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 REPROACH TO CIVILIZATION 
 
 A TREATISE ON THE PROBLEM 
 OF THE UNEMPLOYED 
 
 AND 
 
 SOME SUGGESTIONS 
 FOR A POSSIBLE SOLUTION. 
 
 By E. F. G. hatch, M.P. 
 
 PRICE 1/- NET. 
 
 190G. 
 
 Printed and Fvblished by 
 
 WATERLOW AND SONS LIMITED, LOXUON WALL, 
 
 LONDON.
 
 
 l - ^^^^ferr^ 
 
 \ 
 
 ^ 
 
 VIEWS ON THE 
 
 "iiMCMninvcn" nonDi cm. H-^ 
 
 UNEMPLOYED" PROBLEM: ^,^^ 
 
 \ A POSSIBLE SOLUTION. 
 
 By E. F. G. ^ATCII, M.P. 
 
 , ♦ , 
 
 ANTIQUITY OF THE QUFSTION. 
 
 ui 
 
 *" " The Unemployed," as a phrase, used to 
 
 2c designate a particular class, has not been in 
 £ use for more than twenty years ; the class itself 
 is as old almost as organised government in 
 this country. In the ancient statutes we con- 
 stantly get glimpses of the difficulties with which 
 9 our present day civilisation is still struggling. 
 ^ Laws directed to the relief of the impotent 
 ^ poor were passed during the reign of the 
 a Plantagenets, and confirmed by early Tudor 
 legislation. Efforts were made to organise the 
 contributions of the Church and the alms of 
 the charitable, but at the same time to suppress 
 vagrancy and idleness. Benevolence was thus 
 curiously blended with Draconian severity ; on 
 z the one hand license to beg from the charitable 
 § was given to those who were disabled by age 
 or infirmity; on the other, enactments of the 
 
 3H4667
 
 • .♦ ••• • .f2 .-' • • 
 
 harshest description were provided against 
 " strong beggars, persons whole and mighty in 
 body," the offence of vagrancy being sub- 
 jected to the barbarous penalties of slavery, 
 mutilation and death. 
 
 EAKLY POOR LAW LEGISLATION. 
 
 It was not until the reign of Elizabeth 
 that more humane and consistent principles 
 were introduced. In a famous statute*, which 
 is the foundation of our modern Poor Law 
 system, the whole administration of the relief 
 of the plwr was systematised. The leading 
 feature of the Act was a classification of per- 
 sons entitled to relief under three heads, and 
 the provision of work under certain specified 
 conditions. 
 
 In the first place the Churchwardens and 
 Overseers were charged to take measures " for 
 setting to work the children of all such whose 
 parents shall not be thought able to keep and 
 maintain their children ;" secondly, " for setting 
 to work all such persons, married or unmarried, 
 having no means to maintain them, and using 
 no ordinary or daily trade of life to get their 
 living by;" and thirdly, "'for the raising of 
 competent sums of money for stewards, the 
 necessary relief of the lame, impotent, old, 
 blind, and such others among them, being poor 
 and not able to work." 
 
 ♦The 43rd Elizabeth.
 
 POOR LAW ABUSES. 
 
 Following the Elizabethan leg-islation 
 came laws intended to strengthen the system 
 set up by it, l^ut for the most pare having 
 the contrary effect. The labour test fell 
 into disuse, and all sorts of evils crept into the 
 administration. Some of the worst of them 
 followed upon the hnv known as Gilbert's Act and 
 passed in 17^'2. This enactment vested the ad- 
 ministration of relief in the Justicesand a Board 
 of Guardians appointed by them. It provided 
 that only impotent persons and children were 
 to Vje sent to the Workhouse. In the case of 
 those willing to work but unal)le to find it, it 
 was decreed that suitable work should Ije found 
 in the pari.sh. The law was well intentioned, 
 but it had reckoned without the weakness of 
 human nature, Its effect was not to curtail 
 pauperism, but to create it, and the " un- 
 employed," under regulations which practically 
 supplemented wages out of the rates, multi- 
 plied alarmingly. Towards the end of the 
 eighteenth century an attempt wasmadeto limit 
 the abuses by a system subsequently known as 
 the " Speenhandand " system, from the fact 
 that it was first introduced in Speenhandand 
 in IJerkshirv'. Its main objcct^ was to fix a 
 mininumi wage for the industrious poor, the 
 basis of calculation being the price of the 
 
 quartern loaf and the size of the labourer's 
 
 1 \
 
 family. The system was widely adopted, and for 
 some years Poor Eates were regularly employed 
 to supplement wages. The consequences, 
 however, were disastrous. " In some places 
 rents as well as profits were almost swallowed 
 up in rates. Landlords began to pull down 
 cottages in order to get rid of paupers. The 
 working population sank lower and lower into 
 physical and moral degradation. The tra- 
 ditional thrift, independence, and industry of 
 the working classes seemed in a fair way to 
 disappear. It became more profital)le for a 
 workman to be a pauper than to remain 
 independent."* Such was the })osition when 
 the eighteenth century closed. 
 
 THE EARLY NINETEE^;TH CENTUEY 
 TEOUBLES. 
 
 The early years of the nineteenth century 
 were times of national anxiety and financial 
 difficulty. The great war in which the 
 country was engaged against Napoleon taxed 
 to the utmost the nation's resources. When 
 at Waterloo his overthrow was accomplished, 
 the United Kingdom found itself saddled 
 with a vast debt of over £800,000,000, the 
 payment of interest on which absorbed nearly 
 half the total revenue of the country. The 
 condition of the people was never worse. 
 
 * " Local Government in England," by Redlich and Hirst. 
 Vol. I., p. 104.
 
 Bread was at famine rates and trade greatly 
 embarrassed. " There was a surplus of lal)our 
 in every department of human exertion," Mr. 
 Brand* declared in Parliament at the end of 
 March, 1816. Speaking especially of the agri- 
 cultural population, he said, that " the poor in 
 many cases abandoned their own residences. 
 Whole jmrishes had been deserted ; and the 
 crowd of paupers increasing in numbers as 
 they went from 2:)arisli to parish spread wider 
 and wider this aw^ful desolation." Discharged 
 soldiers and disbanded militiamen swelled the 
 rank-; of indigence. If the unhappy wanderers 
 crowded totlie cities they encountered bodies of 
 workmen equally wretched, wholly deprived of 
 work, or working at short time upon insuffi- 
 cient wages.! 
 
 BREAD RIOTS. 
 
 Terrible l^read riots broke out in various 
 j)arts of the country. " In Suffolk," says 
 Ilan-iet Martineau in her " History of England 
 during the Thirty Years' Peace," " nightly hres 
 of incendiaries began to blaze in every district ; 
 threshing machines were broken or burnt in 
 open day ; mills were attacked. At Brandon, 
 near Bury, large bodies of laljourcrs assembled 
 to prescribe a maxinunn ])rice of grain and 
 meat, and to pull down the houses of butchers 
 
 ♦Hansard. Vol. XXXIIL, p. 671. 
 t " History of England during the Thirty Years' Peace," Vol. I., p. 3.
 
 6 
 
 and bakers. They bore flags with the motto 
 ' Bread or Blood '." In the Isle of Ely owing 
 to the terrible distress, there were even more 
 serious po})ular upheavals. As a result of 
 them thirty-four persons, convicted by a Special 
 Commission, were sentenced to death, and 
 five of them were actually executed. 
 
 DISTRESS IN THE MANUFACTURING 
 DISTRICTS. 
 
 In the manufacturing districts the pinch 
 of w^ant was felt with equal severity, though it 
 did not })roduce such untoward manifestations. 
 One body of colliers, thrown out of work at 
 Bilston by the stoppage there of the ironworks, 
 took the singular resolution of setting out for 
 London for the purpose of sul^mitting their 
 distresses in a petition to the I^rince Regent, 
 and presenting him with two waggons of coal 
 which they drew along with them. Tlie Home 
 Ofiice sent out a detachment of pohce, and the 
 petitioners were induced to return before tiiey 
 had passed St. Albans. They received pay- 
 ment for their coal and accepted also some 
 charitable contributions. The genuine charac- 
 ter of their distress was illustrated by the 
 inscription they bore on their banner — " Willing 
 to work, but none of us to beg." It reflected 
 the true spirit of the working classes of that 
 period.
 
 Certain industries were affected witli 
 particular severity in this industrial crisis. 
 " The distresses of the workmen in the iron 
 trade," says the authority from whicli I have 
 already quoted, "were ([uite appalling. Utter 
 desolation prevailed in districts where iron- 
 works had been suspended. 'Ilie workmen in 
 these districts used to be surrounded by many 
 comforts. They had saved money. * '■' '^ 
 The factories were shut up ; the furnaces ])lown 
 out ; the coal pits closed. Then the neat 
 cottages, where hundreds of families had lived 
 in comfort, were gradually stripped of every 
 article of furniture ; the doors of these once 
 cheerful dwellings were barred ; the families 
 were wandering a]:>out the country seeking for 
 that relief from private charity which the 
 parishes could not supply them." 
 
 " The wages of artisans, who had the 
 fortune to find employment, were very low, 
 and, to quote an instance, the case of the 
 conmion weaver was particularly hard. In 
 1802 he earned 13s. lOd. per week; in 1S06 
 the wages had fallen to 10s. 6d. ; in 1808 to 
 6s. 7d. ; in 1812 to 6s. 4d. ; in 1816 to 5s. 2d. ; 
 and in 1817 stood as low as 4s. S^^d. per week. 
 Deduct from this Is. per week for the expense 
 of the loom and the j)oor weaver got only 
 3s. 3^d. a week to keep himself and family."* 
 
 At Macclesfield, Manchester, and other 
 
 *"Hi8toty of British Commerce," by Leone Levi, pp. 149-150.
 
 centres, the distress was so deplorable that 
 extensive relief measures had to be adopted, 
 and a considerable part of the population sub- 
 sisted for a time on public charity. The 
 agonised cry which went up awakened a 
 profound feeling of sympathy even in the 
 highest circles, and on July 2.3th, 1816, a great 
 meeting was held at the City of London Tavern 
 under the presidency of the Duke of York for 
 the relief of those who were suffering so 
 acutely from want of employment. 
 
 Then, as in more recent times, the relief 
 raised was devoted to ends which are econo- 
 mically unsound. The mistakes made, 
 Harriet Martineau says in her book, would 
 be matter for ridicule if they were not so awful 
 in their delusions. " In 1816 * hand corn- 
 mills were recommended for the employment 
 of the poor, to supersede the labour of the 
 miller ; and women, and even men, were actu- 
 ally employed to shell beans in the lields, to 
 supersede the more profitable labour of the 
 thresher. Minor schemes were recommended 
 in London and authoritatively published to 
 the world as remedies foi' the absence of 
 profitable employment. Of these, the most 
 notable were the making of cordage out of 
 hop l)ines and weeds ; the gathering of rushes 
 to manufacture candles from the grease pot ; 
 the plaiting of baskets out of Hags, and the 
 
 *" Histor/ of England during the Thirty Years' Peace." Vol. I., p. 44.
 
 9 
 
 mixture of fire balls out of clay and cinders 
 
 to supersede coals Even the soup 
 
 kitchens which in 1816 were set up through the 
 country to avert starvation had their evils. 
 The recipients of the benevolence were dis- 
 contented with its limited amount. x\t 
 Glasgow some imaginary insult offered by a 
 doler of soup to the more unfortunate of that 
 large community stung the people to madness ; 
 the soup kitchen with its coppers and ladles 
 was destroyed ; the outrage swelled to riot ; 
 and for t^vo days the populous city was 
 exposed to a contest between the soldiers 
 and the mob." 
 
 The Poor Law returns of the period also 
 reveal the acuteness of the crisis through 
 which the country passed. The Poor Kate,* 
 which in 1785 stood at £1,912,000, grew by 
 heavy annual additions, until, in 1817, it reached 
 the appalling total of £7,870,000. The 
 greatest increase was in the year after 
 Waterloo. During that period the amount 
 raised was just five times as great as it had 
 been in the previous five years. 
 
 CAUSES OF THE DISTPESS. 
 
 What were the causes of this terriljle 
 destitution ? Firstly, no doubt, the failure of 
 the harvest. " While the landowners were 
 demanding more protection and passing new 
 
 *Mnlhairs Dictionary of Statistics, p. 110.
 
 10 
 
 laws for limiting the .siqjply of food," Harriet 
 Martineau says, " the heavens lowered, intense 
 frosts prevailed in February, the Spring was 
 inclement, the temperature of the advancing 
 summer was unusually low, and in July 
 incessant rains and cold stormy winds com- 
 pleted the most ungenial season that had 
 occurred in this country since 1799." In 
 ■January the average price of wheat was 
 52s. 6d. ; in May it was 76s. 4d. * * * 
 The prices of grain in England rapidly rose 
 after July, and at the end of the year, rye, 
 barley and beans had more than doubled the 
 average market ])rice of the beginning ; wheat 
 had risen from 52s. (Jd. to l()3s.* 
 
 A second cause was over-production by 
 the manufacturers, who at the end of the 
 war, in anticipation of a heavy demand for 
 their goods, had flooded the Continent with 
 exports for which they got little return. 
 
