^be IHnemplo'eable 
 
 AND 
 
 XTbe TUnemploi^eb. 
 
 BY 
 
 J. B. PATON, M.A.,D.D. 
 
 NEW EDITION. 
 
 SIXPENCE NETT. 
 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 James Clarke & Co., Fleet Street, E.C. 
 
K 
 
 FOREWORD TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 In the Month of May, Mr. Seebohm Rowntree 
 visited me in order that we might confer together 
 on the question of the Unemployed, which inter- 
 ested us both. At the close of a long morning’s 
 conference, he asked me if I would dictate to his 
 secretary what I had said in our conversation. I 
 gladly assented. Accordingly I dictated what 
 now appears in this pamphlet to his secretary, 
 who reproduced four copies of it. These copies 
 have been read by several friends, and at the 
 desire of some of these, what they read is now 
 printed for circulation. I have added a few 
 notes confirmatory and explanatory of what 
 appears in the text. 
 
 J. B. PATON. 
 
 November, 1904. 
 

 THE UNEMPLOYABLE 
 
 AND THE 
 
 UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 1 . 
 
 MONO the Unemployed of our time 
 whose misfortune and povert}^ awaken 
 sympathy and call for statesmanlike 
 measures that may bring- them relief, 
 we must distinguish and separate those who are 
 unemployable and therefore unemployed. Now 
 of the great class of the Unemployable, there are 
 six differing types or categories, each of which 
 needs different treatment. 
 
 
 !♦ ©Ut S^Ult Much has been done during 
 JCptlCpttC6. the last three or four years 
 for the care of epileptic chil- 
 dren, especially those who w^ere immured 
 in our Workhouses and brought up there 
 in the Infirmary and Senile Wards. Now 
 also the Local Education Authorities in all 
 parts of the country are called to fulfil their re- 
 sponsibility for the education of the epileptic 
 children who may be found in their districts. For 
 this purpose they are invited to send these chil- 
 dren to the Lingfield and Starnthwaite Homes, 
 respectively in Surrey and Westmoreland, which 
 will it is hoped be certified by the Board of 
 Education to receive such children.* Or they will 
 in other cases, provide suitable Homes in their 
 
 * These Homes are now certified. 
 
 ilO 
 
4 
 
 own districts for these children. I say ‘‘Homes,” 
 because it will be found that whilst in the case of 
 many epileptic children, their affliction is so 
 slig-ht and the fits occur so seldom, that they can 
 attend the ordinary schools, there are other chil- 
 dren who suffer so severely from epilepsy that 
 they will never be able to attend the ordinary 
 schools, and will require for their education, very 
 special treatment in the training of their body, as 
 well as in the training of their mind and char- 
 acter. These afflicted children, therefore, will 
 need to be gathered together in Homes, where 
 they will receive from the Education Authorities 
 a training that is suitable for them. The experi- 
 ence already obtained in Lingneld and Starnth- 
 waite shews that if such children are brought 
 under wise treatment at an early stage, some of 
 them may be permanently cured, and a majority 
 of them are likely to be so improved in health, 
 that if trained in suitable industries, they will be 
 able to earn at least a part of their livelihood in 
 after life. 
 
 But when we speak of the Unemployable we 
 are not thinking of epileptic children, but of 
 Adult Epileptics. Many of these may be rightly 
 classified as unemployable, although some of 
 them doubtless are engaged in light and 
 occasional work of various kinds. There are 
 some Adult Epileptics in our Workhouses, but 
 the majority of them are found in the homes of 
 the poor, where often, even if they are carefully 
 tended, they are a heavy burden and sore trial to 
 their families, and where sometimes it is feared 
 they suffer pitiful ill-usage. Now for these 
 Epileptic Adults who are unemployable, there 
 must be formed special Colonies where all the 
 
5 
 
 arrang-ements of the Colony shall be adjusted to 
 the needs of these sufferers ; where they can be 
 employed in healthy outdoor labour that will be 
 varied and full of interest, and that will not 
 require much energy of the brain, so as to fatigue 
 them ; where at the same time there will be 
 bright social recreation and fellowship and edu- 
 cational advantages ; and where, above all, there 
 will be wise sympathy in the treatment of their 
 malady, and the joy of a religious influence 
 which is full of love and peace. In such a Colony, 
 whilst the chief labour ought to be out of doors 
 on the land, as being not only most conducive to 
 health, but also as affording many kinds of in- 
 dustry in which Epileptics can safely engage ; 
 there must also be, for inclement days and for 
 long winter evenings, indoor industries that are 
 safe and suited to their capacity. By their own 
 work in such a Colony no doubt much of the food 
 of the Colony could be produced, and part, at 
 any rate, of the cost of the Colony will be pro- 
 vided. 
 
 2. ttbe What I have said with regard to 
 
 3fCCblC^ Epileptics applies word for word 
 /BMnbeD. to the Feeble-Minded. It is sad 
 to think of the lot of many of the 
 Feeble-Minded in our towns and country villages 
 and of the hardships and sometimes the ignominy 
 to which they are exposed. It is painful too, to 
 think that in many homes, the Feeble-Minded are 
 not only a heavy charge upon the scanty income 
 of the poor, but give rise there to special anxiety, 
 and create perils both physical and moral to the 
 community. There are many of these Feeble- 
 Minded kept at considerable expense in our 
 Workhouses ; and there are, it is believed, some 
 
6 
 
 of them in our County Asylums, where, at great 
 cost to the State they are confined and treated 
 with the insane : all these could under other 
 conditions, and other treatment which would be 
 much less costly, contribute something by their 
 labour to their cost of maintenance. 
 
 For these Feeble-Minded, as for the Epileptic, 
 special Colonies must be formed in which they 
 can be engaged in healthy, and especially in out- 
 door industries, suited to them, and where also, 
 they can be taught to cultivate their mental 
 faculties, in the most helpful and pleasant ways. 
 For them as for Epileptics, there needs to be not 
 only suitable and profitable industries organized, 
 but bright social interests and amusements pro- 
 vided which will quicken their intelligence and 
 give them somewhat of happiness and home life. 
 
 With regard to these two classes of the Un- 
 employable, everyone who considers the problem 
 of their life will agree that they must be segre- 
 gated and kept apart in the Colonies that are 
 provided for them. Life there must be made as 
 pleasant and as profitable as it can be made. 
 They are the invalid brothers and sisters of the 
 great family of the commonwealth, and they 
 should have therefore, the special and loving care 
 which their sorrowful malady demands. But the 
 community, to protect itself against the perpetua- 
 tion of their malady which is hereditary, and in 
 order to keep the race as a whole, healthy both 
 in mind and body, must, as a first and paramount 
 duty to itself as well as to them, secure their 
 permanent separation from others. This can be 
 done in Colonies where they may be freely and 
 frequently visited by their friends and relations 
 
7 
 
 under wise regulations, and where, too, their lot 
 must be made as healthful and happy as it can 
 be, but yet where they are kept apart and so pre- 
 vented from marriage and from perpetuating 
 their hereditary nervous ailment. 
 
 The Homes that have been opened by the 
 Christian Union for Social Service at Lingfield 
 and Starnthwaite for Epileptic Children, and by 
 the Metropolitan Asylums Boards in London and 
 by Miss Dendy in Lancashire, have drawn atten- 
 tion to the special educational needs of this class 
 of children. These Homes however, being for 
 children only, accentuate the problem which we 
 are now considering. These Epileptic and 
 Feeble-Minded Children will soon be Epileptic 
 and Feeble-Minded Adults and wull thus swell 
 the ranks of the Unemployable. 
 
 The other four classes of the Unemployable 
 belong to a wholly different type and category. 
 They are unemployable because they are at 
 present unfit for employment, but they are such 
 as, by the adoption of wise methods pursued and 
 made effective during periods of time that will 
 vary in different cases, can be, in a great majority 
 of cases, made fit for work and so can be restored 
 to honest self-support and thus to independence 
 and self-respect. 
 
 (A) Youths who are physically unfit for work 
 but who, by healthy training especially on the 
 land, can be made fit for work. At Lingfield and 
 at Starnthwaite we have received numbers of 
 such youths from the Workhouses. They have 
 been born and bred in the slums of our cities ; 
 they have suffered from the curse of an evil 
 heredity — children it may be, of weak and 
 
8 
 
 drunken parents. What a doom seemed to be 
 upon them from their birth ! Living in shockingly 
 unsanitary homes, they are stunted in growth, 
 and seem old and outworn in their very youth. 
 They have not strength enough for ordinary 
 unskilled labour and they have not the physical 
 or mental capacity for skilled work, even if they 
 had the opportunity of learning it. Yet it is 
 marvellous what can be done for such youths as 
 these. At the Training Colonies at Lingfield and 
 Starnthwaite, living in a country home with its 
 sweet country air and its wholesome food, exer- 
 cising their body in healthy and varied work in 
 the open field, or in some simple manual work 
 indoors, they become within a few months trans- 
 figured and are scarcely recognisable. They 
 grow in bulk and stature and become fit for a 
 hard day’s work. Eighteen of them a few weeks 
 ago were despatched to Canada, who are certain 
 at once to receive there a wage that will maintain 
 them and enable them to save something by 
 which they may become occupiers and tillers of 
 the land. 
 
 Now this being so, should there not be at once 
 a Colony established in every county in which all 
 these youths from our Workhouses, and others 
 who may be like them, wholly unfit for any 
 regular and honest employment, shall be received 
 for training under those conditions of healthy 
 country life and labour, which will assuredly 
 build up their body and discipline their mind, so 
 that they will enter the ranks of the Employed 
 and not sw^ell the ragged troops of the Unemploy- 
 able. In their case much the same kind of 
 discipine as is given in our Reformatories will be 
 required ; but instead of going under compulsory 
 
9 
 
 restraint because convicted under a magistrate’s 
 order, they would enter under Indentures like 
 those of apprenticeship, and thus be bound over 
 for a number of years to receive the training that 
 would fit them for honest and honourable work 
 in life. And certainly it will be more economical 
 for the State thus to provide for their well-being 
 and prepare them for self-support in the future, 
 than to support them in an aimless and fruitless 
 way as the regular inmates, or the so-called 
 “Ins” and “Outs,” of the Workhouse. 
 
 (B) There is a larger class however than the 
 last to whom special attention must be paid, 
 because in our modern town and city life they 
 are increasing in number and form a very large 
 proportion of those who are rightly designated 
 the Unemployable. I refer to the great number 
 of children — boys and girls — of our poorer classes 
 who are often irregular in school attendance 
 because of the frequent migration of their parents 
 or from other causes (^) ; who leave school at the 
 earliest opportunity ; who are not apprenticed to 
 any regular trade, because apprenticeship is now 
 almost obsolete ; who do not enter a workshop 
 or factory in which they may learn a regular 
 trade ; and who because of truant and vagrant 
 tastes they have already formed, or because their 
 parents insist that they shall begin at once to 
 earn more money than they can earn at any trade 
 during the first year or two, betake themselves 
 to many kinds of casual employment as errand 
 boys, or as hawkers and vendors of papers, etc. 
 in the streets ; and who, accordingly, during their 
 youth do not form the habit of regular work or 
 acquire the taste for it.(2) Such youths, when they 
 
 (1) See Note in Appendix I. 
 
