a) by monthly con- 
 tributions from members, (6) annual subscriptions 
 from honorary members, (c) donations and collec- 
 tions, [d) grants from trades unions, (e) grants (if any) 
 
SUGGESTED DIRECT REMEDIES. 63 
 
 voted from the canton ; the amount of unemployed 
 pay to be determined by the committee of the 
 fund, jointly with the unemployed committee. No 
 man becomes a full member until he has paid 
 contributions for six months, and no one can 
 claim unemployed pay until fifteen days after he 
 has reported himself to the fund as unemployed. 
 The number of persons insured with this fund in 
 April, 1903, was 1,174. A subvention of £40 was 
 granted. 
 
 Belgium. — At Ghent there is an unemployed 
 insurance scheme under distinct branches for 
 trades unionists and non-unionists, and the 
 subsidy granted in the case of the trades unionists 
 is proportionate to the unemployed benefit paid 
 by the organisation. In the case of non-unionists 
 it is proportionate to the amount deposited in a 
 special thrift fund. No depositor is allowed to 
 have a greater sum standing to his credit than 
 £2. In 1903 the Ghent Municipal Council voted 
 jf 600 to this scheme, which is now also in operation 
 in three suburbs of Ghent, each suburb making 
 a contribution. The number of trades unions 
 affiliated is 34, with a membership of 14,616. 
 There have been already serious difficulties, owing 
 to great depression in the textile trade, while the 
 non-unionist branch has proved a total failure. 
 In the winter 1902-3 the committee administering 
 the unemployed fund was compelled to make 
 special arrangements owing to a great industrial 
 crisis, but that difficulty has now been tided over, 
 
64 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 and some degree of success has resulted. In 1898, 
 before the scheme was drawn up, the trades 
 unionists were only insured to the amount of 
 £600 a year in their own unions. There has been a 
 very rapid increase. In 1901, in the aggregate, from 
 trades unions and the fund, nearly ^2,000 was 
 devoted to this purpose; in 1902, ;f 2,295, and 
 this figure has been surpassed in 1903. Since 
 the date of the formation of the scheme in 1900 
 there has been a notable increase in the desire to 
 insure. 
 
 The Antwerp unemployed insurance scheme 
 is organised practically on the same lines as the 
 Ghent fund, but is on a smaller scale. The part 
 of the scheme intended to help unorganised work- 
 men, namely, the thrift fund, like the fund at 
 Ghent, has been a complete failure. 
 
 France. — On the 30th of November, 1904, the 
 Chamber of Deputies discussed the claims of the 
 unemployed upon the State on a request from 
 M. Vaillant for a State inquiry into the causes and 
 extent of unemployed, and the means of alleviating 
 the evil. M. Millerand, a former member of the 
 Government, strongly supported the institution of 
 a State fund for the assistance of people out of 
 work through no fault of their own, and finally 
 the Government, after pointing out that a scheme 
 for old age pensions would shortly be introduced, 
 signified the decision to make grants in aid of the 
 funds which the trades unions have already 
 established for the relief of the unemployed, such 
 
SUGGESTED DIRECT REMEDIES. 65 
 
 grants to be proportionate to the efforts of the 
 unions and local organisations. 
 
 It is this principle which it might be advisable 
 to adopt in England, not only byway of assistance 
 to the unions which at present give unemployed 
 benefit, but also with the view of encouraging 
 other unions to take similar action. Nothing is 
 more difficult than to devise relief work which is 
 of any real value to the majority of skilled men 
 who may be out of work, and the suggestions that 
 have been made would in no way interfere with 
 the voluntary self-help work which still remains 
 to be done by the organisations themselves. If 
 the subsidies were made proportionate in some 
 way to the contributions of the trades unions, it 
 would certainly have the effect of stimulating fresh 
 interest in this form of insurance. 
 
66 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 CHAPTER V, 
 
 UNEMPLOYED: THOSE WHO ARE UN- 
 EMPLOYED OWING TO DISLOCA- 
 TION IN TRADE, THE DEATH OF A 
 TRADE, OR CHANGES IN METHODS 
 OF INDUSTRY. 
 
 This large class of surplus labour consists of 
 mechanics of a somewhat poor type, usually men 
 who have passed the prime of life, agricultural 
 labourers who left the country and have earned 
 only a precarious livelihood in the town, men 
 who have fallen out owing to the closing of 
 a factory, or have been put off owing to the intro- 
 duction of fresh machinery, and the thousands of 
 unskilled and casual labourers to be found in 
 London, and indeed in all our large industrial 
 towns. Every fresh invention of labour-saving 
 machinery means that some men must be put off. 
 It may be many months before they will be 
 employed again, and quite possibly they will never 
 get permanent employment in that same trade. 
 The labour-saving machinery introduced into the 
 docks, the reorganisation on American lines of 
 the English railroads, the mechanical stokers in 
 gasworks, are illustrations of the change that is 
 taking place every day in our industrial methods. 
 
DISLOCATION OF TRADE. 67 
 
 For these men it is clear that the creation of 
 fresh industries, the revival of agriculture, or the 
 reduction of hours of labour, or, finally, emigration, 
 are the only remedies which can be suggested. 
 
 The remedies may be grouped as follows : — 
 
 (a) County council farm colonies, together with 
 a system of co-operative small holdings. 
 
 (b) Agricultural training schools and farm 
 colonies for town-bred men. 
 
 (c) Afforestment. 
 
 {d) Reduction of hours of labour. 
 
 («) Emigration. 
 
 (a) County Council Farm Colonies, together with 
 a System of Co-operative Small Holdings. — There 
 will always be amongst the unemployed a certain 
 proportion of men who have once been agricultural 
 labourers. These men will usually be found 
 amongst the ranks of the unskilled. It is im- 
 possible to say how many men there are in our 
 large towns who have had some experience of the 
 land, and are still " racy of the soil," but a large 
 number are to be found in the neighbourhood of 
 the docks — men who have been forced for one 
 reason or another to leave the country, or have 
 been tempted by the relatively large wages 
 paid to the town labourer. Many men also on 
 the outskirts of the large towns have had some 
 experience of working allotments, and for this 
 class of men, if willing to return to the land, one 
 would suggest a system of co-operative small 
 holdings. The Board of Agriculture or a newly 
 
68 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 created department should assist the county 
 councils to buy land that is going out of cultiva- 
 tion, and let it out at a cheap rate with security 
 of tenure to those who wish to be repatriated. A 
 county council colony might be established as a 
 centre to which men would go in the first instance. 
 After a period of probation, during which they 
 could be thoroughly tested, a small holding of say 
 ten or twelve acres might be given to each man, and 
 sufficient money advanced to him to allow of the 
 purchase of the necessary stock and plant. Only 
 the best could be assisted in this way, but that 
 there are such men in the towns is beyond doubt, 
 and there is no reason why they should not be 
 encouraged to return to the country. A select 
 number of unmarried men should first be chosen, 
 and all the conditions of success should be observed. 
 Skilled agriculturalists accustomed to small farm 
 work should be employed to give advice and in- 
 struction, and the probability is that in a com- 
 paratively short space of time these settlers will 
 become entirely self-supporting. The Government 
 has a magnificent opportunity in connection with 
 the Congested Districts Board of Ireland, and 
 recently the Scottish Office has taken a step which 
 seems likely to be a far-reaching one in buying the 
 estates of Glendale and Kilmuir in Skye for £95,000. 
 The area of these two estates is nearly 70,000 
 acres, and at least half of these estates is occupied 
 by 600 crofter tenants. These West Highlanders 
 are fine, strong men, who ought to be kept on the 
 
DISLOCATION OF TRADE. 69 
 
 land at any cost. For want of proper training 
 and teaching they are not good farmers, but a part 
 of the business of the Government should be to 
 arrange for instruction in more modern ideas and 
 more scientific methods of agriculture, and if this 
 were done there can be no doubt that such men 
 could then obtain a decent livelihood out of the 
 soil. To increase the number of capable and 
 inteUigent small-holders is the task of the Con- 
 gested Districts Board. The Government should 
 keep the land in its own hands, and these tenancies 
 should be terminable only in those cases where 
 inefficiency on the part of the tenant, or the general 
 interest of the community, may make such a course 
 expedient. In each case the termination of the 
 tenancy would be followed by ample compensation 
 for improvements. It is impossible to say what 
 amount of such land would be actually required, 
 but certainly not less than twenty acres should be 
 the size of the holding if the tenants are to become 
 absolutely self-supporting. 
 
 Mr. Alderman Winfrey and those co-operating 
 with him have shown by their experiments in 
 Lincolnshire and in Norfolk that the agricultural 
 labourer is only too glad to obtain allotments and 
 small holdings, and that if the conditions of success 
 are observed the men will respond and get the best 
 out of the land. Acting in conjunction with the 
 county council, he has been successful in obtaining 
 allotments for nearly 2,000 men, and very satis- 
 factory progress has been made. In addition to 
 
70 THE UNEMPLOYEOr 
 
 this the Small Holdings Committee of the county 
 council of Lincolnshire have now let to men, in 
 plots of from one acre to ten, over 630 acres of 
 land. The rent has been paid regularly, the 
 tenants have benefited to a very considerable 
 degree, the movement from the land to the town 
 has been stopped in that district of Spalding, and, 
 in the words of Mr. Winfrey, " I do not think you 
 want the relieving officer very often now in Spalding 
 Common. He drives through every week, but he 
 does not stop." Some of the evidence given before 
 the Select Committee on Small Holdings which sat 
 in 1889-90 showed how profitable an industry 
 farming on a small scale, and under what is called 
 " spade cultivation," may be made. One witness 
 from South Lincolnshire submitted a very care- 
 fully prepared balance sheet giving his returns for 
 seven acres over a series of years. In his worst 
 year — a year of bad harvests throughout the 
 country — he made a profit of £>] after reckoning 
 all expenses, including his own wages at the rate 
 paid in his district, and in one prosperous year 
 his profits amounted to over ,^50. It is the same 
 with the Norfolk Small Homes Association, which 
 now has 339 acres let to tenants for these small 
 farms, and there is no difficulty in obtaining 4 per 
 cent, on the outlay, nor has there been any difficulty 
 up to the present in obtaining a market for any 
 surplus produce of these farms. Mr. Rider Haggard, 
 in an article on " The Small Farmer in England," 
 says : — 
 
DISLOCATION OF TRADE. 71 
 
 "In the neighbourhood of the town of Epworth, 
 where the famous Wesley was bom, and where may 
 be seen the parsonage whence he was rescued from 
 the fire as a boy, there are hundreds of acres of small 
 holdings. ... In summer they present a beautiful 
 picture, covered as they are with crops of various 
 hues. . . . None of these small-holders seem to be afraid 
 of the winter, when the ordinary labourer is sometimes 
 thrown out of work, or of having to come upon the 
 parish for relief. Indeed, many of them prosper well, 
 even in these days of narrow agricultural profits. Thus, 
 near Epworth alone, I was told of twenty-three men 
 now farming from five to a hundred and twenty acres, 
 each of whom had begun life as a labourer." 
 
 These are only a few illustrations of what has 
 been done, but if we care to go further afield — for 
 example, to Denmark — we find that by her wise 
 statesmanship with regard to the land, Denmark 
 has not only materially checked the exodus to the 
 cities, but during the last fifty years has to some 
 extent produced a reverse current of population 
 from the town into the country. The co-operative 
 movement is largely responsible for this wonderful 
 result. The Danish farmers and dairy owners 
 have formed numerous co-operative societies for 
 the collection, sale and export of their produce. 
 The peasants have 400 co-operative banks, nearly 
 all of them under their own management, and 
 throughout the length and breadth of the country 
 co-operative steam dairies, factories, bakeries and 
 mills have been set up. About five-sixths of 
 Danish land is possessed by small freeholders and 
 peasants who are State tenants. Finally, Denmark 
 
72 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 has within a few years reclaimed some a,ooo 
 square miles of waste land, which had been 
 regarded as almost valueless. What has been done 
 in Denmark could probably be done in England. 
 
 (6) Agricultural Training Schools and Farm 
 Colonies for Town-bred Men. — It is generally sup- 
 posed that it is quite impossible to induce a town- 
 bred man to remain on the land. The excitement 
 of town life has uniitted him in the opinion of most 
 men for any continuous work in the country, and 
 the almost universal experience is that these men 
 return once more to the town after a brief sojourn 
 in a farm colony. This is due chiefly to two 
 causes. The first is that the men have not been 
 carefully enough selected in the first place, and 
 that many of them are on the borderland of un- 
 employable. We cannot, for example, expect the 
 most satisfactory results from the type of man 
 who frequents the Salvation Army shelter and is 
 taken from that shelter to Hadleigh colony, 
 neither can we hope that the majority of those 
 who enter a casual ward will prove to be fit for 
 repatriation. The first essential for success is a 
 careful selection of men of the right type. 
 
 President Roosevelt in his recent message to 
 
 Congresj said : — 
 
 " Give every man who wants it a chance to get a 
 home on the land. ... We must seek to check the 
 trend of population to the cities and turn it back to 
 the land, and thus safeguard the nation against one of 
 * the greatest dangers that now confronts us in the main- 
 tenance of our social and political institutions." 
 
DISLOCATION OF TRADE. 73 
 
 In pursuance of this object, Commander Booth 
 Tucker has brought a Bill before Congress asking 
 for the creation of a colonisation bureau which 
 will assist intending settlers ; and meanwhile two 
 colonies have already been established in America 
 by the Salvation Army on lands granted by State 
 Governments. The Army has spent £20,000 in 
 establishing men, women and children in these 
 colonies. The colonists were carefully selected, 
 and are all self-supporting on farms which average 
 about twenty acres each. 
 
 An illustration of how the town-bred man can 
 be turned into an agricultural labourer is to be 
 seen in the Dutch colonies not subject to State 
 control, consisting of over 10,000 acres of heath 
 and sand now under cultivation. The Frederik- 
 soord colony, the best known, is situated near 
 Steenwyk, north-east of the Zuyder Zee, and is 
 one of three colonies, the other two being Willem- 
 soord and Wilhelminasoord, with a population of 
 nearly 3,000, all of which are conducted on the 
 principle of helping the deserving unemployed with 
 their wives and families. They are under the 
 auspices of the Society of Beneficence, which was 
 founded in 1818 by General Van Den Bosch, with 
 the excellent motto of " Help the people and 
 improve the land." 
 
 The colonists are admitted on the recommenda- 
 tion of charitable associations working in the big 
 cities of Holland. They are nearly all unskilled 
 labourers from large towns like Amsterdam, 
 
74 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 Rotterdam and The Hague, very few of them being 
 skilled men, and very few entering the colony 
 before the age of forty. On arrival, each labourer's 
 family is housed in a separate cottage with a 
 garden, and the members of the family who are 
 capable of working are given some light employ- 
 ment. The man himself is set to work on one 
 of the five large farms, in the central dairying 
 establishment, or in the basket-making or mat- 
 making workshops. The children who are too 
 young to work are sent to the public schools, 
 which are built and maintained by the Govern- 
 ment. After the labourer has been in the colony 
 a certain number of years, he may be promoted 
 to the class of " free farmer," that is, providing 
 there is a vacancy. At present there are over 150 
 free farms of 6i to 7^ acres, all in good condition. 
 The necessary capital is advanced by the colony, 
 and in many cases the free farmer has more than 
 doubled the value of his stock and plant. The 
 Dutch system has this to recommend it, that it 
 provides a permanent home not only for the 
 colonist, but also for his family ; that it affords a 
 test by a long period of probation of the character 
 and fibre of the man, and so enables those in 
 charge to apportion free farms with the least 
 possible risk of loss. 
 
 As against the old contention that "free farms" 
 do not pay and that the loans to the farmers are 
 increasing and practically irrecoverable, it ought 
 to be stated that for many years past the colony 
 
DISLOCATION OF TRADE. 75 
 
 has had absolute security in lien upon the stock of 
 the borrowers. No interest is charged for these 
 loans, but the outstanding amount has been 
 steadily decreasing, having fallen from ;f2,684 
 in 1892 to ;f 1,691 in 1902, Advances to free 
 farmers to the amount of only £47 5s. were made 
 in the latter year. Meanwhile the children are 
 well educated and well trained — so well trained 
 that they have not the slightest difficulty in 
 obtaining situations in the town, a fact which 
 tells against the colony, and will account for the 
 large number of old men or men past middle age. 
 The Board of Trade report for 1903 mentions 
 " the tendency shown by the children to return to 
 the Qolony after having left it." This tendency 
 seems to have altogether died away. What is 
 required is that these agricultural training schools 
 or colonies should be started on better lines and 
 under more favourable conditions in every suitable 
 area to drain off the surplus labourers of good 
 character from the town. The men should be 
 younger and stronger than those sent by the 
 " Society of Beneficence." Finally, the manage- 
 ment of the Dutch colonies leaves much to be 
 desired, and there is a notable lack of enterprise 
 manifested of late years. 
 
 If the German labour colonies, made up of 
 criminals, semi-criminals, inebriates, and a rather 
 poor class of middle-aged unemployed, with only 
 a sprinkling of strong, able-bodied, industrious 
 men, can produce the results to be seen at 
 
76 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 Luhlerheim, near Wesel, under the management 
 of Herr Siemon, it ought not to be difficult, after 
 eliminating every bad element and selecting only 
 the men who are both capable and willing, to 
 make such training schools largely self-supporting. 
 The very best of the men after one or two years 
 of probation might be established on the land 
 with a small holding as previously suggested, 
 while the rest might be drafted on to the larger 
 farms in the immediate vicinity. 
 
 Two or three small experiments have already 
 been made in the direction of" Heimat-kolonisten" 
 (home colonists), and the latest is at Freistatt, 
 near Barrel, the newest colony started by Pastor 
 Von Bodelschwingh. Only one family, however, 
 is at present established. In 1886 an experiment 
 was made at Friedrichwilhelmsdorf, near Wals- 
 dorf, about three miles from Bremerhaven, which 
 was opened with twelve colonists. A report 
 which appeared in Der Wanderer, November and 
 December, 1900, shows that there were at that 
 date thirty-one colonists in the institutions, but 
 seventy-eight had only remained for six months. 
 Four colonists are now permanently settled on 
 farms of their own. In December, 1898, another 
 experiment was made by the executive committee 
 of the town labour colony at Hamburg. The 
 committee acquired an estate of about 900 acres 
 at Schaferhof in Holstein, and a considerable 
 degree of success seems to have been obtained. 
 Speaking at the annual meeting of the Labour 
 
DISLOCATION OF TRADE. 77 
 
 Colony Central Board, November ist, 1903, a 
 
 member of the board said that out of ninety-seven 
 
 home colonists there were forty-seven who had 
 
 returned again to this colony for the second time, 
 
 all of whom had agreed to a two -years contract, 
 
 and he went on to give a piece of most important 
 
 evidence, which it is desirable to quote : — 
 
 "Whereas up till now the colonies have had a 
 constant succession of inmates, who, on account of 
 their want of strength and skill have been hardly able 
 to do as much as one-half or one-quarter of a man's « 
 work, we have in our permanently settled inmates at 
 our home colony at Schaferhof got together a set of 
 workmen who have, so far, done really wonderfully 
 good work. Our home colonists, who now number 100, 
 not only do all the agricultural work on the Schaferhof 
 estate of over 875 acres, but also, even in the first four 
 years, when there were many fewer colonists, they 
 helped us to build a big cow-house to accommodate 
 beasts, a colonists' house with cubicles for sixty men, 
 and a splendid greenhouse, which last, indeed, they 
 built entirely themselves. Besides this they have, in 
 the same period, put ir3 acres of heath and moorland 
 into cultivation, and have macadamised a length of 
 2,040 yards of field roads, which they carried out in 
 an altogether satisfactory manner, and for which they 
 broke up about 400 cubic yards of stone. In the last 
 two years they have planted out and tended 7,854,500 
 saplings for other people, and 83,000 oak, fir, apple 
 and pear tree saplings for the colony. We, the 
 executive committee and officials of Schaferhof, give 
 our home colonists imstinted and unqualified praise 
 for industry, capability and good conduct ; and we 
 desire nothing more ardently than to be placed in 
 such a position as would enable us to employ 500 
 home colonists at Schaferhof instead of lOO as at 
 present, because we know that, in the surroundings 
 of the home colony, not only would these men do a 
 
78 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 fair day's work, but they would receive from us a 
 remuneration for their work, the amount of which 
 would increase as time went on." 
 
 These experiments are sufficient to show that 
 we need not despair of obtaining a like measure of 
 success in England with a similar class of man, 
 
 (c) Afforestment. — It seems strange that England 
 should be one of the few civilised countries that 
 have not yet seen the importance of this great 
 industry. The report of the Departmental Com- 
 mittee on British Forestry (1902) furnishes all the 
 evidence we require of the great opening there is 
 in this direction both for the skilled and unskilled 
 unemployed of our country. Professor Schlich, 
 who served on that committee, and who is 
 perhaps the best known expert on the question, 
 states that the area of waste lands in the United 
 Kingdom is no less than twenty-six million acres, 
 a large amount of it consisting of mountain land 
 which could not be profitably cultivated. If used at 
 all it is employed to feed a few sheep. It is estimated 
 that something like half the waste lands might 
 be profitably afforested, that is to say, notwith- 
 standing the number of years during which the 
 outlay has to be made without return, the result 
 in the end would sufficiently repay a Government 
 which had invested capital in this direction. Dr. 
 Schlich, referring to Saxony, says in the report 
 of the departmental committee : — 
 
 " I have selected one of the ranges which is by no 
 means the best. It is a district called the Athonsthal 
 
DISLOCATION OF TRADE. 79 
 
 Range, an area of 4,072 acres, managed by a highly 
 trained forester, situated in the Erzgebirge, between 
 an elevation of 1,500 and 2,700 feet. The receipts 
 per acre were 48s. 3d., and the expenses los. 3d., the 
 net receipts being 38s. per annum." 
 
 This statement refers to land not worth more 
 than 4J. per acre per annum for agricultural or 
 pastoral purposes. It is only one of many 
 illustrations which Germany affords, and Lord 
 Ampthill's report (1883) on the cultivation of 
 forests in that country is ample evidence of 
 the value attaching to this industry. 
 
 Mr. Andrew Gilchrist, head woodman to Lord 
 Powerscourt, pointed out that the planting of 
 woodlands often increased the rental of a farm 
 in a few years by 25 per cent., and he gives 
 several instances of the profitable ventures in this 
 direction that have been made in Ireland on the 
 Powerscourt estates. Now that the Government 
 has passed the Irish Land Purchase Bill, they 
 would place the Irish under a still greater debt 
 of gratitude were they to afforest some of the 
 thousands of acres in Connemara or Mayo that 
 are admirably suited for such purposes. Ireland 
 was at one time covered with forests which have 
 been recklessly destroyed owing to ignorance on 
 the part of the farmers and the wholesale destruc- 
 tion of woods under Government sanction during 
 the last century. There seems no reason why 
 this forest area should not largely be recovered. 
 Competent authorities estimate that three million 
 acres are capable of growing one kind or another 
 
8o THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 of timber, and when we remember the great 
 variety of industries in connection with the 
 working of wood which would of necessity be set 
 on foot in such areas, the whole question becomes 
 one of serious importance. The estimates for 
 planting and preparing the land vary from ^3 to 
 ^8 an acre. The Congested Districts Board have 
 found the expense to be about £4 loj. per acre, 
 and in the opinion of Forest-conservator Howitz, 
 the eminent Danish expert who was examined 
 before the Eardley-Wilmot Committee in 1886, 
 the undertaking would be profitable commercially. 
 Re-afforestation would undoubtedly develop 
 other industries, improve the climate, protect 
 mountain land from the denudation of soil and 
 by arresting the rainfall gradually transform its 
 character. Portions of the forest begin to give a 
 return after three years. Osiers for basket-work 
 are available in that time. In six years the 
 thinnings of the forest would take place. In 
 twenty-five years the forests would begin to give 
 their full return to the country. Mr. Howitz 
 estimates the probable annual return at from £1 
 per acre upwards, and he estimated that if the 
 forests of Ireland had been properly protected and 
 fostered in former times, they would now repre- 
 sent a value of £100,000,000. To prove that this 
 is not an exaggerated estimate we may cite the 
 case of the Landes district of France, which has 
 added more than £40,000,000 to the wealth of 
 France. This region forty years ago was one of 
 
DISLOCATION OF TRADE. 8i 
 
 the poorest and most miserable in the whole 
 country. It may now be ranked amongst the 
 wealthy and prosperous. 
 
 In Scotland again, five times the amount of 
 uncultivated waste lands might be laid down in 
 forests, and M. Boppe, an Inspector of the French 
 State Forests and Director of the French Forest 
 School, has expressed his surprise that only 734,490 
 acres are planted with timber, and even such lands 
 are unscientifically planted and managed. Almost 
 every European country has given considerable 
 attention to this great industry, and it is esti- 
 mated that over 400,000 men in Germany are 
 engaged in the work of forestry, while a very large 
 number of both men and women are dependent 
 on the subsidiary trades. 
 
 In this connection it is of special interest to 
 note the suggestion recently made by the Lord 
 Mayor of Leeds that some of the men out of work 
 in the city might very well be employed in the 
 planting of trees on the catchment area of the 
 city waterworks. The Yorkshire Post in urging 
 this experiment called the attention of the public 
 to the experiment of Mr. Parry, waterworks 
 engineer, who instanced the Liverpool afibresta- 
 tion at its water-shed at Vyrnwy, where 470 acres 
 have been planted with 162,000 trees in five years. 
 It is pointed out that every municipality might 
 follow in the footsteps of Liverpool, as the 
 planting of trees, apart from the fact that that 
 capital is wisely invested, assists in regulating the 
 
82 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 water supply, and tends to the purification of the 
 water. 
 