 The third, and greatest cau^e of the mis- 
 cliief, was unquestionably the serious depletion 
 of the country's cai)itnl during the exhausting- 
 wars in which it had been almost continuously 
 engaged for a long period of years. The 
 enormous expenditure of the country, which 
 amounted in the year of Waterloo to the huge 
 aggregate of £112,917,042, and which jjrought 
 the National Debt from £247,874,434, in 1793, 
 the first year of war, to £8(31,968, 483 in 1815, 
 
 * Rttnrn Public InfoiiH; aiiil Exprndituic I'ail TT., pp. 49 and 305.
 
 u 
 
 was a drain upon the sources of industry 
 which produced the inevitable result of pro- 
 found depression in the labour market. The 
 point IS well brought out by Professor Leone 
 Levi in his great work.*' '* There is," he 
 says, " one unalterable law as regards wages. 
 They depend on capital. However fertile the 
 soil, however favourable the position of the 
 country, however great the extent of territory, 
 unless there be sufficient capital on hand to 
 maintain labour nothing can be done." He 
 shows in a foot-note how greatly the reserves 
 had been affected l)y the demands of w^ar, and 
 how trade responded to the influences of peace. 
 In 1814, the amount of property subject to 
 legacy duty was £27,299,806 ; ten years later 
 it was £35,852,82-t. The estimated entire 
 value of personal property in 1814 was 
 £1,200,000,000 ; in 1824, the figure was 
 £1,500,000,000. 
 
 DLSTRESS THE OlilGIN OF THE 
 CORX LAW REPEAL AGITATION. 
 
 It is a noteworthy fact, and one which 
 deserves to be specially emphasised at this 
 Juncture, that a direct result of the extreme 
 destitution which followed the close of the 
 Najwleonic wars was the starting of the 
 agitation which, carried on with varying 
 fortunes through a series of years, finally led 
 
 '■" History of British Commerce, p. 150.
 
 12 
 
 to the repeal of the Corn Laws and the 
 adoption of the present Free Trade system. 
 The Act of 1815 which allowed the importation 
 of grain free of duty when the price was more 
 than 80s. per quarter, gave nobody satisfaction. 
 It left the landowners dissatisfied because 
 foreign corn was admitted at all, and it fell 
 short of the desires of the manufacturers 
 who wanted unrestricted importation. In 
 practice, moreover, it worked l)adly. To adopt 
 the words of the Select Committee* which 
 sat in 1821 to consider the state of Agriculture, 
 *' the system was liable to sudden alterations ; 
 on the one hand it deceives the grower with 
 the false hope of a monopoly, and by its occa- 
 sional interruption may lead to consequences 
 which deprive him of the benefits of that 
 monopoly when most wanted ; on the other 
 hand it holds out to the country the prospect 
 of occasional Free Trade, but so regulated and 
 desultory as to baffle the calculations and 
 unsettle the transactions both of the grower 
 and dealer at home, Huskisson is suj)})osedt 
 to have been the author of this report, and it 
 was his admission into the Cabinet in 1823, 
 follo\\'ing upon his strenuous advocacy of Free 
 Trade views, which gave the first definite stamp 
 to the great movement for the " emancipation 
 of trade." 
 
 * Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the 
 
 Deprcssod Statr oi Agriculture, 1831. 
 t " History of England during tho Tliirty Years' Peace." Vol. I., p. 327.
 
 13 
 
 Even earlier than this, in May, 1820, a 
 petition had been presented to the House of 
 Commons from the City of London. This 
 memoralile document was prepared by William 
 Tooke, and signed by many thousands of the 
 leading citizens of London ; it embodied a 
 broad and lucid statement of the Free Trade 
 position in language little different from that 
 employed by Free Traders in these days. It 
 was the first formal and definite pronouncement 
 from the mercantile community in favour of 
 the removal of restrictions upon trade, and 
 unquestionably it had been inspired by the 
 years of distress and unemployment through 
 which the country had passed. One passage 
 may be quoted as bearing upon the subject 
 under discussion : — 
 
 " That an investigation of the effects of the 
 destructive system at this time is peculiarly 
 called for, as it may, in the opinion of the 
 petitioners, lead to a strong presunq^tion 
 that the distress which now so generally 
 prevails is considerably aggravated by that 
 system ; and that some relief may be 
 obtained by the earliest practicable removal 
 of such of the restraints as may be shown 
 to be most injurious to the capital and 
 interests of the comnmnity and to be 
 attended with no compensating benefit to 
 the public revenue."* 
 
 * " Canning's Speeches." Vol. II., p. 493.
 
 14 
 
 The importance attaching at the time to 
 this petition is clear from the remarks of 
 Huskisson, who quoted the (h)cument in a 
 debate in the House of Commons on Feliruary 
 24th, 1826, on the subject of the state of the 
 Silk Trade. In the course of his speech he 
 said : — 
 
 " Why do I lay so much stress u})on this 
 petition ? For the purpose of showing, first, 
 tliat if the Government have pursued this 
 course,'"' we have done so, not on the 
 recommendations of visionaries and theorists, 
 but of practical men of business ; secondlti, 
 that the merchants of the City of London - 
 the great mart of the commerce and wealth 
 of the country — felt convinced in 1 820, that 
 the distress of that period was greatly 
 asrorravated bv the narrow and short-sighted 
 system of restrictions and prohibitions which 
 then prevailed ; and that in their judgnient, 
 the alleviation, if not tlie cure of this distress 
 was to be sought for in the removal of those 
 restrictions and prohi])itions." 
 
 We may take it, I think, from this that the 
 distress which so widely prevailed in the 
 period after th(> battle of Waterloo was mair.ly 
 attributable to the depletion of capital caused 
 
 * Mr. Morley, in his " T-ife of Cobden," says (Vol. I., p. 16'21 — 
 " Huskisson's legislatiuu from 1823 to 182.') reduced the taritt' of duties 
 upon almost every article of foreign manufacture. This .stamped 
 that date, in Cobden's words, as the era of a commercial revolution 
 more important in its ettcets upon society, and pregnant with weightier 
 onseciuences in the future, than many of tlioso political revolutions 
 which have commando 1 inlinitelv gnatcr attention from historian-."'
 
 15 
 
 by the war. To this must be added the effect 
 of protective legishition, which hampered trade 
 and brouglit the food of the people to famine 
 rates, and niucli the same reasons may be 
 assigned for the revival of distress which 
 occurred in 1826. The crushing charges 
 for debt pressed hardly on the nation, and the 
 country was still under the spell of the 
 delusion that protection spelt prosperity. 
 
 THE BUKDEN OF THE POOE LAW. 
 
 In the agg)'avation of the poverty of the 
 country at this period and during the subse- 
 quent years a further factor of no small im- 
 portance was undoul^tedly the Poor Law. 
 An enormous burden of rates choked and 
 throttled industry and increased the general 
 demoralisation. " Here," says Harriet 
 
 Martineau, " was this enormous tax l)ecoming 
 ruinous by annual increases — less production 
 from the land, less industry among the 
 labourers, more vice, more misery, riots by 
 day, fires by night, the stout heart of England 
 sinking and likely to be soon broken ; and all 
 from the existence of a Poor Law system for 
 whose rejieal or alteration there was no 
 po})ular demand." Again, the same writer 
 further on says, " The Poor Kate had become 
 public spoil. The ignorant believed it an 
 inexhaustible fund which belonged to them. 
 To obtain their share, the l)rutal bullied tXu)
 
 IG 
 
 administrators ; the idle folded their arms and 
 waited until they got it ; ignorant boys and 
 girls married on it ; poachers and thieves ex- 
 torted it by intimidation ; County Justices 
 lavished it for popularity, and guardians for 
 convenience. As to its source — it came, 
 more and more every .year, out of the 
 capital of the shopkeeper and the farmer, and 
 the diminished resources of the country gentle- 
 men. The shopkeeper's stock and returns 
 dwindled as the farmer's land deteriorated and 
 the gentlemen's expenditure contracted." It 
 is" a terrible description, and we may believe 
 not an exaggerated one. A French Commission 
 which came over to England about this time 
 to investigate the Poor Law system described 
 it as 'Hhe great political gangrene of England, 
 which it was ecjually dangerous to meddle with 
 or let alone."* It was, however, meddled with, 
 and. with success. In 1832 the memorable 
 Poor Law Commission held its investigations 
 and following upon them came the passing of 
 the Poor Law Act of 1834, which settled the 
 administi'ation of the I*oor Law on lines which 
 in the main ol)tain to-day. 
 
 THE LESSONS OF THE EARLY 
 NINETEENTH CENTUKY DISTRESS. 
 
 I have gone at some length into these 
 events of the early part of the last century 
 
 * " History of England during the Thirty Years' Peace." Vol. II., p. 74.
 
 17 
 
 because they yeeni to me to liave some useful 
 lessons and warnings for us to-day. First, 
 it is shown that the primary effect of war is to 
 (h-ain the country of capital and that in conse- 
 quence trade is adversely affected, and the 
 channels of employment thereby dried up ; 
 secoudli/, it is demonstrated that protection so 
 far from mitigating the evils of unemployment 
 has a tendency to aggravate them ; and, thirdly, 
 it is made clear that the use of public funds 
 to supply work for the workless may be a very 
 dangerous source of demoralisation. These 
 points, it appears to me, all require to be 
 emphasised at the present moment when the 
 old fallacies which our ancestors laid aside 
 half a century ago are being paraded as new 
 truths. 
 
 AFTER THE PASSING OF THE POOR 
 LAW ACT OF 1834. 
 
 The passing of the Poor Law Act of 1834 
 removed some of the evils of the old system, 
 and to that extent l)rought relief ; l)ut the 
 causes of the distress were too deep for any 
 purely social legislation to be really effective. 
 The Corn Laws constituted an insuperable 
 barrier to improvement. Largely as a conse- 
 quence of their action there was a renewal of 
 the distress in 1838, and during that and 
 several of the succeeding years the con- 
 dition of affairs was very, serious. In August,
 
 18 
 
 1838, wheat went up to 77s. per quarter, and 
 the general conditions were bad. " There 
 was," says Mr. Morley,* " every prospect of a 
 wet harvesting ; the revenue was declining, 
 deficit was becoming a familiar word, i)au})er- 
 ism was increasing, and the manufacturing 
 population of Lancashire were finding it ini- 
 jDOssible to support themselves, because the 
 landlords and the legislation of a generation 
 of landlords insisted on keeping the first 
 necessity of life at an artificially high rate." 
 It was this period of distress that lent strength 
 to the agitation for Repeal and brought about 
 the final overthrow of the obnoxious laws. 
 
 These terrible years which preceded the 
 passing of the Act for the Repeal of the Corn 
 Laws were a period which will long be 
 remembered in the social history of Euiiland. 
 We get vivid glimpses of the serious condition 
 of the country in the chronicles of the pei'iod. 
 In Carlislef an oflicial Committee of enquiry 
 reported that a fourth of the population was in 
 a state bordering on starvation. In the 
 woollenj districts of Wiltshire, the allowance 
 to the inde[)endent labourer was not two 
 thirds of the miniiiiion in the workhouse ; nnd 
 the large existing population consumed only 
 a fourth of the bread and meat required by 
 the nuich smaller population of 1820. In 
 
 * Morley's " Life of Cobden." Vol. I., p. 162. 
 t " Spectator," 1842, p. 27. J " Idem," 1842, p. 32.
 
 19 
 
 Stockport* half the master spinners had failed 
 before the close of 1842 ; dwelling houses to 
 the number of 3,000 were shut up, and the 
 occupiers of many hundreds more were unable 
 to pay rates at all. Five thousand persons 
 were walking the streets in compulsory idle- 
 ness, and the Burnley guardians wrote to 
 the Secretary of State that the distress was 
 far beyond their management, and in response 
 to their appeal a Government Commissioner 
 and government funds were sent down with- 
 out delay. " Atf a meeting at Manchester 
 where humble shopkeepers were the speakers, 
 anecdotes were related which told more than 
 declamation. Rent collectors were afraid to 
 meet their principals, and no money could be 
 collected. Provision dealers were subject to 
 invasions from a wolfish man, prowling for 
 food for his children, or for a half frantic 
 woman with her dying l^aby at her breast ; 
 or from parties of ten or a dozen desperate 
 wretches, who were levying contributions 
 along the streets. ... A provision dealer 
 used to throw away outside scraps of bacon, 
 but now respectable customers of twenty 
 years' standing l)ought them in pennyworths 
 to moisten their potatoes. These shopkeepers 
 contemplated nothing but ruin from the 
 impoverished condition of their customers. 
 
 * " Spectator," 1842, p. 537. 
 t" History of England during the Thirty Years' Peace." Vol. IT., p. 521 .
 
 20 
 
 While rates were increasing beyond all 
 jDrecedent, their trade was only one-half, 
 or one-third or even one-tenth what it 
 had been before." At Leeds* the pauper 
 stone lieaj) amounted to 150,000 tons and 
 the Guardians offered the paupers 6s. per 
 week for doing nothing, rather than 7s. 6d. 
 per week for stone-breaking. The mill- 
 wrights and other trades were offering a 
 premium on emigration to induce their hands 
 to go away. At Hinckley, one-third of the 
 inhabitants were paupers ; more than a lifth 
 of the houses stood empty, and there was 
 not enough work in the i)lace to employ 
 properly one-third of the weavers. In Dorset- 
 shire a man and his wife had for wages 
 2s. 6d. per week and three loaves, and the 
 ablest labourer had 6s. or 7s. Such was the 
 condition of the country at this period, which 
 from its character came to Ije known as 
 " The Hungry Forties." Beyond question 
 it was the overwhelming sense of the suffer- 
 ings of the people in these years which gave 
 the propulsive force to the agitation for the 
 re23eal of the Corn Laws which carried the 
 great movement onward to the final triumph. 
 After this there were many trade vicissi- 
 tudes, as there nuist be in a commercial com- 
 munity whose ojjcrations are world wide, but 
 there was no marked general depression until 
 
 *" Spectator," 1812, p. C30.
 