 (2) See Note in Appendix I. 
 
lo 
 
 grow up, because of the poverty of their life are 
 generally ill-fed and ill-clothed ; and though not 
 sinking to the level of destitution that leads them 
 to the Workhouse, they find for the most part 
 casual employment in irregular ways, cadging 
 for occasional service as porters and messengers 
 or attendants on cabs ; or they compete in some 
 kind of unskilled labour. They form thus a great 
 company in every large town of those who, 
 though not physically unfit like the former class, 
 are yet incapable of strenuous work and who, by 
 reason of the habits of their early life, have a 
 profound distaste for regular and continuous 
 work. The older of this class of the Unemploy- 
 able are perhaps beyond redemption ; but there 
 are numbers of this class who are still young 
 growing up in our towns and the number is 
 increasing : and for them th^e is but one way 
 of redemption, and it is the same as that for the 
 last named class. Coercion will I think, probably 
 be needed with a great number of them ; but 
 every inducement should be given to their parents 
 and to their friends to send them into Colonies, 
 which would be in fact. Industrial Training 
 Schools, in which, receiving good food they 
 will under kindly but firm discipline, be ex- 
 ercised in healthy labour and trained to definite 
 employments. For the great majority of them, 
 in order that their poor physique may be invigor- 
 ated, the varied occupations of farm and country 
 labour will be most suitable ; and it is by such 
 labour that they will be trained for the varied 
 and skilled occupations needed in English Agri- 
 culture. For men who are thus trained there is, 
 at the present time, a great demand. Let us 
 remember that whilst some of our industries may 
 be over-crowded, our chief national industry is 
 
II 
 
 under-manned and is being- injured by the dearth 
 of strong- and skilful workmen. A Colony too, 
 for youths of this kind who are often sharp in 
 intelligence and therefore quick to learn, would 
 be to a large extent self-supporting if it were 
 conducted according to the economical and 
 reasonable methods on which Lingfield and 
 Starnthwaite Colonies are conducted ; certainly 
 it can only be so if it be not cumbered and 
 oppressed, by the interest paid on heavy capital 
 expenditure in erecting grandiose buildings 
 which are costly and most unsuitable, and by 
 costly official administration. 
 
 (C) Another class of the Unemployable are 
 our Inebriates and for them too, redemption 
 seems possible, if they be healthily engaged in 
 the varied outdoor and indoor work of a T rain- 
 ing Farm Colony. These men are often the best 
 workmen and they quickly turn and adjust them- 
 selves to some kinds of healthy work upon the 
 land, by which the physical tone and vigour of 
 their body are restored. Now that remedies are 
 being made known which are so very successful 
 in removing the terrible craving which so often 
 seizes and overpowers the drunkard, and destroys 
 for a time his self-control, there is no need for the 
 drunkard to be put under detention as hitherto. (^) 
 The Inebriate Retreat or Reformatory, which is 
 licensed under the Inebriate Act, will not now 
 generally be required^ though there are cases 
 where mental aberration and brain degeneracy 
 may still require long confinement. In the Colony 
 which the drunkard enters, he will at once be 
 delivered from his uncontrollable appetite, and 
 underthe healthy conditionsoftheColonyas to diet 
 
 (3) See Note in Appendix I. 
 
12 
 
 and labour, he will be in less time than has been 
 hitherto considered necessary, restored to a 
 normal state of body ; and at the same time 
 moral and religious influences, drawn from 
 his companionship with the House Father and 
 House Brothers of the Colony, will fortify his 
 intelligence and his will against the temptations 
 which will beset him when he leaves the Colony. 
 It would be well that those who enter the Colony 
 should band themselves for their mutual en- 
 couragement and protection on leaving it ; and 
 temperance workers should seek to safeguard 
 them by helping them to new associations and 
 interests in their after life. In this way many of 
 those now unemployable because of Inebriety, 
 will be restored to the ranks of the Employed. 
 
 (D) To this class belong those that probably 
 form the largest section of the Unemployable, 
 viz., the army of tramps and vagrants found in 
 every part of the country — men and women — 
 who are not incapable of work, but who have a 
 deep-rooted dislike of work, — many of whom may 
 be said to have a contempt for it or hatred of it. 
 They may be tempted occasionally to engage in 
 a short shift of work — but it must be short — and 
 they habitually therefore depend upon charity, 
 adopting the most astute and clever devices in 
 soliciting and obtaining it, and sometimes to this 
 end they conspire and combine together as 
 predatory animals do, and work in gangs to 
 excite the charitable sympathies, and extract the 
 charitable alms, of the public. 
 
 In Belgium as is well-known, a Colony has 
 been founded at Merxplas, near Antwerp, for 
 this class of the community, and the results 
 
13 
 
 obtained there have so commended the proposal 
 to establish a similar Colony in this country that 
 a Bill has been introduced by Sir John Gorst, for 
 that purpose. The class of vag-rants who are 
 now being considered is replenished from four 
 sources : 
 
 ( 1 ) The children of tramps in whom a 
 
 roving and vagabond disposition is 
 hereditary. 
 
 (2) & (j) Those named in (A) and (B) — 
 
 men and women — who are in some 
 cases physically unfit for work, or 
 who have had no training for work, 
 whose early life was partly spent in 
 casual and irregular ways — doing 
 odd jobs of work, who therefore 
 formed no habit of continuous labour 
 and have no love of it. 
 
 (^) These are a class who will be more 
 fully described under the next sec- 
 tion, viz. : the men and women who 
 fall out of work either because of 
 physical or mental deficiency, or 
 because of a season of bad trade 
 or the introduction of labour-saving 
 machinery. Such persons begin to 
 tramp from place to place in search 
 of work, and finding it increasingly 
 difficult to obtain work, soon lose all 
 desire of doing so and sink into 
 the regular nomad vagrant class. 
 Accordingly they seek work no 
 longer and become less and less 
 fitted for it. * 
 
 * Two other subsidiary classes are referred to in (c) and {/) 
 on pp. 21 and 22. 
 

 For this class of the Unemployable it is now gen- 
 erally agreed that nothing can be done to redeem 
 them from the habits of indolence and vagrancy 
 which they have formed, and to restore the capa- 
 city and love of regular honest work, unless there 
 be compulsory detention in a Training Colony. 
 In such a Colony there will need to be not only 
 various kinds of industry that will be suitable to 
 different gifts and capacities ; but also these es- 
 sential elements, viz., a simple but nutritious 
 dietary, perfect sanitation, healthy physical exer- 
 cises, sympathetic and efficient instruction in all 
 the various industries, a discipline that will use 
 every kind of encouragement and incentive to 
 work, and inflict varying degrees of penalty for 
 laziness and insubordination, and above all, an 
 atmosphere that will be charged with moral and 
 religious influences that will seek to awaken and 
 develop the better life hidden under the most 
 sordid and forlorn of this class. There has been 
 much talk of late years concerning the reformatory 
 discipline of the reformatory prisons at Elmira 
 (New York) Mansfield (Ohio), and Lowend 
 (Mass.) ; of the prisons in Toronto ; and now hap- 
 pily, of one or two prisons in our owm country 
 conducted on similar lines. These examples 
 show how such reformatory discipline can be 
 successfully carried on through punishments that 
 chiefly affect the prisoner from the quality and 
 savour of his food, and the comfort of his lodging ; 
 and through rewards which again are found in the 
 quality of the food and lodging, but also in pro- 
 motion to privileges wffiich are greatly appreciated. 
 This discipline is enforced in order to awaken the 
 desire for a better kind of life, and to nurture that 
 desire ; so that old inveterate habits of sloth are 
 sloughed off, and new powers of work and new 
 
15 
 
 pleasures in it are created. In the appendix I re- 
 produce the account of the Elmira method which is 
 adopted in the other American reformatory prisons 
 as it is given in the ‘‘ Encyclopedia of Social 
 Reform.” At Merxplas and in the American 
 reformatories the reformatory discipline is carried 
 out chiefly by a classification of the inmates and 
 their promotion or degradation from one class to 
 another. In all of them this classification is made 
 within the one institution. It is believed, however 
 by many experts, that so far as Training Colonies 
 for Vagrants in our country are concerned, it 
 would be better to have different colonies for the 
 different classes of Vagrants. These divers 
 Colonies should be near one another and should 
 be under one administration. 
 
 In addition however, to what has been learned 
 in our prisons and reformatories, much more 
 has been learned from the Colonies in Ger- 
 many, and yet more from the Colonies of Hadleigh, 
 Lingfield and Starnthwaite in this country, as to 
 how, through the companionship and direction 
 of devoted men and women inspired with a high 
 religious purpose it is possible to quicken, even 
 amongst the most degraded, moral feelings that 
 are dormant, but not wholly dead ; and to give 
 the inspiration and cheer of hope by which even 
 such men and women may be saved. 
 
i6 
 
 2* QXnmp^o^eb* 
 
 H aving thus disentang'led the question 
 of the Unemployable from the wholly 
 different question of the Unemployed 
 with which it is so often confused, we 
 now deal with the problem of the Unemployed. 
 
 Of this g^reat class in our country there are four 
 categ^ories which are wholly distinct, and which 
 must be therefore considered separately, because 
 each category involves wholly distinct problems 
 and must be dealt with in different ways and by 
 different agencies. I name these categories : — 
 
 I. The Chronic Unemployed, 
 
 2. The Seasonally Unemployed. 
 
 3. The Unemployed during crises in 
 the staple industries of our manu- 
 facturing towns or districts. 
 
 4. The Unemployed in periods of severe 
 depression which affects the whole 
 country or large districts of the 
 country. 
 
 !♦ XLbC CbtOniC The first category, viz. : — 
 *iritlCt1ipl012Cb» those who may be called 
 
 the “Chronic" Unemployed, ^ 
 
 present a problem which is present with us at all 
 times. Even when trade is at its best there is 
 always a certain number of men in every industry, 
 skilled and unskilled, that are out of work. ^ 
 
 When trade is bad in a particular industry, this 
 number is increased, but there is always a 
 certain number. 
 
17 
 
 The following- quotations elucidate what has 
 been said and also indicate what may be regarded 
 as the percentage of those who are thus through- 
 out the country, even under normal conditions of 
 trade, unemployed. The Massachussetts State 
 Commission on the Unemployed, 1895, says : — 
 
 “ It is clear from the investigations which we have 
 been able to make, that non-employment will fluctuate 
 in amount from month to month and from 5’^ear to year, 
 and is and has been a factor, and in certain cases is an 
 increasing evil. This problem must be looked upon as 
 a more or less permanent one and one that must be 
 attacked, if attacked at all, by slow and patient 
 methods.” 
 
 And the United States Labour Report for 1886, 
 says : — 
 
 “It is undoubtedly true that out of the total 
 number of establishments such as factories, mines, 
 etc., existing in the country, about 5 per cent, were 
 absolutely idle during the year ending July ist, 1885, 
 and that perhaps 5 per cent, more were idle for part of 
 the time, or, for a just estimate, 7f per cent, of the 
 whole number, were idle or equivalent to idle, during 
 the year named. If this percentage be applied to 
 those engaged in agriculture, transportation, mining 
 industries and manufactures, there were engaged in 
 these four great branches 13,317,861 persons. Applying 
 the percentage arrived at — 7! per cent. — we obtain a 
 total of 998,839 as constituting the above estimate of 
 possibly Unemployed of the United States during the 
 year ending July ist, 1885 (meaning by the “Unem- 
 ployed” those, who in prosperous times, would be 
 fully employed, and who during the time mentioned 
 were seeking employment).” 
 
 It is probably true that this total as representing 
 the Unemployed at any one time in the United 
 States, is fairly represented. The Fabian Tract, 
 dated March, 1895, gives what statistics there 
 are for England and Wales. It says : — 
 
“ Of the great permanent army of the Unemployed 
 no reliable statistics can be obtained. From reports 
 rendered to the Labour Department of the Board of 
 Trade by Trade Unions, it appeared that in December, 
 1893, the percentage of members unemployed was 7.9." 
 