 The advantage of afforestment is twofold. 
 Firstly, it would enormously increase the wealth 
 of the country, for our present imports of timber 
 amount to nearly ^^20,000,000, apart altogether 
 from the wood-pulp used for paper making ; and, 
 secondly, it would employ a large number of the 
 unemployed, both skilled and unskilled, such 
 employment being given not only during the 
 summer but also during the winter, when the 
 ordinary agricultural labourer is least busy. 
 
 Mr. Munro Ferguson, in an article in The 
 Independent Review, calculated that this industry 
 would support two million people. This may be 
 an excessive estimate, but it is obvious that this 
 new industry would have the effect of re-populating 
 the waste districts and give a large amount of 
 useful and profitable employment. 
 
 In the report of the Departmental Committee 
 (section 9) we read: " The possibilities of forestry 
 as the means of furnishing remunerative labour to 
 an increased rural population are great." 
 
 It is, of course, obvious that only the Govern- 
 ment could take in hand this work, a fact that was 
 recognised by the committee (section 10), but 
 nothing has yet been done to carry out its recom- 
 mendation, and not even sectionii, which we quote, 
 has received practical application. 
 
 " In order that the country should be enabled to 
 appreciate the extent to which a great rural industry 
 
DISLOCATION OF TRADE. 83 
 
 might be created in the national interest, and to clear 
 the way for any effective treatment of the allied 
 questions of the utilisation of waste land and the in- 
 crease of the woodland areas, we recommend that the 
 Government department charged with the collection 
 of land statistics should take steps to compile a state- 
 ment of areas presumably for afforestation in Great 
 Britain." 
 
 Other conclusions of the committee are : — 
 
 " Section 36. — We recommend : — (a) That two areas 
 for practical demonstration be acquired, the one in 
 England and the other in Scotland, of not less than 
 2,000 acres, if possible, nor over 10,000 acres in each 
 case. We suggest that the Alice Holt Woods in 
 Hampshire be made available as soon as possible, to 
 serve as a demonstration area in England, and that a 
 suitable estate be purchased in Scotland, as conve- 
 nient as possible to Edinburgh, for the same purpose. 
 These recommendations would have to be carried out 
 by arrangement between the Commissioners of Woods 
 and Forests and the Board of Agriculture, and assistance 
 should be looked for from local authorities, societies, 
 and individuals interested in forestry and technical 
 education." 
 
 (d) Reduction of hours of labour — The whole ques- 
 tion of reducing the hours of labour ought not, 
 strictly speaking, to be regarded in connection with 
 the question oi unemployment. This question should 
 primarily be considered in relation to the question 
 of efficiency. The real object of reducing hours 
 is not to employ more men, but to make the 
 men that are employed more efficient and more 
 capable. An eight-hours day in certain trades has 
 been proved to have this effect in a marked degree. 
 The best workers are the men who take some 
 
 G 2 
 
84 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 pleasure in their work, and this is impossible if the 
 number of hours worked is altogether unreasonable. 
 As a rule, a shortening of the hours of labour will 
 increase efficiency, and so increase the power to 
 compete with the foreigner. But it is a difficult 
 question to decide how far under a system of com- 
 petition this reduction in hours could be carried, 
 for if the cost of production is rendered excessive, 
 the sale and output must also be limited, so that a 
 very large reduction of hours in certain trades 
 might end in the defeat of the very object which 
 trades unions have in view. There is, however, 
 one direction in which a reduction of hours might 
 be safely and profitably made, and that is in all 
 forms of locomotion under public control. A con- 
 siderable proportion of the unemployed might be 
 absorbed if carmen, bus and tram men, and indeed 
 all municipal employees worked from eight to ten 
 hours. The London County Council, by shorten- 
 ing the hours of the men employed on the tram- 
 ways under its control, increased their staff by ig 
 per cent., but their profits have increased at the 
 same time. Every municipality that has not al- 
 ready done so, might with advantage follow this 
 example, and for the rest there certainly should be 
 some limit beyond which railway men ought not 
 to be allowed to work. It is to the advantage of 
 the general travelling public as well as that of 
 the men themselves that the working day should 
 not be unreasonably long. Perhaps we may be 
 allowed to quote the passage dealing with this 
 
DISLOCATION OF TRADE. 85 
 
 question in the report on Lack of Employment 
 by the London County Council (1903). 
 
 " Section 18. — If it is a fact that there does not exist 
 sufiicient work in the country to afford employment 
 for the whole population, that circumstance alone 
 appears to warrant a consideration as to whether the 
 reduction of the hours of labour to a reasonable limit, 
 in the interests of industry and labour alike, is not a 
 matter of the highest importance. As an illustration of 
 the effect of reducing to within reasonable limits the 
 hours of labour in one particular branch of work, may 
 be mentioned the action taken by the county council 
 with regard to the employees engaged in connection 
 with the tramways undertaking transferred to its con- 
 trol in 1898. When the tramways were taken over 
 by the council the employees worked on an average 
 eleven and a quarter hours a day, equivalent to sixty- 
 seven and a half hours a week, and moreover there 
 were no compulsory rest days, except in the case of 
 drivers and conductors, who had one day's rest in 
 eleven, but received no pay in respect of that day. 
 The council in iSgg and 1900 introduced a system 
 whereby all classes of the tramway employees worked 
 only six days in seven, and further, the hours of labour 
 were reduced to an average of ten a day, equivalent 
 to sixty hours a week. These changes necessitated an 
 increase in the staff of about 426, representing an in- 
 crease of 19 per cent. Since igoo the undertakings of 
 the two other companies have been acquired by the 
 council. The companies employed 355 men, and to 
 place these on the council's conditions involved the 
 employment of 74 extra men — an increase of 20 per 
 cent. The application of this process of reduction of 
 hours, where practicable, and the absorption into each 
 overworked trade of its own surplus unemployed, is the 
 easiest method of providing work for the unemployed. 
 This process has, to a certain extent, been in operation 
 for the past few years, as will appear from the figures 
 quoted in the Board of Trade's labour statistics, which 
 
86 THE UNEMPLOYED, 
 
 show that from 1894 to 1901, 354,859 workers obtained 
 a reduction of their hours of labour, amounting on an 
 average to about four hours per week each." 
 
 (e) Emigration. — As to the question of emigra- 
 tion, there can be no doubt that for the individual, 
 with proper training and under Government guid- 
 ance, emigration is a remedy for unemployment, 
 but it can scarcely be recommended at the present 
 moment in any other trade besides that of agri- 
 culture, and it seems quite possible that with the 
 same expenditure of money and time a man who 
 had some knowledge of the methods of agriculture 
 and would be capable of working on a Canadian 
 farm, might be established on a small holding in 
 England. It is unfortunately too often the case 
 that the best men are emigrated, and while it is a 
 satisfaction to them, and perhaps to us as indi- 
 viduals, that they should be established firmly 
 and securely in our colonies over the seas, it is 
 undoubtedly a real loss to England that the very 
 best of her sons should be taken out of the country, 
 while the worst, whom the colonies are not willing 
 to receive, should be left upon our hands. If 
 emigration is to be encouraged, it should be on the 
 lines that have been briefly indicated. An arrange- 
 ment should be come to between the British and 
 Colonial Governments whereby a somewhat lower 
 grade of man could be taken to the colony and 
 temporarily employed on State farms, where he 
 could be taught and trained, eventually taking 
 his place as a small farmer in the Western States 
 
TEMPORARY DEPRESSION IN TRADE. 87 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THOSE WHO ARE UNEMPLOYED OWING 
 TO TEMPORARY DEPRESSION IN 
 TRADE, OR TO SEVERE WEATHER 
 DURING THE WINTER MONTHS. 
 
 Amongst the remedies suggested for these large 
 classes of unemployed labour are the following : — 
 
 1. The reclamation of waste lands and special 
 afforestment works. 
 
 2. The improvement of the canal system. 
 
 3. Local relief works by city councils, county 
 councils, and voluntary relief committees. 
 
 4. Re-arrangement of work by local authorities. 
 
 5. Labour colonies and Poor Law farms. 
 
 (i) Reclamation of Waste Lands by the Board oj 
 Trade. — The Board of Trade has power to re- 
 claim foreshores (under the Foreshores Act of 
 1866), and several experiments have already been 
 made. The low-lying tidal lands along the estu- 
 aries of many of our rivers, and frequently the 
 land near the sea coast in counties like Essex, 
 would be a valuable asset to the Government if 
 suitably reclaimed and improved. This reclama- 
 tion work might be partly permanent and partly 
 temporary in accordance with the need, certain 
 portions of it being reserved for winter distress. 
 
88 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 and the rest made the basis of a permanent settle- 
 ment scheme. 
 
 The Wash affords one of the best opportunities 
 for commencing such work, and is really a far less 
 serious undertaking than the reclamation of the 
 Zuyder Zee, which the Dutch Government has 
 undertaken. A scheme was formulated by the 
 celebrated engineer, Rennie, for reclaiming the 
 Wash, which would have added a new county of 
 200,000 acres to England, but although the scheme 
 was commenced and some work done under it, its 
 progress was blocked by the owners of foreshore 
 rights, a difficulty that could partly be removed by 
 the Board of Trade. In 1814, the work done 
 under a practical scheme in the East Fen and 
 Wildmore showed that the — 
 
 Total acreage of improved and drained lands 
 
 accomplished was 60.481 acres 
 
 Improved rental of which (at from 20s. to 
 50s. per acre) was valued by Mr. Bower at 
 the annual value of ;f 110,561 
 
 Less capital expended on reclamation, 
 ;£'58p,705, at 5 per cent., making annual 
 charge per annum of ^29,035 
 
 Leaving net improved annual value of ... ^^81,526 
 
 which, at thirty years' purchase, gives a net 
 increased capital value of £2,4.45,780. The land 
 reclaimed, which was formerly washed by the sea 
 at every tide, is now covered with rich corn-fields 
 and comfortable farmsteads. A similar experi- 
 
TEMPORARY DEPRESSION IN TRADE. 89 
 
 ment was made at Pitfore, on the banks of the 
 Forth, 250 acres of land being reclaimed and the 
 outlay being repaid in less than ten years. To-day 
 this land is some of the most fertile in the country. 
 Another instance can be found on the banks of 
 the Tay, in Perthshire, where 63 acres were 
 reclaimed at the rate of £24. an acre. So rich 
 was the soil that no manure was required for nine 
 years. 
 
 The Dutch Government, it will be remembered, 
 fifty years ago reclaimed the whole of Haarlem 
 Lake, consisting of 43,000 acres. The cost was 
 £19 per acre, and the land sold at this price to 
 purchasers, who were readily found. The Dutch 
 Government is now pumping out the Zuyder Zee 
 at a cost of £18 per acre. It expects to sell the 
 land so reclaimed, 476,000 acres, at £34 per acre, 
 but even if this expectation is not realised, there can 
 be no doubt that the returns will more than cover 
 the capital expended on this daring enterprise. 
 
 The Port of London would be immensely im- 
 proved by foreshore reclamation. The Royal 
 Commission recommended the expenditure of 2J 
 millions sterling on improving the Thames from 
 the Nore to the Albert Dock, chiefly by dredging. 
 Such dredgings, instead of being deposited in the 
 sea or deeper parts of the river, should, in accord- 
 ance with the evidence given before the Lower 
 Thames Navigation Commission (1894-96), be used 
 to reclaim the foreshores (sections 39, 40, 41), thus 
 giving occupation to large numbers of unskilled 
 
go THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 labourers. It has often been pointed out by 
 Mr. Will Crooks that there are large portions of 
 the Thames foreshores in London itself between 
 Woolwich and Hammersmith which would cer- 
 tainly pay for being reclaimed. He has instanced 
 the public garden, a quarter of a mile in length, 
 which Fulham has created out of the Thames 
 foreshore at a cost of ^33,000, a site which would 
 now be worth four or five times that amount. 
 The wish is father to the thought in many cases, 
 and the practicability becomes assured just because 
 it seems so desirable an object ; but no one doubts 
 the importance of improving the Port of London, 
 which might be the finest in the world, nor does 
 anyone question the fact that a large amount of 
 unskilled labour might well be employed in giving 
 increased facilities to shipping, in improving the 
 navigability of the Channel and beautifying the 
 banks of the River Thames. 
 
 While afforestment may be regarded as the per- 
 manent work of a special Government department, 
 it would be quite possible to set aside certain areas 
 which could be suitably planted and worked at 
 such times as a sudden depression in trade largely 
 increased the number of the unemployed. What 
 is wanted is something like the machinery already 
 existing in India to meet the contingency of a 
 famine, so that the moment the distress becomes 
 acute, and excessive unemployment has been 
 demonstrated in any one district, any suitable 
 land within reasonable distance of the town may 
 
TEMPORARY DEPRESSION IN TRADE. 91 
 
 be utilised for this purpose. Such land should be 
 left for emergencies, while the chronically un- 
 employed could be established and set to work on 
 tracts much more remote. 
 
 (2) Improvement of Canals. — There is an immense 
 amount of local work which might be done in the 
 improvement of our inland water-ways. The 
 right course to take would seem to be for the 
 Government to nationalise all the canals of the 
 United Kingdom, of which there are 4,000 miles. 
 If this were done, it would be possible, by granting 
 subsidies to the authorities for improvement pur- 
 poses, to encourage the use of these great public 
 highways, and afford at the same time an outlet 
 for unemployed labour. As compared with the 
 Continent, we are sadly lacking in enterprise, for 
 it is no uncommon thing to find in Holland or 
 Germany that the canals can take boats up to 
 1,000 tons, while in England the great majority 
 of the canals will only accommodate barges from 
 18 to 60 tons. 
 
 Our inland water-ways carry about 30,000,000 
 tons annually in all goods, while the railway 
 carriage of minerals alone is over 300,000,000 tons. 
 But when we remember that 1,200 miles of canal 
 are owned or controlled by railway companies, 
 the explanation is not far to seek. This in itself 
 would be a sufficient argument for Government 
 control, but there is the additional reason that, 
 like forestry, the work of deepening, broadening 
 and improving the canals is, in the opinion of men 
 
93 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 like Lord Brassey, of such magnitude as to be 
 beyond the scope of private enterprise. 
 
 (3) Local Relief Works by the Government, by City 
 Councils and County Councils, and unemployed Com- 
 mittees, including Making and Improvement of 
 Roads. — The main conditions of success are as 
 follows : — 
 
 1. That the work should be really useful in 
 character. 
 
 2. That it should be of such a nature that any 
 willing and industrious man who is accustomed 
 to manual labour can be employed on it. 
 
 3. That such work should not be regarded 
 merely as a test of character, but that every 
 attempt should be made, by means of inquiry and 
 classification, by proper supervision and superin- 
 tendence, to ensure that a fair return is obtained 
 for the wage paid. 
 
 It is by no means easy to satisfy all these con- 
 ditions, for work that is useful and work that any 
 manual labourer can do is not to be readily found 
 in the vicinity of the town. At the same time it 
 may be possible, by beautifying waste land, by 
 planting trees, by cleansing and improving streams, 
 and by the making of allotments and new roads, 
 to provide work that is both useful and productive 
 in character. What is wanted is some form ot 
 public improvement which can be carried out 
 winter by winter, without interfering in any way 
 with regular work and the ordinary conditions 01 
 trade, and experience seems to prove that, apart 
 
TEMPORARY DEPRESSION IN TRADE. 93 
 
 from the directions indicated above, it is not at 
 all easy to find an outlet for the unemployed. 
 
 The Local Government Board, in March, 1886, 
 gave the following illustrations of such work : — 
 
 (a) Spade husbandry on sewage farms. 
 
 {b) Laying out of open spaces, recreation 
 grounds, new cemeteries, or disused burial 
 grounds. 
 
 (c) Cleansing of streets not usually undertaken 
 by local authorities. 
 
 (d) Laying out and paving of new streets, etc. 
 
 (e) Paving of unpaved streets, and making of 
 footpaths in country roads. 
 
 (/) Providing or extending sewage works, and 
 works of water supply. 
 
 The London County Council has also made 
 some valuable recommendations with regard to 
 relief works in the " Report on the Unemployed." 
 The report recommends : — 
 
 " That the London County Council and the 
 metropolitan boroughs should draw up schedules of 
 improvements and other work, which, if immediately 
 undertaken, would be to the public a benefit, and 
 classify the work so as to show what part of it should 
 be borne by the localities, by the localities and the 
 county, by the county council alone, and finally by 
 the Government alone, or in conjunction with all or 
 any one of these municipal authorities." 
 
 But it is not sufficient to classify the work, we 
 must classify the unemployed as well. If all classes 
 of men are indiscriminately given relief work in 
 the town, it is sure to end in bringing discredit 
 
94 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 on such works, and raising an outcry on the 
 part of the ratepayers. To avoid this, the London 
 County Council report makes the following 
 suggestions : — 
 
 " The wages of men employed upon relief works 
 are chiefly relief, being given primarily for the sake of 
 the recipients. Under certain circumstances they may 
 become true earnings. Inquiry, piecework, and short, 
 but daily regular hours are the means taken for 
 preventing the subsidence of labour upon relief 
 works." 
 
 Government Relief Works. — The first and perhaps 
 the most notable illustration of Government relief 
 works was afforded by the attempt to employ the 
 unemployed during the great cotton famine. The 
 work done was chiefly sewage and street improve- 
 ment. It is somewhat ancient history, but a 
 statement in the report on the unemployed is 
 suggestive : — 
 
 " The moral effect of the work was very valuable 
 in its influence on the unemployed population. This 
 experiment in Lancashire ought to inculcate a lesson 
 for future use, viz., that unskilled men may soon be 
 taught the use of tools where practicable means are 
 found to furnish employment." 
 
 Mr. Rawlinson, who was responsible for the 
 organisation of the works under the Public Works 
 Act, reported that many of the men selected them- 
 selves into gangs, and contracted for trenching 
 and sewering, street after street, to the satisfaction 
 of themselves and to the satisfaction of their 
 employers. The entire cost for thirteen towns 
 
TEMPORARY DEPRESSION IN TRADE. 95 
 
 was £545,305, of which £226,886 was paid in 
 wages. 
 
 A similar instance of Government relief works 
 is to be found in New Zealand in connection with 
 the Bureau of Labour, which was originated in 
 iSgi, when the Hon. W. B. Reeves was Minister 
 of Education and Industry. Two hundred agencies 
 or labour bureaux were established, and the 
 utmost pains were taken in filling up the forms 
 to guard against imposture. The Government 
 bureaux rendered help in four ways; first, by 
 employing manual labourers in the various public 
 departments, especially those of lands and public 
 works ; second, by sending men to private employers 
 where work was known to be wanted ; third, by 
 giving passes on the State railways to districts in 
 country places where there was a fair prospect of 
 getting work, although the cost of such free passes 
 was always deducted when Government employ 
 ment was found ; and fourth, by selecting men for 
 special relief works put in hand to meet particular 
 emergencies, controlled sometimes by the Govern- 
 ment, sometimes by municipal authorities, and 
 occasionally by voluntary unemployed committees. 
 In the bad seasons of 1894 and 1895 the Govern- 
 ment subsidised a good many towns where useful 
 works were started. The cost of such public 
 works was thus met, partly by the Government, 
 partly by the municipal authority, and partly 
 by voluntary subscriptions. During the five 
 years i8gi to 1896, the New Zealand Bureau of 
 
96 THE UNEMPLOYED, 
 
 Industriesemployed8,98i menonGovernment relief 
 works, and sent 5,139 men to private employers. 
 The best of the New Zealand work was done by 
 gangs of men working on the co-operative system, 
 and Mr. Reeves is evidently of opinion that careful 
 classification should be enforced, and the best men 
 employed. 
 
 " I am bound to express my conviction that paying 
 time wages to inferior men on relief works or public 
 works never has answered, and is never likely to 
 answer. If the wages are very low, the result is 
 cruelty ; if they are normal, money is wasted. Piece- 
 work at fairly liberal rates is much more likely to 
 survive the sort of public criticism which comes in a 
 storm when one of their periodical fits of economy 
 seizes colonial tax-payers." 
 
 The system is thus described : — 
 
 " The new system is that of constructing roads and 
 railways by what are called co-operative contracts. 
 In these, a small party of men, generally six in 
 number, is allotted a certain section or length of road 
 or line ; one of them is elected a ' ganger ' and 
 trustee for the others, to deal for them with the 
 Government. The Government engineer states a 
 price for the portion of work, and, as this is done 
 by an unprejudiced officer, it is generally accepted 
 without murmur by the men." 
 
 Progress payments are made fortnightly, for 
 the benefit of the men's families, and the whole 
 amount is paid up in cash on the work being 
 passed by the engineer. 
 
 Municipal Relief Works. — The instances of muni- 
 cipal relief works during periods of severe distress 
 
TEMPORARY DEPRESSION IN TRADE. 97 
 
 are too numerous to mention, but they do not all 
 comply by any means with the conditions that 
 have been laid down. The usual method is to 
 open a registry at the town hall and enter the 
 names of all who choose to say that they are 
 unemployed. Some investigation, far from search- 
 ing, is instituted as to the length of time the 
 applicant for work has been a resident in the 
 neighbourhood. The general rule is to insist upon 
 at least a six months' residence. The work given 
 is chiefly road-making and sewering, stone-break- 
 ing and road-sweeping, the improving of parks 
 and open spaces, the digging of ballast and sand, 
 the painting of public buildings, etc. 
 
 Both in France and Germany such municipal 
 relief works have been common. An inquiry 
 published by the French Labonr Department 
 relating to the years 1890-95, and confined to 
 towns with a yearly budget of at least £4,000, 
 states that "in 22 departments no such town had 
 organised any relief works. In 41 towns, distri- 
 buted between 24 departments, the works insti- 
 tuted consisted only in the removal of snow and ice 
 and only aged or infirm men were employed; 114 
 towns, distributed between 54 departments, had 
 organised relief works of different kinds, carried 
 out at various seasons of the year. The amount 
 expended on these relief works in five years by the 
 114 towns in question was 3^196,150," an average 
 of 3^39,230 per year. In 1902 in 60 departments 
 municipal relief works were organised, and 57 
 
 u. H 
 
98 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 have made returns showing an expenditure in all 
 of ;f 66,994. 
 
 During the last two winters over 100 local 
 authorities in England have established works 
 which may be roughly described as relief works, 
 though in some cases it merely means the ex- 
 pediting of works which would have otherwise 
 been taken in hand later in the year. Upon these 
 undertakings many thousands of men have been 
 employed, but it is quite safe to say that the local 
 authority has on the average found it impossible 
 to engage more than one-fourth of those making 
 application. About 30 of these authorities are 
 Boroughs or Urban District Councils in London 
 and the neighbourhood, all of them possessing a 
 population of 50,000 and over. 
 
 Relief works, if they are to be successful, should 
 be necessary and productive, and the men, instead 
 of being taken haphazard, should be carefully 
 selected for their fitness to do this class of work. 
 
 In November, 1904, a special committee of the 
 Charity Organisation Society published a report 
 on relief from distress due to want of employment, 
 most of the evidence being taken from the relief 
 works of last winter. It is an advance on any 
 position that the Charity Organisation Society 
 has yet taken up, and many of their recommenda- 
 tions are of value. On the whole the committee 
 approves of the work of the Mansion House Fund 
 of last year, although even in that case a few 
 ciiticisms are made. The committee disapproves 
 of any attempt on the part of the borough councils 
 
TEMPORARY DEPRESSION IN TRADE. 99 
 
 to provide employment except in so far as they 
 can add to their staff in the usual course of their 
 work. The committee feels the utmost apprehen- 
 sion with regard to the scheme of the President of 
 the Local Government Board because it represents: 
 
 " The acceptance on the part of the State of an 
 obligation to provide employment relief practically 
 to all comers ; and the development of this position 
 must inevitably lead to the creation of a large new 
 organisation, the attractions of which will divert the 
 people more and more from finding the means of 
 maintenance in the better organisation of industry 
 and in the growth of independence. They venture to 
 hope, therefore, that this part of the President's scheme 
 may be reconsidered and modified." 
 
 Again, in section 10 of their general conclusions : — 
 
 " Hence the supply of employment by the public 
 authorities is likely to have the old results, to impede 
 the circulation of labour, to interfere with the develop- 
 ment of any sufficient organisation of industry on 
 lines independent of State aid or State relief, and to 
 make the people less resourceful and vigorous. While 
 it may be desirable to adopt many expedients to meet 
 passing difficulties, it would, it seems to the com- 
 mittee, be little less than a national disaster if in the 
 metropolis methods were adopted as permanent which 
 would by slow degrees lead the people back to a new 
 serfdom such as that which prevailed in the beginning 
 of the last century, a serfdom to be enjoyed no doubt 
 under new alleviations, but none the less fatal to 
 their social morality and their energy." 
 
 Summed up in a word the attitude of the 
 Charity Organisation Society is that public relief 
 works should only be set on foot as a last resort to 
 
 H 2 
 
loo THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 keep the better class working man from living in 
 semi-starvation, and even then in its opinion the 
 tendency is to keep labour in the same grooves. 
 If the distress is merely temporary, " after a short 
 period there will be an improvement in the labour 
 market : if the distress is occasioned by deeper 
 and more permanent causes, public works will act 
 merely as a palliative which may divert attention 
 from the source of the evil and tend to become as 
 chronic as the shortness of work." 
 