 21 
 
 1858, when owing to a variety of causes, not 
 the least of which was the l^urden imposed by 
 the Crimean AVar, there Avas a considerable 
 lack of employment. The position is well 
 illustrated by the figures given in the second 
 of the recent Board of Trade jiublications relat- 
 ing to British and Foreign Trade and Industrial 
 Conditions (pp. 90 and 91). There we find that 
 during the year the percentage unemployed in 
 the Engineering, Shipbuilding and Metal 
 Trades was as liigli as 1*2'2, and that the 
 general percentage for all Trade Unions in- 
 cluded in the returns was 11 '9. 
 
 EECENT CAUSES OF 
 UNEMPLOYI^IENT. 
 
 The various causes by which, in the past, 
 employment has been adversely affected have 
 been ah'eady noted ; from these, apart from the 
 effects of the South African War, we are at 
 the moment happily fi'ee, but there are other 
 antagonistic conditions which have made their 
 intluence felt. Among these may be enumei-- 
 ated monetary stringency and foreign com- 
 petition, and the change in industrial condi- 
 tions has also, beyond question, had a marked 
 effect in making the position of the labouring 
 classes, or at all events of a section of them, 
 m')re precarious. In his able review of the 
 unemployed question, Mr. Percy Alden* points 
 
 * "The L'ncmploj-ed. A National Question." V>y Vvwy Alden, M.A.
 
 22 
 
 out the effect of modern legislation, such as 
 the Factory and the Employers' Liability Acts. 
 These measures, absolutely necessary though 
 they have been, " have tended to shorten the 
 years of full efficiency in the opinion of the 
 employer, with the result that in times of 
 depression consequent on a glut in the market, 
 thousands of surplus labourers past the prime 
 of life, or below the average standard in some 
 respect, are thrown on the streets, and com- 
 pete with one another for the chance of a day's 
 work in the docks, or in any industry where 
 casual labour is emi)loyed." 
 
 Another disadvantage which presses 
 heavily on the unemployed springs from the 
 decay of the apprenticeship system which has 
 tended to lessen the percentage of skilled 
 workmen in the community, and to swell the 
 number of those who are mere hewers of 
 wood and drawers of water. It is a moot 
 point whether this failure of the s}stem of 
 craft training, coupled with the neglect of 
 technical education in the past, is not one of 
 the most potent forces in producing the in- 
 dustrial demoralisation which is so much 
 deplored. The expert craftsmen may tem- 
 porarily be thrown out of work, but if he be 
 not absolutely degenerate he readily recovers 
 his position when trade again improves. Not 
 so the helpless uninstructed worker. As his 
 capacity is limited so also is his opportunity.
 
 23 
 
 Discouraged by repeated efforts to obtain 
 employment, he sinks lower and lower, until he 
 finally adds a unit to the great army of the 
 unemployable. 
 
 THE UNEMPLOYED QUESTION 
 
 SINCE 1885. 
 It was in 1885 that the existence of an un- 
 employed class in the modern acceptation of the 
 term came to be prominently recognised. The 
 serious disturbances in London in that year 
 focussed public attention upon the prol^lem, 
 and since then it has ever been to the front. 
 It w^ould be idle to detail here all the move- 
 ments, ameliorative and deliberative, which 
 have accompanied the discussion of the (pies- 
 tion. The record of them is written large upon 
 the social history of the past twenty years. 
 Generally it may be said that though money 
 has been at times poured out like water, and 
 sometimes as idly, and though the best thought 
 of the country has been devoted to the matter, 
 we are still as far as ever from a solution of 
 the difficulty. The Government measure of 
 last Session — of which much was expected by 
 its promoters — ^is practically still-born. The 
 machinery provided has been set up after a 
 fashion, but there is an air of unreality about 
 the whole proceedings, and no one anticipates 
 that it will do more than fill a gap until some 
 practical project is forthcoming. Even Her 
 Majesty the Queen's gracious action in raising
 
 24 
 
 Mil Uiieiiiploycd Fund, so chamcteristic' of her 
 tender solicitude for the poor, cannot avail 
 much against the economic forces which are at 
 work. The time has gone by, if it ever existed, 
 for voluntary benefactions to })e effective. 
 Something more is needed if tlie depressed 
 classes are ever to be lifted from the terrible 
 slough into which, by a variety of adverse cir- 
 cumstances, they have of necessity been driven. 
 
 IIEMEDY FOR UNEMPL0Y:\IENT.— 
 PRINCIPLES OF ACTION. 
 
 What are the principles which should 
 guide us in dealing with this most difficult 
 question ? 
 
 Fii'^L it would n})pcar to be imperative 
 that there shall be no infringement of the un- 
 altera])le economic laws which govern industry; 
 no doing a little tempoiary good at the 
 expense of permanent mischief ; no pauperisa- 
 tion of the community In doles which cany with 
 them the seeds of demoralisation ; no s<[uander- 
 ing of effort on unproductive labour which 
 destroys self-res})e(^t and efhciency without 
 accomplishing anything beyond the creation of 
 an excuse for the payment of wages. 
 
 Sf'cdiidlii, that any scheme which is intro- 
 duced shall be of a gcMieral character att'ecting 
 the whole of the kingdom and not merely a 
 part of it; that it shall be i)ermanent in its 
 o})eration, and ready at all times to do the
 
 25 
 
 \yoi'k which it is designed to do witliout a 
 greater driving force than it carries in its own 
 constitution. 
 
 Thirdly, and this i)erhaps is most iniijort- 
 ant of all — that there shall be no interference 
 with established industry ; that labour shall 
 not be diverted from existinsj channels bv the 
 creation of a system which will, either directly 
 or indirectly, act as an attractive force to any 
 who do not strictly belong to the unemployed 
 class ; and that it shall have no retaining power 
 even for that class when their labour may 
 again find an outlet in the op?n market. 
 
 STATE AID A NECESSITY. 
 
 These, I think ir will be generally agreed, 
 are first principles to which, if the direct end 
 is to be reached, there must be rigid adherence. 
 The question is are they compatible with the 
 creation of a practical scheme ? I may be over 
 sanguine, but I think they are. To achieve 
 success, however, we must sacrifice one of our 
 cherished prejudices — the belief that the State 
 must have no part in providing work for the 
 Avorkless. The case I am desirous of putting 
 forward is grounded on the assumption not 
 only that the State may interfere, but that it 
 must interfere if permanent good is to result. 
 
 Kank Socialism ! I seem to hear some of 
 my readers exclaiming. That may l)e so, but 
 the circumstance does not dismuv me. '* We
 
 26 
 
 are all Socialists now," exclaimed the late Sir 
 William Harcomt on a memorable occasion. 
 He was right. Om' recent legislation has been 
 nothing but Socialistic. Free Education, 
 Employers' Liability, and Workmen's Com- 
 pensation are all interferences by the State in 
 domains which once were regarded as quite 
 outside the province of popular government. 
 Nor need we look entirely to modern history 
 for proof of the Socialistic tendencies of the 
 administration. What is oar Poor Law, which, 
 as we have seen, goes back in its present form 
 to the days of Elizabeth, but ])ure Socialism ? 
 The support of the needy, under that system, 
 became the charge of the community. It is 
 the decree of the Statutes that the money of 
 the State shall be supplied in order that no 
 man, woman or child, if destitute, shall suffer 
 want or privation. If it be fitting and right 
 thus to provide food and maintenance under 
 proper restrictions, it must be wholly illogical 
 to stamp the provision of work by the State 
 under similar conditions as an economic crime. 
 
 STATE AID PREJUDICED BY 
 VISIONARY PROPOSALS. 
 
 There can l)e no doubt that the question 
 of State Aid for the unemployed has been 
 seriously prejudiced by wild and visionary 
 schemes put forward by Socialists, to set uj) 
 Government workshops for the provision of em-
 
 27 
 
 ployoieiit for all wIkj demantled it, altogether 
 apart from their capacity or suitability. 
 So persistently have these crude views been 
 advocated that State action for the relief of 
 the unemployed is generally believed to mean 
 that the Government would at any time provide 
 work, irrespective of its utility, to any who 
 might ask for it. 
 
 THE ATELIERS NAXIONAUX. 
 
 Any policy bearing such an interpretation 
 
 would be preposterous, and in combating the 
 
 idea the dangers with which it is pregnant 
 
 have been forcibly put forward by Mr. Morley. 
 
 Speaking at Walthamstow^ on the 20th of 
 
 November last, he said* : — ■ 
 
 " There is talk now of the provision of national 
 
 work. But in 1848 they had a scheme of 
 
 national workshops in Paris. Everybody 
 
 who came was inscribed, got work, or at 
 
 any rate got pay. They set up works — 
 
 rather sham works — and at the end of a 
 
 very short time, a few weeks, the pay-roll 
 
 had risen up to the tune of two million 
 
 pounds sterling. 
 
 It came out of the pockets of the people 
 of the country. They withdrew men from 
 private employment to go on to these public 
 works until they had got the formidable 
 number of one hundred thousand men upon 
 
 * Keport in the "Daily News" of Nov. 21st, 1905.
 
 28 
 
 them. Industry was dislocated, finance was 
 dilapidated, character — and this, to my mind, 
 is the most serious of all — character was 
 deteriorated, and it ended in a most bloody 
 and terrible catastrophe." 
 
 jNIr. INIorley, of course, was referring to 
 the Ateliers Xationaux which were perhaps 
 the most striking manifestation of the revolu- 
 tionary movement which swept Louis Philippe 
 from the throne. This instrument of Republi- 
 can propagandism affords a powerful (^xample 
 of the evils wdiich State aid would engender if 
 it were permitted to run riot. The Ateliers 
 Nationaux were set up in a time of national 
 fermentj largely, if not entirely for the pro- 
 motion of political ends. It was about as 
 crude and undigested an experiment as it is 
 possible to conceive. There was neither 
 method nor reason in the arrangements. A 
 huge army of men was gathered together ))y the 
 proclamation of the joyous tidings thatem})loy- 
 ment would l)e universally provided, and was 
 set to work upon futile labour without a ghost 
 of an idea of wOiat the ultimate end of the 
 system was to l)e — what in fact it w^as bound 
 to be. 
 
 The evil effects, however, of such a system,, 
 and the catastrophe in which it ended is no 
 evidence that State aid under wise control is 
 inherently vicious in ])rinci])le- — it is not even 
 an indication that such mii>lit be the ease..
 
 20 
 
 It is a warning of what should be avoided, and 
 if this be properly taken to heart, there is 
 nothing to prevent the relief of the unemployed 
 being carried out under Government super- 
 vision, and largely at the cost of the country, 
 on ])rinciples which are thoroughly sound. 
 
 BRITISH PRECEDENT FOR STATE 
 INTERVENTION. 
 
 For my own part if I am to l^e guided by 
 any precedent I prefer to select one of more 
 recent date, and established nearer home than 
 this episode in French history. It seems to 
 me that we have in the operations of the Irish 
 Congested Districts Board, and the measures 
 that preceded and accompanied the establish- 
 ment of that authority, a perfect vindication 
 of the principle of State assistance of the 
 unemployed and depressed sections of the 
 population. Let me recall what were the 
 circumstances which led to the setting up of 
 the Board. The year 1890 was one of terrible 
 distress in the West of Ireland. The potato 
 crop, which was the staple support of the 
 population, was an entire failure, and the 
 unfortunate inhabitants of many districts were 
 reduced to a deplorable condition. In the 
 autumn, Mr. Balfour, who was then Chief 
 Secretary for Ireland, made a memorable tour 
 through the affected area with a view to 
 investigatmg at first-hand the state of affairs.
 
 30 
 
 He was greatly impressed with what he saw, 
 and on his return, in consultation with expert 
 authorities, drafted a scheme of relief. On 
 December 4th, 1890, he outlined in the House 
 of Commons his proposals. They were of a 
 two-fold character. 
 
 First. It was provided that seed potatoes 
 should be supplied through the Guardians of 
 the Poor on credit, and the interest was to be 
 paid out of the Irish Church Surplus Fund. 
 In cases where the tenant paid cash for his 
 seed potatoes, he was to be allowed 20 per 
 cent, discount. 
 
 Secondly. In order to meet the distress 
 with which the ordinary poor law could not 
 co23e, public works were to be instituted. These 
 were to take the form of railway construction 
 in some districts where such could advan- 
 tageously be undertaken, and in other areas 
 employment was to be given by making useful 
 roads, carrying out projects of drainage im- 
 provement and afforestation. 
 
 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF 
 THE CONGESTED DISTRICTS BOAKD. 
 
 The scheme thus described was i)ut 
 into execution on December 5th, 1890, 
 but only in a tentative manner, and, in 
 proportion to the relief needed for the 
 unemployed and distressed population in 
 Ireland, was felt to be but a palliative.
 