 Since that date the percentage of unemployed 
 in our Trades Unions has been much less. The 
 Labour Gazette of October, 1904, reports ‘‘ In the 
 273 Trade Unions, with an aggregate member- 
 ship of 575j575> making returns 39>oo5 or 6*8% 
 were reported as unemployed by the end of 
 September, compared with 6*4% at the end of 
 August, 1904, and 5*8% at the end of September, 
 1903.” Mr. Percy Alden, in an admirable 
 pamphlet, entitled ‘‘The Unemployed Problem" 
 published by the Friends' Social Union, says 
 “ There are no statistics available which will 
 enable us to determine the number of unemployed 
 at any one time. The Board of Trade furnishes 
 statistics as to the unemployed in certain Trade 
 Unions ; the returns they have given vary from 
 7% in 1893 to 6% at the present time (July and 
 August, 1904). The mean percentage during 
 10 years (1894-1904) being 3*8, including a good 
 many prosperous years. These figures refer to 
 skilled trades, and since skilled men are more 
 regularly employed than unskilled, and the 
 organised than the unorganised, the general per- 
 centage will be much larger.*’ 
 
 In our country, if the proportion of Members 
 of Trade Unions out of work in one year was 
 6 or 7 % we may be quite sure that the proportion 
 of the unemployed who are not members of 
 Trades Unions, especially among labourers whose 
 work is unskilled, is much larger. It probably 
 
19 
 
 therefore may be regarded that in the same year 
 10% of those who are fit for work and seeking 
 work are yet unemployed. Of course there can 
 be no question that this large percentage includes 
 those who, whilst fit for work, are less fit than 
 most of their fellow workmen, because of a feeble 
 body or lack of skill or because of a less reliable 
 character. Nevertheless it must also be remem- 
 bered that, whilst it is quite certain that often 
 their want of employment is owing to causes of 
 inefficiency for which the man is himself to blame, 
 yet a large proportion of the poverty caused by 
 unemployment, is directly traceable to causes for 
 which the individual is not to blame. Professor 
 Warner in his book on the American Charities 
 gives a summary of the facts collected by him in 
 his careful expert investigations, and he states 
 that 74*4 per cent, of poverty is thus traceable to 
 causes for which the suffering Unemployed are 
 not responsible. 
 
 There are now two questions which have to be 
 considered : — 
 
 A. How may the numbers of those who 
 
 are out of work during times of 
 normal trade be reduced ? 
 
 B. How can those that are thus unem- 
 
 ployed be relieved and helped 
 more easily and certainly to find 
 honest employment that will enable 
 them to maintain themselves and 
 their families ? 
 
 A. 
 
 In answer to the first question some important 
 suggestions have been made : — 
 
20 
 
 (a) That Child Labour should be still further 
 reduced. 
 
 In Germany as is known children are not 
 allowed to enter factories (the same is true of 
 one or two other countries) until they are fourteen. 
 In our country it is proposed to abolish half-time 
 labour for children in ag’ricultural and also in 
 manufacturings industries. Every reduction of 
 Child Labour will gsive, of course, more employ- 
 ment to adults. 
 
 {b) In like manner if the Eight Hours Day 
 becomes universal in all manufacturing industries, 
 it will necessarily give employment to a greater 
 number of people, though not to the extent that 
 is imagined by some. 
 
 It is not likely, however, that an Eight Hours 
 Day will be universal in this country so long as 
 this country competes in the world’s markets 
 with Germany and America, where the hours of 
 labour at the present time are longer than with 
 us. 
 
 (c) Our best Trades Unions have strongly 
 opposed the frequent recurrence to overtime in 
 our workshops, as injurious to the health of those 
 who are greatly over-taxed by the exceptional 
 hours of labour ; but also and chiefly because it 
 lessens the demand and the opportunity of labour 
 for the Unemployed. 
 
 It must be remembered, however, that no 
 employer who carefully watches his business is 
 likely to work very much overtime ; and that as 
 orders sometimes depend upon speed of delivery. 
 
21 
 
 anything" that decreases speed of delivery will 
 decrease the number of Employed, and not of 
 the Unemployed. 
 
 (d) The question of Alien Emigration also is 
 urged by many as necessarily involved in this 
 problem. In America and in the Colonies as is 
 well-known, strong action has been taken to 
 prevent emigrants who would be likely to swell 
 the ranks of the Unemployed, from over-crowding 
 the labour market and reducing the labour wage. 
 This question I know involves other issues and 
 assumes other aspects. It must never be for- 
 gotten how much we have been indebted to 
 emigrants from European countries who have 
 established prosperous industries in this country, 
 and have greatly helped British commerce. 
 
 (e) Many of the Unemployed are Army Men, 
 who, on leaving the Army find themselves with- 
 out employment. Those of them who received a 
 training in their youth for some definite trade 
 have lost much of their skill during the seven 
 years of Army Service. Probably a number 
 equally great entered the Army, who had no such 
 training and who when they leave the Army can 
 only seek employment as unskilled labourers, 
 competing with others of that class. Now this 
 ever-flowing source of the Unemployed in our 
 country, many of whom unhappily drift into the 
 tramp and vagrant class, might be staunched 
 and closed if, during the years of service in the 
 Army these two things were done : — 
 
 (i) If opportunity were given for those who 
 had been trained and engaged in some of our 
 national industries, such as building and car- 
 pentry trades, or iron and blacksmith trades, 
 
22 
 
 etc. , to exercise that trade duringf a small portion 
 of their time, so that they would maintain, and 
 it might even be, increase their skill as trained 
 workmen who would command employment 
 because of their skill on leaving the Army. 
 
 (2) For the rest of our soldiers there would be 
 many advantages of other kinds, both moral and 
 physical, if in connection with all Barracks train- 
 ing were given and employment found, during, it 
 may be, two hours a day, in manual, especially 
 in agricultural, work. There might be associated 
 with every Barracks a farm on which they might 
 engage in this healthy labour, which would be a 
 most pleasant relief to the drill and monotonous 
 routine of the soldier's life, and which would give 
 training to all our young soldiers in farm labour, 
 so that on leaving the Army they would at once " 
 be sure to find employment in the great national 
 industry of agriculture which at present suffers 
 greatly for lack of skilled labourers. 
 
 (f) The most pitiable class of the Unemployed 
 are those who leave our prison and who, because 
 of the convict brand that is upon them, find it 
 difficult and oftentimes impossible to get work, 
 however earnestly they desire and seek it. 
 During their detention in prison many have 
 formed an earnest resolution to provide, when at 
 liberty, an honest livelihood for themselves. 
 But how hard their chances are ! In the Second 
 Appendix it is shown how in Elmira Prison 
 Reformatory prisoners are encouraged by their 
 good behaviour in prison to gain earlier release 
 on parole, and employment in that case is sought 
 for them, upon which they enter when they leave 
 prison, and in which they are further encouraged 
 
23 
 
 by a probation officer, who stands by them as a 
 friend. In g-iving evidence before the Interde- 
 partmental Committee on Vagrancy last year I 
 recommended that prisoners might be allowed 
 to complete their term of imprisonment in a 
 Vagrant Colony, where they might receive some 
 industrial training to prepare them for their 
 future life, and where they would be assisted in 
 obtaining employment on leaving the Colony. 
 At present, many of these convicts or ex-prison- 
 ers become tramps because they cannot obtain 
 work, and not infrequently they lapse into the 
 criminal class. 
 
 (^) We must never lose sight of this fact, that 
 the Unemployed are often those who are the 
 least capable of efficient work. Everything there- 
 fore that tends to give a higher moral discipline 
 and character and more physical vigour and 
 technical skill to our workmen, will be certain in 
 a number of ways, some of which are not easily 
 traced, to reduce the number of the Unemployed. 
 Good workmen are not lightly dismissed, and will 
 be kept by a good employer even at some loss, 
 during a time of depression. The work of 
 efficient workmen ensures a better market and 
 readier sale. Of course it may be said that the 
 number of those employed is limited by the 
 capital that is available to maintain them and to 
 direct their labour : but it should not be forgotten 
 that capital itself is attracted to industries where 
 trustworthy and able workmen are engaged : and 
 if all workman or a larger number of them, were 
 of a higher order in regard to character and 
 skill, much less money would be wasted unpro- 
 ductively in drink, gambling, etc., and would 
 be spent in the purchase of commodities for the 
 production of which much labour is required. 
 
24 
 
 Also such workmen would in many cases provide 
 the capital in Co-operative Societies and other- 
 wise for the maintenance of themselves and their 
 fellow workmen. If therefore, a hig-her and more 
 effective system of apprenticeship could be 
 introduced : if parents were more zealous to 
 secure effective training for their children in an 
 honourable industry ; and if the physical vigour 
 and moral control of our working class were en- 
 hanced, much would be done to reduce the 
 number of the Unemployed, for the reasons which 
 I have indicated and others which are more 
 remote, but which are equally certain in their 
 effect. 
 
 (h) The reduction of our idle and unemployed 
 men who often find increasing difficulty in ob- 
 taining employment, might be at once ensured 
 by arresting the exodus from our^country districts 
 into our towns of agricultural labourers ; or, now 
 whilst our country districts are being depopu- 
 lated, our towns are being congested by this 
 inflow of men competing mostly for unskilled 
 work in our towns and cities. Here we touch a 
 question of grave and national importance, in 
 which many issues are involved other than those 
 which we are now considering. It is in many 
 respects not only a significant but a lamentable 
 fact that persons of all ages occupied in agricul- 
 ture have diminished in numbers as the following 
 table shows : — 
 
 In i86i, 1,830,049 engaged in agriculture 
 
 „ 1871, 1,423,854 „ ,, ,. 
 
 ,, 1891, 1,099,572 ,, „ „ 
 
 ,, 19®^) >> 
 
 Thus in these forty years, persons engaged in 
 healthy country work have diminished nearly 
 
25 
 
 one half. During" these forty years the popula- 
 tion of Eng"land and Wales has risen most rapidly 
 at the annual rate of i *86 per cent, and therefore 
 Avas one half more in 1901 than it was in 1861, so 
 that now the proportion of our strictly agricul- 
 tural population is probably not more than 12 in 
 the 100 — a phenomenon which has the greatest 
 significance, and which has no parallel anywhere 
 in the past or present history of any country in 
 the World. If we are to reduce the number of 
 those unemployed in the towns we must prevent 
 the inrush of this great army of labouring people 
 from our country districts. On many accounts 
 this is the problem of problems of our day, and 
 there is one method by which infallibly that 
 perilous invasion of our towns and fearful de- 
 population of our country districts, can be 
 arrested. Let Communal or Co-operative 
 Colonies be formed in which small holders will 
 hold their land by permanent tenure, under sound 
 economic, and attractive social, conditions ; in 
 which therefore a healthy and independent life 
 can be assured to them, instead of the somewhat 
 servile, and wholly uncertain and insecure, condi- 
 tions in which most of our agricultural labourers 
 now find themselves, and we may be quite sure 
 that the general exodus from the country into our 
 towns will be greatly reduced. 
 
 There are movements now astir to promote 
 this desirable object. (^) Many other industries of 
 our time are over-crowded, but the one great 
 national industry of agriculture is depleted, and is 
 being ruined for want of effective labour. There- 
 fore to obtain a reduction of the unemployed in 
 
 (4) See Note in Appendix I. 
 