 The weakness of this position is very obvious. 
 The Charity Organisation Society takes it for 
 granted that labour is sufficiently mobile to justify 
 its being left to find work for itself in the ordinary 
 channels, whereas experience has shown a great 
 lack of mobility, especially in large towns, due not 
 so much to any sapping of independence by Poor 
 Law administration as to the lack of machinery 
 whereby the unskilled labourer without funds can 
 find his way to some district where work is more 
 plentiful. Very little stress indeed is laid by the 
 Charity Organisation Society in this report on the 
 necessity for this machinery in all parts of the 
 country. For the skilled men there is some 
 guidance through their trades organisations ; for 
 the unskilled there is not that reliable information 
 and that wise counsel which a Government and 
 local authorities alive to the importance of the 
 problem ought to place at their disposal. As to 
 the argument that public works will act merely as 
 a palliative, directing attention from the source of 
 
TEMPORARY DEPRESSION IN TRADE. loi 
 
 the evil, supposing that the distress is occasioned 
 by more permanent causes, the reply is, first, that 
 the Charity Organisation Society's methods of 
 relief are only palliatives, and the members of that 
 society would be the very first to protest against 
 any industrial reorganisation or social reconstruc- 
 tion, which really attacked the roots of the evil ; 
 and second, that the institution of public works, 
 to which both the ratepayer and the taxpayer are 
 required to contribute, is one way, and perhaps the 
 only way, of calling the attention of the Government 
 and the municipalities, through the electorate, to 
 the deeper and more permanent causes of unem- 
 ployment, to which reference has been made. In 
 this connection it might be as well to quote from 
 a letter from Mr. George Lansbury, a member of 
 that committee, at the conclusion of its sittings. 
 Mr. Lansbury writes : — 
 
 " 1 have now had time to consider the report care- 
 fully, and regret that I must ask you to say that I 
 dissent from it, mainly on questions of principle such 
 as the reasons which have led to increased pauperism 
 in places like Poplar and West Ham. What is said I 
 agree with as a statement of reasons which have 
 operated to accentuate the evil, but I do not at all 
 agree that we have created the evil. This lies far 
 deeper in our individual life than any question of 
 Poor Law administration." 
 
 It has already been pointed out a district like 
 West Ham cannot be said to be wholly respon- 
 sible for the enormous mass of congested poverty 
 to be found within its borders. There are several 
 
I02 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 well-known causes for its existence — firstly, the 
 fact that West Ham receives the ebbing tide af 
 the overcrowded and poverty-stricken districts of 
 East London ; and secondly, the flowing tide of 
 agricultural labourers and unskilled workers from 
 the country districts of Essex and the provinces. 
 Many of these men are attracted not by the sup- 
 posed weakness in the administration of the Poor 
 Law guardians, for they know little or nothing 
 whatever about the guardians, but by the fact that 
 casual labour can be found in the docks, and also 
 by the proximity of the large factories along the 
 North Woolwich Road ; many are also tempted 
 by the Beckton Gasworks, the Thames Iron- 
 works, and Woolwich Arsenal, to settle in Canning 
 Town. Wherever unskilled labour is required in 
 large quantities, and especially where casual labour 
 is employed, a rather low type and quality of man 
 will be attracted ; but to say that West Ham is 
 responsible for such a situation is really to make 
 it responsible for the whole industrial system of 
 which West Ham is only a type. We may all 
 agree that municipal relief works are not a sufficient 
 solution of the problem — that they are, in fact, a 
 necessary evil — but when we have accepted that 
 position there is nothing left for it but a resolute 
 demand for some form of Government interference 
 whict shall make a congested and poverty-stricken 
 area like West Ham an impossibility. 
 
 Notwithstanding this criticism, we may heartily 
 approve in the main of the recommendations made 
 
TEMPORARY DEPRESSION IN TRADE. 103 
 
 by the committee with regard to terms of employ- 
 ment, etc., «/ public works are set on foot : — 
 
 "(i) Men should only be admitted to them after 
 inquiry, or on satisfactory recommendation. 
 
 " (2) The wages and the hours should be as nearly 
 as possible according to contract rates. 
 
 " (3) Care should be taken to supply sufficient 
 overlookers, and to group the men according to 
 character and ability. 
 
 " (4) If a meal is wanted, or clothing, it is better that 
 this should be supplied separately from a relief fund. 
 The employment should be given, as far as possible, 
 in accordance with ordinary business contracts, and 
 not as ' charity work,' which tends to be as ill-done 
 as it is ill-paid, and to degrade men instead of 
 improving them. 
 
 " (5) Public and other relief works should be of a 
 local character, planned according to estimates drawn 
 by the local authorities, and conducted under local 
 superintendence. This will be some guarantee against 
 waste and irresponsibility. Such works only should 
 be undertaken as are likely to create the least dis- 
 turbance in the labour market." 
 
 It cannot be too much emphasised that to 
 employ a man who is a well-known loafer of 
 thoroughly bad character upon such work is to 
 court failure, but it is equally a mistake to employ 
 men who are altogether unaccustomed to manual 
 labour, or the physically defective — men with weak 
 lungs or a weak heart. The unemployed, when 
 once selected, should work under good superinten- 
 dence, and be paid at the trade union rate of 
 wage, or, as an alternative, they may possibly be 
 grouped in co-operative gangs as in New Zealand, 
 
I04 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 allowing these same gangs to take contracts for 
 certain portions of the work done. If these relief 
 works can be of such a nature as will tend to 
 improve the public health, or add to the beauty 
 of the town, especially if it be such work as 
 would otherwise not have been undertaken, they 
 would then be very far from an unmixed evil, 
 and in any case, until the Government has 
 recognised its responsibility, there is little else 
 to be done. 
 
 Voluntary Unemployed Committees, such as the 
 Mansion House Committee, are able to do work 
 that the local authority is not in a position to do. 
 The relief works carried out by the Mansion 
 House Committee during the winter of last year 
 (1903-4), afford just that diiferentiation which is 
 required for the type of man the local authority 
 is not sure about. By taking the unemployed away 
 from London, and putting them to work for a 
 fortnight, or in the latter instance for a month at 
 a time at the Hadleigh farm colony and the new 
 colony at Osea Island, it was considered by the 
 promoters of the scheme that they were obviating 
 the risk of being imposed on by men who were 
 loafers or wastrels. This to a very large extent 
 was the case, although at the same time the con- 
 ditions made it almost impossible for the best class 
 of the unemployed to accept the assistance offered. 
 Notwithstanding the large number of trades 
 unionists out of work, only five were actually 
 members of such unions out of 467 men relieved, 
 
TEMPORARY DEPRESSION IN TRADE. 105 
 
 which in itself is a sufficient proof that relief 
 work in colonies is not adapted for the highest 
 type of unemployed. It did, however, fulfil the 
 purpose of assisting a large number of unskilled 
 and unorganised men, and afforded at the same 
 time some valuable experience which will be a 
 guide in the future. The work was given only to 
 men with families, who were resident in certain 
 defined districts. The men were not paid in the 
 shape of money, but the money was given to the 
 wives in London while the men themselves received 
 a small allowance of tobacco. The work consisted 
 chiefly, at Hadleigh, in digging and removing clay, 
 in trenching and ditching, repairing a sea-wall, 
 making a railway embankment and a new road ; 
 at Osea Island, in cleaning out a ditch and 
 repairing, building a sea-wall, in driving piles for 
 a wharf, in making half a mile of roadway, and 
 helping to excavate 382 yards of sewer trench. 
 The men were well fed and provided with clothes, 
 and gradually improved in physique while at work. 
 A few have been emigrated to Canada — sixteen in 
 all. Of the remainder, it is almost impossible to 
 say what permanent effect the work will have upon 
 them. This much, however, is sure, that some of 
 them were tided over a very hard time, and were, 
 no doubt, more easily able to get work on return 
 to London. Fifteen men stayed as long as four- 
 teen weeks, but the average stay was about a 
 month. The total cost, including capital expendi- 
 ture, both at Hadleigh and Osea Island, was 
 
ro6 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 £4)350. A resume of the recommendations of the 
 committee will be found elsewhere (Appendix 
 No. 4). 
 
 (4) Re-arrangementofWork by the Local Authorities. 
 — So far as this is at all possible, it is acomparatively 
 simple matter. There are, however, many public 
 works that cannot be delayed and must be carried 
 out as speedily as possible under the best condi- 
 tions. No surveyor or engineer could otherwise 
 cope with the extraordinary growth of public work 
 in connection with any large municipality. If he 
 were to postpone carrying out such works until the 
 winter, he would, in the first place, run the risk of 
 being stopped altogether by the frosts, and this, in 
 the case of building and important sewage opera- 
 tions, would be fatal. In the second place he 
 might even be intensifying the distress if he failed 
 to give regular work to the ordinary staff during 
 the summer months. Nevertheless, with foresight 
 and organisation it ought to be possible to have in 
 readiness a certain amount of public work which 
 might be given to the carefully-selected unem- 
 ployed. It was pointed out in the London County 
 Council's report that in London there are 3,000 
 public buildings, the internal cleaning and deco- 
 rating of which might easily be postponed until 
 the slack months. It would mean the employment 
 of a large number of men in a more regular 
 fashion, for overtime is common with painters, 
 etc., during the spring and summer. The money 
 thus earned in this regular way would go much 
 
TEMPORARY DEPRESSION IN TRADE. 107 
 
 further. Overtime is very common in Govern- 
 ment factories and dockyards, and this is 
 chiefly due either to the fact that the War Office 
 and Admiralty do not see far enough ahead, or 
 to lack of organisation. 
 
 That such careful organisation is not unknown 
 on the Continent is evidenced by the fact that so 
 long ago as 1894 the Minister of Commerce and 
 the Home Minister on behalf of the Prussian 
 Government addressed to the various districts a 
 circular concerning the organisation of the 
 provisional employment, in which occur the 
 following directions: — 
 
 " We further request you to have the goodness to 
 direct your attention to those measures which are 
 calculated to prevent the occurrence of want of work 
 on a wide scale, or to mitigate its effects when it is 
 unavoidable. Not only the State, but also the pro- 
 vinces, districts, and communes, in their capacity as 
 employers, are bound to do their utmost to counteract 
 the evil in question by paying general and methodical 
 attention to the suitable distribution and regulation 
 of the works to be carried out for their account. In 
 almost every industrial establishment of importance 
 there are tasks which do not absolutely need to be 
 performed at a fixed time ; just so in every State and 
 communal administration there are works for the 
 allotment of which the time may, within certain 
 limits, be freely chosen according to circumstances. 
 If all public administrations, in making their arrange- 
 ments, would take timely care to choose for such works 
 times in which want of employment is to be expected, if 
 especially works in which unemployed people of all kinds, 
 including in particular unskilled labourers, can he made 
 use of, were reserved for such times of threatening want 
 
io8 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 of employment as have almost regularly recurred of late 
 in winter in the larger towns and industrial centres, the 
 real occurrence of widespread want of employment could 
 certainly be prevented in many cases, and serious distress 
 warded off. A mitigation of the distress will often 
 prove possible if, when the need of hands begins to 
 diminish at times when other work is wont to be 
 hard to find, the public industrial establishments do 
 not at once dismiss their hands, but render it possible 
 to keep them all on by shortening the daily hours of 
 work, or by putting in rest shifts, as is usual in the 
 mining industry. 
 
 " As the experience of the last few years has 
 repeatedly shown that even large communes have 
 been wanting in the desirable foresight, and have not 
 set relief works on foot till the want of work had 
 assumed very serious dimensions and distress had 
 already set in, you will have the goodness to draw 
 the attention of the administrations of the districts 
 and communes under your authority to the above- 
 mentioned measures, which are incumbent on you and 
 them as employers of labour. 
 
 " Finally, you will have the goodness to take care 
 that you are informed, as soon as possible, of all 
 occurrences and circumstances which afford ground 
 for inferences as to the probable development of the 
 labour market in your district, especially of approach- 
 ing considerable diminutions and increases of industrial 
 activity, in order that you maybe able, when occasion 
 offers, to direct the attention of the superintendents of 
 public works and administrative undertakings, and of 
 the existing labour bureaux, to the state of things, 
 and, when necessary, to use your official influence in 
 favour of the timely introduction of extraordinary 
 measures." 
 
 (5) Labour Colonies and Poor Law Farms. — It is 
 the general experience of all the colonies both in 
 England and on the Continent that a very large 
 
TEMPORARY DEPRESSION IN TRADE. 109 
 
 number of men regularly resort to them during 
 the winter months, and in many cases the num- 
 bers are doubled during that period. This 
 incursion of colonists is due to two causes. The 
 first is the fact that the vagrant who manages to 
 get along fairly well during the summer without a 
 permanent abode is driven by stress of weather to 
 take the only shelter open to him, although it is 
 accompanied by some labour ; the second, that 
 the unskilled are much more likely to be unem- 
 ployed during the winter. These facts are well 
 known, and seem to point to the conclusion that 
 labour colonies should differentiate between these 
 types of unemployed. 
 
 The principle adopted should be to send the 
 vagrant who is determined to do as little work as 
 possible to the compulsory colony, to take the 
 unskilled labourer who is unable to find work 
 during the winter months and who is perhaps of 
 rather poor quality into a farm colony that is run 
 by a board of guardians, as in the case of the Poplar 
 colony, or by a large municipality, or finally by 
 the new Committee formed under the Unemployed 
 Workmen Act of 1905. Purge the German or Swiss 
 colony of its semi-criminal element, and you would 
 have a satisfactory method of helping a large 
 section of the unskilled unemployed. One colony 
 run upon the German lines is already in existence 
 at Libury Hall, Great Munden, Herts. The scheme 
 is partially one of repatriation, and to some extent 
 it has been successful in this direction. Mr. E. D. 
 
iio THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 Court, a Local Government Board inspector, has 
 given an admirable account of its work. 
 
 " The object apd working of the colony might be 
 stated thus : — ^The mission of the colony being not to 
 give alms nor money, but to help by affording oppor- 
 tunity to work, the freehold of 300 acres of suitable 
 land in Hertfordshire was purchased. About thirty- 
 five acres of this is occupied by buildings, poultry- 
 runs, and duck ponds, willow bed, gravel pit, fruit 
 and vegetable garden, and wood ; thirty acres by 
 meadow, and the remainder is sown or planted with 
 wheat, rye, barley, oats, potatoes, beans, swedes, 
 turnips, artichokes, clover, rape, mustard, vetches, and 
 sainfoin. A basket-weaving shop on a large scale 
 was erected, with a carpenter's shop and smithy, and 
 large well-ventilated stables, cowsheds, and piggeries, 
 also small shops for tailor and shoemaker, a bake- 
 house, laundry (now being greatly enlarged), dairy, 
 kitchen, etc. In all these departments, as well as in 
 cleaning the house, work is found, but the great 
 majority of men are employed out of doors, the 
 stronger men in digging gravel, breaking flints, 
 making roads, and so on ; the weaker in the garden 
 or looking after the poultry. There are sixteen cart- 
 horses, and about the same number of milk cows, and 
 useful experience has been gained by intending emi- 
 grants looking after them. Beds were at first pro- 
 vided for 90 men, 64 of them in one large dormitory, 
 divided into sixteen cubicles. Later, to meet the 
 winter pressure, room for twenty more beds was found 
 by cutting off a part of the basket-weaving depart- 
 ment, and it is proposed shortly to build for 150 more 
 men. From the foundation of the colony to the end 
 of 1903, 1,223 nicn were received, of whom 83 left 
 after a short time, unwilling to work ; 44 were sent 
 away for bad behaviour ; i died ; 44 were sent to 
 hospital ill ; money from home came for 77 ; 105 left 
 of their own accord without prospect of a place, 
 including in all, 354. Of the others 98 were at the 
 
TEMPORARY DEPRESSION IN TRADE, iii 
 
 end of 1903 at the farm ; places had been secured by 
 370, and the journey money back to Germany had 
 been earned by 401. So that 86g, or more than two- 
 thirds of those received, had been distinctly benefited. 
 As to financial position, the colony is not self-sup- 
 porting so far, and probably never will be. The 
 buildings have involved large expenditure, and the 
 expenses are heavy. For ten weeks' work a man 
 receives not only board and lodging, but, if necessary, 
 clothing, and a sovereign is spent on his return journey 
 to Germany, while he is given tokens to the value of 
 i^d. a night during his stay at the colony unless he 
 misbehaves. On the other hand, the average stay is 
 a little under eight weeks, and for the first three 
 weeks, owing to poor condition and so on, not very 
 much work is done. Also there is difficulty in finding 
 a market for some articles." 
 
 Poor Law Farms. — We have only one Poor 
 Law Farm in England, so that our experience is 
 admittedly rather limited, but up to the present 
 the experiment seems to have been a success. 
 The guardians of the Poplar Union for several years 
 had in contemplation the question of providing work 
 for the unemployed on the land as an alternative 
 to stone-breaking in the workhouse. This move- 
 ment originated in a conference of metropolitan 
 boards of guardians in November, 1894. The 
 resolutions were submitted to the Local Govern- 
 ment Board, and the following answer was 
 returned : — 
 
 " If the guardians of any union should determine on 
 a scheme for providing land with a view to its being 
 used so that work thereon may afford a test of the 
 necessities of persons who apply to them on the ground 
 of their being unemployed, and inform the Board 
 
112 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 fully of their proposals and of the details of the 
 arrangements which they contemplate, the Board 
 will give the matter their careful consideration." 
 
 Later on the guardians submitted a proposal 
 for the purchase of a farm of 200 acres, but the 
 Local Government Board refused their sanction 
 on the ground that the land must be purchased as 
 a site for a workhouse, and not as a farm colony. 
 
 After a temporary experiment in connection 
 with the Salvation Army colony at Hadleigh, and 
 a second experiment on land acquired near Shen- 
 field as a site for new schools, the guardians, 
 through Mr. Geo. Lansbury, the moving spirit in 
 this new departure, received an offer from Mr. 
 Joseph Fels of a suitable tract of land for a farm 
 colony. Mr. Fels offered to the Board a farm of 
 100 acres at Dunton, near Laindon in Essex, 
 purchased for the sum of ^2,123, including a house 
 and farm buildings, and an agreement was entered 
 into under which the land and buildings are let by 
 Mr. Fels to the guardians for a term of three 
 years at a peppercorn rent with the option to the 
 guardians of purchasing at the price paid for the 
 same at any time during the period of the tenancy. 
 Some iron buildings were purchased and erected 
 as dormitories and dining-room. These buildings, 
 together with laundry and lavatory blocks, cost 
 £1,278, while repairs to existing buildings, rain- 
 water tanks, etc., cost £481. The buildings were 
 completed in June, 1904, and by the end of August 
 the full complement of 100 men were in residence. 
 
TEMPORARY DEPRESSION IN TRADE. 113 
 
 The men work eight hours a day, after which they 
 are at liberty to leave the premises or occupy their 
 leisure as they think fit. Books and games are 
 provided for their use and amusement. Full 
 liberty is given to the men to attend church or 
 chapel in the district on the Sunday. An allow- 
 ance of i^ ozs. of tobacco is made to each of the 
 colonists per week, and the dietary table is on a 
 liberal scale. The general work of the colonists 
 consists of tilling the land, which is rather heavy 
 in nature, but at present a considerable number 
 are engaged in the construction of a reservoir 
 capable of storing 200,000 gallons of water, the 
 whole of this work being carried out by the 
 colonists with the assistance of one paid bricklayer. 
 Judging from the latest reports, very few of the 
 men have abused their liberty, and very few have 
 proved recalcitrant. 
 
 It is worth while quoting the evidence of a recent 
 visitor to the farm : 
 
 " It was past noon when I approached Sumpner's 
 Farm. Having regard to the general flatness of the 
 county, the farm occupies a fair elevation. The old 
 farm-house nestles cosily behind a copse of tall trees. 
 A few hundred yards nearer the high road on some 
 rising ground are large, roomy buildings of corrugated 
 iron. These are the dormitories, dining-room, lava- 
 tories, and laundry blocks built for the accommoda- 
 tion of the colonists. As I drove up to the farm 
 several dogs rushed out to bark a cordial greeting. 
 Then the air bore to us the sounds of merry laughter. 
 It was honest, healthy, human mirth, and the sound 
 of it broke pleasantly on the ear. A moment later 
 
ri4 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 one discovered its cause. Dinner was just over, and 
 the younger colonists were devoting the remainder of 
 their dinner-hour to a game of football, while the 
 elder ones looked on with critical eyes. Goal-posts 
 were in position, and an Association ball, rather the 
 worse for wear, was being driven from end to end 
 with great energy and good humour, and to the 
 accompaniment of frequent shouts of laughter from 
 players and spectators. Such laughter no man had 
 heard in any workhouse in the land. Yet these men . 
 all came to the farm straight from the workhouse 
 only three months ago, and some of them had spent 
 years in that joyless abode." 
 
 It is perhaps rather early to pronounce definitely 
 on the value of this experiment, but it seems to 
 point to the fact that if the best of the able-bodied 
 inmates of the workhouse could be selected there 
 seems no real reason why they should not be made 
 at least partially self-supporting upon similar farm 
 colonies throughout the country, and eventually 
 fitted to take up the work of agriculture. Mr. Fels 
 is offering farms to about half a dozen boards of 
 guardians, and West Ham has already accepted 
 his offer, while others are at present considering 
 the question. 
 
SEASONAL AND CASUAL LABOUR. 115 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 THOSE WHOSE LABOUR IS SEASONAL 
 AND CASUAL. 
 
 When we come to consider the question of those 
 unemployed whose labour is seasonal or very 
 casual we are confronted with a much more 
 difficult problem. In Germany and Switzerland, 
 as we have pointed out, it is found that at the 
 labour colonies the number of colonists almost 
 invariably doubles during the winter. This is 
 partly due to the vagrant class of colonist, but 
 partly also to the large number of casual labourers 
 who fail to find work during this period. 
 
 The most striking illustration of this seasonal 
 and casual labour is to be found at the docks, 
 especially the London docks, where a large army 
 of men compete against one another for the chance 
 of a few hours' work. There are certain seasons 
 of the year when more men are employed than at 
 others, and the wool and tea cargoes only come in 
 at special times. It is estimated that there are 
 something like 22,000 dockers in East London, 
 and at least 5,000 would be idle on any one day. 
 Such labour as is employed in the docks might 
 doubtless be better organised, and one central 
 authority governing all the docks and taking on 
 
 . 12 
 
ii6 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 all the labourers as far down as Tilbury would no 
 doubt eliminate a good deal of this surplus labour 
 and free it to seek other employment. At the 
 same time it must be remembered that there are 
 always seasons when less riverside labour is 
 required, and the question is what can be done 
 with these unemployed men during the long 
 periods of enforced idleness. 
 
 {a) A llotments and Vacant Lot Cultivation. — The 
 remedy is a simple one, so simple in fact that up 
 to the present it has been ignored. The casual 
 docker requires an allotment which he may 
 cultivate in his leisure hours, situated either near 
 the docks or on land in close proximity, such as 
 can readily be found in Essex. There are well- 
 known instances of this already in existence, and 
 so far as the few allotments in the immediate 
 neighbourhood of the Victoria and Albert and 
 East India Docks are concerned, they may be 
 considered an unqualified success. A docker, 
 working at one of these allotments, whose success 
 had been remarked, said to the writer, " I shall 
 never be afraid of starvation while I have this 
 little piece of land. It isn't much, it is true, but 
 it is just enough to tide me over bad times and 
 gives me work to do on the days when I know 
 there is no likelihood of a ' call on.' " This winter 
 the dock district has once more been the scene of 
 much unemployment, and a vast amount of conse- 
 quent distress. No solution seems to be quite 
 possible without some other form of occupation, 
 
SEASONAL AND CASUAL LABOUR. 117 
 
 combined with an attempt to organise the dock 
 and shipping industries on lines that would render 
 unnecessary so much casual labour. If some 
 casual labour is indispensable, why not establish 
 a colony of dockers within easy reach of the docks, 
 giving each man his own small holding or allot- 
 ment. The colony might be in telegraphic or 
 telephonic communication with the docks so that 
 at an hour's notice as many men as were required 
 might be brought up by train or electric tram. In 
 their leisure time these men would be able to 
 profitably cultivate their small plot of land, grow- 
 ing vegetables for their own consumption. They 
 would thus be saved from the demoralising con- 
 ditions which seem to attend casual dock labour, 
 and at the same time be adding to their scanty 
 earnings. The docks themselves would no longer 
 afford the great attraction that it is at present to 
 the idle and ne'er-do-well, and a great improve- 
 ment would be effected in the condition of the 
 East End. 
 
 If a regular colony be an impossibility for such 
 men, it would at least be possible to try the plan 
 suggested for London by Sir John McDougall 
 (whose allotments at Mill wall proved so successful) 
 and by Mr. Hendry Wallace, J. P., for Gateshead. 
 The idea is to take waste land in the neighbour- 
 hood of the town and place upon this land day by 
 day men who by the nature of their work are only 
 seasonally or casually employed. Into this land 
 is to be dug the street refuse, which is often wasted 
 
ii8 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 at present, in order that the ground may be 
 improved and made fit for market gardens or 
 allotments. The men might be taken down to 
 the work by special workmen's trains and brought 
 back in the same way at the end of the day. 
 
 It is worth while considering the experiments 
 that have been made in the United States in 
 this connection. Mayor Pingree in Detroit a 
 good many years ago started the idea of handing 
 over the vacant lots in the city to the unemployed 
 to cultivate, and the Vacant Lots Cultivation 
 Association at Philadelphia ^ has taken up the idea, 
 and made it immensely successful. About eight 
 years ago, during a period of industrial depression, 
 Mr. Joseph Fels,with a few others, formed an associ- 
 ation in Philadelphia which had for its object the 
 using of the vacant land in and round the city for 
 the assistance of the unemployed. The method 
 of procedure was to approach the owners of the 
 land and ask them if they would permit such land 
 to be cultivated, an undertaking being given that 
 it would be handed over whenever required. The 
 result was that, starting with 14 acres, they now 
 have about 300 acres let out in small plots to the 
 unemployed, whom the association supplies with 
 seeds and the means for ploughing, harrowing, 
 and manuring, the cultivators taking the proceeds 
 in the shape of food, vegetables, and garden 
 produce. The association spends in this way 
 less than £1,000 a year, and is enabled by this 
 • Appendix No. 6. 
 