 Something more Avas required if the population 
 were not rapidly to sink back into the old con- 
 dition and the distress to reappear in a possibly- 
 aggravated form in the near future. The 
 Government took the Ijold course of setting u}) 
 an organisation for dealinc; with the affected 
 areas on permanent lines. This organisation 
 was the Congested Districts Board. The 
 authority was created by an Act, which 
 received the Koyal Assent on the 5th August, 
 1891, and consists of ten members in all. 
 There were two ex officio members, one the Chief 
 Secretary and the other a Land Commissioner 
 who was nominated by the Lord Lieutenant 
 specially to represent Agriculture and Forestry^. 
 The other eight members are appointed by the 
 King, three being temporary. The Board is to 
 continue in existence for twenty years from 
 the date of its origin, and thereafter until 
 Parliament shall otherwise determine. The 
 area to be dealt with was thus defined in the 
 Act :— 
 
 " Where at the commencement of this Act 
 more than twenty per cent, of the population 
 of a County, or in the case of the County 
 Cork, either Riding thereof, live in electoral 
 divisions of which the total rateable value, 
 when divided by the number of the popula- 
 tion, gives a sum of less than one pound ten 
 
 These are now replaced by the Under-Secretary. See Section 984, 
 Irish Land Act, 1903.
 
 32 
 
 sliillings for each individual, those divisions 
 . . . .shall form a separate County (in 
 this Act referred to as a Congested Districts 
 County)." 
 
 Altogether 84 districts, with a population 
 in 1891 of 594,516 and a Poor Law valuation 
 of £556,141, came immediately under the opera- 
 tion of the Act. 
 
 The functions of the Board were of a 
 varied character. The members were em- 
 powered to take such steps as they tliought 
 proper for improving congested districts in 
 connection with the following subjects : — 
 
 1. Agricultural Development. 
 
 2. Forestry. 
 
 3. Breeding of Live Stock and Poultry. 
 
 4. Sale of seed potatoes and seed oats. 
 
 5. Amalgamation of Small TToldings. 
 
 6. Migration. 
 
 7. Emigration. 
 
 8. Fishing and matters sul)servient to 
 
 fishing. 
 
 9. Weaving and spinning. 
 
 10. Any other suitable industries. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that the Board's 
 powers were of the widest character. Generally 
 speaking they were ])ermitted to do almost 
 anything which Mas calculated to contribute 
 to the matei'ial conditions of the ])opulation. 
 Later on additions were made to the Board's 
 powers, chiefly in the direction of enabling it to
 
 33 
 
 hold and deal in laud securities and perform 
 other functions connected with the sale and 
 purchase of land. 
 
 THE FUNDS OF THE COXGESTED 
 DISTRICTS BOARD. 
 
 Resources were not wanting to enable 
 the Board to carry out the work which the 
 fulfilment of their trust demanded. The Gov- 
 ernment placed at the disposal of the Board, 
 the interest on a sum of £1,500,000 from the 
 Irish Church Surplus Fund, which at the rate 
 of 2f per cent, brings in £41,250 per annum. 
 Besides enjoying the income accruing from the 
 amount named,the Board has the power, subject 
 to the approval of the Treasury, to apply part 
 of the principal to objects coming within the 
 scope of the Act. Up to the present no use 
 has been made of this power, but the Board 
 has borrowed about £70,000 under powers 
 given by the Act of 1891. 
 
 Subsequently two further annual grants 
 were made by Parliament— one of £25,000 in 
 1899, the other of £20,000, provided for in the 
 Irish Land Act of 1903, and known as the 
 Ireland Development Grant. The total annual 
 fixed income thus derived by the Board from 
 the Public Funds is £86,250. 
 
 In addition to this fixed income the Irish 
 Reproductive Loan Fund, amounting in securi- 
 ties, cash and outstanding loans to al>«ut
 
 34 
 
 £66,000, and £18,000 of the Sea and Coast 
 Fisheries Fund have also Ijeen placed at the 
 disposal of the Board ; it is usually in receipt 
 of a large fluctuating income from rents, which 
 are expended on the improvement of estates 
 from which they are derived. The following 
 table published in the Fourteenth Eeport of 
 the Board shows the various available funds 
 for the financial year ending 31st J\Iarch, 
 1905. 
 
 (a) Fixed Income — 
 
 Interest on Church Surphis 
 
 Grant... 
 
 £41,250 
 
 
 Parliamentary Grant 
 Ireland Development Grant 
 
 25,000 
 20,000 
 
 £80 '>50 
 
 (b) Fluctuating — 
 
 
 eJL/ \-?\Jy i^tJ \J 
 
 Repayment of Loans 
 Interest on Stock, «tc. 
 
 9,457 
 383 
 
 
 Rents and Repayments 
 under various heads ... 
 
 123,271 
 
 
 Loans by Board of Works for 
 
 
 
 Improvement of Estates 
 
 12,000 
 
 145,111 
 
 Balance from last year 
 
 
 7^485 
 
 
 £238,846 
 
 THE WORK OF THE CONGESTED 
 DISTRICTS BOARD. 
 
 It would require much greater space than 
 I can afford to describe in anything like detail 
 the reallv i^reat work effected bv the Board.
 
 The facts are enshrined in the fourteen annual 
 reports* which have been presented to Parlia- 
 ment, and may be read by all who have suffi- 
 cient interest in the subject to go through 
 them. For my purpose it will suffice to touch 
 upon some of the features of the Board's work 
 which seem to be most suggestive in the con- 
 nection in which I am dealing with the 
 subject. 
 
 The problem before the Board when it 
 started its operations was how best to im- 
 prove the almost hopeless lot of the inhabi- 
 tants of the congested areas. Owing to the 
 sub-division of the land — a system which pre- 
 vailed to an extreme degree — a greater part 
 of the people were unable to live upon the 
 produce of their holdings even in the best 
 seasons. In the worst seasons they were 
 reduced to the direst need. The only thing 
 which saved them was the earnings made by the 
 men who during the summer months crossed 
 the Channel to England and Scotland to assist 
 in harvest work. 
 
 SEA FISHERIES. 
 
 To provide the people with remunerative 
 employment it was decided after a preliminary 
 survey to undertake certain small public works 
 of which the districts were in urgent need ; 
 
 * Congested District Board for Ireland, 1891-1905. 
 3a
 
 36 
 
 measures were also adopted for the improve- 
 ment of the agricnltiiral metliods at the time 
 in vogue, and for the re-estal)]islHnent of home 
 industries ; the fisheries, for example, along the 
 coast w^hich, owing to the poverty-stricken cir- 
 cumstances of the inhabitants were in a very 
 bad condition, were at once taken in hand. 
 The boats are mostly worked on the share 
 system, and the results for the year ending 
 31st March, 1905, Avere as follows :— 
 
 STATBMP^NT SHOWING COST AND EARNINGS OF YAWLS WORKED 
 ON THE SHARE SYSTEM DURING PERIOD PROM DECEMBER, 
 1S99, TO 31sT MARCH, 1905.* 
 
 Total 1 Net 
 Outlay. ■ Earnings. 
 
 Crews' 
 Share. 
 
 Sinking 1 Instruction j 
 FnncL j Account. 
 
 Balance due 
 on Yawl. 
 
 1 
 C s. (1. • £ s. (1. 
 onit 15 10 1,617 3 10 
 
 £ s. a. 
 1,078 2 9 
 
 ! 
 £ 8. d. : £ 6. d. 
 380 10 8 ; 158 10 5 
 
 £ e. d. 
 589 5 •> 
 
 From this it will be seen that while the 
 crew ol)tained £1,078. 2s. l)d. as their share 
 of the net earnings, which amounted to 
 £1,617. 3s. lOd., and £380. 10s. 8d. was 
 devoted to the Sinking Fund, there was left 
 due on the total outlay of £909. 15s. lOd. a 
 balance of £589. 5s. 2d. This lial)ility is 
 pi'ol)a])ly covere<l ])y the value of the plant in 
 hand. 
 
 Tlie figures for the Large Fishing Boats 
 on the Donegal Coast sliow results equally 
 
 * Fourteenth Report of the Congested Districts Board, p. 75.
 
 37 
 
 satisfactory. The o[)erations were much more 
 extensive and tlie sums involved proportionately 
 larger. 
 
 STATEMENT SHOWING COST AND EARNINGS OP LARGE FISHING 
 BOATS (SHARE SYSTEM) ON THE DONEGAL COAST FROM 
 JULY, 1897, TO 31sT MARCH, 1905.* 
 
 Total 
 Outlay. 
 
 £ s. .1. £ 
 15,107 6 4 31,106 
 
 Net 
 Earnings. 
 
 Crews' 
 Share. 
 
 (1.1 £ s. d, 
 419,223 7 6 
 
 Sinking 
 Fund. 
 
 £ 8. d. 
 8,551 2 11 
 
 Instruc- 
 tion 
 Account. 
 
 I Manage- 
 ment 
 I Com- 
 I misBion. 
 
 £ s. d.i £ s. d. 
 3,029 17 1 301 14 8 
 
 Balance 
 
 due 
 
 on 
 Outlay. 
 
 £ s. (I. 
 6,560 3 5 
 
 These tables give a fair idea of the 
 financial outcome of two of these interesting 
 enterprises, and in view of the fact that the 
 Board has considerable assets in the shape 
 of boats, gear, buildings, stock, &c., the figures 
 cannot be considered unsatisfactory. Their 
 real achievement, however, is that, largely 
 through the Board's instrumentality, a gi'eat 
 fishing industry is in process of being built 
 up which gives lucrative employment to large 
 numbers, many of whom would otherwise, in 
 all probability, be without work. The herring- 
 fishery in Donegal is a particularly promising 
 branch of these operations, f The cured her- 
 rings from this locality take the leading 
 ])osition in the New York market, and secure 
 higher prices than either Scotch or Shetland 
 herrings. 
 
 * Fourteenth Eeport of the Congested Districts Board, pp. 78 and 79. 
 t Idem, p. 2i). 
 
 :JH4667
 
 38 
 
 LAND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 PURCHASE OF ESTATES UP TO 
 NOVEMBER, 1903. 
 
 The greatest work of the Board lies in 
 the domain of hind development. To relieve 
 the congestion, i.p., want of sutlicient land to 
 support a family, migration was adopted as the 
 remedy likely to be most satisfactory in its 
 immediate efi'ects and capable of producing the 
 highest permanent results. Small holdings 
 were also enlarged as much as possible. To 
 carry out this policy, many poor estates, on 
 which the holdings required re-arrangement or 
 enlargement, were purchased, and to these 
 were transplanted certain of the tenants of 
 the congested areas. ]\y this means a double 
 end was achieved. On the one hand many 
 tenants were given a new start under promising- 
 conditions, and on the other the o])])ortunity 
 was atlbrded of enlarging the holdings of 
 those who remained. 
 
 The operations of the lioard in tliis respect 
 must bo divided into two pcM-iods ; the first 
 extends from its ince])tion to November, 190*3 ; 
 at that date the Irish Eand Act came into 
 force, and since then the Board has had the 
 advantage of the greater facilities for land 
 purchase whicii it aflbrds. l)niiiig the earlier
 
 39 
 
 period the total outlay of the Jloard amounted 
 
 to £87:3,074, the details of which they })ublish 
 as follows''^ : — ■ 
 
 Purchase-money (for land purchased) ... £597,925 
 
 Improvements, Cattle purchased, S:c. ... 215,079 
 
 Interest on Capital ... ... .... ... 60,948 
 
 873,952 
 
 Adjustment for lands transferred, to he sold 
 
 with other Estates ... Deduct 878 
 
 £873.074 
 
 The receipts during this period to 
 Xoveniber, 1903, and rej^aynients made or to 
 be made are as follows :— 
 
 Estimated proceeds of sale of Estates ... £655,195 
 
 Total sums received from permanent tenants 
 for rent, or interest on sale-price of 
 holdings 128,428 
 
 Receipts for cattle sold, grazing rents and 
 sale of meadows, and timber of land 
 in hand... ... ... ... ... 36,660 
 
 Sums received from tenants for occupation, 
 interest of additional land given to 
 
 them 
 iNliscellane 
 
 ous receipts and stores in hand... 
 
 Total Repayments 
 
 Totals are — 
 
 Total Outlay 
 
 Total Repayments ... 
 
 Net Loss 
 
 vas conse(|uently on these 
 of £34,030, but against t] 
 
 11,629 
 7,126 
 
 £839,038 
 
 The gross 
 
 £873,074 
 839,038 
 
 
 £34,036 
 
 There a 
 tions a loss 
 
 transac- 
 liis must 
 
 * Fourteenth Eeport of the Congested Districts Board, pp. 13-14.
 
 40 
 
 be remembered both the improvement of the 
 l^roperties and the work provided for the 
 poverty-stricken inhabitants. From the above 
 table the sum spent on improvements is shown 
 to have been £215,079, and the Dillon Estate 
 affords a good instance of the good work done. 
 On this estate £13,651 was expended on main 
 drainage, and thousands of acres of land and 
 bog have, in consequence, been redeemed 
 which on account of frequent floods were almost 
 valueless, or waterlogged to such an extent that 
 they could not be cultivated. In a few years 
 a greater part of the land will be of consider- 
 able agricultural value. Of the sum of £215,079 
 mentioned above, a large part was paid away 
 in wages, and the effects of the system are well 
 described in this paragraph from the last 
 report of the Board*'' : — 
 
 " Our procedure in these matters is 
 based on the policy of encouraging self- 
 help, and we have much satisfaction in 
 stating that this policy is becoming more 
 successful every year, and that we now 
 find a large proportion of the people 
 anxious to avail itself of any assist- 
 ance we offer to enable them to improve 
 their houses and surroundings. In many 
 cases the people have carried out sub- 
 stantial improvements without assistance." 
 