26 
 
 the other industries we must largely increase the 
 number of those who are engaged in that great- 
 est and most essential national industry, viz. : 
 the agricultural industry which is, in a sense, the 
 basis of all others and upon which the well-being 
 of our country in many essential respects vitally 
 depends. The Salvation Army in America have 
 established two important Colonies on large 
 domains which have been granted to them in two 
 States, About ^300,000 have been spent setting 
 women and children as well as men upon these 
 lands. 
 
 “The Colonists have consisted of worthy and 
 poor families. The farms have averaged 20 
 acres. The Colonists are all self-supporting. On 
 one Colony last year the cash income of the 
 settlers averaged ^800 per family. On another 
 Colony the business turnover amounted during 
 the year to ^200,000 while Sibout #50,000 was 
 paid in freight to the Railroad Company, On 
 this Colony there are now three schools, four 
 teachers, and 130 children of school age.” 
 
 The example of New Zealand also shows 
 gratifying results. In 1894 the New Zealand 
 Advances to Settlers Act was passed. The 
 Official Annual Report of the eighth year up to 
 March, 1903, definitely states that “ over 
 #18,000 have been advanced, that the payment 
 of interest and principal have been regularly paid 
 by the settlers, that there are no outstanding 
 debts, and that instead of loss there is a surplus 
 of #300,000 after paying working expenses.” 
 
 We repeat therefore what President Roosevelt 
 says in his recent message to Congress : — 
 
27 
 
 **Give every man who wants it a chance to 
 g-et a home on the land." 
 
 and to support his message he adds : — 
 
 ‘‘We must seek to check the trend of popula- 
 tion 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 
 maintenance of our social and political institu- 
 tions." 
 
 Commander Booth Tucker, of the Salvation 
 Army, has brought a Bill before Congress, ask- 
 ing for the creation of a Colonization Bureau to 
 aid settlers upon the land, and states the objects 
 of the Bill, which might with even greater em- 
 phasis and urgency, be applied to England ; — 
 
 (1) “To place the landless man on the 
 
 man-less land. 
 
 (2) To place by means of unemployed 
 
 capital unemployed labour on unem- 
 ployed land and thereby convert this 
 trinity of waste into a unity of pro- 
 duction. 
 
 (j) To mitigate the friction between capital 
 and labour by the provision (under I 
 may add perfectly safe conditions) of 
 what is known among the French as 
 the ^ droit au travail ' — the right to 
 work. 
 
 (4) To find a way out for the middle-aged 
 man who is at present not wanted by 
 the employer^ and who in case of 
 losing his position, finds it exceed- 
 ingly difficult to get another." 
 
28 
 
 It will be one of the most important economic 
 achievements in America, but still more in this 
 country, if the State would, under the wisest regu- 
 lations promote the settlement of workers on the 
 land in honourable ways which will have no taint of 
 pauperism in them. By these means more than in 
 any other, the Unemployed in our country will be 
 reduced, and a more healthy balance be restored 
 between our rural and urban populations. It is 
 interesting to state that on the morning when this 
 paragraph was dictated I received a letter from 
 a most active and enterprising man who is taking 
 out a number of labourers to New Zealand to 
 settle them under the Settler’s Act in that country, 
 and he says : — 
 
 “Your work of Home Colonization interests 
 me strongly. I have organised and taken out a 
 great many bright young men, the majority of 
 whom would be in England now if they had had 
 a chance of getting a few acres in this country. 
 It seems a great pity that such a crowd of ener- 
 getic and capable young fellows should be driven 
 away. They are welcomed in the Colonies, but 
 it seems to me that England cannot afford to lose 
 one of them.” 
 
 Colonel Lamb of the Emigration Department 
 of the Salvation Army informs me that he has 
 this spring sent out of this country a great num- 
 ber of families, in all 700 people,* to settle in 
 their Colonies in America, but he adds how much 
 more happily he would help to settle them in 
 the pastures and waste lands of this country 
 which produce little because little or no labour 
 is spent on them. Let us not forget that whilst 
 
 During 1905 he emigrated 3 ,ock>. 
 
29 
 
 this emigration continues, it is frequently the 
 finest blood of our race that is drawn from our 
 veins and goes to enrich other countries, whilst 
 the weaker and those who are less fit for labour 
 remain with us to reproduce after their kind. 
 
 (i) Reference has been made in the last divi- 
 sion to workmen who, having passed the prime 
 of life, are not able to keep the pace of younger 
 men in the workshop, or do the amount of work 
 that entitles them to the full wage which is re- 
 quired by their Trades Unions to be paid to all 
 workmen. Accordingly they fall into the ranks 
 of the Unemployed. There is no doubt that the 
 Workmen’s Compensation Act has made Employ- 
 ers more strict in employing those men who are 
 likely to be vigilant and alert. This misfortune is 
 befalling more men now than ever, and in the 
 future greater numbers are likely to suffer from it 
 unless a remedy is found. In most of our fac- 
 tories, the cost of machinery and the value of 
 steam power makes it imperative that the very 
 uttermost of work be done, and the greatest 
 return secured, in the shortest time. So the 
 machinery of our factories everywhere is being 
 more highly geared in speed, and more continuous 
 energy is required from the workman. Older 
 men who cannot bear this higher pressure and 
 heavier strain thus fall out of the ranks and 
 become unemployed. 
 
 Can however, no remedy be found for this 
 growing evil ? It may, I think, be found in two 
 directions. 
 
 7. (a) By introducing a system of piece-work 
 
 into our factories so that older men 
 
30 
 
 may be paid not by the time-table, 
 but by the amount of work they do, 
 which therefore may be done in a 
 more leisurely fashion. 
 
 (b) A lower wage might be paid to work- 
 ing men past a certain age who are 
 not able to do the full amount of 
 work which is required from their 
 fellows. 
 
 I know the difficulty that will be made in 
 carrying out either of these suggestions. The 
 Trades Unions of each trade insist upon the pay- 
 ment of a fixed wage to the workmen employed 
 in any given industry, and that wage is based 
 upon the average wage paid to workmen in the 
 industry of a given district. Hence they may 
 object either to piece work, which seems to 
 infringe their rule of an absolutely fixed and 
 equal wage for all workmen, or to a lower wage 
 for older men doingHhe regular work of the 
 factory, because that would lower the average 
 wage paid in the district ; but both these 
 objections can surely be removed by a wise 
 arrangement made by, employers and the leaders 
 of Trades Unions — an arrangement that would 
 leave intact the principle of a standard wage for 
 able-bodied and fully qualified workmen, and yet 
 allow room in the factory for men who have 
 passed their prime, but who can yet do a certain 
 amount of good work. 
 
 2 » Another remedy however has been found 
 in another direction. The object is to keep those 
 who are unable to endure the strain of the modern 
 factory from sinking iato the ranks of the Unem- 
 ployed, and this is done by providing some suit- 
 
31 
 
 able employment in which they may engfage. In 
 thei'ast division (^) it would be seen that allot- 
 ments or small holdings are proposed to be 
 offered to such men, and this would certainly be 
 a most pleasant form of labour for men who, 
 though not fit for the stress and toil in the 
 factory, but yet had vigour enough to cultivate 
 the soil in a simple way. Many of our workmen 
 in our towns cultivate their garden allotments in 
 their leisure time, and such men would be quite 
 prepared to spend the evening of their life in 
 what would be simply a larger allotment garden 
 in which they would earn enough at any rate to 
 keep themselves from absolute poverty, especi 
 ally with the help of their Friendly Societies. 
 Experiments have been made in America in some 
 of the large States, especially in Philadelphia. 
 In the sixth Annual Report of the Philadelphia 
 Vacant Lots Cultivation Association these pas- 
 sages occur : — 
 
 “The peculiar characterioiic of our industrial 
 system is its urgent demand for. young efficient 
 workers. The old and inefficient are remorse- 
 lessly crowded out of employment. To these 
 unfortunates the Association’s plan of relief 
 through work is an inestimable boon. A glance 
 at the statement ou tage 6 will show how the 
 older men and women have crowded in, as the 
 younger have found employment. It is for the 
 aged and partially disabled men and women wdth 
 helpless families to support, that Vacant Lot 
 Cultivation is now carried forward.” 
 
 “The cultivation of 27 acres in 1897 has grown 
 to 198 acres in 1902^ and a total product of 
 ^6,000 in 1897 to a product of %o,ooo last 
 season.” 
 
32 
 
 The poor of our towns may be taught in this 
 way to appreciate a healthy life in the country, 
 and how a living may be procured by work on 
 the land. They are eneouraged to learn some- 
 thing of agriculture and market gardening, and 
 so the Vacant Lot Cultivation brings country life 
 with all its blessings of pure air, wholesome food 
 and health-giving exercise to the poor of our 
 cities. (®) 
 
 In Belgium most large factories are in villages 
 where every workman is encouraged to spend his 
 leisure time in the cultivation of a large garden 
 allotted to him, and such workmen need never 
 pass into the ranks of the Unemployed, even 
 when unfit for factory labour. They simply have 
 to extend the work of their garden to which they 
 have been accustomed through life. In France 
 too, this association of garden work with factory 
 life is being very earnestly promoted, not merely 
 because of the improved health of the workman 
 and the occupation which it gives in leisure 
 hours, but because of the increased income it 
 brings to the family and because also of the 
 security it gives for the earning of a small but 
 honest livelihood, when the workman is unfitted 
 for the toil of the factory. The Guardians of 
 Poplar and elsewhere are forming Labour 
 Colonies in which their able-bodied paupers may 
 work and in which they may by their labour 
 partly maintain themselves. Would it not be 
 better public policy that the State and the Muni- 
 cipality should provide allotments or holdings for 
 men who are thrown out of regular employment, 
 so that they can, under proper guidance, and 
 with some training, secure for themselves and 
 
 (5) See Note in Appendix I. 
 
33 
 
 families an honest livelihood and save themselves 
 from the degradation of the Workhouse ? 
 
 But other ancillary occupations might be found 
 in which workmen no longer fit for the factory 
 can still earn a living. Throughout Europe, men 
 and women employed on their small holdings, 
 spend their winter evenings and wet days in 
 indoor employments which occupy their time and 
 increase the family income. In like manner it 
 will be possible to organize remunerative indus- 
 tries for men and women who are no longer fit to 
 bear the strain and pressure of work in the 
 factory. At any rate it will be conceded that 
 everything should be done to prevent men who 
 cannot find employment in the factory, from 
 merging into the great class of the Unemployed 
 to spend their life in idleness amid the tempta- 
 tions that beset their leisure, or to drift and 
 drivel into pauperism. 
 
 B. 
 
 We have sought to answer the first question, 
 how the numbers of those who are in times of 
 normal trade unemployed, are to be reduced ? 
 
 We have now to consider the second question, 
 how can those that are thus unemployed be 
 relieved, and helped more easily and certainly 
 to find honest employment, that will provide for 
 their livelihood ? 
 
 (a) The first answer to this question that 
 comes naturally and impromptu to the mind is, 
 let Employment Bureaux be opened in every part 
 of the country and let these Bureaux be informed 
 
34 
 
 fully from the Labour Department of the Board 
 of Trade, as to where there is a demand for 
 labour, 
 
 I know that serious objection is taken to these 
 Employment Bureaux by a great number of our 
 Trades Unions. I cannot but think that these 
 objections might be overcome and that Trades 
 Unions themselves, might easily obviate the 
 dangers to which they think these Bureaux give 
 rise. It must however be confessed that the 
 principal Trades Unions do at present achieve 
 much of the good contemplated by these 
 Bureaux, in that they provide information to 
 their members of the places in which work can 
 be found. And they do more than this, they 
 provide accommodation for their members who 
 travel in search of such labour. 
 