SEASONAL AND CASUAL LABOUR, iiq 
 
 means not only to employ, but practically to 
 support, for long periods of time a considerable 
 number of men with their wives and families. 
 At the present moment 796 men with relatives 
 and families dependent upon them are being 
 assisted by the association. There is, of course, 
 very little vacant land within the borders of 
 London that could be cultivated, but there is still 
 a large amount of land on the outskirts, in the 
 extra-metropolitan districts, which could easily 
 be obtained, and the attempt to start such an 
 association might at least be made in connection 
 with other towns. 
 
 (6) Home Industries. — The other suggestion that 
 seems of value is along the lines of the report 
 of the Recess Committee (1896), with regard to 
 the establishment of a department of Agriculture 
 and Industries for Ireland. What is needed for 
 those men who are not able to get full and 
 continued employment, whose labour is seasonal or 
 of necessity casual, is some other industry, and the 
 report referred to quotes many instances of home 
 industries which were suggested as a solution for 
 some or the Irish difficulties. Many of these illus- 
 trations are taken from the Continent. The report 
 states that there are forty-three diiferent cate- 
 gories of cottage industries, each of them covering 
 at least a dozen trades, flourishing in the provinces 
 of Moscow alone. These industries are carried 
 on by Russian peasants more or less in connec- 
 tion with agriculture, which in Russia is deiinitely 
 
I20 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 a season trade. The annual value of these minor 
 industries of the Russian peasants is about 
 ^5,000,000, that of their hand-loom weaving being 
 about half the amount per annum. There are 
 other flourishing cottage industries to be found in 
 Germany, in the provinces of Bavaria, of Bohemia, 
 of Wurtemburg; also in Switzerland and the 
 Austrian Tyrol. The little kingdom of Wurtem- 
 burg is a striking illustration of what can be done 
 by the establishment of home industries. Forty 
 years ago it was "purely agricultural and 
 impoverished by over-population." Its condition 
 was described as deplorable. Dr. Von Steinbeis, 
 President of the Board of Trade in Wurtemburg, 
 struck with the poverty of the country and with 
 the possibility of handicrafts which he had seen 
 at the London Exhibition in 1851, resolved to try 
 if these handicrafts could not be taught in his own 
 province. He investigated throughout the length 
 and breadth of Europe, and then founded a Board 
 of Industries, to which was entrusted the task of 
 introducing and developing crafts and industries. 
 These industries are carried on by an agricultural 
 population in their leisure time, and England now 
 buys from Wurtemburg blankets, carpets, flannels, 
 hosiery, linens, drugs, chemicals, paper, wood- 
 carving, toys, furniture, hats, and a large number 
 of other manufactured goods. As a result, the 
 directorof the Royal Bank at Stuttgart reported : — 
 "There is not a pauper in the kingdom of 
 Wurtemburg." Such results may be obtained 
 
SEASONAL AND CASUAL LABOUR. 121 
 
 without any excessive interference with the 
 ordinary course of trade and industry. 
 
 In Switzerland the peasants, owing to the winter 
 seasons, are compelled to find other employment 
 during those months, and they have developed 
 many important home industries, such as wood- 
 carving, which gives a return of more than 
 ;f 1,000,000 a year, and embroidery work, which 
 yields a still larger profit. In France^ the 
 numerous small industries of the villages are a 
 specially striking feature, due largely to the fact 
 that the labour of the peasant is only seasonal, 
 and that his small holding is not sufficient to keep 
 him in occupation the whole of the year, even 
 if labour were possible during the winter. If 
 assistance could be given to the seasonally and 
 casually unemployed very much in the same way 
 that the Congested Districts Board in Ireland 
 helps or might help the Irish peasant, a great deal 
 of the worst of the evil might be overcome, though 
 even then we ought not to lose sight of the fact 
 that seasonal and casual labour, however beneficial 
 to individual employers, is detrimental to the best 
 interests of the community as a whole, and for 
 that reason should by foresight and organisation 
 be reduced to a minimum. 
 
 ' Contemporary Review, September, 1904. "The Small 
 Industries of France," by Erik Givskov. 
 
123 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 CHAPTER Vni. 
 
 TYPES OF LABOUR COLONIES. 
 
 The idea of labour colonies has come into great 
 prominence in England during the last two or 
 three years. Hadleigh and Lingfield have both 
 been in existence for at least a decade, and 
 thoughtful philanthropists have long regarded 
 them as a hopeful method of dealing with a certain 
 type of the unemployed — the men who are below 
 par in physique and will-power, the men who 
 have sapped their strength by drinking habits and 
 viciousness. 
 
 The forming of the Central Unemployed Com- 
 mittee for London, together with the subsequent 
 passing of the Unemployed Workmen Act of 1905, 
 have given a great impetus to the whole movement, 
 which was looked at askance when the writer 
 advocated before the " Distress from Want of 
 Employment Committee" ten years ago the 
 value of such methods for dealing with a large 
 class of the unemployed. 
 
 Now that the Central Unemployed Committee 
 under the new Act has taken over Hollesley Bay 
 from the original committee, it is more than pro- 
 bable that this farm colony, which is at present 
 only loaned by Mr. Joseph Fels, will be bought 
 outright. Even so, since the new Act does not 
 allow for the maintenance of the colony, but only 
 for the acquisition of the land (Clause i, 6, A. 3), 
 it is likely that the development of this work will 
 
TYPES OF LABOUR COLONIES. 123 
 
 be slower than would otherwise have been the case. 
 However, partly by subscriptions from the Boards 
 of Guardians and partly by voluntary subscriptions, 
 it ought to be possible to make experimental use 
 of the colony until the amendment of the law 
 allows governmental or rate aid. When the Act 
 is so amended, a clause should be inserted which 
 allows of an Exchequer subvention in the form of 
 a capitation grant according to the average number 
 of unemployed under training as colonists, some- 
 what on the lines of the Necessitous School Boards 
 Act of 1897, or in some other way as may be found 
 expedient. 
 
 Of one thing there can be no doubt, and that 
 is, that the colony must discriminate between the 
 class of man sent at the present moment by the 
 Poor Law authorities to Hadleigh and Lingfield, 
 and that large section of the unemployed which is 
 genuinely desirous of employment and has not yet 
 been demoralised and degraded by the vain search 
 for work. The Poor Law authorities and the 
 municipalities are face to face with quite different 
 problems, which ought never to be confused, even 
 in thought. 
 
 The great mistake that the German colonies 
 have made is in their lack of classification, for 
 within the same colony it is possible to find the 
 hardened criminal, the first offender, the weak- 
 willed inebriate, the physically deficient, and the 
 honest unemployed man who is on the tramp 
 looking for work. The result frequently is that 
 the lower type benefits at the expense of the 
 
124 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 higher, and this will account for the fact that 
 working men find it very difficult to get employ- 
 ment direct from the colony. In Germany not 
 one type alone, but a series of colonies graded 
 to suit the needs of the various classes of un- 
 employed, is required. This will probably be 
 carried out if the " Heimat-kolonisten" experiment 
 proves successful. It may be contended, of course, 
 that the central committee is not limited to one 
 colony, and this, no doubt, is true. None the 
 less, an attempt should be made at the very outset 
 to avoid the mistakes into which other nations 
 have fallen. 
 
 The Poor Law authorities alone ought to have 
 two colonies, one for the weak-willed inebriate, 
 the physically and mentally defective, the other 
 for the able-bodied inmates of the workhouse who 
 are morally defective, e.g., the vagabond. It 
 would be as well, therefore, whatever is the 
 result of the Act, that the London Poor Law 
 districts should be grouped as proposed by 
 Mr. George Lansbury, of the Poplar Board of 
 Guardians, under the 40th section of the Divided 
 Parishes Act, 1876. This would give a central 
 body composed of the various Poor Law autho- 
 rities power to purchase five or six thousand acres 
 of land, which could be divided into the two 
 colonies already mentioned. 
 
 The cost of maintaining such colonies would 
 certainly be no more than the present system, and 
 the gain would be infinite in a variety of directions. 
 
TYPES OF LABOUR COLONIES. 125 
 
 The German colonies, notwithstanding the fact 
 that they have to take all sorts and conditions of 
 men, cost little more than 5s. per head per week, 
 while the cost at Luhlerheim ' is only about half 
 that amount. 
 
 Another colony might be formed by the borough 
 councils or the London County Council for a 
 still better class of man who ran the risk of being 
 pauperised by long spells of inaction due to 
 depression in trade or a severe winter, and in 
 such a colony it would be possible to take a few 
 mechanics, for in every large colony it has been 
 found that such men are needed, in the first 
 instance at any rate, while much of the building 
 required is being carried out. Thus it would be 
 possible to find use for a number of bricklayers, 
 carpenters, and blacksmiths. This colony would 
 be considered to some extent as a testing ground, 
 and as the men would many of them be quite 
 ignorant of country life, only the simplest form 
 of work would be given to them — no elaborate 
 machinery, few horses, and no valuable cattle. 
 If they eventually took to the work and desired 
 to stay, they might be passed on to a higher 
 grade colony. 
 
 This class of colony, started by the big muni- 
 cipalities or county councils and subsidised by 
 the Government, would have for its special 
 object the establishing of the unemployed upon 
 the land, and the men selected in the first instance 
 
 * For an account of Luhlerheim, see Appendix No. 7, 
 
126 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 would be those who had some knowledge of agri- 
 culture and a desire to return once more to the 
 country. The remainder, who had little or no 
 knowledge, but who nevertheless were anxious to 
 acquire it, should be set to work under skilled and 
 trained supervision, and for them the colony 
 should be a kind of agricultural school with 
 Government support, as in Holland, Germany, 
 Hungary, etc., to which also the sons of neigh- 
 bouring labourers might be sent for instruction. 
 In connection with it would be the small hold- 
 ings already alluded to, taken up by the colonists 
 so soon as, in the judgment of the director, they 
 were fit and ready to be so assisted. Here also there 
 would be room for a number of mechanics and 
 skilled men for the repairing of carts and ploughs, 
 the construction of fresh buildings, etc. An 
 essential feature in this series of graded colonies 
 would be the possibility of passing a man from one 
 to another, so that if he improved and showed 
 himself to be a painstaking and industrious man 
 he might find a ladder at his feet, and eventually 
 win his way to independence on a small holding. 
 There is now very general agreement amongst all 
 who have had to do with such work that graded 
 colonies are a necessity, since it is impossible to deal 
 with any one section of men without sooner or 
 later feeling the need of further classification. 
 
 If any proof of this is required we may instance 
 the Christian Union of Social Service colony at 
 Lingfield, which for a great variety of reasons, 
 
TYPES OF LABOUR COLONIES. 127 
 
 chiefly financial, has had to accept all sorts and 
 conditions of men. The director, the Rev. J. L. 
 Brooks, is a practical farmer who has put his ex- 
 perience at the service of the Lingfield colony. 
 The farm is of 250 acres, and has now been 
 established for nine years, so that a good deal of 
 valuable experience has been gained. It has 
 accommodated for the last five years some fifty or 
 sixty men, and the types of men sent by boards of 
 guardians may be thus described : — 
 
 First. — Youths with physical defects ; others 
 dull-witted or half-witted. These were, for a con- 
 siderable time, the only cases that guardians 
 would send. 
 
 Second. — Men at the other end of life, nearly all 
 over fifty years of age. A few of these would 
 spend the remainder of their days in the work- 
 house ; but, on the land, would be able partly or 
 wholly to maintain themselves for some years. 
 
 Third. — The ne'er-do-well sons of lower middle- 
 class homes, who are exceedingly difficult to 
 direct. 
 
 Fourth. — The drunkards. Of these last the 
 colony has had, among the 500 men who have 
 been through it, 120. 
 
 " From the first day until now," says Mr. Brooks, 
 " we have never had a man who was {a) sober, 
 (6) healthy, (c) skilful, {d) young, {e) industrious." 
 
 He adds a somewhat pathetic appendix : — 
 
 " Guardians do not seem to have realised the 
 opportunities that Lingfield supplies, and so they 
 
128 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 have sent to us very largely, almost entirely, indeed, 
 their hopeless cases. The able-bodied ' in-and-out ' 
 of the workhouse they do not care to send ; I suppose 
 because of the hope that these men will be more 
 economically dealt with as ' in-and-outs ' than by 
 the more continuous expenditure which a farm colony 
 would, for a time, involve." 
 
 There is no reason, however, why Lingfield 
 colony should not be subsidised to do this especial 
 work, for despite the poor material, the results 
 have been very gratifying. Another mistake, how- 
 ever, made by both the Local Government Board 
 and boards of guardians is in demanding conclu- 
 sive reports after three months' trial, and in cer- 
 tain cases withdrawing the men. As Mr. Brooks 
 says : — 
 
 " In the case of a helpless youth, weak, undersized, 
 underfed until brain and body are stunted and starved, 
 a great deal of time and patience, assisted by fresh air 
 and wholesome food, are needed before there is any 
 kind of intelligent response. But under these influ- 
 ences, in certain cases, after as much as one or two 
 years, there is both physical and mental development 
 which, without such influences, would be impossible. 
 Yet the Local Government Board and boards of 
 guardians demand conclusive reports after three 
 months' trial, and, in certain cases, withdraw the 
 men ! " 
 
 He claims to have been successful in rehabili- 
 tating 33 per cent, of the cases put in his hands, and 
 if this can be done, it is certainly an immense gain 
 to the country that there should be such institu- 
 tions capable of treating in a humanitarian spirit 
 the men and lads who in the eyes of the world are 
 
TYPES OF LABOUR COLONIES. 129 
 
 quite hopeless. The cost is heavy, but less heavy 
 than under the Poor Law. It works out at gs. 
 per week, per man, exclusive of clothing, the chief 
 items being food, 4s. lod. per week, lodging and 
 laundry, zs. zd., superintendence, is. 6d., waste and 
 medical care, 6d. In Mr. Brooks' opinion it is 
 quite impossible to make farming pay with such 
 labour, and the chief assets are " the helpless 
 lives made useful, the waste lives reclaimed, the 
 drunkards restored and mischief prevented." 
 
 He insists on the need for classification, and for 
 different types of coloniies. 
 
 " Classification is absolutely necessary. The idle, 
 the slow, the mischievous, set the stroke, and pull 
 down to it those that have more skill, speed, industry, 
 and better nature. Further, it is impossible to deal 
 wisely with the drunkard, and the older men, in com- 
 pany with youths. Besides this, cases differ in taste 
 and capacity ; so that workshops would be best for 
 some, and farm labour the ideal thing for others. 
 There is also the great class of vagrants for whom 
 provision should be made. For some of the first- 
 named, and perhaps all the tramps, legal compulsion 
 seems to be a necessity. Then further, there are the 
 male adult epileptic and the feeble minded ; these it 
 would be a blessing to employ in connection with the 
 land." 
 
 What is true of Lingfield is more or less true of 
 Hadleigh. Owing to financial considerations, the 
 Salvation Army has not been able to do at Had- 
 leigh much of the work for which it is especially 
 fitted. Amongst a rather large body of men below 
 par are a few capable and willing workers who 
 have come down through misfortune. These men 
 
 u. K 
 
I30 THE UNEMPLOYED, 
 
 are invariably emigrated or find work for them- 
 selves in some permanent occupation. The 
 majority drift back again to the town because 
 there is no power of holding them, and because 
 even if there were this power, the Salvation Army 
 could not stand the financial strain of reclaiming 
 them. Those who protest against the custom of 
 the Salvation Army in paying practically no wages 
 for at any rate the first few months fail to recog- 
 nise that many of these men do not earn by their 
 labour even sufficient to pay for their board and 
 lodging. It is altogether unjust to regard them as 
 being exploited in the interests ofa religious body. 
 They are the typically unfit, the physically and 
 mentally weak, men who have given way to drink 
 and are not capable of sustained and continuous 
 exertion. To help such men is the work that the 
 Salvation Army colony is best fitted, but it cannot 
 do so unless it is financially aided from without. 
 Whenever the colony has had some of the better 
 class, it has employed them with profit. This is 
 evidenced by the success of the Easton Lodge 
 experiment, when the Countess of Warwick 
 engaged from the Salvation Army over sixty men to 
 do the work of laying out gardens and landscape 
 gardening under skilled supervision. The total 
 cost does not seem to have been more than it 
 would have been under an ordinary contract, and 
 the rate of pay, (y^d. per hour, is the Trades 
 Union rate for navvies. Both the Countess of 
 Warwick and the Salvation Army seem to have 
 
TYPES OF LABOUR COLONIES. 131 
 
 been absolutely satisfied with this venture, and 
 this would lead us to think that these men were 
 very much the type sent down by the Poplar 
 Board of Guardians to the Laindon colony. Such 
 men should be immediately promoted to another 
 colony of a better type unless work can be found 
 for them, and the Salvation Army should be 
 allowed to deal exclusively with the men who 
 need the reforming and the reclaiming influence 
 which it can bring to bear. 
 
 One illustration amongst many may be stated 
 from the evidence of Colonel Lamb before the 
 Charity Organisation Society Committee, to 
 iustify the position that the Army takes up : — 
 
 " 1 have a man in my mind now who after several 
 weeks' work thought that he was earning a little more 
 than he was getting. He had been a commercial 
 traveller. We had his wife in one of the homes in 
 London. The arrangement was that if he behaved 
 well for six months, and the wife behaved well for six 
 months (they were both drunkards), then they could 
 be together for six months on the colony, and after- 
 wards their friends would probably do a little more 
 for them in the way of emigration, or getting them a 
 situation in this country. The man thought that he was 
 earning something, and so he had piecework, which 
 we are prepared to give, valuing the work absolutely 
 by the standard current in the district. The man 
 earned 3(i. for the day's work. He worked very hard, 
 it is true, but being unskilled he was judging of his own 
 value by the amount of actual sweat that he had put 
 into it. Then when he had the 3d. he came to me and 
 he was rather boisterous. He asked me if that was 
 enough for a Christian man to live on. I said 
 that I did not think it was, but then I took the 
 
 K 2 
 
132 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 opportunity of explaining to him a little more 
 fully the principles that govern the place. I made 
 inquiries, and found that he was behaving all right. 
 He was a bit suspicious of us. I gave him an order 
 to what we call our ' Home Office,' dealing with all 
 home affairs, to make up the minimum to him, and 
 I encouraged him in other ways. He gradually 
 improved his position, until last winter he earned as 
 an ordinary employee on the place, at rates that would 
 be paid in the neighbourhood, wages averaging from 
 13s. to 30S., according to the weather and the work, 
 and he has maintained himself for the last six months." 
 
 The German colonies are on the whole 
 extremely well managed, and the moral influence 
 of the directors and house-fathers is such that 
 the likelihood of reformation is much greater than 
 in the Belgian institutions. No one can doubt 
 that the very best is being made of the poor 
 material at their disposal by the directors of these 
 colonies, and the one criticism which holds after 
 careful examination is that they have been re- 
 quired to perform an impossible task. If they 
 were established to put an end to the wanderings 
 of the idle and more or less criminal vagrant, then 
 it is unfair to compel a single genuine man to 
 enter. If on the other hand the main idea was to 
 help the unemployed who of necessity must move 
 from town to town looking for work, then the 
 issue has been hopelessly confused by the ad- 
 mission of tramp and criminal. The " Heimat- 
 kolonisten " experiments seem to point to the fact 
 that the Germans have felt the need for more 
 classification, and it is to be hoped that after the 
 
TYPES OF LABOUR COLONIES. 133 
 
 success of Schaferhof there will be a great develop- 
 ment in this direction. 
 
 In order that we may be able to see what are 
 the possibilities and the defects of existing colonies, 
 it would be well to group them in four types. At 
 the same time it must be remembered that this 
 grouping is somewhat arbitrary and that many of 
 the colonies overlap. When they were established, 
 it was not definitely and clearly understood 
 exactly which classes of unemployed or un- 
 employable it was proposed to serve, and the 
 result is that the only radical distinction which 
 exists is that between the penal and the free 
 colonies. 
 
 What is required is that the State and the local 
 authority should attempt what every employer 
 does for himself every day, distinguish between 
 men of good and bad character. The workhouse 
 or the labour colony in the town would be the 
 first rough test. Men whom it is impossible to 
 assist in the town would then be sent as classified 
 to one of four or five types of colony, it being 
 clearly understood that the reward of industry and 
 ability would be promotion from one grade to 
 another, until finally full independence were 
 achieved either in the ordinary channels of em- 
 ployment, or in a position of independence as a 
 small holder on the land. 
 
134 
 
 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 n a 
 
 sS 
 
 P O 
 
 ^ % 
 
 0) o 
 
 CQ'O 
 
 2 (o 
 rt.M 
 
 ■gg 
 
 aa 
 
 So 
 ■a u 
 < 
 
 >'0 
 
 si S 
 
 -6 . 
 . 8 
 
 2 g jj 
 o w 
 
 ¥3 
 
 35 a 
 
 2a.a * 
 
 Hi .S 
 
 as." 6-5 
 
 a ji •; o 
 
 -Ml Q" 
 
 ill I 
 
 PS « 
 
 o in 
 
 So 8 
 
 U M 
 
 S Sa.a 
 
 &a°g° . 
 "■§ £a >..§ 
 
 o«'a6S 
 
 ,3 « B 
 
 u a o 
 
 ZS 
 
 o 
 
 S'Ow .SiS 
 
 o'm -O ° 
 
 t§ 
 
 I ;3 
 
 a S 
 n 
 
 K ^ 
 
 6 '3 
 
 gl 
 
 ■? S 
 
 ss 
 
 o'S) 
 
 o> 
 
 X>J 
 
 a 
 
 
 SB 
 
 
TYPES OF LABOUR COLONIES. 135 
 
 
 .2.3 K S o 
 a'^ o M S 
 
 0) tn Q> 
 
 
 .a n] 
 
 « Sr?P< 
 
 Si's- q a 
 » M g.S 
 
 >.M O (U a 
 
 i^s^-°eB||, 
 
 « B sj SiC iSo S« 
 
 s* 
 
 77 fe +- O "U 3 
 
 
 Moot 
 
 «>ja,QjSS-o "^ S 
 3" g.O*'«o>, 
 ^2 S(£ >»t. *o St; 
 
 en ^ 
 
 sa 
 
 ■iJSo 
 
 5a 
 0.0 
 
 .aw 
 
 S" SOi" ° S " 
 O'S a o„ja-c 
 
 a SX" o ij q< 
 oi o S £ "5 
 
 
 
 T3 rt.2 
 
 2J rt 
 
 S- 6 
 
 °^ 
 
 •ana 
 
 IS 
 
 "o a 
 
 ■3* 
 
 gig 
 a„-s 
 
 S S " 
 (22 
 
 01 o 
 
 s° 
 
 30 
 < 
 
 3 6S'»"' 
 
 5 rt-Q rt — 
 
 -a^ < 
 
 □ c •> 
 
 > y H « 2 «, ! 
 
 - g M - +* O 
 
 ^ P5^^ o « 
 
 13 S 
 u 
 
 « (0 _ 
 O 0} 
 
 1 limits I" !s-i 
 
 
 3Ss.oS> _ 
 
 aSs I 
 
 !3|l 
 
 !■§ 
 
 u o 
 
 I'iS' 
 
 
 «.2 0.2 
 
 isa" 
 ^aa 
 
 ca.2r 
 esffi 
 
 Q ■ 
 
 s 
 
 H 
 
 O 
 
 IS 
 
 N 
 
136 
 
 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 ■o S Q) n 
 
 > M 4) tlO 
 
 g £'5 _ : 
 
 -"a 
 
 s "(5 
 
 C (I) 
 o aj ,_ 
 
 13 n 
 
 3^ "I 
 
 
 
 H J>SS 
 
 pit 
 gg-g-S 
 
 u irf<^ O 
 
 KtS S 9 
 
 ■Si "2. 
 
 at) y^ 
 
 sac's a 
 
 •" .a t( to E 
 
 
 la J^ |B 
 
 is I 5« 
 
 S^ - 
 
 9 fl 
 
 ^1 
 
 a 
 
 o o 
 
 "^ 3 o " rt « s 
 
 Id K 
 
 n fl " t; t^ts « 
 o Fa a-A 1) ^ bj 
 
 O S « MJ3 £ 
 W^'S O ** o rt o 
 
 ° 2S •- J.3" 
 
 •si 
 
 en ? 
 
 C 
 
 ^ E S ij'a 
 ■^ at ii^jans 
 
 fO 2? HI'S n O 
 
 * > 1) JS m 
 ,0 5 D a ^ 
 
 ffii 
 
 £1 
 
 ffi ffi 
 
 :3 s'a 
 
 n 
 go 
 
 S B 
 
 K c H 
 
 H w 
 
 I ^ 
 
SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS. 137 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 SUMMARY OF GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 We may now state in outline the main con- 
 clusions at which we have arrived. Without 
 covering the whole ground, they indicate with 
 more or less distinctness the lines upon which, in 
 our opinion, the unemployed problem may be at 
 least partially solved. 
 
 (i) The appointment of a Minister of Commerce 
 and Industry, and the establishment of a Government 
 Department to deal especially with the question of 
 unemployment. — If this is a national question, a 
 special Minister at the head of a special depart- 
 ment should have the responsibility placed upon 
 him of dealing with it. The partial reorganisa- 
 tion of existing departments dealing with labour 
 is a necessary preliminary. 
 