 ♦Fourteenth Report of the Congested Districts Board, p. 16.
 
 41 
 
 LAND PURCHASED UNDER THE 
 ACT OF 1903. 
 
 During the twelve years of its existence 
 the Board had only spent £597,925 on the 
 purchase of estates ; in November, 1903, the 
 second period commenced with the iVct of 
 that year and their operations have been 
 greatly extended. In this period of sixteen 
 months, 84 estates have altogether been bought 
 at a cost of £1,106,333. 
 
 On these estates there were at the time 
 of purchase, 166,169 acres in the occu^mtion 
 of 6,871 tenants, and no less than 60,240 
 acres were untenanted. As the land cannot 
 be transferred immediately, if improve- 
 ments are to be effected, the policy of the 
 Board* is to keep these estates in hand for 
 four or five years, expending in the meantime 
 the net revenue derived from them in improve- 
 ment works, for which no charge would be 
 made to the purchasing tenants. This system 
 is acting very Avell. The example set by 
 the Board of making improvements is 
 being widely followed ])y the tenants. On 
 several estates there are many townlands 
 where the improvements effected by the 
 tenants are so numerous and so well done 
 that the appearance of the estate has been 
 completely transformed. 
 
 * Fourteenth Eeport of the Congested Districts Board, pp. 17 and 18.
 
 42 
 
 OTHER OPERATIONS UNDERTAKEN. 
 
 The development of its land })ui'cliase 
 system will serve to illustrate the satisfactory 
 progress which the l^oard has made, but 
 clearly to appreciate the excellence of its 
 work it is necessary to note both its varietv 
 and extent. To commence with, no less than 
 300 miles of main drains and larger water 
 courses have been made, deepened or im- 
 proved ; 155 dwelHng houses and 179 out 
 offices have been erected by the Board itself, 
 while, under its various estate improvement 
 schemes, the landholders have with its assist- 
 ance built and improved 3,861 dwelling houses 
 and erected 6,714 out offices. Of tlic 15,310 
 acres of untenanted land i)urchased prior to 
 the Land Act of 1903, 5,927 acres have been 
 applied to the formation of 207 new holdings 
 for migrants from congested districts ; the 
 development of the Sea Fisheries has been 
 already instanced, Init the minoi' works 
 accessory to them are also deserving of notice ; 
 20 curing stations have been established of 
 which 14 were hist season let to fish mer- 
 chants ; to teach the latest methods of fishery 
 instructors are provided, 74 of whom were 
 employed in 1904-5 for periods varying from 
 a few weeks to several months ; on the Went 
 Coast 37 decked fishing boats have been built, 
 and the total nuiubcu' of boats built to the
 
 4:} 
 
 order of tlie Board accounts to 111. Classes 
 for instruction in net mending have been 
 held in Arran Island, (lahvay and Mayo, 
 and cooperages established which turn out, to 
 take 1904-5 as an example, 15,250 barrels in 
 the year. 
 
 INDUSTRIAL 0PERATI0X8. 
 
 Turning to Industries the Board have 
 instituted a variety of industrial classes. 
 The turnover for the year of the Lace-making 
 classes, exclusive of sales made by workers 
 to local buyers, was £12,000 and might have 
 been more but for the emigration of many 
 of the best workers who, by means of the 
 employment given, have saved mone}', and 
 the indolence and unpunctuality of others 
 which tend to the loss of custom. In home- 
 spuns 2,700 webs were, during the year, 
 measured at the Board's depots at Ardara and 
 Carrick. From Mayo, Donegal and Gal way 
 there were numerous applications for improved 
 looms for machine knitting, to meet which 
 new looms were issued by the Board, and 
 for this industry, where local arrangements 
 were made for the sale of the production, 
 instructors have been provided. For Domestic 
 Training the Board have appointed six teachers. 
 The primary object is to improve the methods 
 practised by the people in their own homes, 
 but where those trained were willino- to
 
 44 
 
 go into domestic service they were able 
 to secure situations at nuicli better wages 
 than they coukl have obtained without this 
 instruction. Lastly, the Carpentering classes 
 have been well attended during the year, and 
 the system of making industrial loans to pupils 
 on proper security, of which large advantage 
 has been taken, ensures the benefit of the 
 training being extended beyond the immediate 
 period of instruction. 
 
 ENGINEERING OPERATIONS. 
 
 The works carried out under the Board's 
 Engineers are very extensive. They include 
 the making of piers, landing stages, sea walls^ 
 and other marine works ; the building and re- 
 pairing of bridges and the making and repairing 
 of roads- -altogether the various works under- 
 taken since 1891; in this category, number 392, 
 and have been extended throughout the 
 counties of Donegal, Sligo, Mayo, Galway, 
 Kerry, Cork, Leitrim and Roscommon. 
 
 The improvement of the tenants' dwellings 
 and holdings has not been confined to the 
 estates purchased by the Board. Under a 
 carefully organised system, " Parish Com- 
 mittees " have been established in about 
 130 parishes in the poorest districts, and ))y 
 means of small grants given as encourage- 
 ments to arouse the energy and efibrts of 
 the people, a very large amount of work has
 
 45 
 
 been accomplished during the past seven or 
 eight years. "^ 
 
 It will be seen from this brief summary, 
 that no work is too comprehensive or attended 
 by too great a detail to merit the careful atten- 
 tion of the Board. The ground is accordingly 
 most thoroughly covered, and no outlet is over- 
 looked which may provide suitable employment, 
 and thereby ameliorate the condition of the 
 people. The cost which has fallen absolutely 
 and directly on the public funds has been kept 
 well within bounds, and though unfortunately no 
 return has been made out of the assets which 
 the Board has accumulated, they must be con- 
 siderable and very possibly more than meet 
 the balance of expenditure, which has not been 
 accounted for by the form of statement it 
 publishes. In any case it w^ould seem to be 
 M'ell established that the scheme as a whole 
 has been worked wnth unimpeachable success. 
 
 GENERAL APPLICATION OF THE 
 
 " CONGESTED DISTRICTS " 
 
 PRINCIPLE. 
 
 This special treatment meted out to the 
 distressed districts of Western Ireland, under 
 the circumstances I have described, completely 
 disposes, I think, of the view that there is any- 
 thing novel in the Government having a 
 direct concern in the relief of distress caused 
 
 * Fourteenth Report of the Congested Districts Board, p. 38, 
 also previous Reports and Appendix XXI.
 
 46 
 
 by want of employment. Tlie results l)y which 
 the experiment has been followed in Ireland 
 cannot but be of good augury for its success if 
 it were extended to England. It stands to 
 reason that it would have no more demoralising 
 effect in one country than the other. It may 
 be urged that in temperament the Irish are 
 different, and this no doubt is true, but in tliis 
 respect the balance of the argument is rather 
 in favour of the English. Eor years Ireland 
 was subjected to a vacillating policy ; severity 
 alternated constantly with conciliation until 
 she was taught to regard any endeavour to 
 afford her material advancement, not as 
 prompted by generosity but as extorted by 
 agitation. England has had to submit to no 
 such experience, and any relief that the 
 Government might bestow would, if anything, 
 be accepted by the destitute in a better spirit. 
 At all events the dangers of giving general 
 application to a system which has Avorked so 
 well in one, not inconsiderable, area cannot be 
 very serious. It may, no doubt, be said that 
 the problem of Irish Congested Districts is 
 mainly agricultural, while that of England is 
 entirely industrial. I grant this, but I main- 
 tain that the two things are fundamentally 
 identical. It is the same disease of the body 
 politic that has to l)e remedied, viz., overcrowd- 
 ing, lack of employment, absence of initiative, 
 thriftlessness, and a Oi^tcriorated moral stamina
 
 47 
 
 due to niisfortuiio and compulsory idleness. 
 In one case, as in tlie other, the people want 
 up-lifting from without. They want to bo 
 given the means to work and shown how to 
 work, and the remedy to be applied with con- 
 sistency and regularity. 
 
 It ought not to be a difficult matter, it 
 seems to me, to establish the necessary 
 machinery as a continuation — the indispensable 
 coping stone as it were — of the Unemployed 
 Act of last Session. That measure in its 
 present form yields the shadow rather than the 
 substance. To make it effective its organisation 
 requires at its head a permanent body on the 
 lines of th(3 Irish Congested Districts Board ; it 
 needs a body of officials, experts and practical 
 philanthropists ; and it should l^e endowed 
 with funds, and with a constitution carefully 
 thought out and not too rigid. Thus developed, 
 this official scheme, instead of being, as 
 it bids fair to be, a nullity, will have a fair 
 chance of figuring as the foundation of one of 
 the greatest essays in practical statesmanship 
 that the modern history of the country records. 
 
 CONSTITUTION OF A ''BOARD FOR 
 THE UNEMPLOYED," 
 
 Let us consider how a system of the kind 
 I suggest could be worked. In the first place 
 a Board should be constituted, entitled, let us 
 say, " The Board for the Unemployed," which
 
 48 
 
 should be a statutory body carrying on its 
 work free from departmental interference. 
 It should be composed, as in the case of the 
 Irish Congested Districts Board, of some ten 
 members, all of whom should be carefully 
 selected with reference to their special attain- 
 ments or experience, and, with the exception 
 of the Chairman and the official members, 
 should be unpaid. 
 
 The work of this "Board fur the Unem- 
 ployed " would, perhaps, have to be carried 
 on in close association with the Local 
 Government Board, and, in order that it might 
 keep in touch with that authority, the President 
 of the Local Government Board, or the Perma- 
 nent Under Secretary, or both, might well l)o 
 included among its members. It would also 
 be advantageous that, like the Charity Com- 
 mission, it should have a recognised mouth-piece 
 in Parliament. 
 
 The Staff' of the Board would re(piire the 
 most careful consideration, and should include 
 a trained engineer of great experience and 
 proved ability, as well as a certain number of 
 labour masters, recruited, if possible, from the 
 officials of philanthropic societies which have 
 to do with the unemployed classes. 
 
 For Scotland an<l Ireland it would 
 prol)ab]y be found desirable to have separate 
 Boards of a similar nature. For the latter it
 
 49 
 
 might be found ])0><.si1ile to enlarge the powers 
 of the Congested ])istricts Board and so a^ oid 
 the necessity of creating a new authority. As 
 long as the general princi})les of action were 
 the same a little variation to suit the special 
 needs of each country would l)e an advantage 
 rather than a drawl)ack. 
 
 CONDITIONS TO BE OBSEIIVED. 
 
 The conditions to be observed by such 
 a Board would require the most careful 
 thought, and the most important of all pre- 
 liminaries would be to define them with the 
 utmost clearness. The principle of State 
 assistance being conceded, the question would 
 be how to apply it with the assurance that no 
 evil consequences would ensue. Strict econo- 
 mists and laissez-faire politicians may say that 
 the thing cannot be done, and I am not so bold 
 as to afhrm that the task is a light one. All 
 the same, I think that if we are not affected 
 with undue timidity and carefully avoid the 
 pitfalls which are tolerably obvious, we may 
 look forward without misgiving to a solution 
 of the problem. 
 
 The Jirst point \\\)o\\ \n\\\q\\ there must be 
 the most rigid insistence is that the work pro- 
 vided for the unemployed shall be reproductive. 
 Money must not be aimlessly lavished upon 
 the provision of any work which is merely a
 
 50 
 
 device for wasting wealth, deinoralising in 
 itself and ruinous in its influence on the work- 
 ing classes. Each enterprise undertaken must 
 1)6 able to justify itself on commercial or 
 national grounds — that is to say, it must either 
 offer a fair prospect of yielding a return on the 
 capital outlay, or it must create something new 
 which contributes to the moral and material 
 resources of the nation. I will not here indicate 
 the classes of work which I think miglit come 
 within this rule. That I reserve until a later 
 part of this work in Avhich I can deal with it 
 with the thoroughness which the subject 
 deserves. I will merely say now that I hope 
 to show that the end can be achieved. 
 
 Scarcely less important is the .^(^coiid point 
 which must govern the operations of an organ- 
 isation such as I have sketched. It is that the 
 work nuist be of such a character that it can 
 be expanded or contracted without materially 
 detracting from its commercial value. Xeces- 
 sarily, the ol)servance of this condition will 
 greatly restrict the range of the board's o])era- 
 tions, ))ut a shrewd business managemeut 
 ought not to find in it an insuperable l)ar to 
 action. 
 
 'Hie same remark applies to the third 
 point, which is that the projects undeitaken 
 must be of such a nature that tliey do not 
 compete with established industry. Tliey
 
 must, in fine, bo new works, or works which, 
 by reason of their character, stand outside the 
 sphere of trade competition. 
 