 It is therefore for the great mass of unskilled 
 workers, and others who are not associated in 
 any Union that this question is most urgent. 
 Means should be taken in order to give to such 
 men and women, the direction and help which 
 they need when they are thus out of employ- 
 ment ; and so in the speediest and most efficient 
 way to assist in restoring them again to honest 
 employment and save them from the rapid 
 deterioration that quickly falls upon them amid 
 the long and wearisome journeys, which they 
 have often to take in order to find labour. 
 Masters of Workhouses have told me with what 
 pity and shame they saw the degradation that 
 fell upon men of this order, who came to their 
 Casual Wards as men out of work who were 
 travelling to seek employment, but who, after it 
 may be weeks or months of futile quest, were 
 
35 
 
 apt to become vagrants of the ordinary type 
 who no longer loved or sought labour. They 
 were men in whom the hope of industry and the 
 spirit of independence had been utterly quenched, 
 and so they became, as we say, irredeemable 
 tramps. Everything that is possible should be 
 done in order to prevent this lapse and swift 
 degradation falling upon men who are out of 
 work and who have to go from place to place, to 
 seek and find work. For such men — men 
 belonging as I have said generally to the class 
 of unskilled labourers — I make the following 
 suggestions : — 
 
 (i ) Let such a man obtain from the Central 
 Police Office in the place where he lost his 
 employment, a certificate as to the work which 
 he had done and as to his character as an honest 
 workmen and also as to his being obliged to 
 travel to another place to get work. At each 
 Police Station in the country let information be 
 provided as to work to be found in the town or 
 neighbourhood which he visits — such information 
 as is usually given in an Employment Bureau. I 
 know that the Police Station is not relished by 
 working men, but it would be well if our Police 
 Officers were universally recognised — as they are 
 in the streets, by those who are in perplexity as 
 to their bearings — to be the helpers of those who 
 are in need, even more than as the enemies of 
 those who do wrong. But if there were any 
 difficulty in using the Police Station, each 
 Municipal or Urban District Office might render 
 this service. Let such a man, who is thus certi- 
 fied, be received in the Workhouses on wholly 
 different terms from those on which any vagrant 
 may claim to be received in the Casual Ward. 
 
36 
 
 Let him be treated as an honest workman who 
 needs and desires help in his quest for work. Let 
 him have thus, a comfortable lodging- and let the 
 work that he renders for the lodging and food 
 which he obtains, be done by him in the after- 
 noon of the day, so that he will be free to spend 
 the morning in seeking work in that district. 
 Many of these men however, will have some little 
 money to spend and will be prepared to pay for 
 lodging and food when they are thus travelling 
 to seek work. For such men therefore (and the 
 same applies to women) municipal lodgings 
 should be provided, and these lodgings ought to 
 be kept scrupulously clean and ought to be 
 officered and managed in such a way as to 
 encourage their lodgers to maintain their self- 
 respect. They should also offer assistance in 
 alliance it may be with the Central Police or 
 Municipal Office of the town or district, in direct- 
 ing these workmen and workwomen to places 
 where work can be found. 
 
 The remarkable pamphlet which has been 
 recently published recording the experiences of 
 five days’ tramp by two ladies, who, in the attire 
 of working women seeking work, spent five 
 nights in the Casual Wards of Workhouses or in 
 Municipal Lodging Houses, shows in the most 
 impressive way how much could be done at once 
 by Municipal Lodgings properly conducted, to 
 alleviate the unhappy lot of workmen and work- 
 women who are on the tramp for work ; and who 
 could there at little cost receive directions that 
 will help them in finding work. The fact that 
 these two ladies found one Women’s Shelter 
 which was everything that could be desired, 
 shows conclusively, that such Shelters or Lodg- 
 
37 
 
 ings could be established everywhere and con 
 ducted without loss. 
 
 (h) In a vast number of cases however, it is 
 not necessary for men and women who are 
 unemployed to leave the town or district in which 
 they have been accustomed to labour. Among 
 the unskilled workers in every town there is a 
 continual coming and going — one place closed 
 and another place opened : and the problem here 
 therefore is, how during the interval that lies 
 between the one situation and the other, the time 
 can be filled up without allowing them to lapse 
 into the army of loafers and cadgers that infest 
 our cities, and who so often drift into our Prisons 
 or our Workhouses. In our country efforts are 
 made by the Salvation Army and the Church 
 Army to deal with this flotsam and jetsam of our 
 cities and towns — the mass of those who are for 
 a shorter or longer time out of work and who 
 may easily sink into vagrancy or crime ; but in 
 our country there is one Institution and in 
 Germany there is another, which deals especially 
 and successfully with those men and women of 
 whom I am now thinking, viz. : those unskilled 
 workers who having lost one situation are seeking 
 anxiously for another. 
 
 The Institution in our country is the Central 
 Mission in Manchester, where every day from 
 I p.m., loo men or more receive a ticket which 
 entitles them to food and work and lodging in 
 their Workmen’s Home. In that Home the work 
 these men do suffices to maintain the Home with- 
 out any charitable help, so that they do not feel 
 they have lost the sense of independence. They 
 have paid by their work for all they have received. 
 
38 
 
 and every morning- they are at liberty to go out 
 and spend the forenoon seeking for work. In 
 this way, without expense, such men are kept 
 from swelling the ranks of the Unemployed. 
 They are employed even during the time they are 
 seeking for employment and it is pleasant to 
 know how quickly the great majority of them 
 find again the employment they seek. 
 
 The Colony abroad to which I referred is that 
 in Magdeburg, where a Town Colony is estab- 
 lished for men who are out of employment. They 
 can find employment at once in this Colony and 
 remain there until they are able to secure employ- 
 ment elsewhere. And here, as at Manchester, 
 under the most economic management, the 
 Colony is self-supporting. 
 
 Again however, we are brought here to face 
 the question of the number of men in our cities 
 engaged in unskilled labour who are exposed to 
 the continual necessity and distress of changing 
 their situations and shifting their labour through- 
 out the year: men who therefore, can have no 
 settled homes, or if they ever have homes they 
 are frequently broken up, so that both men and 
 women are exposed to the fearful temptations 
 and dangers of a vagrant life. When I looked 
 at the men I saw in the Central Mission in Man- 
 chester, many of them stalwart, well-built men 
 fit for work, and men for whom one could desire, 
 as the highest earthly good they could possess, 
 a settled home and healthy regular work — I could 
 not but greatly desire that in this country for 
 such men we could establish immediately, a few 
 such Colonies as one that exists at Fredericksoord 
 in Holland. We have heard much of the Belgian 
 
39 
 
 Colonies and German Colonies. They have valu- 
 able lessons for us, but for England to-day the 
 system adopted in the Dutch Colony to which I 
 refer seems to me to be more likely to meet our 
 most urgent needs. It not only gives employ- 
 ment to single men out of work, but plants 
 families on the land and gives to such men out 
 of work, the ambition and hope of establishing 
 homesteads of their own, which they will hold 
 by permanent tenure, and in which a comfortable 
 maintenance and a healthy life are assured to 
 them and to their children. 
 
 I give in the third appendix an account of the 
 Colony (®) established by the Society of Benefi- 
 cence at Fredericksoord, near the Zuyder Zee, 
 about five miles from the town of Steen wyk. The 
 Motto of the Society is : — Help the people and 
 improve the land/’ and its underlying principle 
 is to assist the destitute in meeting his wants and 
 the wants of all who depend upon him, without 
 suggesting a feeling of dependence and without 
 disturbing family relations. 
 
 2. XLbC We now deal with un- 
 
 TIlUCntplO^CD* employment that is sea- 
 sonal. In many trades 
 there are periods of the year in which the trade 
 cannot be prosecuted ; and therefore, those who 
 are engaged in it are for the time unemployed. 
 This of course means for these men, a loss of 
 wage during that interval which may be long or 
 short, but it also means a period of idleness 
 which is apt to engender a lessening of the 
 industrial habit, and gives rise to those forms of 
 
 (6) See Appendix III. 
 
40 
 
 temptation which beset idleness. It would there 
 lore be at once an economic and moral advantage 
 to all persons engaged in such trades, if employ- 
 ment could be found for them during those 
 regular intervals every year, when their trade is 
 practically closed to them. The remedy here 
 surely is obvious, that there should be some 
 occupation found for such men during those 
 intervals, whether they be long or short ; these 
 occupations to be such as will not in the least 
 degree interfere with their ability to return to 
 their special trade whenever the opportunity is 
 given. There are many industries which would 
 be wholly suitable for such interludes. For some 
 of these trades preparatory training will be 
 necessary to a greater or less extent, but there 
 are others of a simpler order for which little 
 training will be required. I give three examples 
 which indicate my meaning. 
 
 (/). In Switzerland as is well known the 
 peasants still hold their property by communal 
 tenure which gives them rights to pasturage on 
 the mountains and to the gathering of wood in 
 the forests. Their ordinary occupations how- 
 ever are for the most part impossible during the 
 winter, and there is thus a long period of seasonal 
 unemployment. Now however, those winter 
 seasons are fully occupied in ways that not only 
 bring profit to the home, but also give varied 
 interest and much social pleasure to the villages 
 and scattered chMets of Switzerland. The wood- 
 carving industry alone yields a return of more 
 than a million sterling every year ; and there are 
 other industries, such as embroidering on plain 
 goods sent from England and other countries, 
 which yield even larger returns. 
 
41 
 
 In Wiirtemburg- in like manner, under the wise 
 economic arrangements that were instituted by 
 an eminent Statesman — von Steinbeis — the small 
 peasant yeomen of that country who own the 
 land they hold, were trained and assisted to 
 engage in many kinds of home industri^ during 
 the winter season when all of them were unem- 
 ployed, because they could not then cultivate 
 their land. By the varied home industries which 
 be had thus established throughout the land, 
 Wiirtemburg, which was economically a poorer 
 country than Ireland, is now a land where a high 
 standard of comfort universally prevails. 
 
 In the same way during recent years the 
 seasonal unemployment on the small holdings 
 of France and other European countries is 
 being removed by the introduction of similar 
 home industries ; and in passing, it may 
 be said that the electric lighting of Swiss 
 and French villages which has been cheaply 
 introduced by using the energy” yielded by 
 the numerous cascades of water, and the wide- 
 spread use of petroleum in the villages and scat- 
 tered cottages of Europe, have enabled home 
 industries to be carried on during long winter 
 evenings, which would otherwise have been im- 
 possible.” 
 
 (2) Another example of employment provided 
 during the winter season when labourers are 
 hindered from their regular work because of the 
 frost and inclement weather, was given by Mr. 
 Hendry Wallace, J.P., at a Conference of Guar- 
 dians held in Gateshead a few years ago, when 
 he showed how, during those very months of 
 
 (7) See Note in Appendix I. 
 
42 
 
 seasonal unemployment, the street refuse which 
 was taken out to sea in barges at considerable 
 expense, might be taken out to waste land in the 
 neighbourhood and distributed there, so as to be 
 ploughed or dug into the land when the weather 
 broke ; and he showed how in this way, labourers 
 who were idle in the streets or in the Work- 
 houses, might find remunerative and most useful 
 employment. 
 