 (2) Compulsory Labour Bureaux. — These bureaux 
 in telephonic communication should be established 
 in every district, as in Germany, and should not be 
 confined to municipal boroughs. They would 
 supply the central department with all the facts 
 and figures for each locality, and help to devise 
 schemes for the relief of distress by want of em- 
 ployment in that locality. They should do more 
 than register the names and addresses of the 
 
138 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 unemployed. Careful investigation should be 
 made in each case, to be followed by classification; 
 employers should be interviewed ; work should be 
 found or suggested ; railway fares should be paid 
 to districts where work was more plentiful and 
 advice given as to relief stations, labour homes, etc. 
 
 (3) Relief Stations and Labour Homes. — The 
 casual ward should be abolished, and scattered 
 throughout the country, within walking distance 
 of one day, should be relief stations and labour 
 homes where the unemployed, in return for a few 
 hours work, can be boarded and lodged for one or 
 two nights while a search is made for employment. 
 There should be a labour registry in connection 
 with each relief station, and the stations and the 
 labour bureaux should be in telephonic communi- 
 cation, so that the impostor and idle vagrant may 
 be readily discovered. 
 
 (4) A Graded System of Farm andLabour Colonies: 
 including the following types : — 
 
 (a) A Farm Colony for married and unmarried 
 Agricultural Labourers or Men accustomed to work on 
 theLand who have migrated to the Town and are willing 
 to return to the Country. — The difficulties of repatri- 
 ating the agricultural labourer are not insuperable, 
 and the establishment of a colony removes most 
 of them. There should be a time of probation as 
 at Frederiksoord, in Holland. If this period is 
 successfully passed and the colonist has proved 
 himself to be industrious and efficient, a free farm 
 or small holding should be granted to him at a 
 
SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS. 139 
 
 moderate rent, with security of tenure so long as 
 the tenant proves himself to be able and willing 
 to treat the land fairly. Loans of money for stock, 
 seeds, etc., might be obtained through a local 
 agricultural bank started by the colony for this 
 purpose on the Raiffeisen principle. The free 
 farmers should be organised and taught to work 
 co-operatively as on the small holdings in Lincoln- 
 shire and Norfolk. If cottages for the married 
 men are to be cheaply built, the bye laws might 
 have to be relaxed, and in any case the Govern- 
 ment, through the county council, should assist 
 in the matter of cheap loans for housing purposes. 
 
 (6) A Farm Colony for Town-bred Men, controlled 
 by a large Municipality or a group of small towns, 
 or a representative Committee covering a /airly wide 
 area. — These colonies would be chiefly for third 
 and fourth rate mechanics, crushed out by severe 
 competition, or for unskilled labourers of good 
 character, who feel their inability to earn a 
 permanent livelihood in the town. Changes in 
 methods of industry and severe industrial depres- 
 sion will account for the process of deterioration 
 constantly going on in this class. Some of them 
 may have worked on allotments near the town ; 
 but the majority would have to be taught the 
 rudiments of agriculture. The colony should, 
 therefore, be an agricultural training school, so 
 that after a period of probation men may be passed 
 on to colony A. 
 
 (c) A Colony somewhat of the German type, excluding 
 
HO THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 the criminal element and men of bad character. — The 
 colonists would consist, in the main, of men of the 
 low-grade unskilled, broken down through mis- 
 fortune, the hopeless and weak-willed men below 
 par, unable to hold their own in the severe com- 
 petition of the town. In connection with this 
 colony the labour would be simpler, confined 
 almost entirely to the more elementary work of 
 market gardening, the improvement of land, the 
 making of roads, the trenching of land, and a few 
 simple indoor trades like basket-work, brush- 
 making, and mat-making. Such men are frequently 
 found to improve both in body and mind under the 
 healthy conditions of colony life. The best of them 
 would again be passed on to colony B. 
 
 {d) Poor Law farms for epileptics, inebriates and the 
 physically defective. — The various classes of inmates 
 should be kept separate, and it would be as well 
 to classify in each section. The treatment should 
 be scientific and medical ; for example, the per- 
 centage of cures in the cases of epilepsy is much 
 greater where sufficient pains in the first place 
 have been taken to trace the causes of the disease. 
 At Bielefeld and Wilhelmsdorf much more care is 
 now being exercised in this matter. For inebriates 
 there are well known methods of medical treat- 
 ment which considerably shorten the time during 
 which it is necessary to stay on a farm colony. 
 
 (e) Poor Law Colonies compulsory for the vagrant 
 and the wastrel. — The example of the Belgian 
 colonies must not be followed too closely. Every 
 
SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS. 141 
 
 effort should be made to reform the vagabond, so 
 that while compelled to work, he may feel that a 
 door of escape into a higher colony is still left 
 open if only he chooses to avail himself of it. 
 Many of our idle, "ne'er-do-wells," are men who 
 have sunk to this low level not altogether as a 
 result of their own evil habits, but partly by reason 
 of the fact that lack of work has caused them to 
 become demoralised and degraded. A certain 
 percentage even of these men might be reformed 
 if properly treated, just as the young criminal is 
 reclaimed by the Borstal system in England, or by 
 the Elmira system in the United States. Men who 
 are at present in a Poor Law farm like that of 
 Poplar, able-bodied inmates of the workhouse, 
 now willing and ready to do a good day's work, 
 would naturally be handed on to a higher type of 
 colony. 
 
 (5) Unemployment Committees or Councils. — These 
 committees or councils with spending power 
 conferred by legislation and dealing with the un- 
 employed question over wide areas should consist 
 of representatives of existing bodies somewhat on 
 Mr. Walter Long's plan, with power to call to 
 their aid the trades union leaders. They should 
 have full authority to deal with the whole problem 
 and to co-ordinate the various agencies throughout 
 their districts. The cost should be borne partly 
 by the local authorities concerned, and partly by 
 the Imperial Government. Under the control of 
 these unemployment committees would be all 
 
143 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 local relief works, relief stations and labour homes 
 throughout the area, together with a central bureau 
 and one or more labour colonies on the lines 
 already indicated. 
 
 (6) The reclamation of Foreshores and waste land, 
 the building of Sea-walls, etc., by the Government De- 
 partment, on the lines of the experiments made by the 
 Dutch Government. 
 
 The great advantage of this work is that much 
 of it can be left for periods of depressed trade, 
 when the unemployed of the large towns can be 
 drafted out for periods of one or two months at a 
 time. 
 
 (7) The afforestment of waste Land by the Govern- 
 ment. — A beginning should be made with Crown 
 lands suitable for this purpose, thus creating a new 
 and profitable industry. There are over ten 
 million acres of waste lands in the United Kingdom 
 suitable for afforestation purposes. 
 
 (8) The improvement of Canals and inland Water- 
 ways ; to be purchased by the Government at the 
 present valuation. 
 
 (9) The re-organisation of the Port of London, 
 carrying out the recommendations of the Royal Com- 
 mission with a view to — 
 
 {a) The improvement of the Port and river. 
 (6) The reclamation of the river foreshores, and 
 (c) The abolition so far as possible of casual 
 labour in the docks. 
 
 (10) Government grants to Trades Union unem- 
 ployed insurance, with a view to the encouragement 
 
SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS. 143 
 
 of this form of self-help amongst all grades of 
 skilled labour. The subsidies should be pro- 
 portionate to the contributions of the trades 
 unions. 
 
 (11) A shorter working day for all Government 
 and Municipal Employees. — This should especially 
 be the case with regard to those who are employed 
 in the work of transport and locomotion where 
 foreign competition can play only a very small 
 part. It has been pointed out that in the case of 
 the London County Council tramways, shorter 
 hours in conjunction with proper management 
 have resulted in increased profits. 
 
 (12) Until some, at least, of these recommendations 
 are carried out, disfranchisement as a result of 
 receiving Poor Law Relief should be abolished. At 
 present only the industrious poor are so disqualified, 
 for the remainder, as a rule, have no fixed domicile. 
 
 In addition to these direct methods of dealing 
 with the problem of unemployment, we must never 
 forget that the solution of the question depends 
 in the long run not so much on the immediate 
 palliatives which we may be able to suggest, 
 as upon such reconstruction and reorganisation 
 of society as will give prominence to the ethical 
 and the co-operative rather than the com- 
 petitive factors in our national life. While every 
 effort is made to improve and strengthen individual 
 character and to encourage the formation of such 
 habits as will help to obviate many of the social 
 ills we deplore, we must not forget the tendency 
 
144 THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 of conditions and environment to create these 
 . evils. 
 /' ! There is a growing conviction that some form of 
 / I State interference on behalf of the unemployed is 
 necessary, and if it is argued that this is govern- 
 ^ ' mental paternalism, we answer in the words of Sir 
 Arthur Helps, "Never is paternal government so 
 needful as when civilisation is most advanced." 
 Surely it is not beyond the wit of man to discover 
 the happy mean between the grandmotherly legis- 
 lation which crushes out all independent spirit, 
 and the laissez faire policy which, ignoring a great 
 social disease, affects belief in the doctrine of 
 " economic man." This attitude, as de Laveleye 
 said of the land monopoly, is " a sort of provocation 
 of levelling legislation," or even of revolution. The 
 one hope for England is that pari passu with the 
 growth of our national wealth will spread the 
 desire to see a greater and more equitable dis- 
 tribution of that wealth. The unemployed question 
 is largely an economic question for which charity, 
 however generous, is no solution. It is the first 
 duty of the State, as also its highest and truest 
 interest, to set on foot such constructive reforms 
 as will check the wholesale demoralisation of large 
 sections of the working classes, and restore to 
 the people the assurance so long denied that 
 honest work will carry with it a just and certain 
 reward. 
 
APPENDIX I. 
 
 COPY OF MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S CIRCULAR 
 OF 1886. 
 
 Pauperism and Distress. 
 
 Local Government Board, 
 Whitehall. 
 
 March 15th, 1886. 
 
 Sir, — The inquiries which have been recently under- 
 taken by the Local Government Board unfortunately 
 confirm the prevailing impression as to the existence 
 of exceptional distress amongst the working classes. 
 This distress is partial as to its locality, and is, no 
 doubt, due in some measure to the long continued 
 severity of the weather. 
 
 The returns of pauperism show an increase, but it 
 is not yet considerable ; and the numbers of persons 
 in receipt of relief are greatly below those of previous 
 periods of exceptional distress. 
 
 The Local Government Board have, however, 
 thought it their duty to go beyond the returns of 
 actual pauperism which are all that come under their 
 notice in ordinary times, and they have made some 
 investigation into the condition of the working classes 
 generally. 
 
 They are convinced that in the ranks of those who 
 do not ordinarily seek Poor Law relief there is 
 
146 APPENDIX I. 
 
 evidence of much and increasing privation, and if the 
 depression in trade continues, it is to be feared that 
 large numbers of persons usually in regular employ- 
 ment will be reduced to the greatest straits. 
 
 Such a condition of things is a subject for deep 
 regret and very serious consideration. 
 
 The spirit of independence which leads so many of 
 the working classes to make great personal sacrifices 
 rather than incur the stigma of pauperism, is one 
 which deserves the greatest sympathy and respect, and 
 which it is the duty and interest of the community to 
 maintain by all the means at its disposal. 
 
 Any relaxation of the general rule at present obtain- 
 ing, which requires as a condition of relief to able- 
 bodied male persons on the ground of their being out 
 of employment, the acceptance of an order for admis- 
 sion to the workhouse, or the performance of an 
 adequate task of work as a labour test, would be most 
 disastrous, as tending directly to restore the condition 
 of things which, before the reform of the Poor Laws, 
 destroyed the independence of the labouring classes, 
 and increased the poor rate until it became an almost 
 insupportable burden. 
 
 It is not desirable that the working classes should 
 be familiarised with Poor Law relief, and if once the 
 honourable sentiment which now leads them to avoid 
 it is broken down it is probable that recourse will be 
 had to this provision on the slightest occasion. 
 
 The Local Government Board have no doubt that 
 the powers which the guardians possess are fully 
 sufficient to enable them to deal with ordinary 
 pauperism, and to meet the demand for relief from 
 the classes who usually seek it. 
 
 When the workhouse is full, or when the circum- 
 stances are so exceptional that it is desirable to give 
 outdoor relief to the able-bodied poor on the ground 
 of want of work, the guardians in the unions which 
 are the great centres of population are authorised to 
 provide a labour test, on the performance of which 
 grants in money and kind may be made, according to 
 
APPENDIX I. 147 
 
 the discretion of the guardians. In other unions, 
 where the guardians have not already this power, the 
 necessary order is issued whenever the circumstances 
 appear to require it. 
 
 But these provisions do not in all cases meet the 
 emergency. The labour test is usually stone-breaking 
 or oakum-picking. This work, which is selected as 
 offering the least competition with other labour, 
 presses hardly upon the skilled artisans, and, in some 
 cases, their proficiency in their special trades may be 
 prejudiced by such employment. Spade husbandry 
 is less open to objection, and when facilities offer for 
 adopting work of this character as a labour test the 
 Board will be glad to assist the guardians by autho- 
 rising the hiring of land for the purpose, when this is 
 necessary. In any case, however, the receipt of relief 
 from the guardians, although accompanied by a task 
 of work, entails the disqualification which by statute 
 attaches to pauperism. 
 
 What is required in the endeavour to relieve artisans 
 and others who have hitherto avoided Poor Law 
 assistance, and who are temporarily deprived of em- 
 ployment is^ 
 
 1. Work which will not involve the stigma of 
 pauperism ; 
 
 2. Work which all can perform, whatever may 
 have been their previous avocations ; 
 
 3. Work which does not compete with that of other 
 labourers at present in employment ; 
 
 And, lastly, work which is not likely to interfere 
 with the resumption of regular employment in their 
 own trades by those who seek it. 
 
 The Board have no power to enforce the adoption 
 of any particular proposals, and the object of this 
 circular is to bring the subject generally under the 
 notice of boards of guardians and other local autho- 
 rities. 
 
 In districts in which exceptional distress prevails, the 
 Board recommend that the guardians should confer 
 with the local authorities, and endeavour to arrange 
 
 L 2 
 
148 APPENDIX I. 
 
 with the latter for the execution of works on which 
 unskilled labour may be immediately employed. 
 
 These works may be of the following kinds, among 
 others : — 
 
 (a) Spade husbandry on sewage farms ; 
 
 (b) Laying out of open spaces, recreation grounds, 
 
 new cemeteries, or disused burial grotmds ; 
 
 (c) Cleansing of streets not usually undertaken by 
 
 local authorities ; 
 
 (d) Laying out and paving of new streets, etc. 
 
 (e) Paving of unpaved streets, and making of foot- 
 
 paths in country roads ; 
 
 (/) Providing or extending sewerage works and 
 works of water supply. 
 
 It may be observed, that spade labour is a class of 
 work which has special advantages in the case of 
 able-bodied persons out of employment. Every able- 
 bodied man can dig, although some can do more than 
 others, and it is work which is in no way degrading, 
 and need not interfere with existing employment. 
 
 In all cases in which special works are undertaken 
 to meet exceptional distress it would appear to be 
 necessary, ist, that the men employed should be 
 engaged on the recommendation of the guardians as 
 persons whom, owing to previous condition and cir- 
 cumstances, it is undesirable to send to the work- 
 house, or to treat as subjects for pauper relief ; and 
 2nd, that the wages paid should be something less 
 than the wages ordinarily paid for similar work, in 
 order to prevent imposture, and to leave the strongest 
 temptation to those who avail themselves of this 
 opportunity to return as soon as possible to -their 
 previous occupations. 
 
 When the works are of such a character that the 
 expenses may properly be defrayed out of borrowed 
 moneys, the local authorities may rely that there will 
 be every desire on the part of the Board to deal 
 promptly with the application for their sanction to a 
 loan. 
 
 I shall be much obliged if you will keep me informed 
 
APPENDIX I. 149 
 
 of the state of affairs in your district, and if it should 
 be found necessary to make any exceptional provision, 
 I shall be glad to know at once the nature of such 
 provision and the extent to which those for whom it 
 is intended avail themselves of it. 
 
 I am, Sir, your obedient Servant, 
 
 J. CHAMBERLAIN. 
 The Clerk to the Guardians. 
 
APPENDIX II. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM REPORT OF MANSION 
 HOUSE COMMITTEE ON THE UNEM- 
 PLOYED, 1903-4. 
 
 At a meeting of East End workers convened by 
 Canon Bamett, in November, 1903, a scheme of relief 
 works for the unemployed was drawn up on the lines 
 described in the following letter, which appeared in 
 the newspapers on November 25th : — 
 
 To THE Editor of the " Times." 
 
 Sir, — Relief funds collected and administered under 
 the pressure of distress have in past years frequently 
 failed, alienating the hearts of givers and receivers. 
 We do not wish to foretell a time of non-employment, 
 though the state of the riverside districts gives cause 
 for anxiety ; but, in the event of such a time occurring, 
 we submit that a well-thought-out scheme should be 
 at once prepared, and that all funds collected should 
 follow the lines of such a scheme. We would, there- 
 fore, make the following suggestions, which aim at 
 putting before every unemployed head of a family a 
 means of living, sufficient to keep up the full strength 
 of his family, and of a character which would enable 
 him to retain his self-respect while at the same time 
 affording a real test of need and of manful purpose. 
 Our suggestions are : — 
 
 I. That only people possessed of established homes 
 be considered. If exceptions be made, people 
 
APPENDIX II. 151 
 
 will be tempted into London, and the diffi- 
 culty of giving full relief will be aggravated. 
 
 2. That male heads of families be ofiFered work in 
 
 the country, either on the land or indoors, 
 according to the ability of the worker, and 
 that adequate wages, sufficient for their healthy 
 living, be paid direct to the families. 
 
 3. That the men at work should be under no 
 
 degrading or harassing restrictions, that they 
 
 should be amply fed, and allowed at short 
 
 intervals to visit their homes to look for work. 
 
 We submit that this scheme is practicable. ^ It 
 
 could be at once applied, the authorities at the farm 
 
 colonies at Hadleigh and Lingfield, and at the new 
 
 colony at Osea Island, being willing to co-operate 
 
 with responsible committees in providing work and 
 
 accommodation. 
 
 The committee finally decided to agree to the 
 terms asked for by Hadleigh and Osea. ' The whole 
 work of providing employment in the coimtry was 
 thus contracted for. The colonies undertook the 
 responsibility of organisation and supervision ; the 
 provision to some extent of the capital for employ- 
 ment at a time of year unfavourable to the operations 
 proposed ; the loan of existing buildings ; and the 
 labour and organisation necessary for the erection 
 and preparation of fresh ones. The colonies also 
 took over the risk of loss to capital, or injury to tools 
 and material, through bad work ; for the committee 
 were unable at that stage to guarantee the quality or 
 number of the men who were to be sent dovwi, or the 
 length of their stay. Past experience, moreover, 
 afforded only too much reason to doubt the efficiency 
 of heterogeneous bodies of unemployed workmen, 
 •vmore or less unaccustomed to the kind of labour 
 required. The whole of the winding-up expenses, 
 which usually form a large item in the cost of relief 
 
 ^ I OS. 6i. per week, to include a 6d. coupon for tobacco, 
 stamps, etc. 
 
152 APPENDIX II, 
 
 works, especially if for lack of funds or other reason 
 they are brought to a premature close, was also trans- 
 ferred from the committee to the colonies. 
 
 Accommodation. — Hadleigh had, at the outset, 
 buildings and furniture for 120. When this was ex- 
 hausted, the committee consented to advance ;f58 
 for the provision of furniture for an additional 40 ; 
 the colony agreeing to take over this furniture for 
 future use at 50 per cent, of its cost. 
 
 Of the 160 men thus housed, the colony was able to 
 provide work for 120 up to the middle of February. 
 For larger numbers, and for a longer period, a capital 
 outlay was necessary greater than the funds of the 
 colony would permit for work not immediately needed. 
 The committee, therefore, agreed to contribute ^150 
 towards the amount required. 
 
 At Osea Island, while there was work for an un- 
 limited number, there was accommodation for only 
 15 men, and the whole of the remainder had to be 
 gradually created as the work proceeded. Four huts, 
 designed to hold 20 men each, were erected at a cost 
 of £"160. The number of berths per hut was however 
 subsequently reduced by the local sanitary authorities 
 to 16, the cost being thereby increased from £2 to 
 £2 los. a head. A large iron shed to hold 120 men 
 was also built at a cost of ^400, to which the com- 
 mittee contributed at the rate per head estimated for 
 the wooden huts, i.e., £"249 in all. The furnishing of 
 the huts and sheds, and the fitting up of the dining 
 tent and cook-house was undertaken by the colony. 
 
 At Osea the men slept in wooden bunks arranged 
 in tiers of two or three ; each bunk being closed by 
 partitions on three sides. At Hadleigh they were 
 housed for the most part in large and airy dormitories 
 holding 40 apiece, and slept on iron bedsteads sepa- 
 rated by an adequate space. But 25 selected men were 
 placed in a house on the estate, fitted up in the same 
 way, with an average of five beds to a room. In very 
 few cases was the dormitory system a subject of com- 
 plaint, and the men who were lodged at Hadleigh 
 
APPENDIX II. 153 
 
 Hall took a genuine pleasure in preserving the appear- 
 ance of their rooms. 
 
 Diet. — The food provided was plain but ample. 
 At Hadleigh the Mansion House men received the 
 same food as the ordinary colonists, but at the higher 
 of the two scales in operation there, it being thought 
 inadvisable to place them in any way on inferior 
 terms. But this scale was designed to build up the 
 constitutions of men broken down by privation, and 
 it proved in many cases to be so far superior to the 
 standard of living to which the men were accustomed 
 at home, as to make the colony test less severe than 
 it was intended to be. It included eggs or meat for 
 breakfast, a substantial dinner of meat, vegetables 
 and pudding, and a meat relish for tea. The cost, 
 according to the working estimates of the colony, was 
 expected to average 8s. per head per week. 
 
 At Osea Island much the same scale was adopted, 
 although, owing to the difficulties of catering on the 
 island, the cost to the colony proved rather higher. 
 At both colonies, in fact, the feeding of the men 
 resulted in a loss, owing to the " abnormal appetites " 
 developed by some of them. 
 
 There is no doubt that the liberal diet had a con- 
 siderable effect in increasing the capacity of the men 
 for hard outdoor work, in enabling them to gain the 
 fullest possible physical benefit from the fresh sea air, 
 and to endure the inconveniences of country life, 
 of bad weather, and of the absence of alcoholic 
 stimulants. But a lower scale of diet in any future 
 experiment would mean a reduction in the cost, and 
 would at the same time, without causing any undue 
 hardship, render the test more effective, especially with 
 the lower class of applicants. 
 
 Nature of Work. — The work at both colonies was of 
 much the same character. Most of it was spade work 
 in the open air, though in a few cases light indoor 
 work was found for men who were more or less 
 temporarily unfit for harder labour. The outdoor 
 work was varied, including road-making, ditching. 
 
154 APPENDIX II. 
 
 pipe-laying, wharf-building, and sea-walling. A few 
 men were employed in painting and house repairing 
 and a dozen or so on the cooking staff. 
 
 Supervision. — At both the colonies a good deal of 
 skilled labour was employed for the oversight and 
 instruction of the men. At Hadleigh the men worked 
 in gangs of seven or eight, each under a ganger. 
 These gangs worked under the supervision of the 
 heads of the respective departments of the colony. 
 The home superintendent was responsible for the 
 oversight of the conduct of the men Out of working 
 hours, while the whole management was under the 
 control of the resident secretary of the colony. At 
 Osea the few men who were sent down at the start 
 were placed under working gangers, but as the 
 numbers increased it was found necessary to appoint 
 five gangers to look after the men and keep their 
 time. Each ganger had charge of one section of the 
 work, and had from twenty to thirty men under him. 
 The work was supervised by the architect to the 
 estate and a resident engineer, while a superintendent, 
 appointed by Mr. Charrington, was responsible for 
 the discipline of the colony. The committee was 
 fortunate in enjoying the co-operation of such com- 
 petent superintendents as Brigadier Iliffe at Hadleigh, 
 and Mr. Occomore at Osea. 
 
 Conditions of Employment. — The conditions upon 
 which the men were employed were developed from 
 the principles laid down in the original letter as the 
 basis of a labour-test. All the men accepted by the 
 committee were given the opportunity of remaining 
 on the relief works till the close. They were allowed 
 to return home at intervals, at first of a fortnight, and 
 later, of a month, at the expense of the committee. 
 The advantages of continuous work and relief were 
 thus combined with opportunities of seeking employ- 
 ment. The hours of work were determined at first 
 by the limits of daylight, but were gradually extended 
 as the season advanced to a maximum of eight. The 
 men were required to submit to the discipline of the 
 
APPENDIX II. 155 
 
 colony, and this was made as little restrictive as the 
 necessities of order would allow. At both colonies 
 abstinence from intoxicating liquor was required, 
 partly because this was one of the permanent regula- 
 tions of both places, partly in order to ensure, as far 
 as possible, that the relief money was economically 
 spent. Much of the success of the experiment may be 
 attributed to this rule. At Hadleigh the men were 
 also required to comply with the ordinary rules of 
 the colony, including attendance at muster on Satur- 
 day evening, and at some place of worship on Sunday. 
 At Osea danger from the tides rendered it necessary 
 to forbid them to leave the island without permission. 
 The men were, however, free to abandon either 
 colony at any time, but the right of return was only 
 reserved for those who went home for their regular 
 monthly interval, or for special visits by permission 
 of the committee. On the other hand the superin- 
 tendent had power to dismiss any man for breach of 
 rules or unsatisfactory conduct or work, subject only 
 to the confirmation of the committee. 
 