 There will be more difficulty in adjusting 
 the operations to the condition which consti- 
 tutes my fourth point. The scale of renumer- 
 ation for the work provided for the unemployed 
 must in the first place l)e such as to ensure 
 that no attraction is offered to labour already 
 in emploj^ment ; in the second it must not be 
 large enough to prevent the unemployed 
 returning to the labour market whenever 
 there is a call for their services through 
 the legitimate movements of trade. What 
 the exact terms of this remuneration shall 
 be is a matter which experts must settle. 
 but it is necessary that the scale should be 
 less than the full pay of ordinary employed 
 labour. This is a matter, I am afraid, upon 
 which some of my labour friends may disagree 
 with me ; but, I think, if they look at the 
 jn-oblem squarely, they must realise that the 
 worst possible service, which can be rendered 
 to the working classes, is to divert lal)our 
 from its natural channels — or, what is as 
 bad, keep it from its natural channels by a 
 system of Government employment. However 
 that may be, I am convinced that no lasting 
 system can be built up which ignores this 
 consideration. 
 
 4a
 
 :yi 
 
 UNEMPLOYED AREAS— SHALL THEY 
 BE DEFINED ? 
 
 It is a debatable point whether, in fol- 
 lowing the precedent of the Irish Congested 
 Districts Board, the Government might not 
 profitably embody in the constitution of the 
 new authority some rule analao^ous to that laid 
 down for determining a congested district. 
 Unemployment is an evil which is in most 
 years mainly seated in a few centres. In 
 places like Poplar, West Ham, East Ham, 
 and a few other London districts, it is chronic. 
 The people there, owing to a variety of causes, 
 are reduced to the lowest level of destitution. 
 They live from hand to mouth, and never seem 
 able to raise themselves above the level where 
 actual want begins. Ordinary measures in 
 these instances are of little avail. The mischief 
 is so deep seated that the remedy api)lied,. 
 must, to be effective, be of a special character. 
 The ([uestion is ho^\' best to devise an 
 arrangement for marking ott' these de- 
 j)ressed areas from the rest of the country. 
 They certainly ought to ])e treated apart, 
 and as in the case of the congested districts 
 in Ireland, there ought to be no difilculty in 
 defining their areas. If this ])e j)racticable, 
 and I think it is, if we go the right way to 
 work, the diHiculties which they present will 
 be very greatly diminished.
 
 Oo 
 
 THE WOIIKTXG OF THE SYSTEM. 
 
 We may now pi'ofital)ly discuss in what 
 manner the " Board for the Unemployed " 
 would be worked in relationshi]) with other 
 authorities. I have spoken of the Board as 
 the coping stone of the " Unemployed Act " 
 •of last Session, In using that phrase I had 
 in view the desirability, I may go so far as 
 to sav the necessity, of utilisino; to the full 
 the machinery which has been set up. Changes 
 would no doubt have to be made to adjust 
 the arrangements to the new system ; but as 
 far as broad principles are concerned, the 
 position would not be altered. 
 
 Under the Unemployed Act, the duties 
 of the Distress Committees are largely those 
 of inquiry. The very first provision (Section 
 1, Sub Section 2) is, in fact, that : — 
 " The Distress Committee shall make them- 
 selves acquainted with the conditions of 
 labour within this area and, when so re- 
 quired by the Central l)ody, shall receive, 
 incjuire into and discriminate l)etween any 
 applications made to them from persons 
 unemployed." 
 
 This preliminary inquiry will not be less 
 •essential under the proposed scheme. In- 
 deed, the necessity for investigation will if 
 anything be greater. It Avill be of 
 supreme importance to the successful
 
 54 
 
 working" out of the syKsteiii to Iviiow exactly 
 how many unemi)loye(l there arc, wlio they 
 are and where they are located. Such work 
 can only be done locally by local officials 
 and administrators who are able, in the light 
 of personal knowledge and experience, to sift 
 the facts brought to their notice. The Dis- 
 tress Committees would, therefore, continue 
 their investioatins^ functions. Whether the 
 duty of assisting the unemployed to obtain work 
 by means of Labwur ihireaux might not also 
 be imposed upon them is a question for 
 careful consideration. In some Metropolitan 
 districts, Avhere such establishments under the 
 Labour Bureaux Act of 1\)0'2 have been set 
 up, excellent results have followed. On the 
 Continent they are a recognised feature of 
 the official arransjcments in regard to Jvabour. 
 In Germany, for example, there is a most 
 elaborate net-work of these agencies which 
 collectively in the course of a year find work 
 for about 155,000 people. France, too, utilises 
 the system to a large extent. All available 
 experience, in fact, goes to prove that no 
 system of dealing Avith the imemployed can 
 afford to dispense with them. It would 
 therefore ajjpear desirable that, in any fresh 
 legislation, there should be a definite mandate 
 issued for the creation t)f a Labour bureau 
 in every populous centre. Their cost of 
 maintenance might well be defrayed out of
 
 ;).) 
 
 tlic }>roceeds of the rate wliicli the Unem- 
 ployed Aet authorises. 
 
 " DISTEESS COMMITTEES " 
 OF THE UNEMPLOYED ACT, 190.3. 
 
 This brings me to the wider question of 
 tlie })Owers of the local Distress Committees 
 to relieve unemployment. By the provisions 
 of the Act every City and Borough Council is 
 empowered to use for the purposes of the Act 
 an amount not exceeding the produce of a 
 halfpenny rate " or such higher rate not 
 exceeding one penny as the Local Government 
 Board may approve." The local distress com- 
 mittee may employ the money in assisting 
 the unemployed, whether by enquiry or intro- 
 duction to obtain work, but it has no power 
 " to ])rovide or contribute toward the provision 
 of work for any unemployed person." In the 
 new system the duty of finding work would 
 devolve upon the " Board for the Unemployed," 
 and the provision should equally hold goo(L 
 It would, however, be desirable— possibly 
 necessary — to make the assistance given to the 
 unemployed a local charge to some extent. 
 This might be done by debiting the district 
 from which the unenq)loyed emanate with 
 some pro[)ortion of the sum disl)ursed by the 
 Board in regard to them. Failing some pro- 
 vision of this character local authorities might 
 neglect their responsibilities and be tempted
 
 5(3 
 
 to shift from their shoulders the burden of 
 the maintenance of their poor. The charges 
 allotted to such local authorities should be 
 sufficient to deter them from any laxity or 
 undue indulgence in approving the claims of 
 persons professing to be unenij^loyed. .V 
 further effective safeguard would 1 )e the endow- 
 ment of the Board with power to refuse to 
 accept those sent to it for employment if it 
 judged that their qualifications for assistance 
 were inadequate. 
 
 THE "CENTRAL COMMITTEE" OF 
 
 THE UNEMPLOYED ACT, 190.3. 
 
 The local Distress Committees, then, would 
 be retained to discharge very nnich the same 
 duties which they now have entrusted to 
 them. But, it may be asked, what will Ix^ the 
 ])Osition of the (Jentral C*ommittee estal>lished 
 l)y the Unemployed Act ? The reply I tiiink 
 is simple. The occupation of this authority 
 would be gone when the new system came into 
 ()})eration. Its place would be taken l)y the 
 " Boaid for the Unemployed," Mdiich would 
 have transferred to it the powers, such as they 
 are, conferred by the Act. It might be deemed 
 desirable to retain tln^ Committee as a purely 
 deliberative body to settle general (juestions 
 relative to unemployment. But the likeliliood 
 is that it Avould be considered more advant-
 
 57 
 
 ai>coii.s to (leal with such (Questions on purely 
 local lines. 
 
 It is arguable that the Central Connnittees 
 should be left to deal with the unemployable 
 and to that end be permitted to retain the 
 powers, which are conferred upon them by the 
 Act, of establishing farm colonies and acquir- 
 ing land for that purpose. It is extremely 
 desirable that the unemployable should be kept 
 distinct from the genuine unemployed, and this 
 arrangement would ensure that end. It is 
 very doubtful, however, whether in practice the 
 system could be worked. A single authority 
 for all purposes would seem to be the system 
 best calculated to produce good results. 
 
 FINANCE OF THE " BOARD FOR 
 THE UNEMPLOYED." 
 
 We now come to what after all is the crux 
 of the whole business — the question of finance. 
 Where is the money to come from which is to 
 provide the lubricati(jn of this elaborate 
 machinery ? The question I freely acknowledge 
 is a serious one. It may be that many, who 
 follow me in my conclusions as to the necessity 
 -of State assistance, will shrink back into the 
 old non possumns attitude when they realise 
 what the system may mean expressed in 
 pounds, shillings and pence. I am, however, 
 sufficiently sanguine to think that when the 
 public has become accustomed to the idea
 
 58 
 
 wliicli is at the root of my proposals — when it 
 has thoroughly grasped the point that the 
 menacing evil of unemployment is altogether 
 beyond local remedies and voluntary action — 
 it w ill not allow itself to be dismayed by a 
 financial responsibility because it looks for- 
 midal^le. I cannot think that the country, 
 which, without a murmur, voted a hundred 
 millions for Irish Land Purchase, will tiiink 
 that, for the extirpation of a veritable cancer, 
 the investment of a comparatively insignifi- 
 cant sum will be out of place. 
 
 What ihe amount of the sum in question 
 should be it is extremely difficult to settle. If 
 the Government were to do everything at 
 once, the sum needed would unquestionably be 
 very large. It is, therefore, essential that the 
 development of any plan that is adopted 
 should be of slow growth. We must feel our 
 way towards a solution rather than seek to 
 arrive at it by a short cut. My own notion is 
 that the Government should connnence with a 
 tentative trial in selected centres, and make its 
 subsequent development depend upon the 
 results. For this ])urpose, a specific sum 
 might be voted either in the form of a direct 
 contribution for a series of years, or of a loan. 
 In the case of the Irish Congested Districts 
 Board, a start was made Avith an annual 
 income of £45,436, the produce mainly of the 
 interest of one-and-a-half million of the Irish
 
 59 
 
 Church Surpkis Fund. Having regard to the 
 infinitely greater magnitude of the prol)leni 
 which would have to be dealt with by the 
 Board for the Unemployed, a far larger sum 
 would be required. Of this, a })art would no 
 dou1)t l)e a direct charge on the national 
 funds, l)ut, if we leave out of consideration 
 the vicious and incapable classes who would 
 have to be dealt with on correctional lines, 
 the amount would be proportionately less. 
 Sooner or later these would have to be treated 
 in almost any case, either in our prisons, or our 
 Poor Law institutions, and it would not l)e 
 fair to charge the cost of their detention and 
 training upon the ordinary unemployed. The 
 vast bulk of the money voted, if the principles 
 which I advocate were followed, would be 
 rather in the nature of invested capital. 
 
 SUGGESTED TAX OX AMUSEMEXTS. 
 
 A point for consideration is whether it 
 wotild not be desirable to impose some special 
 taxation for the supply of funds necessary to 
 work the system. In France there is a tax 
 on amusements. It has been suggested that 
 a similar impost might be introduced in this 
 country as a contribution towards the neces- 
 sities of the unemployed. There seems a 
 special fitness in taxing the luxury of theatre- 
 going for the advantage of poverty and dis-
 
 60 
 
 tress, and it is undeniable that even a small 
 charge, say an average of 2d. on each ad- 
 mission, would yield an enormous sum. In 
 the Metropolis alone, for example, there are 
 in tlie theatres and music halls some 300,000 
 seats* ; assuming, therefore, that they have a 
 100,000 patrons <laily throughout the year — not 
 an extravagant estimate seeing that at some 
 places there are two performances daily — we 
 should have an income yearly from the tax 
 from London alone of over £250,000. Prob- 
 ably it would be found impracticable, and at 
 any lute undesirable, to impose the tax upon 
 the seats of lowest price. A scale with a 
 shilling as the minimum price of a seat to be 
 taxed, increasing l)y i)enny stages until the 
 tax reached its limit of sixpence for the half- 
 guinea stall or seats of higher price would 
 be more satisfactory. AVith officially stamped 
 tickets the impost would be easy of collection ; 
 and it would not l)e felt, for obviously people, 
 wdio can afford to pay half-a-cfown or a half- 
 guinea for an evening's amusement, will not be 
 inconvenienced by having to Hud a few coppers 
 for a service of State? necessity. Direct taxation 
 I know is never popular, and, I have no doubt, a 
 hundred reasons will be found against im- 
 posing this amusement tax. J>ut if State aid 
 is to Ije given to the unenii)loyed I do not 
 think it will be possible to find a source from 
 
 * Official Year Book of the London County Council for 1903-4.
 
 61 
 
 which the necessary funds can l)e drawn w^ith 
 less difficulty or with greater ai)propriatcness. 
 
 THE SCHEME IN WOKKING.— 
 
 CLASSIFICATION AN ESSENTIAL 
 
 PKELIMINARY. 
 
 The question of the establishment of the 
 Board, its relation to local organisations, and 
 its financing having been dealt with we may 
 now consider how the system would be 
 worked. 
 
 At the outset we are confronted with 
 the difficulty arising from the heterogeneous 
 character of the unemployed class, and all 
 authorities, who have written upon this 
 subject, are agreed that an indispensable 
 condition of reform, if it is to be effective, is 
 their proper classification. We must separate 
 the unemployed from the unemployable, and, 
 having done that, we must subdivide the two 
 classes into groups, assigning to each a place 
 in the scheme wdiich is designed for their 
 welfare. Without this preliminary classifica- 
 tion the best laid schemes are likely to end 
 in disappointment and even disaster. 
 