 (j) The great varieties of industry that may 
 be thus undertaken by working men and working 
 women during periods of the year in which, from 
 the nature of their trade or from the inclemency 
 of the season, they are thrown out of employ- 
 ment, may be learnt by reference to the Report 
 of the Recess Committee on the Establishment 
 of a Department of Agriculture and Industries 
 for Ireland, published in the year 1896, (®) and by 
 a study of Prince Kropotkin’s great book 
 ‘^Fields, Factories, and Workshops,” sold now 
 in the popular edition at one shilling. 
 
 3. XLbc ‘Clnemploi^eJ) 
 During Severe Crises 
 In tbe Staple 5nbus== 
 tries ot our Mauutac® 
 taring Cowns an& 
 2>lstrlcts, 
 
 The name ‘‘Spas- 
 modically Unem- 
 ployed ” has been 
 given to those per- 
 sons who by some 
 unexpected vicissi- 
 tude in their trade — 
 the introduction of new labour-saving machinery, 
 or the failure of customary markets — are thrown 
 out of employment. If these are found in towns 
 where other trades flourish, they may be dealt 
 with in methods described under the two former 
 
 (8) See Note in Appendix I. 
 
43 
 
 heads. If on the other hand, their number is 
 very considerable, and a large district is affected, 
 then the problem is much the same as that dealt 
 with under the following head. 
 
 But it seems to me that in towns or districts 
 where from any special causes there are a 
 number of work people thrown out of employ- 
 ment, the measures that were approved at Con- 
 ferences held at Woolwich during the year 1903, 
 are worthy of special consideration. The report 
 of these conferences was submitted to the Wool- 
 wich Borough Council, on the 14th July, 1904, 
 when the following resolutions were passed : — 
 
 (1) That the Town Clerk be asked to submit 
 a Report upon the legal powers at present pos- 
 sessed by municipalities in London for the 
 purpose of acquiring and holding land, and upon 
 the amendments in the law necessary to further 
 and facilitate the holding of land for municipal 
 purposes. 
 
 (2) That a fund be accumulated by the 
 Council which may be spent on public works 
 during times of exceptional distress through un- 
 employment by means of annual savings in times 
 of prosperity, not exceeding the amount of a id. 
 rate, in order that employment may thereby be 
 provided without increasing the rates during a 
 period of distress, and that if necessary the 
 L.G.B. be asked to obtain legislation for that 
 purpose. 
 
 (3) That the Works Committee be directed to 
 prepare schemes of public works in the Borough, 
 to be executed in periods of distress, and that the 
 Finance Committee be asked to make provision 
 
44 
 
 in the estimates accordingly, in consultation with 
 the Works Committee. 
 
 The following resolutions were also passed 
 which relate to other questions dealt with in this 
 pamphlet : — 
 
 (7) That the Governors of the Woolwich 
 Polytechnic and other educational bodies be 
 asked to consider whether they can extend or 
 improve the existing provision of education cal- 
 culated to fit persons to succeed in rural districts 
 or in the Colonies, and that the Board of Guar- 
 dians be asked to consider whether it can train 
 the young under its care in the needs and ways 
 of country life. 
 
 (8) That the Woolwich Board of Guardians 
 be invited to form a joint committee with the 
 Borough Council to consider the points raised in 
 paragraph 11, on pages 12 and 13, of the Minutes 
 of the proceedings of the Conferences of Repre- 
 sentatives of Administrative Authorities in 
 London, held 3rd April, 1903, upon the question 
 of conferring power upon Boards of Guardians to 
 take land for the purpose of providing work in 
 times of want. 
 
 (14) a. That this Council do consider the 
 question of the establishment of a more complete 
 industrial organisation for ascertaining the state 
 of the labour market from time to time, and sup- 
 porting the L.C.C. in asking the Government to 
 take steps for the establishment of local Indus- 
 trial Offices throughout the country for the col- 
 lection and distribution of information with 
 regard to industry and the demand for labour at 
 home and abroad. 
 
45 
 
 (15) That the necessary steps be taken to 
 secure the appointment of a permanent com- 
 mittee from the bodies represented on the 
 conference for the following’ purposes, namely — 
 
 (a) To make enquiries and submit reports 
 
 on matters bearing upon the problem 
 of unemployment in the Borough. 
 
 (b) To watch the conditions of trade and 
 
 industry, and issue warnings when 
 distress from unemployment is to be 
 anticipated. 
 
 (c) To draw up and report on schemes for 
 
 diminishing unemployment in the 
 Borough, mitigating distress arising 
 therefrom. 
 
 4. ZCbe TUnemplo^eb in 
 Ipevfobs of ScKfCxc 
 S)epre 06 (on Bffect^ 
 ing tbc mbolc 
 Countri^ or Effecting 
 Xar^e Districts of 
 tbe Countri^. 
 
 I now consider what 
 employment might 
 be most advantage- 
 ously provided in 
 periods of great in- 
 dustrial depression, 
 affecting the w’hole 
 country or large sec- 
 tions of it. Here we are inevitably led to con- 
 sider national undertakings in which great 
 numbers of people thrown out of employment, 
 might be engaged so as to save them from the 
 industrial degeneracy that follows swiftly upon 
 prolonged idleness, or from sinking into pauperism 
 and becoming a stupendous burden upon the 
 State. Apart from Municipal and Government 
 Works of special kinds which might be under- 
 taken in such periods of depression, there are 
 
46 
 
 three great national industries which might then 
 be engaged in, for the relief of the Unemployed 
 and to the benefit of the State. 
 
 (/) Afforestation. 
 
 With regard to this I quote one sentence from 
 the Report of the Recess Committee to which I 
 have already referred ; — 
 
 The forests in the hands of the State in various 
 European countries have been proved to be 
 remarkably successful. Those in Prussia, show 
 the aggregate annual surplus of income over 
 expenditure from 1876 — 1883 to be £iy 200 yOoo, 
 In Russia, profits of the Crown forests in 1872 
 reached ;^90o,ooo, in 1881, ;£i, 485,000. The 
 State forests are worked at a profit in France, 
 Coburg, Gotha, etc.” 
 
 M. Howitz an eminent Danish expert, in the 
 report upon the re-afforestation of waste land in 
 Ireland, considers that even at the highest 
 estimate of planting and tending the forests, the 
 undertaking would be profitable commercially ; 
 and this report disregards altogether the import- 
 ant element of value which re-afforestation would 
 have in developing the industries connected with 
 forests, in improving the climate, and preventing 
 the mountain land from denudation of soil which 
 is now going on, by arresting the rainfall and 
 changing its character from a torrential into a 
 gradual one. (See Report of the Recess Com- 
 mittee, 1895, p. 25.) 
 
 We now import annually for home use, timber 
 worth probably over 17 or 18 millions a year, and 
 
47 
 
 it has been asked why, when the State has land 
 and unlimited capital and can afford to wait for 
 returns, it cannot employ during^ such a period of 
 depression, the labour of the country in planting- 
 great forests on commercial lines. The ‘‘ Daily 
 Chronicle ” some years ago, in quoting Dr. 
 Schlich, the great expert on forestry, asserts that 
 of the 26 million acres of waste land in England, 
 eight millions are fully suited for purposes of 
 afforestation, and that only six millions would be 
 needed to grow the quantity of timber equal to 
 our present import. He remarks too, that a 
 profit of 2 § per cent, can be assured after allow- 
 ing for compound interest on necessary capital 
 during the period that must elapse before returns 
 come in. (^) 
 
 (^). The utilization of the Peat which is found 
 in the great Peat Bogs of Ireland, and the Peat 
 Mosses, as they are called, of Scotland. Employ- 
 ment in this labour yields two results of value, 
 namely (i) the value of the Peat which is now 
 being utilised for many purposes, and (2) the 
 value of the cultivable land secured by the 
 removal of the Peat. A very striking example of 
 the utilization of these Peat wastes, and the 
 opportunity they give for providing employment 
 is furnished in the new Labour Colony which has 
 been established at Freistatt in connection with 
 the famous Colony of Mercy, established at 
 Bielefeld by Pastor von Bodelschwing. A descrip- 
 tion of this Colony is given in the ‘‘ Friend " for 
 the month of October, 1904, by Mr. Hogge, who 
 concludes his article with this paragraph : — 
 ‘‘The two conditions which seem to make for 
 
 (9) See Note in Appendix I. 
 
48 
 
 success in this kind of work are both here — a 
 new industry, in no way competing* with others, 
 and enough land to employ labour which other- 
 wise might go unemployed. Very little would 
 suffice to create the Peat industry into a profitable 
 concern, and the rough waste land which is 
 opened when the peat is removed might soon be 
 dotted over with the homesteads of a contented 
 peasantry.” 
 
 (j) The Reclamation of Waste Lands. Strik- 
 ing statistics are also given in the Report of the 
 Recess Committee, as to the reclamation of 
 waste lands of all kinds, including foreshores, 
 salt marshes, land cut up by rivers and lochs, 
 bogs, mountainous and upland wastes, dunes, 
 sandhills, etc., and the Report adds these two 
 striking sentences ; — 
 
 “That great results may be looked for from 
 reclamation, on a large scale, is sufficiently 
 proved by the fact that the soil of Holland, now 
 one of the richest agricultural countries of the 
 world, consists largely of reclaimed land. Much 
 of the reclamation of Holland has been of the 
 most expensive and daring kind, such as dam- 
 ming out lakes and seas. The Dutch Govern- 
 ment is now pumping out the Zuyder Zee at a 
 cost of per acre, and expects to sell it for 
 ;^34 per acre. There are 476,000 acres to be 
 reclaimed.” 
 
 “ In Belgium the communes undertake a good 
 deal of this reclamation and this work is strongly 
 recommended for its social and economic advan- 
 tages by M. Emile de Laveleye.” 
 
49 
 
 Great national undertaking's such as these 
 may therefore in our country be undertaken dur- 
 ing;" any time of universal depression, so as to 
 give helpful employment to the people thrown 
 out of work, and create national wealth of the 
 best kind ; for not only would land be made fertile 
 which is now unfertile and products be raised in 
 our own country which are now imported from 
 abroad ; but vast areas of land which are now 
 unhealthy, untenanted and useless, would have a 
 salubrious climate and be tenanted by thousands 
 of industrious families. 
 
50 
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (1) Since this paragraph was written facts have 
 been stated to me on unquestioned authority, 
 which show that the migration of working 
 people in London, and the consequent fre- 
 quent removal of their children from one 
 school to another, works more disastrously 
 upon the education of many of our children 
 than is suspected. 
 
 In a London district, containing about 150 
 schools, the average removals during the 
 year of children under the age for total 
 exemption was 20 %. Some were forced to 
 seek a new abode owing to the demolition of 
 houses for the widening of thoroughfares 
 and railways, etc. In a few cases parents 
 were fortunate enough to rise in the social 
 scale and to remove their children to a better 
 neighbourhood ; but the most frequent cause 
 of removal arose from the necessity to find 
 accommodation within their means for their 
 increasing families. Owing to the rule of 
 the London County Council in respect, to the 
 numbers allowed to occupy one room, and to 
 the separation of sexes, in one block of 
 workmen’s buildings containing 60 sets of 
 rooms, twelve families were turned out in 
 one week because to each had come a new 
 baby. 
 