 As remuneration for work imder these conditions, 
 the committee provided the men with board and 
 lodging ; a coupon exchangeable at the colony stores 
 for tobacco, stamps, or other sundries, to the value of 
 6d. per week ; railway fares out and home once a 
 month, or on other occasions for adequate reasons ; ^ 
 boots on loan, for special work, or where necessary, 
 for ordinary work ; and relief to their families in 
 London. 
 
 Relief to Families. — It was an essential feajture of 
 the scheme that the men should receive no money, 
 but that relief should be paid direct to their families 
 in London. The scale adopted was proportionate to 
 the size of the families, viz.: los. for the wife, 2S. 
 each for the first two children, and is. 6d. each for 
 
 1 For Hadleigh the committee enjoyed the benefit of the 
 standing arrangement for reduced fares between the railway 
 company and the colony. For Osea the G. E. R. granted 
 special return tickets at single fares. 
 
155 APPENDIX II. 
 
 others (only children of school age being reckoned) ; 
 5s. a week was paid where there was no wife, and 
 5s. a week extra for additional adult dependants. 
 Deduction was made for other sources of income on 
 the following scale : for earnings of wife, half such 
 earnings : for those of others, when 7s. 6d. or over, 
 the amount earned less 5s. for keep of earner ; when 
 less than 7s. 6d., the amount less two-thirds. Where 
 these terms were refused it was taken as evidence of 
 comparative absence of distress. Experience, how- 
 ever, went to show that while the general scale of 
 relief was too high, the rule for deductions was 
 rather severe. The average weekly payment per 
 family (exclusive of the keep of the man), after 
 making deductions for earnings, came to 13s. iid. 
 2,561 of these weekly payments were made, distributed 
 over 467 families, for periods varying from a few 
 days to fourteen weeks, and averaging five and a half 
 weeks. (See Tables A. and B.) 
 
 The relief was conveyed to the families, where 
 practicable, by visitors to the homes themselves. 
 This method proved of the utmost value in the 
 successful working of the scheme. The visitor 
 acquired, as time went on, a considerable knowledge 
 of the family, supplementing the personal knowledge 
 obtained of the man at the colonies ; the effect of 
 the relief money could be observed, and the fund 
 guarded against abuse ; while the man had the 
 satisfaction of knowing that his family had access to 
 advice and assistance in case of need, through the 
 organisation by which he himself was employed. 
 
 Where this plan was impracticable other methods' 
 were adopted, designed, as far as possible, to meet the 
 same ends. In Bethnal Green the first payment in each 
 case was made in the home, but after the first week the 
 wives were paid at the office of the local committee, 
 while other local workers, clergy, district visitors, etc., 
 not associated with the payment of the relief money, 
 undertook to keep in touch with the families. 
 
 In Stepney the relief money was passed on to local 
 
APPENDIX II, 157 
 
 workers not officially connected with the committee, 
 who undertook both paying and visiting, jointly or 
 separately, as they found practicable. In most cases 
 the money was paid in the homes. 
 
 In Shoreditch and Poplar the money was invariably 
 paid week by week by visitors to the homes. 
 
 Conclusions. — The results of the winter's experiment 
 suggest to the committee the following propositions 
 and recommendations : — 
 
 1. The value of the colony relief works both as a 
 test and as a method of relief has been thoroughly 
 established. The offer of continuous work deters the 
 idle and the classes loosely termed " unemployable," 
 who are usually attracted by relief funds, and thus 
 leaves the committee comparatively free to deal with 
 those whom it is possible and desirable to help. It 
 also offers the minimum of attraction to the vagrants 
 throughout the country, who are liable to be drawn 
 into London by rumours of unconditional relief. To 
 those who are helped the relief afforded is thorough ; 
 the payment of the money direct to the wives goes far 
 to secure its proper use, while at the same time the 
 men are prevented from unfairly competing in the 
 labour market with their unassisted fellows. 
 
 2. The experience of the committee proves conclu- 
 sively that there was, during last winter, a large 
 number of genuine working men of good industrial 
 character unemployed, and that these could be dis- 
 covered and assisted when once steps had been taken 
 to exclude the chronically unemployed and the casual 
 labourer. 
 
 3. It has been proved possible to get good work 
 done by such unemployed workmen under certain 
 conditions, viz. : if they are carefully selected accord- 
 ing to past industrial record ; if they are thoroughly 
 supervised when at work, and in touch with the 
 organisation when at leisure ; if they are employed 
 continuously for long periods ; if they are isolated 
 from London surroundings ; and if they are well-fed 
 and housed, and forbidden access to intoxicating liquor. 
 
158 APPENDIX II. 
 
 4. It is inevitable that such treatment should be 
 comparatively costly. The work is undertaken at an 
 unfavourable time of year ; there is great risk of loss 
 from inferior work, especially at first, and there is 
 danger of damage, or of waste of time and material, 
 from the occasional employment of inefficient or idle 
 workmen. But the expense is lessened where the 
 above-mentioned precautions are observed. The 
 more rigid the principle of selection, or the condi- 
 tions of the test, the less will be, not only the actual 
 cost of the work, but also the risk of loss ; and the 
 better, therefore, will be the terms that can be pro- 
 posed to a possible contractor. The less also will be 
 the waste of money upon those whom it is impossible 
 really to help. The increased expense is also com- 
 pensated for by the thoroughness of the help given, 
 and by the knowledge gained, not only of the men 
 employed and of their families, but also of the general 
 problem. Economy of management would be greatly 
 facilitated by the assistance upon relief committees 
 of gentlemen of direct experience in contracting 
 work. 
 
 5. The experience of the committee shows that any 
 simple form of automatic labour test, offering work 
 on exactly the same conditions to all, without pre- 
 liminary classification and selection, will vary in 
 efficacy with different classes of applicants. This is 
 due to the different ratios which both the sacrifice 
 demanded and the relief offered will bear to the 
 ordinary conditions of work and comfort of the 
 various grades of unemployed. Excluding the radi- 
 cally idle or inefficient who refuse work on any terms, 
 and the skilled workmen who avoid relief altogether, 
 it will be found that any such test will be relatively 
 more attractive to the lower grades of workmen and 
 more deterrent to the higher. 
 
 Special steps must, therefore, be taken to secure the 
 absolutely essential principle, that the conditions of 
 the relief work should, in all cases, be more onerous 
 than those of the ordinary labour of the applicant. 
 
APPENDIX II. 159 
 
 Either some method of differentiating the conditions 
 for different classes must be devised, such as the simul- 
 taneous establishment of two colonies with different 
 conditions, or the whole offer must be confined to a 
 limited section of the unemployed, and this should 
 obviously be the section which is most likely to receive 
 permanent benefit. 
 
 6. The great value of inquiry into industrial 
 character is again demonstrated, and also its extreme 
 difficulty. The standard of work and of conduct 
 that will prevail at a colony, will depend largely on 
 the character of the first draft of men, and this can 
 only be determined by investigation. A high standard 
 renders the test more stringent for the less desirable. 
 A low standard involves greater hardship to the better 
 men. But inquiry is considerably less difficult with 
 the higher class of men selected by the executive. 
 Their industrial record, in most cases, is readily ascer- 
 tainable, and there is, consequently, less waste of time 
 and money on undesirable cases. In those trades, 
 such as builders' labourers, where continuous employ- 
 ment records are often unobtainable, the labour test 
 forms a second line of defence against imposture, 
 enabling the committee to shorten the inquiry 
 and give an applicant the benefit of a reasonable 
 doubt. 
 
 7. The permanent effect upon the men assisted is 
 more difficult to measure. The object of relief works 
 is not so much to elevate as to tide over a bad season, 
 and thus to save from degradation : the former needs, 
 in most cases, more prolonged and more individual 
 treatment than a temporary scheme can provide. 
 Success is therefore achieved if the efficiency of the 
 men and their families is maintained until the revival 
 of trade. Although many men have thus been per- 
 manently helped, the results of this year's work are 
 not fully ascertainable, owing to the unusual prolonga- 
 tion of the distress. Slow recovery, however, is 
 imfortunately a natural feature of really exceptional 
 depression. The complete success of such a scheme, 
 
r6o APPENDIX II. 
 
 therefore, requires that public support should be con- 
 tinued as long as the distress lasts. Otherwise some 
 of the men may lose their industrial character during 
 the interval, and the only effect of the efforts of the 
 winter may be to delay for a few weeks their degene- 
 racy into the ranks of the " casuals." At the same 
 time, a long period of continuous work under good 
 conditions may of itself raise the standard of living 
 for a time of a family, even of the casual class ; and 
 may be a valuable preliminary to some more thorough 
 assistance. 
 
 Other forms of permanent help, such as emigration 
 or migration, for those whose prospects in London do 
 not correspond with their abilities, are greatly facili- 
 tated by the system of colony relief works. The 
 country work is a test both of physical fitness and of 
 power of adaptation, and the knowledge gained of the 
 character of the men and their families affords valuable 
 help in the work of selection. 
 
 8. Time alone can show the effect of the scheme 
 upon the general problem of the unemployed. The 
 details of the experiences of the committee illustrate 
 the possibilities and the difficulties of many of the 
 proposals often put forward for public relief works. 
 But on the still more complex question of the effect of 
 the opening of relief works in decreasing or increasing 
 the amount of unemployment or of dependence upon 
 charity in London, no definite opinion can yet be 
 formed. It can certainly be said, however, that the 
 danger of demoralisation was reduced to a minimum 
 by the conditions laid down in the original letter. 
 Nothing was offered to the vagrant, the loafer, or the 
 cadger ; while the indolent and the undesirable were 
 weeded out by the continuity of the work and super- 
 vision. Consistency in the adoption and enforcement 
 of these principles would do much to reduce the 
 danger which attaches to a large public fund for the 
 relief of distress, of attracting people to London in the 
 hope of a share of its benefits. 
 
 The dangers that attend a repetition of such a scheme 
 
APPENDIX II. i6i 
 
 may also be minimised by strict adherence to the policy 
 adopted by the executive committee. Limitation to 
 periods of exceptional distress would avoid the evils 
 that would follow from regular assistance to workers 
 in seasonal trades during their normal period of tem- 
 porary depression. Such assistance would be equivalent 
 to a permanent addition to their wages at public 
 expense, and would remove all incentive to thrift or 
 organisation. Limitation to those who can give proof 
 of continuous employment in recent times, would avoid 
 the danger of permitting the same men to become 
 dependent on the relief works year after year. If this 
 were allowed, the effect would be merely to transfer, 
 for a number of casual labourers, the season of irregular 
 employment from winter to summer. Finally, care 
 must be taken that the classes of imemployed selected 
 and the conditions imposed upon them, should always 
 bear such a relation, that the relief works should be 
 less attractive than customary employment with 
 market wages and ordinary home life. 
 
 To sum up, the scheme of relief works in the country 
 as adopted last winter proved to be thoroughly suited 
 to the class of unemployed working man selected by 
 the executive committee, and fairly successful, though 
 with a much greater proportion of waste, with the 
 better men of the class below. 
 
 With a larger and more regular public response to 
 the appeal, very much more might have been done ; 
 the machinery of selection and the accommodation at 
 the disposal of the committee could have been more 
 fully utilised, and the bitter disappointment caused to 
 many well-qualified applicants by the suspension of 
 the work in February, and by its premature close, 
 would have been avoided. But the figures indis- 
 putably show that in spite of these limitations a 
 large number of genuine unemployed families were 
 thoroughly helped, the men were maintained in health, 
 efficiency, and self-respect, their homes kept together, 
 and their wives and children enabled to preserve a 
 fair standard of comfort through the winter. This 
 
 U. M 
 
i63 APPENDIX II. 
 
 was done without attracting to the fund the habitually 
 dependent, and at a cost which must be regarded as 
 small in proportion to the thoroughness of the relief 
 afforded. 
 
 Signed on behalf of the executive committee, 
 
 W. VALLANCE, 
 September 2qth, Chairman. 
 
 1904. 
 
APPENDIX III. 
 
 LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL REPORT ON 
 LACK OF EMPLOYMENT IN LONDON. 
 
 Minutes of the Proceedings at a Conference, on i^th 
 February and yyd April, 1903, between representatives 
 of the London County Council and of the administrative 
 authorities in London, on the subject of the Lack of 
 Employment in London; together with a Report of the 
 General Purposes Committee of the London County 
 Council, presented to, and adopted by, the Council on 
 2yth October, 1903, with regard to the Recommendations 
 made by the Conference. 
 
 In accordance with a resolution passed by the 
 London County Council on i6th December, 1902, all 
 the administrative authorities in London were invited 
 to appoint representatives to attend a Conference " to 
 consider the present lack of employment, and to make 
 representations thereon to the Secretary of State for 
 the Home Department and the President of the Local 
 Government Board ; and if necessary, to call a further 
 Conference of all public bodies throughout the United 
 Kingdom with a view of approaching His Majesty's 
 Government, and urging upon them the necessity of a 
 national scheme for dealing with the problem." 
 
 The first meeting of the Conference took place at the 
 County Hall, Spring Gardens, on I3lh February, 1903. 
 Sir John McDougall, then chairman of the council, 
 presided, and Lord Monkswell, vice-chairman, Mr. 
 Henry Clarke, deputy-chairman, and 26 members of 
 the council were present, as were also representatives 
 
 M 2 
 
i64 APPENDIX III. 
 
 of the City Corporation, of the Metropolitan Asylums 
 Board, of the several metropolitan borough councils, 
 and, with one exception, of the respective boards of 
 guardians for London. 
 
 At this meeting several suggestions, which had been 
 previously made by the Poplar Metropolitan Borough 
 Council and by the respective boards of guardians of 
 Poplar, Camberwell, Stepney, and Hackney, were 
 discussed, and ultimately referred to a committee 
 consisting of 15 members. 
 
 This committee chose as their chairman Mr. John 
 Bums, and as their vice-chairman the Rev. Canon 
 C. E. Escreet. They presented their report at a second 
 meeting of the Conference, held at the County Hall, 
 on 3rd April, 1903, at which Lord Monkswell, the 
 chairman of the coimcil, presided. Mr. E. A. Cornwall, 
 vice-chairman, and Mr. R. A. Robinson, deputy-chair- 
 man, and 15 members of the council attended, as did 
 also representatives of the City Corporation, of 17 of 
 the metropolitan borough councils, and of 14 boards 
 of guardians. 
 
 This report, which is voluminous and relates to 
 several matters bearing upon the subject of the 
 reference to the committee, contains several recom- 
 mendations which were adopted by the Conference and 
 submitted to the council. The report and recom- 
 mendations have been carefully considered by the 
 general purposes committee of the council, whose 
 report thereon was presented to, and approved by, the 
 council on 27th October, 1903. 
 
 The resolutions passed by the council, as the result 
 of consideration of the report of its general purposes 
 committee on the recommendations submitted by the 
 Conference, are as follows : — 
 
 Relief works. 
 
 (a) That it be referred to the general purposes com- 
 mittee to consider and report upon the question of 
 preparing schemes of public works, which may usefully 
 
APPENDIX III. 165 
 
 be carried out in the county during periods of distress, 
 and as to the probable cost of such schemes, and their 
 bearing upon the requirements of the county. 
 
 Training of surplus town population in needs and ways 
 of country life. Migration and emigration. 
 
 (b) That it be referred to the Technical Education 
 Board to consider and make a special report (i) as to 
 the steps which may usefully be taken for providing 
 practical training in agricultural pursuits for workers 
 at present in London, and (2) as to the desirability of 
 providing lectures on the colonies, for the benefit of 
 those of the poorer classes who may wish to know of 
 the advantages and conditions of colonisation. 
 
 Employment of women. 
 
 (c) That it be referred to the public health com- 
 mittee to consider and report as to the registration 
 and periodical inspection of the places of employment 
 of outworkers. 
 
 Employment of children. 
 
 (d) That the resolution passed by the Conference on 
 the subject of the employment of children be referred 
 to the public control committee.^ 
 
 Establishment of a more complete industrial organisation 
 throughout the country. 
 
 (e) That it be an instruction to the general purposes 
 committee to consider, and, if necessary, to com- 
 municate with the Prime Minister (i.) on the question 
 
 1 Note. — The resolution of the Conference is as follows: — 
 That the Conference do record its opinon that legislation with 
 the object of preventing the employment of children below the 
 age of twelve years is eminently desirable, and that the county 
 council be asked to forward the finding of the Conference on 
 this subject to the Home Secretary. 
 
i66 APPENDIX III. 
 
 of constituting the conditions of unemployed workers 
 a subject of local administration, and (ii.) as to the 
 establishment of an industrial organisation throughout 
 the country on the lines of the suggestion made in the 
 report of the committee appointed by the Conference. 
 
 Economical difficulties of the pooy. 
 
 (/) That it be referred to the general purposes 
 committee to consider and report as to the advisability 
 of appointing a special committee to inquire into and 
 report upon the economical difficulties of the poor. 
 
 National Conference. 
 
 (g) That copies of the report of the Conference be 
 forwarded to the county, municipal, and Poor Law 
 authorities throughout the country, and that the 
 observations of those authorities be invited thereon. 
 
 Relief works by metropolitan borough councils. 
 
 (h) That the general purposes committee be autho- 
 rised to communicate with the metropolitan borough 
 coimcils on the lines of the resolution of the Conference 
 as to the preparation of schemes of public works of a 
 local character.^ 
 
 Period of execution of public works. 
 
 (») That it be suggested to the various public 
 authorities in London that, as far as practicable, 
 public work be carried out during the " slack " 
 seasons. 
 
 Expediting public works. 
 
 (j) That the attention of the various public autho- 
 rities be invited to the paragraph in the report of the 
 
 ' Note. — ^The resolution of the Conference is as follows: — 
 That the county council be recommended to invite the borough 
 councils to prepare schemes of public works of a local character 
 which may usefully be carried out during periods of distress. 
 
APPENDIX III. 167 
 
 committee to the Conference on the subject of 
 expediting public works.' 
 
 Question of conferring power upon boards of guardians 
 to take land for the purpose of providing work in 
 times of want. Co-operation between borough councils 
 and guardians in times of exceptional distress. 
 
 (k) That the metropolitan borough councils and 
 boards of guardians be invited to express their views 
 on the suggestions (i.) that power should be conferred 
 upon boards of guardians, either individually or con- 
 jointly, to take land for the purpose of finding work 
 for the unemployed in times of want, and (ii.) that 
 during periods of exceptional distress the borough 
 councils should co-operate with the boards of 
 guardians in order that the pauperisation of those 
 persons whose difficulties are occasioned only by 
 exceptional circumstances arising from temporary 
 scarcity of employment, may as far as practicable 
 be avoided. 
 
 I The paragraph referred to is as follows : — The following 
 resolution was suggested by the Poplar Board of Guardians : — 
 " That, in view of the exceptional slackness of demand for 
 labour, public authorities are urged to push on with all expedition 
 work for which provision has already been made, more par- 
 ticularly work like the building of houses, which will employ 
 different classes of skilled labour, and that they be recommended 
 to do this with as little publicity as possible, so as not to attract 
 numbers of the unemployed from the country; and, further, 
 that they be recommended to limit employment on these works 
 to local men so far as is possible." This is a matter to which 
 the attention of the various authorities may be invited, and 
 probably many have already taken action in the direction 
 suggested. It may be mentioned, as an illustration, that although 
 no report was purposely made on the matter, at the commence- 
 ment of the present winter the chairman of the London County 
 Council arranged that wherever possible works which were 
 required in connection with the council's operations should be 
 pushed forward, and various works in connection with the main 
 drainage, parks, fire-stations, etc., have been expedited in this 
 way. We recommend — That the county council be asked to 
 invite the attention of the local authorities to this paragraph. 
 
i68 APPENDIX III. 
 
 Relief works by the Government. 
 
 il) That a communication be addressed to the 
 Prime Minister suggesting that consideration should 
 be given to the question of the preparation of schemes 
 of works of a national character which may usefully 
 be carried out during periods of distress. 
 
 Official labour returns. 
 
 (w) That a communication be addressed to the 
 Board of Trade suggesting that steps should be taken 
 for making the official labour returns more generally 
 known throughout the coimtry. 
 
 Disfranchisement following Poor Law relief. 
 
 (n) That the Local Government Board be informed 
 of the resolution passed by the Conference on the 
 subject of disfranchisement following the receipt of 
 Poor Law relief.* 
 
 Minister of Industry. 
 
 (o) That, in forwarding copies of the report of the 
 Conference to the Prime Minister, attention be invited 
 to the various matters included therein which bear on 
 the question of the promised inquiry into the duties 
 of the Board of Trade and other Government 
 departments. 
 
 Militia training. 
 
 (p) That the War Office be asked to consider the 
 practicability of altering the periods of the year during 
 which the militia are embodied for training. 
 
 1 The resolution of the Conference is as follows : — That the 
 Conference do endorse the recommendation of the Select Com- 
 mittee on Distress from Want of Employment, that a person 
 should not be disfranchised unless he has received relief for a 
 period exceeding one month during the qualifying year, and has 
 also received relief at some period during the year immediately 
 preceding the qualifying year ; and that the county council be 
 asked to convey to the Local Government Board an expression 
 of the opinion of the Conference on the matter. 
 
APPENDIX III. 169 
 
 Period of execution of public works. 
 
 {q) That the attention of the various municipal 
 authorities throughout the country be invited to the 
 question of the desirability of public works being 
 executed during the slack season. 
 
APPENDIX IV. 
 
 GUILDHALL CONFERENCE, FEBRUARY, 1903. 
 
 A Conference on the Unemployed Question, called 
 by the National Unemployed Committee, was held in 
 the Guildhall, on February 28th and 29th, 1903. It 
 was attended by 587 delegates, representing 123 city 
 and borough councils, urban and rural district councils, 
 boards of guardians, etc., including the Corporation of 
 the City of London, and the London County Council, 
 and 118 trades unions and councils, employers' associa- 
 tions, etc. 
 
 The following resolutions were adopted : — 
 
 I. General Resolution. 
 
 That the responsibility for finding work for the 
 unemployed in each district should be undertaken 
 jointly by the local authorities and by the central 
 Government, and that such legislation should be 
 introduced as would empower both central and 
 local authorities to deal adequately with the 
 problem. 
 
 IL Action by the Central Government. 
 
 That the Prime Minister be requested to receive a 
 deputation from this Conference in order to lay before 
 him the urgent necessity for the following legislative 
 and administrative proposals : — 
 
 (a) That this Conference realising that the interests 
 of mdustry are the paramount interests of the 
 
APPENDIX IV. 171 
 
 community, and that the problem of the unemployed 
 should be dealt with in a sympathetic as well as a 
 practical manner, urges upon the Government the 
 necessity of appointing a Minister of Labour with a 
 seat in the Cabinet, one of whose duties it shall be 
 to organise a special department of his office to deal 
 with recurring periods of depression and distress, to 
 watch for and notify indications of approaching lack 
 of employment, to supplement the Board of Trade 
 statistics, to obtain and disseminate information as 
 to places where work can be had, to help in distri- 
 buting labour where it is most needed, and, above all, 
 to devise and promote measures for the temporary 
 and permanent utilisation of the unemployed labour 
 of the nation. 
 
 (6) That the Government forthwith introduce the 
 legislation required and take the necessary steps to 
 provide work for the unemployed — 
 (i) By carrying into effect the recommendations of 
 the Royal Commission on the Port of London ; 
 (2) By promptly granting loans and any other 
 facilities on the application of local authorities 
 for such purposes as laying out villages near 
 great towns, constructing roads and other 
 means of transit from crowded centres to such 
 villages, reclaiming foreshores, afforesting, 
 establishing or utilising farms and other labour 
 colonies, and otherwise providing useful 
 employment ; 
 such employment not to exceed forty-eight hours per 
 week and to be paid for at the trade union rate of wages, 
 (c) That in accordance with the recommendation 
 of the House of Commons Committee of 1895, on 
 Distress from Want of Employment, boards of guar- 
 dians be empowered to give relief in the shape of 
 useful and productive work to the unemployed during 
 special periods of industrial depression without dis- 
 franchising such recipients of relief, and that the 
 Government be requested to make this exemption 
 retrospective so far as this year is concerned. 
 
172 APPENDIX rv. 
 
 (d) That all work already decided on, in connection 
 with the military, naval, postal and other depart- 
 ments of the Government, be put in hand at the 
 earliest possible moment, and as many workmen as 
 possible be employed thereon. 
 
 III. 
 
 That municipal and other local authorities be 
 urged forthwith to take the following steps for coping 
 with distress caused by unemployment : — 
 
 (a) By pressing forward all works already decided 
 upon and by employing as many workers as possible, 
 such work to be put in operation during slack periods 
 of the year and be paid for by the day or hour, at the 
 current wages of the town or district for the class of 
 work performed. 
 
 (6) By taking in hand plans for draining and 
 reclaiming foreshores and other waste land, demolish- 
 ing slums and rehousing the inhabitants in villages 
 on the outskirts of towns or otherwise, and under- 
 taking the many other public works necessary for the 
 health and well-being of the community. 
 
 (c) By establishing labour registration offices (the 
 cost of maintenance to devolve upon the rates) charged 
 with ascertaining as accurately as may be the number 
 and occupations of the unemployed and co-operating 
 with the central Government in finding useful work 
 for such unemployed. 
 
 (d) By opening municipal shelters for the homeless 
 unemployed in times of exceptional distress, and if 
 necessary applying to the Local Government Board 
 to sanction expenditure for the same. 
 
APPENDIX V. 
 
 REPORT OF THE MANSION HOUSE COM- 
 MITTEE ON THE UNEMPLOYED, 1903-4. 
 