 It may l)e admitted that the task is one 
 attended with no ordinary difficulty. We 
 have no recognised gauge by which the 
 measure of merit or demerit, the capacity or
 
 62 
 
 incapacity, of the individual members of the 
 unemployed class can be determined. Our 
 Poor Law system does not greatly help us. 
 Under it we have little more than a separa- 
 tion of paupers under two heads — the able 
 bodied and, to use a term familiar in the old 
 Statutes, the " impotent." At l)est any 
 system that we may adopt must, beyond a 
 certain point, be arbitrary, for there is no 
 •obvious dividing line. Still, the end may be 
 .achieved, as we shall ])resently find to be the 
 •case in other countries, if we liave before 
 us a clear C()nce])tion of what the situation 
 demands. 
 
 In his work* previously mentioned, Mr. 
 Percy Alden puts forward a scheme of classi- 
 fication which seems to me to be worthy of 
 adoption. He divides the unemployable into 
 two main classes : — 
 
 (1.) Criminals, semi-criminals. vicious 
 vagabonds and the incorrigibly lazy ; in a word 
 all able-bodied men who refuse to work, or 
 avG refused ANork, owing to defect in character. 
 
 (2.) The physically and mentally deficient. 
 The latter he sub-divides as follows : — 
 
 a. The aged. . , 
 
 />. 'I'lic physically weak and maimed, 
 including th(> blind, lame and deaf, and 
 men with weak hearts. 
 
 * •' Thi- Unemployed." ji. 17.
 
 63 
 
 c. Epileptics. 
 
 d. Weak willed inebriates and the 
 mentally deficient. 
 
 The unemployed he divides into the fol- 
 lowing categories : — 
 
 (1.) Those Avho are unemployed owing to 
 the death of a trade or changes in methods of 
 industry and are therefore superfluous in such 
 trades. 
 
 (2.) Those who are unemployed owing to 
 temporary depression in trade or a severe 
 winter. 
 
 (3.) Those whose labour is seasonal or 
 casual. 
 
 Accepting, as we very well may, this 
 classification, we are at once confronted with 
 the magnitude of the problem which is 
 presented. Clearly, whatever system may be 
 adopted, it must be of the most comprehensive 
 character and have the greatest elasticity if it 
 is to achieve any measure of success. We 
 have passed the point when we can make 
 Diistakes with impunity, and to mix up all 
 these classes of unemployed in one great body 
 and mete out to them a rigid measure of 
 assistance will be but to court disastrous 
 failure. What, then, ought our line of action 
 to be?
 
 64 
 
 GRAVE UEGENCY OF THE 
 
 " UNEMPLOYED " QUESTIOX. 
 
 The Iloyal Commission, whicli has just 
 ])oon appointed, may l)e expected to give an 
 answer to this question in detail, especially as 
 far as it affects the permanent classes of the 
 unemployed. But the operations of Royal 
 Commissions are leisurely,'^ and many months, 
 possijjly some years may elapse before we are 
 in j^ossession of the recommendations of this 
 authority. Meanwhile, the question presses 
 insistently for action, and, whether the Govern- 
 ment desires it or not, it will probably be 
 compelled to formulate definite i)roposals of 
 some kind. In the circumstances we may 
 profitably examine for ourselves the way in 
 which the various classes of the unemployed 
 may be dealt with under a comprehensive 
 system such as we have sketched. 
 
 TREATMENT 
 OF THE UNEMPLOYABLE. 
 
 The Unemployable, as the most ditlicult 
 factor of the situation, first demand notice. 
 From the dawn of civilised government they 
 have been the l)ane of administrators. AVith 
 our extremely comi)]ex life an<l our possibly 
 exaggerated veneration for the liberty of the 
 
 * The Vaccination Commission did not present its report until five 
 years after its appointment.
 
 65 
 
 subject, we can hardly hope to reduce them 
 to an insignificant quantity, but, if there is 
 no specific for the evil, a palliative may be 
 found. In searching for one we may, with 
 advantage, look abroad and see how foreign 
 countries are grappling with the self same 
 difficulty. We have fortunately to guide' us 
 in this survey the Board of Ti-ade Blue Book 
 issued in 190-4 on '' Agencies and Methods 
 for dealing with the Unemployed in certain 
 Foreign Countries." A perusal of this lirings 
 into relief the fact that, with all our l)oasted 
 social progress, we are far behind leading 
 Continental nations, notably the Germans, in 
 our dealings with the classes included in the 
 foregoing classification of Unemployable. 
 
 LABOUR COLONIES ABROAD. 
 
 Abroad there are no half measures with 
 the loafer and the wastrel. They are treated 
 for what they are, enemies, that is, to social 
 order, who nuist be taken in hand like crimi- 
 nals and subjected to punitive and reforma- 
 tory influences. The agency used for this 
 purpose is the Labour Colony where men 
 are trained to work and made to work by 
 the pressure of an inexorable discipline whicli 
 admits of no malingering. Germany, lielgimn, 
 Switzerland and Holland have all got their 
 Labour Colony systems. They differ very
 
 66 
 
 widely in the extent to wliicli they deal with 
 the Unemployable, but the root idea is the 
 same — that vagrancy in all forms must be 
 sternly dealt with. Belgium leads the way 
 in this repressive work. There are in the 
 country three Labour Colonies capable of 
 dealing with 7,500 individuals. The largest 
 at Merxplas, styled a Depot de Mendicite, 
 harbours 4,500 Unemployables, mostly beg- 
 gars and criminals, wdio are occupied in agri- 
 culture, forestry, gardening, &c. . The other 
 two colonies are together a " JNIaison de 
 Eefuge " where the aged, the infirm and 
 mendicants of the less hardened type are 
 maintained and put to such occui)ations as 
 soap making, weaving, carpentering, and 
 other ])ursuits suited to their capacity. 
 The largest colony is j^ractically self-sup- 
 porting, and the entire system, including the 
 maintenance of the aged and infirm, does 
 not cost the State more than £10 per annum 
 for each inmate. 
 
 Holland has a system very similar to that 
 of Belgium. At Veenhuizen, there is an 
 establishment acconnnodating 3,600 Unemploy- 
 ables who are kept to labour on the land, 
 and in carpentering, smith's work, &c. At 
 Hoorn and Leiden, there are two other colonies 
 for lia))itual drnnkai-ds, the former being for 
 men, and the latter for women. A certain 
 amount of liberty is i)ermitted to the colonists
 
 67 
 
 within the Hmit.s of the colony, an<l they are 
 aUowed small wage payments. 
 
 Germany has an elaborate system of 
 labour colonies of a very advanced type, com- 
 prising institutions for dealing with all classes 
 of the unemployed. At one end of the scale 
 are establishments for criminals, mendicants 
 and persons of weak intellect, and at the 
 other are colonies for the respectable unem- 
 ployed. The whole system is worthy of 
 careful study, and though it is far from per- 
 fect,- there is much in it that we might copy 
 with advantage. 
 
 In Denmark there are no labour colonies 
 in the strict sense of the word, but provision 
 is, nevertheless, specially and effectively made 
 for the vagrant fraternity. Under the sanction 
 of a law passed in 1891, the Poor Law 
 authorities, acting in conjunction with the 
 police, can send to institutions known as i)enal 
 workhouses, all who have been " guilty of 
 breaches of order or of morals, or of 
 disobedience, insubordination, drunkenness, 
 quarrelsomeness, idleness, leaving the work- 
 house without permission, damage to property, 
 or other irregularities, public or private," a 
 description sufficiently sweeping to bring Avithin 
 reach of the law all the idle and dissolute 
 classes. The inmates of these penal work- 
 houses are kept at labour, under expert direc- 
 tors, on tailoring, shoemaking, carpentering.
 
 68 
 
 l)Ookbiiidiiiu', A\'eaviiig', glass blowing and 
 metal work. B}- good conduct and assiduity 
 the inmate can win his way through successive 
 stages to his discharge. In certain cases on 
 the other hand of hardened vice, a definite 
 period of detention is enforced. The system 
 appears to be most economically worked. At 
 the Copenhagen establishment, the cost of 
 maintenance, in 1902, was only lid. per head 
 per day, and the net profits for the year were 
 about £3,900. 
 
 TEEATMENT OF THE IDLE AND 
 VICIOUS. 
 
 It will be gathered from this short survey 
 that the class of man who can but will not 
 work is one which finds no tolerance in the 
 more advanced foreign countries. The Divine 
 command, that man shall sustain himself by 
 the sweat of his brow, is enforced by the law 
 in such a way that there is no possibility of the 
 humiliating s|)cctacle so connnon in this 
 country, of hulking able-bodied })aui)ers 
 suffered by the inade(|uacy of the law to persist 
 in their refusal to maintain themselves. One 
 of the first steps in the direction of reform 
 should be to remedy this state of afijxirs by 
 making our Vagrancy Laws more stringent. 
 The Labour Colony with its authority to detain, 
 when necessarv, the idle and vicious for a
 
 69 
 
 lengthened period, ought to be a recognised 
 feature of our Poor Law system. 
 
 It has l)een suggested that the Salvation 
 Army Colony at Hadleigh might be utilised 
 in connection with some sucli compulsory 
 scheme, but there are insuperable objections 
 to giving any voluntary organisation power 
 over the liberty of the subject. The lal^our 
 colony, if it is to come, must have the full 
 official stamp, and its management should be 
 in the control of a central and official au- 
 thority ; on the other hand, the local commu- 
 nities, from which the paupers s})ring, should 
 not be absolved from all financial responsi- 
 bility, and should certainly contribute in an 
 appreciable degree to the cost of the insti- 
 tutions. 
 
 ABOLITION OF THE CASUAL WAKD. 
 
 One result of the introduction of a Labour 
 Colony system would be the abolition of the 
 casual ward. That institution would be parted 
 with without a pang of regret, except, possibly, 
 by the tramp class, whose vagrant wanderings 
 it has greatly facilitated. It would be neces- 
 sary in all likelihood to make some provision 
 for the relief of the genuine worker, who was 
 travelling the country in search of employment. 
 In Germany, there is a system of relief stations, 
 where honest workmen, who are properly 
 accredited bv the authorities, obtain relief
 
 during their legitimate peregrinations. A task 
 is exacted in exchange for the relief but the 
 labour imposed is not degrading. By a system 
 of licences, which are countersigned at each 
 station through which the holders pass, the 
 possibility of abuse of the privileges is reduced 
 to a minimum. An institution of this char- 
 acter might with advantage be created in this 
 country when the casual ward disappears. 
 The risks could not be very great, presuming 
 that there had been a preliminary sweeping of 
 the country of the mendicants and loafers who 
 now, in the summer time, infest the country 
 roads, and crowd the urban workhouses during 
 the winter months. 
 
 NEED FOR SPECIAL TREATMENT 
 OF WEAKTJNGS. 
 
 Among the imemi)loyal)le are many either 
 mentally or morally deficient, who, at present, 
 owing to their inability or disinclination to 
 work, are an absolute burden on the country. 
 To train these classes is a matter of the most 
 urgent necessitv, and no ari'angements which 
 do not take them into account could claim to 
 be complete. 
 
 In Germany special attention is given to 
 this type of the unemployable and, in an 
 appendix to ]\[r. Alden's book, a very inter- 
 esting account is given by Mr. G. P. Gooch of 
 the Luhlerheim Colon v, which is devoted
 
 71 
 
 particularly to this class ; this settlement affords 
 an excellent example of the labour colony, and 
 with certain necessary variations, its principles 
 might well be made to suit the conditions 
 obtaining in this country. Its system may be 
 explained as embodying a scheme by which 
 men of the unemployal)le class, who are weak- 
 willed, lazy and irresponsible, are planted in a 
 labour Colony and retained there for a certain 
 period ; there they are made to work, the 
 strong on land reclamation or cultivation, the 
 weak on indoor la1)our. Its management is 
 conducted somewhat on the lines of that of the 
 Salvation Army Colony at Hadleigh— that is 
 to say, the influences brought to bear upon 
 the Colonists are spiritual and moral rather 
 than punitive. Mr. Gooch's own o])inion is, 
 that Colonies of this character : — ■ 
 " Would be the cheapest, most helpful method 
 of dealing with the class of men who are 
 weak but not wicked, and who so long as 
 they are condemned to engage in a struggle 
 for which they are not fitted, drag down the 
 man of stronger calibre, and supply recruits 
 to the criminal classes." 
 
 THE UNEMPLOYED WHO 
 DE8IKE WORK. 
 
 When we have dealt with our unemploy- 
 able classes effectively, we shall have gone a 
 long way on the road towards a settlement of
 
 72 
 
 this perplexing })rublem ; .still there will remain 
 sufficient to tax the genius of our statesmen. 
 The men, who would work if they could and 
 physically are efficient, are deserving of our 
 highest consideration, and there is not a public 
 man in the country, with a spark of humanity 
 in his composition, avIio would not gladly aid 
 in finding them employment even at the 
 expense of a little breaking with established 
 precedents. I have already in general terms 
 indicated the direction in which I think we 
 must proceed if w^e are to reach the much- 
 desired o'oal, and I will now endeavour in greater 
 detail to state my views. 
 