 (2) The evil caused by the ignorance and neglect 
 of parents in not putting their children out to 
 trades that may be suitable for them, and 
 allowing them to earn money by engaging 
 in employments that give no training for 
 skilled labour, is much more serious than is 
 obvious at first sight. Mrs. Ogilvie Gordon, 
 D.Sc., Ph.D., of Aberdeen, and Mr. Edward 
 Cadbury, of Birmingham, are both taking 
 
51 
 
 great interest in this matter. They have 
 made enquiries which show the great extent 
 and gravity of the evil thus caused. Mrs. 
 Gordon has made a suggestion which would 
 at once reduce this evil and save multitudes 
 of our children from the haphazard and 
 irregular way in which they spend those 
 years of their life, namely from 13 to 17, 
 which determine their whole future. Mrs. 
 Gordon proposes that there should be in 
 connection with all schools an Information 
 Bureau. There might be a central Bureau 
 for a town or district which should act as an 
 agency between employers of labour on the 
 one hand and industrial children on the other, 
 with the object of providing information 
 as to the various trades that are open to 
 the children, and the prospects they olfer. 
 Parents would be encouraged and helped to 
 seek in this way the future welfare of their 
 children, and facilities would be provided for 
 their entering suitable trades. This is a kind 
 of service which the Managers of our schools 
 could undertake, and when once organised, 
 it would not involve a great amount of labour 
 on their part, but the advantages to our 
 children and their parents, of the working 
 class, would be exceedingly great. Mrs. 
 Leon, of Russell Square, W.C., and the 
 Women’s Settlement, in Southwark, are I 
 learn interesting themselves in this important 
 matter. 
 
 The evil w^hich arises from the neglect ot 
 parents in setting their children to learn a 
 regular trade is greater in London than else- 
 where, because of the difficulty they find in 
 getting such openings for their children. In 
 the workshops of London a great proportion 
 of the men employed are from the provinces, 
 and have received their training there. Rent 
 is so high in London that large employers of 
 labour cannot afford the space, and the 
 expense, for the training of boys in their 
 
52 
 
 workshops. And so London boys are 
 debarred from becoming skilled workmen in 
 some of the largest and most important 
 trades. It is hoped that the Technical 
 Classes, which are so numerously attended 
 in London, will avail to lessen this evil which 
 threatens to crowd London with men who 
 have acquired no regular handicraft trade, 
 and who, not having the physique for 
 unskilled labour, swell the ranks of the 
 unemployed. 
 
 (3j The medical treatment of which I speak here 
 is no longer secret, and therefore tainted with 
 the suspicion of quackery. It was set forth 
 fully in a recent issue of the British Medical 
 Journal, pp. 1006-1009, April No., 1904, 
 where many examples were given of the 
 efficacy of the treatment : and I am glad 
 to know that it is proposed to establish 
 some Homes where this treatment will 
 be given for working class patients. I 
 hope that these Homes will be established 
 on the land, and constitute colonies of the 
 kind I have described, because then the pa- 
 tients, during the month’s treatment, which 
 I have recommended, would receive the 
 great benefits of healthy out-door life and 
 labour associated with the new and varied 
 interests of a country home. Mr. Robinson 
 Souttar, in his book Alcohol* its place and 
 power in Legislation,^' states “ many reasons 
 why prolonged residence in an Inebriate 
 home is not to be desired, if it can possibly 
 be avoided, and says that if a system can be 
 devised which will concentrate it to a few 
 weeks, it will be of great value to the better 
 class patients. Many a man to whom twelve 
 months’ seclusion would mean ruin, could 
 afford to take a month’s holiday. The evils 
 generally incidental to residence in a Retreat 
 would be absent, or greatly minimised, if the 
 treatment were only a month. Any system 
 therefore which permitted of the period of 
 detention being shortened would be wel- 
 
53 
 
 come.” Dr. Souttar has said all this with 
 regard to Retreats which are now chiefly 
 occupied by wealthy patients. These are 
 too costly for working men who suffer from 
 this drink craze, but Homes or Colonies on 
 the land, of the kind that I have indicated, 
 might easily be established for working men 
 who could pay for a short residence of one 
 month a sum which, together with their 
 labour, would be sufficient to cover all 
 expenses. 
 
 (4) The English Land Colonisation Society was 
 formed for this object. It is now merged in 
 the Co-operative Small Holdings Society, 
 which has been established this year. Its 
 Offices are 10 Adelphi Terrace. 
 
 (5) See “Farming in the City” — Sixth Annual 
 
 Report of the Philadelphia Vacant Lots 
 Association, page 9. 
 
 (6) As Mr. Alden undertook to conduct a small 
 
 party to investigate Labour Colonies in 
 Belgium and Germany, I suggested to him 
 that they might pay a visit to this Colony of 
 Frederiksoord, in Holland. He promised to 
 do so, and he has given a most interesting 
 account of this Colony in “ The Friend ” for 
 the month of October, 1904 (see Appendix HI. 
 for full description), along with reports given 
 by other members of his party of the other 
 Colonies which they visited in Belgium and 
 Germany. His report confirms the impression 
 which I received from reading accounts of 
 the Colony, and I quote from it one or two 
 passages, together with the four concluding 
 paragraphs with which he concludes his 
 report : — 
 
 “The underlying principle of Frederiksoord 
 is the assistance of the unemployed by en- 
 abling them to work upon the land, and 
 eventually, after experience has been gained 
 and a reputation for industry and ability 
 
54 
 
 established^ of settling- them in free farms. 
 The method seems to be as follows : Any 
 one of the charitable societies or persons 
 subscribing to the Society of Benificence has 
 the right to recommend any of the unfortunate 
 but deserving poor, especially such as are out 
 of work, to the Colony, Many such colonists 
 would be single men, and in their case they 
 are sent to one or other of the large colony 
 farms, of which there are five of about 300 
 acres each, where they are trained in all 
 branches of agriculture. If the colonist be 
 married and have children, he is provided 
 with a cottage and garden.” 
 
 Mr. Alden asks : — How far could such a 
 system be applied in England?” and then makes 
 the following suggestions : — 
 
 1. That a start should be made with a 
 Colony for unmarried men who have been 
 agricultural labourers or accustomed to work 
 on the land. There are hundreds of men 
 who have migrated to the big* towns and 
 found regular work very difficult to get and 
 hold. Many of them would be willing to 
 return to the country under fair conditions. 
 A period of probation, as in Holland, might 
 be followed by the ‘‘free farm,” or small 
 holding, with security of tenure. Loans of 
 money for stock, seeds, etc., might be ob- 
 tained from a local Agricultural Bank started 
 for the purpose on the Raiffeisen principle. 
 The free farmers should work co-operatively, 
 as they are encouraged to work on the small 
 holdings in Lincolnshire and Norfolk. 
 
 2. That, as the first colony demonstrated 
 its success, a second should be linked on to 
 it for married men, for whom cottages should 
 be built. If such cottages are to be cheaply 
 built, the bye-laws would have to be relaxed 
 to some extent, and the Government, through 
 
55 
 
 the County Council, would have to assist in 
 the matter of cheap loans for housing- pur- 
 poses. 
 
 3. A colony should also be started for 
 genuine unemployed labourers from the town, 
 especially for younger men, who feel their 
 inability to make a permanent livelihood in 
 the town. Some of these men have an allot- 
 ment near the town^ but the majority w'ould 
 have to be trained from the beginning, under 
 the supervision of skilled foremen. The 
 director of the colony should be a practical 
 and successful farmer, with large heart and 
 wide sympathies. 
 
 4. A sine qua non should be the condition 
 that none but men of good character be 
 received at these colonies. The man with 
 the criminal taint, the wastrel, the inebriate, 
 should be dealt with at colonies of a different 
 nature, subject to different conditions.” 
 
 (7) Everyone interested in this subject should 
 
 read the remarkable article on “ The Small 
 Industries of France,” in the September num- 
 ber, 1903, of the ‘‘Contemporary Review.” 
 
 (8) This Volume, especially pp. 35-86, should be 
 carefully studied on the subject now under 
 consideration, by those who are interested in 
 the economic and moral well-being of the 
 people. 
 
 (9) It is known that Larch, Spruce and other Firs 
 
 are too soft when grown under the climatic 
 conditions of our country to be of service in 
 building and other purposes, to which Con- 
 tinental and Canadian timber is put. I 
 understand there is a process called the 
 Powell Wood-Process, by which such soft 
 timber can be easily and inexpensively 
 hardened and made available for building 
 and domestic uses. 
 
56 
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 THE ELMIRA PRISON REFORMATORY 
 (NEW YORK). 
 
 “All individuals commended to the Refor- 
 matory, except those sentenced by federal courts 
 within the state of New York, are brought to the 
 Institution by its transfer officer. 
 
 The neophyte usually has an opportunity for 
 several hours of calm contemplation before he is 
 called from his cell for his first conference with 
 the General Superintendent. At this meeting he 
 is subjected to a searching examination of his 
 whole history, being called upon to furnish for 
 the records all the facts within his ken relating 
 to his parentage, early environment, personal 
 habits, and present ambitions. The information 
 adduced as to progenitors often has an influence 
 in deciding the trade to be taught to the novice, 
 who is unaccustomed to, and unskilled at, labour, 
 and who seldom evinces any choice. The class 
 of manufacturing mostly carried on in the vicinity 
 to which the man is likely to go upon his release 
 is also an important factor in the arrangement of 
 his trade instruction. The prisoners are divided 
 into three classes or grades, determined by the 
 character of the men ; — their conduct, industry, 
 and studiousness being factors in securing pro- 
 motion or retrogradation. 
 
 The three grades are styled the Upper First, the 
 Lower First, and the Second. Tyros are inducted 
 to the Lower First Grade. They take their 
 meals in their rooms. By maintaining a good 
 record for six successive months they may 
 advance to the Upper First grade, from which 
 alone they may secure release prior to the 
 expiration of the maximun term for which they 
 can be imprisoned. In the Upper First their 
 cells are more commodious, they are provided 
 
57 
 
 with spring’ beds, and they eat at tables in a 
 large dining room. From their ranks are chosen 
 the officers and most of the non-commissioned 
 officers of the regiment, as well as the monitors 
 in the shops and the turnkeys of the cell blocks. 
 If their records continue perfect another six 
 months, they become candidates for conditional 
 release, the ultimatum being a vote of confidence 
 by the Board of Managers, and the securing of 
 satisfactory emplo5^ment. 
 
 The downward step from the Lower First 
 grade leads to the Second, or Convict grade. 
 Into this drop the Lower First grade men whose 
 conduct, school, and labour records are imperfect 
 for two or three months in succession, and men 
 of both divisions who are guilt}^ of insubordination 
 or any serious infraction of the rules, or who are 
 detected in the commission of an act evidencing 
 a special hostility to law and government. Those 
 who are reduced to this class forfeit all credit 
 marks, and may only secure readmission to the 
 next higher grade to take a fresh start for the 
 parole goal by earning a perfect marking for 
 three successive months. Those who fall to the 
 Second grade a second time may not emerge 
 from it for six months, and the third degradation 
 is not followed by advancement for a year. Its 
 men are quartered in the smallest cells, are 
 deprived of all room furniture not essential to 
 health and cleanliness, having no sheets to their 
 beds, receive no tea and coffee with their rations, 
 lose the privilege of drawing literature of any 
 kind from the library, and lose their right to 
 receive any trade instruction as such. 
 
 The engagements of each inmate are intended 
 to absorb his thoughts during most of his waking 
 moments. The programme is varied for indi- 
 viduals. There are those who are employed at 
 productive labour or in domestic service. A 
 majority of the trades-school pupils spend a 
 portion of two days a week in the drawing room. 
 