 Mr. Long's Scheme. 
 
 The following statement contains an outline of the 
 scheme for dealing with the unemployed proposed by 
 the Right Hon. W. H. Long, M.P., President of the 
 Local Government Board, at the Conference of Metro- 
 politan Guardians held at the Local Government 
 Board on 14th October, 1904. Some suggestions are 
 added which he desires to make for the purpose of 
 giving effect to the scheme. 
 
 1. It is proposed that a joint committee should be 
 established in each metropolitan borough consisting 
 of representatives of the borough council, of the 
 board of guardians, and of charitable and parochial 
 associations in it. 
 
 Throughout the statement the expressions " metro- 
 politan borough " and " borough council " are 
 intended to include the City of London and the 
 Common Council of the City. 
 
 2. The joint committee would receive applications 
 for work or relief, examine into the cases, and divide 
 them into two classes : (i) those who are respectable 
 men temporarily distressed owing to inability to 
 obtain employment ; (2) those who should be regarded 
 as ordinary applicants for Poor Law relief. The first 
 class would be dealt with by the joint committee, the 
 
174 APPENDIX V. 
 
 second class would be dealt with by the guardians in 
 the usual way. 
 
 3. The boards of guardians should render assistance 
 in making inquiries as to applicants. If they need 
 additional officers to enable this to be done, the Local 
 Government Board would be prepared to assent to 
 temporary appointments of such officers, and to issue 
 any order that might be necessary for this purpose. 
 The salaries of the officers would be repaid to the 
 guardians from the Metropolitan Common Poor 
 Fund. 
 
 4.. The joint committee would ascertain from the 
 borough council and others in the borough how far 
 they could give employment to persons of the first 
 class. It is suggested that men might be employed 
 by the borough councils in work which is liot of a 
 skilled character, such as the repair and extra cleansing 
 of streets, painting and whitewashing the interior of 
 town halls, etc., and that men recommended by the 
 joint committee might be employed on works of this 
 kind and any others of a suitable character which the 
 borough council are in a position to undertake. 
 
 The joint committee would make a register of 
 applicants for work belonging to the borough and 
 would, in concert with the officers of any labour 
 'bureau in the borough, ascertain what work could 
 be obtained in it, and would afford facilities for the 
 interchange of information between the applicants 
 for work and employers. 
 
 5. It is most irnportant that the joint committee 
 should use every effort themselves to deal with cases 
 of applicants to them for work, when they are satisfied 
 that the cases are proper to be dealt with. Where, 
 however, they are unable to find work for them, they 
 should place themselves in communication with the 
 central committee mentioned below, who would 
 endeavour to find them work elsewhere. 
 
 6. A central committee should be formed on which 
 each of the joint committees should be represented. 
 It would seem desirable that the London County 
 
APPENDIX V. 175 
 
 Council should also be represented on the central 
 committee, and if there was a general wish that the 
 President of the Local Government Board should 
 nominate a few additional members, so that some 
 persons of experience not connected with a particular 
 borough or union might be added to the committee, 
 he would be willing to nominate a few members 
 accordingly. 
 
 It is important, however, that the numbers of the 
 central committee should be kept within reasonable 
 limits, and it is considered that whilst the number of 
 the representatives of each joint committee should not 
 exceed two, there would be advantage in the number 
 being limited to one. 
 
 The President is prepared to arrange for the 
 convening of the first meeting of the central committee 
 when constituted. He should be furnished in the 
 case of each joint committee with the names and 
 addresses of their representatives on the central 
 committee. 
 
 7. It would be the function of the central committee 
 to act as the advisers and guides of the joint com- 
 mittees, and as controllers for the whole of London, 
 so as to secure as far as possible a common policy 
 throughout the whole metropolis. The central com- 
 mittee would be in constant communication with the 
 joint committees, would gather and distribute informa- 
 tion as to employment, and would administer the 
 funds entrusted to them. They would deal as far as 
 possible with cases of the unemployed in any borough 
 for whom employment could not be found by the 
 joint committee of that borough, and who were 
 referred to them by that committee. 
 
 They would endeavour to arrange for the execution 
 of larger works extending beyond the limits of any 
 particular borough, would send men to labour colonies 
 where practicable, etc. 
 
 8. It is hoped that the funds of the central com- 
 mittee would be largely furnished by means of 
 subscriptions from private persons and others, but 
 
176 APPENDIX V. 
 
 they would in all probability in the course of the 
 winter require contributions in addition from the 
 borough councils. It is suggested that these should 
 be based on the assessable value of the borough, and 
 in this way the cost would be spread uniformly over 
 the metropolis. 
 
 The Local Government Board would be prepared, 
 where necessary, to sanction such contributions to the 
 central committee by the borough councils under the 
 Local Authorities (Expenses) Act, 1887. 
 
 g. In the selection of men to whom employment 
 should be given, it would be important that the joint 
 committees should act on uniform principles. The 
 central committee would, no doubt, frame rules for 
 the guidance of the joint committees, but one or two 
 points may be mentioned here. 
 
 (a) A joint committee should only deal with cases 
 in which distress is due to lack of employment. All 
 other cases (including those of a chronic nature, 
 whether due to lack of employment or not) should be 
 left to the guardians and the ordinary charitable 
 agencies. 
 
 (b) Persons of bad character (drunkards, etc.) should 
 not be dealt with. 
 
 (c) Preference should be given to persons who have 
 established homes with wives and families. 
 
 (d) The work provided should as far as possible be 
 continuous for some definite time. 
 
 (e) Unless the circumstances are very exceptional, 
 employment should only be found by the joint 
 committee if the applicant has resided six months in 
 the borough. If he has resided for six months in 
 London, but not in the borough, his case, if otherwise 
 suitable, might be referred to the central committee. 
 
 (/) No employment should be given until the home 
 lias been visited on behalf of the joint committee. 
 
 (g) In distributing work amongst the applicants, 
 regard should be had as far as possible to their 
 previous occupations. 
 
 10. It is earnestly desired that every care should be 
 
APPENDIX V. 177 
 
 exercised to sift the applications made, and that all 
 possible precautions should be taken to limit the 
 cases dealt with to those of actual necessity in which 
 the circumstances are such that they can properly be 
 dealt with on the lines above indicated. 
 
 Local Government Board, 
 2gth October, 1904. 
 
 INTERIM REPORT OF CENTRAL COMMITTEE 
 OF THE LONDON UNEMPLOYED FUND, 
 JANUARY 4TH, 1905, ISSUED BY MR. ALDER- 
 MAN ALLISTON (CHAIRMAN) AND THE 
 REV. H. RUSSELL WAKEFIELD (VICE- 
 CHAIRMAN). 
 
 Mr. Long in his scheme defined our duties. We 
 were first of all to advise the joint committees formed 
 in the various boroughs, so as to secure as far as 
 possible a common policy in connection with the 
 provision of work for the unemployed throughout the 
 whole metropolis. We have endeavoured to do this 
 by suggesting to the joint committees methods by 
 inquiry and classification of those out of work. We 
 have also kept prominently before the various districts 
 that it was Mr. Long's wish that as far as possible 
 work should be foimd in the different localities, and 
 that only those unemployed who could not be thus 
 dealt with should be sent on to the central committee. 
 
 The co-operation of the joint committees has been 
 of a most willing character, with the result that at least 
 2,000 persons have already been given regular or partial 
 employment in the various boroughs. The central 
 committee have also expressed readiness to subsidise 
 by means of a contribution towards the extra cost 
 incurred by any borough undertaking at this time 
 
178 APPENDIX V. 
 
 new work which otherwise would not be dealt with 
 until a later date. We may here mention that we 
 have decided upon the establishment of what may be 
 called a Central Labour Exchange, which shall be in 
 communication with the various labour bureaux, and 
 where employers and employed may be placed in 
 connection one with the other. We believe that this 
 will be very useful, and we look forward to its being 
 associated with the provinces as well as London. 
 
 A small sub-committee is also being formed for the 
 consideration of a careful scheme for the emigration 
 of suitable men. 
 
 The next part of Mr. Long's instructions was that 
 we were to deal, as far as possible, with cases of the 
 unemployed for whom work could not be found by 
 the borough joint committees. In order to effect this, 
 we have opened communication with the Govern- 
 ment departments and with every central authority 
 in the metropolis, and the results are encouraging. 
 It is true that we are only now beginning to send out 
 any considerable number of workmen, but from this 
 date there will be a steady increase in the total. The 
 following arrangements have been definitely made : — 
 
 (i) At Hadleigh Farm Colony 200 men will now 
 be employed for continuous monthly periods through 
 the agency of the Salvation Army. 
 
 (2) The Asylums Committee of the London County 
 Council have provided facilities for the employment 
 of about 1,000 men on their estate at Long Grove, 
 Epsom, for three months. The first 100 began work 
 on Monday, and the numbers will be increased as 
 rapidly as possible. 
 
 (3) Opportunities have also been provided by the 
 London County Council's Parks and other com- 
 mittees for the employment of about 900 men in 
 unskilled labour in various parts of the metropolis. 
 
 (4) The Markets Committee of the City Corpora- 
 tion have made arrangements for the employment 
 for some months of a large number of men recom- 
 mended by the committee. 
 
APPENDIX V. 179 
 
 (5) We are negotiating with the Garden City, near 
 Hitchin, for work for some 200 men. 
 
 The public will, of course, desire to know the 
 payment to be received by our workers. Roughly 
 speaking, it may be put down at 25s. per week per 
 man, and we estimate that the arrangements already 
 entered into will involve the employment of 2,500 
 men for a period of about ten weeks. This expendi- 
 ture, with railway fares, provision in some cases of 
 clothing, etc., will absorb practically the whole of 
 the ;f35,ooo which had been subscribed up to the 
 present. We have great hopes that very soon Mr. 
 Fels' 1,300 acres will be at our disposal. In order to 
 develop our scheme in regard to this land, and in 
 order to extend our operations in other directions, 
 the continued and most generous support of the 
 public will be required. 
 
 LONDON UNEMPLOYED FUND, 1904-5. REPORT 
 OF THE CENTRAL EXECUTIVE COM- 
 MITTEE, NOVEMBER ioth, 1905. 
 
 This report describes the work of the organisation of 
 central and local committees set up in London last winter 
 by the President of the Local Government Board to deal 
 with the question of the genuine unemployed. It contains 
 an account of various works in London and the country 
 upon which some 3,500 men were employed, besides those 
 assisted by grants in aid of special municipal work. It also 
 describes an agricultural training colony at HoUesley Bay, 
 and a Central Employment Exchange for bringing employers 
 and employed together all over London. It thus contains 
 the experiences of a. large representative committee in 
 dealing for twelve months with the problem in its various 
 branches. On all these points, and others to which the 
 task of administration gives rise, the report should prove 
 not only a record of the work done, but also a guide and 
 help to those entrusted with the administration of the 
 Unemployed Workmen Act, and to all who are interested 
 in the problem. 
 
 P. S. King & Son, Orchard House, Westminster. Price 
 IS. net (post free is. 3d.). 
 
 N2 
 
APPENDIX VI. 
 
 SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE PHILA- 
 DELPHIA VACANT LOTS CULTIVATION 
 ASSOCIATION, 1903. 
 
 A Statement by the Directors. 
 
 Seven years ago, during a period of widespread 
 industrial depression, the Philadelphia Vacant Lots 
 Association was organised to meet an urgent need. 
 During the first year about one hundred families were 
 given an opportunity to earn food for themselves on 
 land which otherwise would have been idle. Sustained 
 by the wise benevolence of a small number of con- 
 tributors and generous landowners, the work has 
 expanded from year to year until during last season 
 seven hundred and sixty needy families were helped 
 to help themselves. The expenditure of $4,837.00 in 
 setting people to work resulted in crops valued at 
 $36,000. 
 
 Report of the Superintendent. 
 
 To the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Vacant 
 Lots Cultivation Association. 
 
 Gentlemen, — The small beginning made seven 
 years ago in Philadelphia in the cultivation of vacant 
 lot gardens as a means of aiding the unemployed has 
 passed beyond the experimental stage. From this 
 small beginning in 1897 it has become quite an 
 
APPENDIX VI. i8t 
 
 important factor in our great city's life, especially 
 important to the more than three thousand families 
 that have sought and obtained an opportunity for 
 self-employment through its good offices at various 
 times since the work began. 
 
 The belief that it is better to show men and women 
 how and where they can find pleasant and profitable 
 employment, and if necessary kindly and properly 
 direct their energies while engaged therein, than it is 
 to give alms, has become so thoroughly established as 
 to require no argument in its favour. The further 
 belief that there is an abundance of such opportunities 
 for employment, if only the proper means of opening 
 them up is adopted, is becoming quite firmly estab- 
 lished. The vacant lot gardens in Philadelphia have 
 demonstrated these beliefs. 
 
 In great cities, where thousands of men are con- 
 stantly idle, especially the old men and men partially 
 disabled, men too weak, too slow, too thoughtless, 
 too inefficient in some way or other to be of use in 
 the great factories, are thousands of acres of idle land 
 at the very doors of these idle people. Why should 
 they be forced to accept alms, or sent to gaol as 
 vagrants to be supported at public expense, when 
 there is such an abundant opportunity for them to 
 earn their own living ? 
 
 Consider Philadelphia as an example : An average 
 building lot is not larger than twenty by eighty feet. 
 Twenty such building lots can be laid out from one 
 acre of land, leaving the usual streets and alleys. 
 Inside the city limits there are 83,000 acres of land, 
 less than 13,000 of which are used for parks and other 
 public purposes ; on the remaining more than 70,000 
 acres, equal to 1,400,000 building lots, there are less 
 than 300,000 improvements. It is a guess to say how 
 many of these lots are idle, but it is safe to say that 
 there are more than enough to give full and profitable 
 employment to every idle person within the city's 
 limits. During the past season, in fact, during the 
 past seven seasons, your association has done much 
 
iSa APPENDIX VI. 
 
 toward bringing together the poor of Philadelphia 
 and some of the unused land. 
 
 In 1903 two hundred and seventy- five acres of such 
 land was put to profitable use, providing partial 
 employment for more than 3,600 persons. One hundred 
 and ninety-nine acres was within the corporate limits 
 of the city and seventy-six acres in New Jersey. 
 Working the Philadelphia land were 768 families, 
 consisting of 3,609 persons, cultivating quarter-acre 
 gardens, some a little less and some a little more, and 
 140 orphan and school children cultivating gardens of 
 about one-sixteenth of an acre each. About nine 
 acres in the city were cultivated by employed labour, 
 as a co-operative farm. This latter furnished work 
 for a considerable portion of the year to more than 
 twenty people, largely men and women in great want, 
 some of them not knowing when they came for work 
 whence the next meal would come. A few worked 
 two or three days a week during the most of the year, 
 others worked regularly the whole summer, while still 
 others worked only a day 01 two and were seen no 
 more. Some were typical specimens of the tramp. 
 
 The seventy-six acres cultivated in New Jersey were 
 all used in a co-operative way. The tract of land 
 consisted of a ninety-six acre farm, well improved, 
 situated about five miles south-east of the city of 
 Trenton. Running through this farm is the Trenton 
 and New Brunswick Railway, along which tramps 
 are passing almost daily. Mr. Bolton Hall, of New 
 York, who kindly loaned the farm to the association, 
 did so believing that if these people were given profit- 
 able and pleasant employment and their freedom, this 
 would, in a large measure, stop their tramping. It 
 was also believed that the thriftier ones among our 
 vacant lot gardeners in Philadelphia would be induced 
 to take small tracts and become permanent home 
 owners thereon. Both the location and the season 
 were much against a successful demonstration of these 
 ideas. It was the first of May before the work began, 
 and for five weeks the weather was so dry that it was 
 
APPENDIX VI. 183 
 
 almost impossible to do any ploughing or other pre- 
 paratory work necessary to planting the crop. Then 
 it rained so incessantly for two weeks that we were 
 brought almost to the first of July before the work 
 could be gotten even fairly under way. The crop 
 was almost a failure ; still much good has been 
 accomplished. Many of the gardeners were more than 
 willing to take the small holdings if they could be 
 helped with sufficient funds to build a house or suffi- 
 cient employment to guarantee a living until a start 
 could be made. Dozens of men and boys applied for 
 work, most of whom proved to be faithful and willing. 
 Two young Bulgarians just arrived in this country 
 with no friends or acquaintances, and unable to speak 
 a word of our language, were among the first to come. 
 They are both now employed in a New York hotel as 
 bakers at fairly good wages, and have learned to speak 
 our language fairly well. The farm furnished employ- 
 ment to more than thirty people during the season, 
 many of whom were as greatly benefited as those 
 instanced above. 
 
 We expended during the year in that particular 
 work $925.13, as follows : — 
 
 Wages for labour performed ...$366.42 
 
 For horses and tools 218.76 
 
 Seeds and plants 116.85 
 
 Fertilisers 133.80 
 
 Feed for the horses 97-io 
 
 $925-13 
 In the Philadelphia work we have expended this 
 season a total of $4,837.27. Of this sum $764.51 was 
 paid into the treasury from sales of vegetables from 
 the co-operative farms, from sales of tools and seeds 
 and fertilisers to the gardeners, and from the sale of 
 horses previously purchased by the association. 
 
 In return for these expenditures the gardeners have 
 taken home or sold from their little plots vegetables 
 and other products to the value of not less than 
 
i84 APPENDIX VI. 
 
 §36,000. On the co-operative farm of nine acres in 
 Philadelphia we expended for all purposes — wages, 
 seeds, tools, fertilisers and labour — more than we have 
 paid into the association's treasury from the proceeds 
 of vegetables sold therefrom. This is the only year 
 since this feature of the work was taken up that 
 there was not a surplus from this source. 
 
 For each dollar contributed to the Philadelphia 
 Vacant Lots Cultivation Association in 1903 the 
 beneficiaries for whom it was spent, had, by adding 
 to it their own labour, which otherwise would have 
 been wasted, nearly eight dollars' worth of produce. 
 For each dollar paid in poor rates to a city the 
 beneficiaries seldom get over fifty cents' worth of 
 actual aid. This is of vast importance to taxpayers and 
 city officials charged with municipal responsibilities, 
 as well as to philanthropists. 
 
 Some may be rather sceptical as to the statements 
 made, especially in regard to the large returns for the 
 small expenditures, but they should consider that our 
 market is next door to the gardens, and the gardener 
 does his own marketing. His produce is fresh and of 
 the highest quality, and he gets the highest retail 
 price. He gets his fertilisers for next to nothing, as 
 there are thousands of tons of good manure and 
 street sweepings annually thrown into the dumps, 
 vvhich can be had merely for the asking. The market 
 gardener ten miles from the city ships to the commis- 
 sion merchants, gets the wholesaleprice, out of which 
 he pays commission and freight. To the farmer in the 
 city not only is this saved, but the market gardener 
 ten miles or more from the city would pay at least 
 $1.50 per ton for all the manure used, and if he 
 applied it at the rate of forty to sixty tons per acre 
 (which he must do to grow the finest crops) that item 
 of expense alone makes a good profit in favour of the 
 city farmer. 
 
 The association solicits contributions from the 
 charitable only sufficient to pay for superintendence, 
 ploughing, seeds, fertilisers, and incidental expenses, 
 
APPENDIX VI, 
 
 185 
 
 O 
 
 a 
 
 •« 
 
 H 
 
 tn 
 
 a 
 > 
 
 u ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 to 
 
 8 
 
 t^ 
 
 N 
 
 o\ 
 
 
 
 >o 
 
 si 
 
 •,2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 dv 
 
 t>. 
 
 K. 
 
 ti 
 
 id 
 
 56 
 
 M 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 s s 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 tn -M 
 
 fO 
 
 lO 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 •* 
 
 
 
 t^ 
 
 ro 
 
 t^ 
 
 PO 
 
 T 
 
 Ov 
 
 00 
 
 « 
 
 51 
 
 -3- 
 
 9f N 
 
 id 
 
 d 
 
 « 
 
 d 
 
 vd 
 
 ti 
 
 kO 
 
 »o 
 
 *o 
 
 00 
 
 10 
 
 ro 
 
 00_ 
 
 « 
 
 «D 
 
 OJ 
 
 •^ 
 
 10 
 
 00 
 
 i3 c 
 
 
 m" 
 
 « 
 
 W 
 
 rn 
 
 * 
 
 ui 
 
 * 
 
 HO 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 h 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 U 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 S'S'S 
 
 
 
 c^ 
 
 »rj 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 SB'S 
 
 ■<:gu 
 
 
 
 C30 
 
 at 
 
 
 
 -I- 
 
 00 
 
 q 
 IN 
 
 \o 
 
 >o 
 
 tT 
 
 ■* 
 
 ^ 
 
 >o 
 
 ■>f 
 
 £ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 § 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 0' 
 
 d 
 
 d 
 
 8 
 
 d 
 
 d 
 
 
 
 cu 
 
 (© 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 c^ 
 
 00 
 
 vq 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 ^o 
 
 di 
 
 Tf 
 
 ■* 
 
 
 
 0" 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 W 
 
 c^ 
 
 tn 
 
 10 
 
 m 
 
 H 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 (0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 C 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i's 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 u-i 
 
 vo 
 
 VO 
 
 in 
 
 CTl 
 
 0. o 
 
 « 
 
 r^ 
 
 en 
 
 00 
 
 ^ 
 
 c^ 
 
 >8 
 
 10 
 
 t- 
 
 ■•^ 
 
 CO 
 
 o> 
 
 t>. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 °5 
 
 
 
 (H 
 
 M 
 
 « 
 
 rn 
 
 ro 
 
 g 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 •si 
 
 
 
 N 
 
 N 
 
 
 
 N 
 
 
 '^ 
 
 fl 
 
 
 
 VO 
 
 0^ 
 
 N 
 
 rn 
 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 M 
 
 W 
 
 »o 
 
 VO 
 
 ^ 
 
 t^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 t 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 u 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 •«4 
 
 
 
 
 -*• 
 
 
 t^ 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 irj 
 
 ■s 
 
 CI 
 
 ^ 
 
 t^ 
 
 CI 
 
 irt 
 
 01 
 
 r^ 
 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 M 
 
 « 
 
 d 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Z 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 g 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 rn 
 
 00 
 
 a\ 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 s 
 
 fO 
 
 Oi 
 
 o> 
 
 o\ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2. 
 
 
 CO 
 
 00 
 
 M 
 
 00 
 
 01 
 
 H 
 
 C7\ 
 
 l-t 
 
 
i86 APPENDIX VI. 
 
 The gardeners do the rest and get the proceeds either 
 by sale or through the use in their homes of the 
 products; and since they get all that they make, 
 the more intelligently and industriously they work the 
 larger their income. A failure means the loss of time 
 and opportunity. This brings out all their better 
 nature and best efforts. It is a first-rate business 
 school for the unemployed. They learn quickly how 
 to get much money out of little ground. The out- 
 of-door work makes them feel of some account in the 
 world. It develops hope in minds that are almost 
 lost in despair. There are thousands who are 
 desperate on account of poverty due to the want of 
 opportunity ; it reclaims such men. 
 
 To land- owners the Vacant Lots Cultivation 
 Association, in substance, says : Lend us your idle 
 land (subject to immediate dispossession whenever 
 required) and we will offer ample self-help to all who 
 cannot work in usual employments. We will leave 
 the land (on demand) in better condition than we find 
 it. We will make of it something even better than a 
 park or playground for the poor, or rather we will 
 show them how to make not only parks and play- 
 grounds for themselves but productive gardens as well 
 out of what are now only idle lots and in many cases 
 rubbish heaps. We will help to make the city 
 beautiful while making this idle land and these idle 
 people useful. 
 
 R. F. Powell. 
 
APPENDIX VII. 
 
 THE BEST LABOUR COLONY IN GERMANY 
 — LUHLERHEIM. 
 
 By G. p. Gooch, M.A. 
 
 On entering Germany from Holland, the first labour 
 colony you will come to is Liihlerheim, some ten 
 miles distant from Wesel. You are there not far 
 from the western boundary of Westphalia, that land 
 of lofty chimneys and belching furnaces, in which 
 the industrial life of Germany centres. A little to 
 the north lies the Roman Catholic colony of Maria 
 Veen. These harbours of refuge remind one of military 
 hospitals to which the stricken and wounded are 
 brought, in from the fierce combat that is always 
 raging around. 
 
 Our first glimpse of Liihlerheim on turning off the 
 road which we had followed for nearly an hour from 
 the railway station was prepossessing. The approach 
 to the buildings was prettily laid out, and the bright- 
 hued flowers seemed to extend a welcome to new- 
 comers. A moment more, and we were shaking 
 hands with Hausvater Siemon. I do not think any 
 of us is likely to forget that noble man. Before 
 coming to Liihlerheim, some five years ago, he had 
 long been at the head of the farming work at the 
 Rauhe Haus, near Hamburg, that famous creation of 
 Wichem, to which the Inner Mission traces its origin, 
 and the history of which forms one of the most 
 fascinating chapters in the redemptive work of the 
 nineteenth century. The square, thick-set figure, the 
 
i88 APPENDIX VII. 
 
 open face, and kind, keen eyes, suggested a nature of 
 mingled strength and tenderness ; and when we saw 
 him with the colonists we knew that the face did not 
 belie the man. The labour colony system depends 
 for its success on the character of the Hausvater ; and 
 we felt instinctively that the institution of which our 
 new friend was the guiding spirit must be as admirable 
 in practice as in theory. 
 
 The country round Luhlerheim somewhat resembles 
 parts of Norfolk, and makes no pretence to beauty ; 
 the colony is planted on land of such little value that 
 the original purchase was effected for £i an acre. It 
 is now eighteen years old, and additional land has 
 been bought at a rather higher price. We wallced 
 out to see a number of the colonists reclaiming the 
 virgin soil. As we watched them working cheerily 
 away, digging and draining the land, one felt that a 
 task had been found that added to the wealth of the 
 country not less than to the physical and spiritual 
 health of the worker. Reclamation of the soil and 
 the cultivation of the land employs the greater number 
 of the men. At the time of our visit all the colonists 
 were employed within the bounds of the estate ; but 
 in winter, when the numbers rise to more than two 
 hundred, many are hired by neighbouring landowners 
 within a distance of not more than an hour's walk 
 to reclaim the soil. 
 
 The less stalwart members of the community find 
 work indoors in the innumerable duties that fall to 
 be performed in a colony that is made as nearly as 
 possible self-sufficing. When the colony is full, about 
 sixty men are thus employed in what may be called 
 domestic work. A third occupation requiring less 
 labour than either the farm or the domestic work, is 
 that of looking after the very considerable quantity 
 of stoclc. The finances of the colony depend to such 
 a large extent on the success of this department that 
 two experienced men are in control ; but the less 
 responsible work among the animals is performed by 
 the colonists themselves. The good Hausvater showed 
 
APPENDIX VII. 189 
 
 us with special pride a large and handsome building 
 which had recently been erected for the cattle entirely 
 by the labour of colonists working imder his own 
 supervision. The buildings devoted to the pigs were 
 very imperfectly ventilated ; but this state of things 
 seemed to affect them less than their visitors, for the 
 animals looked in prime condition and bring in about 
 £i,Sog a year to the colony. 
 
 We were fresh from our visit to the Belgian colonies, 
 and the change of atmosphere was like coming out 
 of a vault into the light of day. However the colonists 
 differ from one another, they are alike in one particular. 
 Every man is there by his own free will. From time 
 to time a man will be sent or at any rate strongly 
 urged by some individual or society to enter a colony ; 
 but in such a case he is asked to sign a paper de- 
 claring that it is also his own wish that he should be 
 there. This fundamental principle of voluntaryism 
 pervades the entire work. The colony is what Canon 
 Bamett would call a school of freedom, not a school 
 of restraint. There is no more compulsion to remain 
 than to enter. Those to whom clothes are supplied 
 are bound to stay at least six weeks, in order to earn 
 at least part of their value. After that time, the man 
 who does not find the life to his taste is free to go. 
 Some will no doubt say that this is a flaw in the 
 system. To the Hausvater it appears indispensable, 
 and he spoke of it to me as the foundation on which 
 the entire scheme rests. The one chance of a man of 
 the usual type of colonist retaining or regaining his 
 self-respect is to be able to feel that he is not a 
 prisoner or a convict, but that he has come to a place 
 where honest men may live and work without shame 
 and without reproach. Everyone who seeks admission 
 to the colony knows that he will have to work ; but 
 judging by the faces of the men, they seemed to relish 
 their tasks. There are no absolute limits in the 
 dietary, and the men eat as much as they want. It 
 is needless to say that no alcohol ever appears in the 
 cplony. 
 
igo APPENDIX VII. 
 
 Work is the great schoolmaster at Liihlerheim ; but 
 its lessons are reinforced by those of leisure. The 
 men are encouraged to make their spare time pleasant 
 and profitable, and the varied talent that flows into 
 the colony is utilised for dramatic and musical per- 
 formances and in many other ways ; the volumes in 
 the lending library seemed to be carefully chosen — of 
 novels only a few, and those the best — and, accord- 
 ing to our guide, are eagerly read. If a colonist 
 possesses some special gift, he is encouraged to use it. 
 The large dining-room, which also serves as the 
 chapel, is adorned with exquisite drawings of the 
 evangelists by a colonist whose talent would ensure 
 him a handsome income in the outside world could 
 he but stand against the temptation of drink. 
 
 And, finally, the religious influence is quietly but 
 unobtrusively at work. In Liihlerheim each man is 
 regarded as an individual, and as far as possible 
 treated individually ; for it is one of the features of 
 the labour colony system that no community should 
 be so large that the Hausvater cannot know the 
 details of every case under his charge. The Haus- 
 vater was fully persuaded that the absence of con- 
 straint which prevails in the daily life of his large 
 family should apply equally in the things of the soul. 
 There was a noticeable absence of texts and of the 
 external reminders of religion throughout the build- 
 ings ; and the large sitting or recreation room was 
 entirely fitted with portraits of the heroes of German 
 history. Everyone must attend morning and evening 
 prayers, which are read by the Hausvater, and service 
 on Sunday, when a neighbouring clergyman comes at 
 frequent intervals to preach. But no one is questioned 
 as to his beliefs, and it is by his own choice if the 
 conversation ever turns on the subject. At the great 
 festivals of the Christian year communion is adminis- 
 tered ; and those who desire to be present give notice 
 to the Hausvater a day or two before. A consider- 
 able number of the men take advantage of the oppor- 
 tunity, and the Hausvater told me that it is in the 
 
APPENDIX VII. 191 
 
 little talk with each man as he comes to announce 
 his intention that he finds the best occasion to speak 
 to him of his life, and his temptations, and his future, 
 and to break down the barrier of shyness and pride 
 which locks his lips. 
 
 In asking and answering the question what result 
 Liihlerheim produces, we must bear in mind the class 
 of men by whom it is frequented. The German 
 colony system is in no sense an instrument for dealing 
 with the genuine imemployed. If it ever made such 
 a claim, it makes it no longer. The workman of 
 good character and normal physique who falls out of 
 work looks for aid and rarely looks in vain to local 
 assistance. If he is a good workman, his town will 
 help him in his temporary difficulty, and the State is 
 waiting for him with a pension when he grows old. 
 But it is well known that the greater number of men 
 who pass throughout the labour colonies have been 
 in prison, and that only a small percentage of those 
 who leave find their way into permanent situations. 
 These two facts make it pretty clear that the men 
 who use the colonies are an inferior class — what the 
 Germans call " minderwertig " — inferior in bodily 
 strength, in technical efficiency, in moral balance, or 
 in all of them together. But such men are not to be 
 confounded with the criminal class. Though nearly 
 two-thirds of the 474 men who entered Liihlerheim 
 last year have been in prison, begging accounted for 
 nearly half, and only twenty-nine had been guilty of 
 serious offences. The evidence of figures is confirmed 
 by the emphatic testimony of the Hausvater. A few 
 are sent away from time to time for idleness or other 
 reasons ; but the conduct of the men he declared to 
 be exemplary, adding that he should be quite happy 
 about his wife if he was compelled to leave her for a 
 time in the colony without any members of the staff. 
 
 In a word, the colonists whom we saw in Liihlerheim 
 belonged to a class which needs removal from tempta- 
 tion rather than punishment. They have no ties out- 
 side, for the most part, for scarcely more than 10 per 
 
192 APPENDIX Vlt. 
 
 cent, of the colonists are married. Inside the fold 
 they live useful, industrious, and cheerful lives ; out- 
 side they fall a prey to their own weaknesses, or to 
 the stress and struggle of industrial life. The majority 
 of the men had been in Liihlerheim or some other 
 colony before, often several times ; and on the day of 
 our visit a man who always leaves the colony in the 
 harvest season returned for his usual winter sojourn. 
 The abolition of the rule limiting the stay to two 
 years is not only a merciful concession to the weak- 
 lings, but a recognition of the exact economic function 
 of a colony in the social structure. It is, of course, a 
 form of relief, for no colony is self-supporting. But 
 the working expenses of Liihlerheim and its fellows 
 are trifling ; and if it fails to provide its members 
 with strength to stand alone in the world, it is at 
 any rate the means of preventing them from falling 
 lower.i 
 
 The German labour colony system stands in such 
 close relation to the entire system of registration, poor 
 relief, and the vagrancy laws that its adaptability to 
 England could not be fruitfully discussed except in 
 connection with a comprehensive plan of dealing with 
 the unemployable, both criminal and otherwise. But 
 without entering on this wider theme, my visit to 
 Liihlerheim convinced me that the establishment of 
 similar colonies in England under the direction of men 
 like Hausvater Siemon, fired with the love of God and 
 man, would be the cheapest and most hopeful method 
 of dealing with the class of men who are weak but 
 not wicked, and who, so long as they are condemned 
 to engage in a struggle for which they are not fitted, 
 drag down the men of stronger calibre, and supply 
 recruits to the criminal classes. 
 
 ' For articles on other colonies see The Frimi lor Oct. 14th, 
 
 1904. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY.' 
 
 UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 Moore, Harold N. The Unemployed and the Land. 
 Contemporavy Review, March, 1889. 
 
 Meath, Earl of. Labour Colonies in Germany. 
 Nineteenth Century, January, 1891. 
 
 Agencies and Methods for dealing with the Unemployed 
 in the United Kingdom and certain Foreign 
 Countries. Report to the Board of Trade by 
 Mr. H. Llewellyn Smith, With Map, 1893. 
 IS. lid, 7182. c. 
 
 Agencies and Methods for dealing with the Unemployed 
 in certain Foreign Countries. Report to the 
 Board of Trade by Mr. D. F. Schloss, 1904. is. 
 
 2304. c.d. 
 
 Relief of Unemployed in Scotland during the Winter 
 of 1893-4. Report of the Board of Supervision. 
 8rf. I 7410- c. 
 
 Drage, Geoffrey, Secretary to the Labour Commis- 
 sion. The Unemployed. 1894. 2s. 6d. 
 
 Distress from Want of Employment. Report of 
 House of Commons Committee, with Evidence. 
 1895-6, 4 parts. 1 6s. ^d. 
 
 German Society for Insurance against Want of 
 Employment in Winter and the General Labour 
 Registry at Cologne. Consular Report. 1896. ■id. 
 
 Paton, T. B. The Unemployable and the Un- 
 employed. 3^. 
 
 ' This list of books and articles does not profess to be com- 
 plete. It merely deals with the most important and most recent 
 aspects of these two problems. Any of these publications will 
 be supplied by P. S. King & Son, Orchard House, Westminster. 
 
 U. O 
 
194 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 The Relief of Distress due to Want of Employment. 
 
 Issued by the Charity Organisation Society, is. 
 Burns, John, M.P. Fabian Society Tract on the 
 
 " Unemployed." id. 
 
 HoBsoN, J. A. The Problem of the Unemployed. 
 i8g6. 25. 6d. 
 
 Lack of Employment in London. Conference between 
 representatives of the London County Council 
 and the Administrative Authorities in London, 
 February and April, 1903. Proceedings and 
 Report on the Recommendations. 6d. 
 
 HiGGS, Mary. How to Deal with the Unemployed. 
 
 1904. 25. 
 
 Fluctuations in Employment in the United Kingdom 
 and certain Foreign Countries. Part III. of 
 Board of Trade Blue-book on British and Foreign 
 Trades and Industries (and series). 1904. 3s. 6d. 
 
 2337. c.d, 
 
 Keir Hardie, J., M.P. The Unemployed Problem, 
 with some Suggestions for Solving it. 1904. 
 Independent Labour Party, id. 
 
 Labour Colonies of Holland, Belgium and Germany, 
 Report of a Visit to the. (Special number of The 
 Friend, October, 1904.) ■2d. 
 
 Salvation Army Colonies in the United States and at 
 Hadleigh, England. Report by Commissioner 
 H. Rider Haggard. With a Scheme of National 
 Land Settlement. 1904. <jd. 2562. c.d. 
 
 Sellers, Edith. The Danish Poor Relief System : 
 An Example for England. 1904. 2s. 
 
 The Unemployed Workmen Act, 1905 (Official Copy), 
 with the Orders and Circulars of the Local 
 Government Board to Local Authorities. Set of 
 9 parts, lod. 
 
 London Unemployed Fund. Preliminary Statement 
 by the Central Executive Committee, 14th April, 
 
 1905. Prepared at the request of the President 
 of the Local Government Board. 6d. 2561. c.d. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 195 
 
 London Unemployed Fund, 1904-5. Report of the 
 Central Executive Committee on the Constitution 
 and Work of the Organisation set up in London 
 in the Winter of 1904-5. is. 
 
 Temporary Colony at Garden City for Unemployed 
 Workmen, mainly from West Ham, during 
 February, March, and April, 1905. Carried out 
 by the Trinity College, Oxford, Settlement, 
 Stratford. Report on. 6d. 
 
 THE UNEMPLOYABLE AND VAGRANCY. 
 
 Vagrancy. Report of Poor Law Inspectors on 
 Vagrancy. 1856. is. ^d. 
 
 Local Government Board, Annual Reports of, con- 
 taining Reports on Relief of the Poor, Pauper 
 Children, &c. 4s. lod. 
 
 Vagrants, Beggars and Habitual Offenders, Scotland. 
 
 Report of Departmental Committee, 1895. 6d. 
 
 7753- c. 
 Pyddoke, H. W. The Casual Ward System. Aa 
 
 Enquiry into the Whitechapel Casual Ward. 
 
 The Toynhee Record, April, 1895. 
 Industrial Invalids. Christian Social Union Pamphlets, 
 
 reprinted from The Economic Review, October and 
 
 November, 1903. 
 
 (a) The Unemployed and Unemployable. 
 
 By Canon Barnett. 
 
 (b) The Belgian Labour Colonies. By H. 
 
 J. Torr, J.P. 
 Vagrancy Committee of the Lincolnshire, Parts of 
 
 Lindsey, Quarter Sessions, 1903. Report, ^d. 
 Vagrancy : Its Causes and Cure. Paper read before 
 
 the South Wales Poor Law Conference, 1903. 
 
 By Mr. A. F. VuUiamy, Clerk, Ipswich Union. 
 
 IS. 
 
 Charity Organisation Society Special Committee on 
 Vagrancy. Report, is. 
 
196 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 The Vagrant and the Unemployable, in " The Victims 
 
 of the Casual Ward," page 24. The Salvation 
 
 Army. 
 Poplar Labour Colony, Report on. Clerk to the 
 
 Guardians, Poplar. 
 Night Shelters. Census on the nig^t of January 29th, 
 
 1904, London County Council Report on. 
 HiGGS, Mary. The Tramp Ward. Reprinted from 
 
 The Contemporary Review, May, 1904. 2d. 
 Casuals, Report respecting. By the Master of King's 
 
 Lynn Workhouse. September, 1904. 
 Ensor, R. C. K. Tramping among Tramps, 
 
 Independent Review, October, 1904. 
 Vagrancy. Paper read before the Eastern District 
 
 Poor Law Conference, 1904, by Rev W. Carlile, 
 
 Hon. Chief Secretary of the Church Army. is. 
 The Vagrancy Question. Paper read before the South 
 
 Midland District Poor Law Conference, 1904, by 
 
 Mr. H. J. Torr. is. 
 Methods of Dealing with Vagrancy in Switzerland. 
 
 Report to the Local Government Board. 1904. 
 
 2d. 2235- c.d. 
 
 Vagrancy Bill, 1904. Introduced by Sir John Gorst. 
 
 id. 
 The Responsibility of Existing Authorities in Regard 
 
 to Vagrancy. By Rev. F. Salmon; and Com- 
 pulsory Labour Colonies for Vagrants. By Mr. 
 
 H. J. Torr. Papers read at the South Western 
 
 District Poor Law Conference, 1904. is. 
 The Treatment of Vagrants. Paper read before the 
 
 Central Poor Law Conference, 1905, by Mr. A. 
 
 F. Vulliamy. is. 
 Vagrancy. Report of the Proceedings of a Conference 
 
 of Guardians from the Northern Unions, held at 
 
 the Town Hall, Lancaster, ist September, 1905. 
 
 6d. 
 Vagrancy. Report of Special Committee appointed 
 
 by the Local Government Board. 1906. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Afforbstmeni, 78, 83 
 Alice Holt Woods, 83 
 Allotments, 116 
 
 Belgium, Colonies, 16, 23, 24, 
 28, 134; Insurance, 63 
 
 Bielefeld, 30, 134 
 
 Bodelschwingh, Pastor Von, 
 76 
 
 Booth-Tucker, 73 
 
 Boppe, M., 81 
 
 Bosch, Gen. Van Den, 73 
 
 Brassey, Lord, 92 
 
 British Forestry, Departmental 
 Committee on (1902), 78 
 
 Brooks, Rev. J. L., 127, 129 
 
 Canals, 91, 142 
 Casual Labour, 115, 121 
 Central Committee (London), 
 
 16, 125, 177 
 Central Mission, Manchester, 
 
 57 
 Chalfont St. Peter, 30, 135 
 Chamberlain, Mr. Joseph, I 
 Charity Organisation Society, 
 
 5, 98, 103, 131 
 Church Army, 57 
 Congested Districts Board, 68, 
 
 69, 80, 121 
 Crooks, Mr. Will, 90 
 
 Denmark, Co-op. Dairies, 39, 
 71 ; Old Age, 29 ; Poor Law, 
 24, 26; Small Holdings, 71 : 
 
 " Der Wanderer," 76 
 
 Eardley-Wilmoi Com- 
 
 MITTSS (1886), 80 
 
 East Fen, 88 
 Education, 35, 36 
 Emigration, 86 
 Epileptics, 30, 31, 134, 135 
 
 Farm Colonies, 138, 139 
 Fels, Mr. Joseph, 112, 114, 118, 
 
 122 
 
 Foreshores Act, 87 
 
 Fowler, Sir Henry, 9, 10 
 
 France, French Labour De- 
 partment, 97 ; Home Indus- 
 tries, 121 ; Municipal Regis- 
 tries, 52 ; Municipal Relief 
 Works, 97 ; Trades Union 
 Insurance, 64 
 
 Frederiksoord, 73, 136 
 
 Freistatt, 76, 136 
 
 Frederikwilhelmsdorf, 76, 136 
 
 Fulham, 90 
 
 Germany, Canals, 91 ; Labour 
 Bureaux, 49, 32; Labour 
 Colonies, 30, 31, 76, 123, 125, 
 132, 134, 136; Municipal 
 Relief Works, 97; Relief 
 Stations, 21, 55, 56 
 Gorst, Sir John, 15, 19, 22 
 Guildhall Conference, 13, 42 
 
 Haarlem Lake, 89 
 
 Hadleigh Colony, 129, 130, 135 
 
 Hardie, Mr. J. Keir, 42 
 
 Haggard, Rider, 70 
 
 Hobson, Mr. J. A., 37 
 
 Holland, Canals, gi ; Insur- 
 ance, 64; Labour Colonies, 
 26,73; Reclamation of Waste 
 Land, 89 
 
igS 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Holland (Lincolnshire) County 
 
 Council, 39 
 Home Industries, 119, 121 
 Hoogstraeten, 15, 24, 134 
 Hoorn, 36, 134 
 Howitz, M., 80 
 
 Idbntificaiion, Papers of, 
 
 20 
 Insurance, 57, 61, 148 
 
 King's County Gaol, 6 
 
 Laboor Bureaux, 48. 33, 137 
 Labour Colonies, 22, 28, 30, 
 
 3'i 73. 77. 108, 114, 123, 136, 
 
 138, 140 
 Labour Gazette, 46 
 Laindon, 109, 113, 131, 133 
 Lamb, Colonel, 131 
 Landes, 80 
 
 Lansbury, Mr. George, 101,104 
 Leeds, 81 
 Leiden, 26, 134 
 Libury Hall, 109, iii, 135 
 Lincolnshire (S.) and Norfolk 
 
 Small Holdings Assoc, 39 
 Lincolnshire Vagrancy Com- 
 mittee, 19 
 Lingfield, 30, 126, 129, 134 
 Liverpool, 81 
 
 Local Government Board, 93 
 London County Council, 14, 
 
 48. 83, 93, 94, 106, 107 
 Long, Mr. Walter, i6, 43, 109, 
 
 122, 141 
 Lower Thames Navigation 
 
 Commission, 89 
 Luhlerbeim, 76, 125, 133 
 
 Mansion House Committee, 
 
 8, 9, 13, 104, 105 
 McDougall, Sir John, 117 
 Merxplas, 16, 23, 28, 134 
 Metropolitan Gardens Associa- 
 tion, 8 
 New Zealand, Bureau of 
 Industries, 96 ; Government 
 Labour Bureaux, 93, g6; 
 Relief Works, 103, 104 
 
 Norfolk County Council, 39 
 Old Age, 29, 30 
 
 Pingree, Mayor, 118 
 
 Pitfore, 89 
 
 Poor Law, 3, 4, 7, 12, 13, 47 
 
 Poor Law Farms and Colonies, 
 III, 124, 140, 141 
 
 Poplar, 9 
 
 Poplar Union Colony (Lain- 
 don), 109, 113, 131, 133 
 
 Port of London (Royal Com- 
 mission), 89, 148 
 
 Powerscourt, Lord, 79 
 
 Prussian Government, 107 
 
 Rawlinson, Mr., 94 
 
 Recess Committee, Report of, 
 
 119 
 Reclamation of Waste Land, 
 
 87, 90, 142 
 Reeves, Hon. W. B., 93, 96 
 Relief Stations, 21, 22, 53, 36, 
 
 138 
 Relief Works, 92, 96 
 Rennie, 88 
 
 Rooseveldt, President, 72 
 Royal Commission on Labour, 
 
 9 
 Russia, Home Industries, 119, 
 120 
 
 Salvation Army, 37 
 Schaferhof, 76, 77 
 Schlich, Professor, 78 
 Schloss, D. F., Mr., 16 
 Siemon, Herr, 76 
 Small Holdings, 39, 69, 70 
 Society of Beneficence, 73 
 Steinbeis, Dr. Von, 120 
 Switzerland, Colonies, 135 ; 
 Home Industries, 121; In- 
 surance, 62 
 
 Taxation, Reforms of, 37 
 Thames Foreshores, 90 
 
 Vacant Lots Cultivation 
 Assoc, 118, iig 
 
INDEX. 
 
 199 
 
 Vagrancy, 6. 17, 28; Report, 
 16, 18: Bill, 15, 19, 22, 28; 
 Colonies, 134, 135, 140 
 
 Veenhuizen, 26, 134 
 
 Vymwy, 81 
 
 Wallace, J. P., Mr. Hendry, 
 
 117 
 Warwick, Countess of, 130 
 Wash, The, 88 
 West Ham. 9, 45, loi, 114 
 
 Wilhelminasoord, 73, 136 
 Wilhelmsdorf, 136 
 Willemsoord, 73, 136 
 Winfrey, Alderman, 69 
 Wortel, 24, 134 
 Wright, Mr. Carroll D., 33 
 Wurtemburg, 120 
 Wyndham's Purchase Act 
 (Mr.), 39 
 
 ZuYCER Zee, 88 
 
 THE END. 
 
 BKADBUK\, AGMKW, 8t CO. LD PRINTERS, LONDON AMD TONBRIDUK. 
 
p. S. KING & SON, 
 
 ORCHARD HOUSE. 
 prrr... 2 & 4, GREAT SMITH STREET, 
 '»'•• WESTMINSTER. S.W. 
 
 (.Opposite the Weitminster Ptitee Hotel, 
 Victoria Street). 
 
 Publiaheri. Parllamantary & General Booksellen. 
 Bookbinders and Printers. 
 
 LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL. 
 
 The Reports of the London County Council are published 
 by P. S. XIVIG & SON. Catalogue Post Free. 
 
 POOR LAW CONFERENCES. 
 
 Each Conference sent as soon as published (Annual 
 
 Suhscription) - • - - 10s. 6d. 
 
 Annual Bound Volume, with Index 18S. Od» 
 
 Report of any single Conference - • lli Od. 
 
 SOME RECENT PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 Thm Oanlsh Poor Rollot Myatom l An Example for England. 
 By Edith Ssllbiis. 2a. net. 30 copies, 30b. 
 
 HIafory of tho Engllah Poor Law. Three Vols. iSg. net. 
 Vols. I. and II., a.d. 924—1853. By Sir Georgk Nicholls, K.CB. 
 Two Vols., 10b. 6cl.net. Vol. HI., 1834— 1898. By Thohas Mackav. 
 7b. 6d. net. 
 
 Soiito RaauUa of Boardlaa-out Poor Law Ohildran. 
 
 By Rev. W. Pitt Tkbvelyan. ZB. net, 10 copies, 30b. net. 
 
 Tho Enallah Poor LawOm By Sophia Lohsdalb. Third Edition, 
 la. net, II copies, lis. net, 94 copies, 208. net, 48 copies, 36s. net. 
 
 Our Troaimont of tho Poor. By Six William Chahce, 
 M.A., Bart. 28. 6d. 
 
 Tho Oaaa for Municipal Orink Trado. By Eswakd Pbasi. 
 
 2b. 6d. net. 
 Publlo HoaNh anil Houalng. By John F. J. Sykbs, M.D., 
 
 D.Sc. (Edin.). 5b. net. 
 
 Tho Sanitary Inapmolor'a Qo/tfo. By H. LBMMoiH-CAHNaM. 
 
 3b. 6d. net. 
 Sewage Worka Analyaoa. By Gilbert J. Fowler. 63. net 
 
 Taxation anil Local Oovornment. By J. C. Graham and 
 M, D. Warhincton. 2b. 
 
 Clemonta of Statlatlca. By Arthur L. Bowley, M.A., F.S.S. 
 Second Edition. lOs. 6d. net. 
 
 HIatory of Factory Leglalatloa. By B. L. Hutchine and 
 A. Hafrisow, D.Sc. (Lond.). lOs. 6d. net. 
 
 LONDON : P. S. KING & SON, ORCHARD HOUSE, WESTMINSTER. 
 
CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 3 1924 050 067 580 
 
5<'!^''(; 
 
 »;i>4 jKS^-a- f:'x 4K«?»r-:'i 
 
 *:■*«.•