58 
 
 On Wednesday and Saturday afternoons work is 
 suspended in the shops and trades’ class-rooms, 
 and the four hours are devoted to drilling- and 
 military ceremonies. There are evening class 
 meetings for every man as often as twice a week, 
 w’hilst for those men nearly illiterate and those 
 taking special courses as often as four times a 
 week. On Sundays there are classes in ethics. 
 There are Kindergarten classes for the under- 
 witted, classes for the others in all branches of 
 study, from elementar}^ subjects to the higher 
 sciences and philosophy. The elementary classes 
 are usually taught by advanced convicts. The 
 main classes are, however, iudustrial. There are 
 classes in brick-laying and plastering, black- 
 smithing, horseshoeing, book-binding, barbering, 
 baking, brass finishing and moulding,, boat- 
 building, carpentering and cabinet-making, 
 electricity, firemen’s work, fresco painting, 
 wood-finishing, machinery, moulding, branding, 
 pattern-making, photography, stone-cutting, 
 stenography, shoemaking, steam-fitting, stained 
 glass setting, tailoring, tinsmithing, typewriting, 
 upholstering, wood-carving, etc. 
 
 Careful instruction is given in every depart- 
 ment, mainly by the convicts themselves. In 
 many workshops containing scores or even 
 hundreds of workers, convicts are the only 
 teachers, and convicts the only ones on guard. 
 Much attention is given to physical training. 
 Every convict on going in has a physical 
 examination, and then the endeavour is made to 
 develop to the normal that which is abnormal. 
 
 The system of physical training, with its 
 accompaniment of massage and bathing, is 
 accomplishing what was expected of it. Since 
 its opening there has been confined within the 
 Reformatory precincts a limited number of men 
 of a type so abnormal as not to be susceptible of 
 betterment through the application of methods 
 resorted to in the cases of the majority. Un- 
 developed minds, poorly nourished or diseased 
 
59 
 
 bodies — results of bad environment and vicious 
 habits or the legacy of unhealthy progenitors — 
 had made them stupid, slow, disinclined, if able, 
 to apply their minds to the acquirement of useful 
 knowledge, and generally unprogressive. Many 
 of them are illiterate, and some have so far lost 
 control over themselves as to be ranked not 
 much above idiots. They are utterly incapable 
 of receiving and retaining impressions with 
 Sufficient regularity to make headway in the 
 simplest of trades taught in the technological 
 department, and they are fitted only for incon- 
 sequential work in the shops. In conduct they 
 rank with the incorrigibles, often because they 
 have no appreciation of the distinction between 
 right and wrong. They are not to be stimulated 
 by the same motives and ambitions that effect 
 most of those undergoing the rehabilitating 
 course. Loss of privilege by way of penalty is 
 regarded with stolid indifference. For men 
 answering this description and for those offering 
 mere physical defects which may be remedied by 
 systematic muscular efforts, the physical train- 
 ing department accomplishes an amount of good 
 that cannot be satisfactorily expressed in words. 
 
 One of the more recent steps is the adoption of 
 a wage earning plan. Each man is credited with 
 his earnings in labour for every full day's work of 
 eight hours at the rate of 35 cents, per day in the 
 Second, 45 cents, per day in the Lower First, and 
 55 cents, per day in the Upper First grade. This 
 rate is not fixed in accordance with an estimate 
 placed upon the value of the labour, but is 
 governed by the legal provision restricting the 
 amount that may be disbursed to inmates to 10 
 per cent, of the gross earnings of the Reforma- 
 tory. Fines are imposed for bad conduct. 
 
 In study, a demerit of is incurred for failure 
 in any subject where the marking is not below 50 
 per cent. ; below 50 per cent, and not below 25 
 per cent. $2 ; below 25 per cent. ^3. 
 
6o 
 
 From his earnings each man is required to pay 
 for what he receives ; in board and lodgings at 
 the rate of 25 cents, per day in the Second, 32 
 cents, per day in the Lower First, and 40 cents, 
 per day in the Upper First grade ; in clothing, at 
 an established schedule of prices ; and in medical 
 attendance, at the rate of 15 cents, per visit. 
 While for the present the price of board is 
 inflexible, a plan is under consideration by which 
 his expenditure in this direction will be placed in 
 the control of each inmate. 
 
 It is intended that any total credit balance 
 obtained under this system shall be placed at the 
 disposal of the inmate earning it as a fund to be 
 paid him on his release. This can take place 
 (unless the maximum term of imprisonment be 
 reached first) only by perfect records for a 
 certain period, and the confidence of the manage- 
 ment that the candidate is ‘ morally, intellectu- 
 ally, and physically capable of earning a liveli- 
 hood. In the event of the conditional release 
 being authorised there is still another step prior 
 to its realization : satisfactory evtployment must 
 he secured. 
 
 The principal regulations governing paroled 
 men, which are printed on the certificate issued 
 to each, are these : 
 
 1. The graduate shall proceed directly to 
 
 the place of employment provided 
 for him and there remain, if prac- 
 ticable, for at least six months from 
 date. 
 
 2. In case he find it desirable to change his 
 
 employment or residence, he shall 
 first get the consent of the Managers, 
 through the General Superintendent. 
 
 3. He shall on the first of every month, for 
 
 the period of six months or more. 
 
6i 
 
 and until absolutely released by the 
 Managers, forward to the General 
 Superintendent a leport of himself 
 certified by his employer or a 
 General Manager, which report 
 shall state whether he has been con- 
 stantly under pay during the month, 
 and if not, why not, and how much 
 money he has expended and saved, 
 together with a general and full 
 statement of himself and surround- 
 ings. 
 
 4, He shall in all respects conduct himself 
 honestly, avoid low and evil associa- 
 tions, and shall abstain from intoxi- 
 cating drinks. 
 
 Each man is advised, prior to his departure, 
 that he need not fear to communicate with the 
 management in case he lose his situation or 
 becomes unable to labour by reason of sickness. 
 He is assured that he may at all times rely upon 
 the aid and counsel of the Managers and Superin 
 tendent, and that, in case of disease, he may find 
 the Reformatory a desirable retreat. If the 
 terms of the conditional release are faithfully 
 complied with for a period of six months, the 
 Board of Managers, by vote at one of their 
 monthly meetings, grant absolute release, which 
 operates the same as if obtained from the Gov- 
 ernor. 
 
 The results of the plan are most favourable. 
 According to the report for 1895, there had been 
 received on the indeterminate term up to Sep- 
 tember 30th, 1894, 6,641 convicts. Of these 
 4,369 were paroled, the remaining 2,272 being 
 either still in the Reformatory, or, having been 
 released by expiration of the maximum term, 
 pardoned out, transfered to other state prisons 
 or having died. Of the 4,369 who had paroled, 
 3,628, or 83 per cent., are reported to have pro- 
 bably reformed ; 2,616 of these served their com- 
 plete time of parole and earned their absolute 
 
62 
 
 release ; 322 were still on parole ; while the 
 remaining- one-half had been lost sig'ht of, but 
 who are counted as having ‘ probably ' re- 
 formed ; 686 or 15*7 per cent, are reported as 
 having probably returned to criminal practices ; 
 303 have been returned to the Reformatory — 140 
 have been returned twice, 26 have returned 
 twice, 12 have been returned three times, and 4 
 have returned three times.’' 
 
 Mr. E. Grubb, Secretary of the Howard Asso- 
 ciation, who has visited this Reformatory and 
 two other Prison Reformatories during the 
 summer (1904), reports most favourably on this 
 parole s}^stem, and the appointment of Probation 
 Officers, who visit and superintend those who are 
 on ^parole.’ 
 
 APPENDIX III. 
 
 The Colony of Frederiksoord in Holland is con- 
 ducted on the following plan : — 
 
 ‘‘ When a new family arrives a house is pro- 
 vided and the immediate wants of the household 
 attended to, not in the shape of gifts, but by 
 advances, which must be paid for in instalments 
 according to conditions previously made known 
 to the newcomer. He is also supplied with a 
 sheep (ewe), which can be pastured on the 
 Society’s farm for a small sum. On this he makes 
 weekly payments. The purchaser is advised to 
 insure this animal in the general funds of the 
 Society, so that in case of death it can be re- 
 placed without loss to the owner. At the very 
 beginning a man is invested with the feeling of 
 ownership, and a way is provided by which, with 
 due economy, he may meet his obligations. 
 
 All the wage-earning members of this newly 
 arrived family are at once put to work on one of 
 the Society's farms or in some of the shops or 
 factories operated by it. Idleness is not tolerated. 
 
63 
 
 The children must either be learning a trade or 
 be at school. 
 
 Wages, such as are earned in the vicinity of 
 the Colony, are paid weekly after having de- 
 ducted the instalment on the debt incurred upon 
 arrival ; house rent not exceeding 20 cents. ; one 
 cent, infirmary fee for each person ; four cents, for 
 the clothing fund ; and a reserve for the family 
 emergency fund, equivalent to 10 per cent, on 
 the gross earnings. 
 
 After two years probation, if the head of the 
 family has given evidence of industrious habits, 
 and an honourable desire to pay his debts, he is 
 promoted to citizenship, and is called a 
 “ vryboer " or “ free farmer,” If there is a place 
 available he is put on it — a farm of 77 acres — 
 apparently a small one, but it is so fertile that it 
 will readily support an ordinary family. Rents 
 vary with the condition of the house and the fer- 
 tility of the land^ but the average annual rent is 
 ^20. The payment on his indebtedness is only ^4 
 a year. In addition to this, he must each year 
 put on the land I14 worth of manure, but this item 
 is remitted in case he owns a cow and is duly 
 saving of all manure. 
 
 A man ordinarily cannot remain in the Colony 
 as a labourer more than two years. If he fails in 
 this time to give evidence of the possession of 
 those qualities demanded of a farmer he must 
 leave. But once admitted to the farm class he 
 may remain so during good behaviour. 
 
 One Government Agricultural experimental 
 station is located in the Colony. 
 
 In addition. Schools of Agriculture, of Horti- 
 culture and of Forestry have been erected. The 
 Society is absolutely free from religious bias. It 
 has within the Colony a Protestant and a 
 Catholic church, and provides for the mainten- 
 ance of both. 
 
64 
 
 In July, 1895, there were 1,826 people in the 
 Colony. They were gfrouped as follows : 
 
 Farmers, 199 families. Labourers on probation, 
 85 families. Individual labourers not included 
 in the foreg’oing-, 165 persons. 
 
 The last Balance Sheet (1893) shows that the 
 receipts and expenses were as follows : — 
 
 Receipts. 
 
 From members ... .. .. ^5,418*40 
 
 From special gfifts .. .. .. 3,931*20 
 
 From rent of land and farm products 3,128*52 
 
 From forest . . . . . . . . 615*02 
 
 Profit on labourers’ and apprentices’ 
 
 work 733*44 
 
 Total . • 
 
 Expenses. 
 
 Deficit for the preceding- year 
 
 Interest on debt 
 
 General expenses on administration 
 
 Religious services and special in- 
 struction 
 
 Ditching, road making, unproduc- 
 tive work, and loss in the 
 various factories 
 
 Advance to Colonists over and above 
 returns . . 
 
 $ i 3,826' s 8 
 
 * 745 '94 
 1.381-91 
 4,790-32 
 
 1,097-32 
 
 8,092 *00 
 538-29 
 
 Total .. #16,645*78 
 
 That is a deficit for the year of #2,819*20 or 
 #1*54 for each inhabitant, but the estimated 
 value of the property is #533,274, and the 
 indebtedness #43,380.” 
 
 The foregoing extract is taken from the article 
 upon Labour Colonies in the “Encyclopedia of 
 Social Reform.” 
 
 E. H. Lee, Printer, 71 Upper Parliament St., Nottingfham.