 The points to be kept in view are, it will 
 be remembered, that work undertaken shall be 
 reproductive — that the work shall be of such a 
 character that it can be expanded or contracted 
 without materially detracting from its connner- 
 cial value ; that it shall be of such a nature 
 that the labour expended upon it does not 
 com})ete with established industry, and that 
 there shall be no attraction in the conditions of 
 the work to seduce a man from obtaining 
 employment in the o])en market when once his 
 labour is again in demand. 
 
 Clearly, if these conditions are to be rigidly 
 obscived, we nuist look l)eyon(l tin* splieri^ in 
 which it has hitherto been the ])ractice to en- 
 gage the mieniployed, and create opportuniti(\s 
 foi' labour in unoccu])ied fields. In a country
 
 /.> 
 
 like this in which the iiKhistrios are organised 
 to a very high pitch, such fiehls are, it is true, 
 not easy to discover; but, assuming that the 
 principle of State aid is conceded, they may 
 he sought in the following directions with a 
 reasonable prospect of success. 
 
 AFFORESTATION. 
 
 One opening which presents itself, with 
 certain limitations, for the provision of work 
 for the unemployed, suited to their capacity 
 and answering to the seasonal conditions 
 which affect employment, is afforestation. 
 The utilisation of our resources for growing 
 timber will become a necessity of the near 
 future. The world's forests are being so 
 rapidly depleted that w^e are approaching the 
 time when there will be a serious shortage. 
 The position is clearly brought out by Dr. W. 
 Schlich, CLE., in an interesting paper which 
 he read before the Society of Arts, and 
 which appears in the Journal of the Society 
 dated March, 1901. "The price of timber," 
 says Dr. Schlich, " is steadily though slowly 
 rising, and 87 per cent, of the total imports 
 consist of pine and fir timber, the sources of 
 which are specially exposed to exhaustion. 
 Whence are w^e to obtain the 9,000,000 or 
 10,000,000 tons of coniferous timber when the 
 countries round the Baltic, and perhaps also 
 Canada, have commenced to fail us '. These
 
 74 
 
 are the tini])ei's which form the very staff of 
 life of our building trade, and a deficiency of 
 supply in this direction must have the most 
 serious effect ujion the j^opulation of these 
 islands. And all tlie time we have sufficient, 
 and more, surplus land at home to produce all 
 this timber without putting a single acre out 
 of cultivation. There are 12,000,000 acres of 
 waste land and lo,000,uOO acres of mountain 
 heath land from which to choose the neces- 
 sary 6,000,000 or 7,000,000 acres. Surely, 
 £25,000,000, going out of the country every 
 year, is money enough to take some trouble 
 about." 
 
 Here, stated in a concise form, we have the 
 case for an afforestation system in this country. 
 Dr. Schlich's views are not an isolated expres- 
 sion of o])inion. A Departmental Committee, 
 a])pointed by the Board of Agriculture, sat in 
 1U02 to consider the question of British 
 Forestry, and it recorded a mass of evidcMice 
 all pointing to the conclusion that a splendid 
 potential source of national wealth is ready to 
 hand in the afforestation of our waste lands. 
 The report of the Committee contains this 
 passage : — 
 
 '' As regards the (piestion of the extension of 
 the forest area, it is shown on the hiuhest 
 authority that there is in these islands a 
 very large area of waste, heather and rough 
 pasture, or land out of cultivation, amounting
 
 75 
 
 in all to 21,000,000 acres, on a large pro- 
 portion of which afforestation could be 
 profitably undertaken." 
 
 Another passage is as follows : — 
 *' It will be found in our evidence that experts 
 of high authority have recorded the opinion 
 already expressed in many reliable publica- 
 tions, that the world is rapidly approaching 
 a shortage, if not actual dearth in its supply 
 of coniferous timber, which cojistitutes 
 between 80 and 90 per cent, of the total 
 British timber imports. The great area of 
 waste land in these islands, which might l)e 
 afforested * * * thus becomes a matter 
 of grave national concern. Xo individual 
 effort is likely to cope with such extensive 
 afforestation, not only because British 
 Forestry, as now practised, is inefficient, but 
 because of the capital required, the time 
 during which it remains sunk before pro- 
 ducing,- income, and the lack of all securitv 
 on private estates for continuous good 
 management from the time that the forest 
 is pruned until matured timber is placed 
 upon the market." 
 
 We could scarcely have the case for a 
 national system of afforestation put in plainer 
 language. The work nuist be a Government 
 work if it is to be done on a scale commen- 
 surate with its importance and its vast 
 possibilities.
 
 76 
 
 AFFORESTATION— OPENING FOK 
 LABOUR. 
 
 The openings foi' labour which would be 
 afforded by a .scheme of afforestation are re- 
 peatedly touched upon in the evidence given 
 before the Committee. * The estimate varied/out 
 the prevailing view was that each hundred acres 
 of land under timber would give permanent 
 employment to at least one man, and this 
 without taking account of the labour re<iuisite 
 to move and work up the timber. In otiier 
 words, if all the waste land now lying 
 practically idle were utilised, there would be 
 continuous remunerative employment given to 
 210,000 men, representing probably nearly a 
 million individuals. We are, of course, a long- 
 way from any such complete afforestation 
 of the available areas, and naturally it would 
 be a mistake to attach too much weight to such 
 a computation. This is the more so since, as 
 w(; shall see later, a great proportion of the 
 labour re({uired would be expert la])Our. The 
 indirect effect of any comprehensive scheme 
 would, nevertheless, be very great, particularly 
 when it is remembered that the timber-growing 
 would be necessarily associated with a system 
 of saw mills and other agencies for ])reparing 
 the wood for market. 
 
 * l{c]jort of the Dojiartincntal Committee, p. 3.
 
 77 
 
 AFFORESTATION— A PROFITABLE 
 
 INVESTMENT. 
 
 Financially, afforestation would, it is 
 believed by experts, abundantly justify itself. 
 On this subject the Departmental Committee 
 make these interesting remarks'* : — 
 •' Regular forest book-keeping is rare in Great 
 Britain; Imt we l)elieve the various esti- 
 mates of profit obtained from the cultivation 
 of timber, which have been laid l^efore both 
 inquiries, to l)e substantially correct. These 
 show that excellent returns, even with 
 indifferent management, have often been 
 obtained from i)lantations formed on land 
 of little or no value for any other imrpose." 
 Dr. Schlich gives corroborating evidence 
 from the Continental forests, where accurate 
 book-keeping has long been practised. As an 
 example, he says, referring to Saxony : — 
 "I have selected one of the ranges which 
 is by no means the ])est. It is a district 
 called the Ansthonsthal Range, an area of 
 4,072 acres, managed by a highly trained 
 forester, situated in the Erzgebirge, l^etween 
 an elevation of 1,500 and 2,700 feet. * * * 
 Distinguishing between four quality classes 
 of soil, and calling 1 the best and 4 the 
 least good, the average (piality is 2*7 ; it is, 
 therefore, between second and third quality. 
 
 * Report of the Departmental Committee, ]i. "_*.
 
 78 
 
 The specien grown there are 93 per cent, 
 spruce, 3 per cent, silver fir, Scottish pine 
 antl Ijeech, and 4 per cent, blanks for certain 
 reasons. The urowino- stock in this forest 
 in 1839 averaged 2,128 cubic feet per acre, 
 and in 1893 it was 3,276 cubic feet. The 
 receipts per acre were 48s. 3d., and the 
 expenses 10s. 3d., the net receipts lacing 38s. 
 per annum. This statement refers to land 
 not worth more than 4s. per acre per annum 
 for agricultural or pastoral purposes." 
 
 POSSIBILITY OF GROWING TIMBER 
 IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. 
 
 It is the general view of experts that, in 
 most instances, we could grow in this country 
 the timber that we require of as good a 
 quality as that imported. Mr. Samuel 
 Margerison. who gave evidence at the Depart- 
 mental Committee's inquiry as the repre- 
 sentative ot the Tim])er Trades' Federation, 
 expressed himself in the evidence he gave very 
 confidently on these points. As regards oak, 
 he said, " Very few countries grow oak timber 
 etjual to our own in size, strength, wearing 
 and lasting qualities combined." Similar 
 commendation was given to our native larch. 
 English beecli for many purposes is superior 
 to German beech. " There is probably no ash 
 <[uite e({ual to British ash." " Where really 
 rough wear is ex})erienced, even British spruce
 
 79 
 
 is sometimes preferred to foreign." Generally 
 speaking, there is hardly anything in the way 
 of commercial timber that, in Mr. Margerison's 
 opinion, we could not grow to advantage. 
 
 The Departmental Committee in its report 
 emphasises the suitability of our climate for 
 timber growing in this paragraph : — 
 " It is the common verdict that timber of the 
 kind and quality imported in such large 
 quantities from the Baltic and similar tem- 
 perate regions can be grown as well here as 
 anywhere ; in fact it is a matter of common 
 knowledge that European ' red wood ' and 
 * white wood,' so highly esteemed for struc- 
 tural purposes, are yielded by the Scots pine 
 and the spruce, two of the commonest trees 
 of British woodlands. That foreign is gen- 
 erally preferred to home grown timber is in 
 no way due to unsuitability of soil or climate, 
 but is entirely due to our neglect of 
 sy 1 vicultural principles. " 
 
 b' 
 
 EXPERIMENT IN THE BLACK 
 COUNTRY. 
 
 In the Black Country an interesting 
 ])ractical demonstration is being given by the 
 Midland Reafibresting Association, of which 
 Sir Oliver Lodge is president, of the way in 
 which, under apparently the most unpromising 
 conditions, forestry can be successfully con- 
 ducted. Selecting for the ])urposes of its
 
 80 
 
 operations those most depressing patches of 
 
 shale and dross which tlisfigiire the hmdscape, 
 
 the Association has undertaken a series of 
 
 experiments in tree })hinting. The following 
 
 passage from a recent appeal issued by the 
 
 Association shows what has been done : — 
 
 " The planting season is the autumn, and last 
 
 October the Association first broke ground 
 
 in its great work. A six-acre plot was 
 
 })lanted at Wednesbury, and a small model 
 
 plantation was formed at Old Hill, This 
 
 year's work is on a nuich larger scale, for a 
 
 42-acre wood is now being laid out at 
 
 INIoxley, in the very centre of the most 
 
 desolate landscape in the whole Black 
 
 Country ; a small wood is being planted at 
 
 King's Hill, Wednesbury ; and some more 
 
 model plantations are j)lanned at Old Hill." 
 
 So far as they have gone the experiments 
 
 have been a great success in that they have 
 
 demonstrated that trees will sjrow and thrive 
 
 ill the lUack Country. The idea that this 
 
 district is tor ever fated to be a desert the 
 
 association, in an interesting hi-ocluirc it has 
 
 issued, says is founde<l h|)oii error. 
 
 " (xardening and farming are arts familiar to 
 
 all, and pit or furnace mounds are plainly 
 
 unsuited for the practice of either. Forest 
 
 trees, however, are not garden plants, and 
 
 forestry is not gardening, not even nursery 
 
 gardening. The very alphabet of forestry is
 
 81 
 
 strange to most Englishmen, and yet from 
 various parts of England, Wales and Scot- 
 land, no less than from better informed France 
 and Belgium, Germany and Austria, come 
 accounts of trees growing and thriving upon 
 pit waste, upon furnace slag, and even upon 
 the ash of burnt out shale." 
 
 MIDLAND REAFFORESTING 
 
 ASSOCIATION. 
 DETAILS OF ITS WORK. 
 
 In reply to my inquiries, Mr. P. E. 
 Martineau, the Honorary Secretary of the 
 Association (Council and ]:)ranches), has cour- 
 teously placed at my disposal some interesting- 
 facts and conclusions bearing upon tlieir work. 
 His statements are as follows : — 
 " 1. In the Black Country there are about 
 30,000 acres of derelict land. About 14,000 
 acres are now fit for j)Ianting, if only we 
 could get at them. 
 '' 2. We contract to lay out and i)lant, and to 
 superintend for one year, at the rate of £0 
 per acre. At this price we lose on small 
 plots, but make a small profit on large ones." 
 *' :3. We have a gang of 11 men, including a 
 working foreman. Wages, at regular rate 
 in district, 18/- per week pitting, 21/- per 
 week planting, foreman 28/- per week. 
 Small bonus all round on good Aveek's 
 progress.
 
 82 
 
 " 4. "When pitting can be done with grub-axe 
 quite unskilled labour is perfectly satisfac- 
 tory. If sj^ade has to be used a certain 
 amount of skill is needed, or work cannot 
 Ije done for the money. If two-year old 
 trees are planted — the only commercial 
 method — grub-axe does well, liut spade 
 must be used for older trees. Planting of 
 small trees can be readily learned by any- 
 one with country habits, but large trees 
 require experienced handling. 
 
 " Town hands are practically useless for plant- 
 ing though they do pitting very well. Any 
 ' country ' man can be picked out at once in 
 a gang. We should not like to trust cuni 
 planting to town hands. 
 
 " 5. The area already planted is 50 to 60 acres, 
 1)ut plots vary so nmch in size and in 
 nature of soil that no average of cost can 
 as yet be worked out. Our charge of £5 
 per 'acre, based on careful calculations 
 made in other districts by experts in 
 forestry, is barely sufficient ; but cost 
 would be reduced if we had enough work 
 in hand to employ a gang of, say, 30 men. 
 So far we cannot find that profit or loss 
 made on one plot is any evidence for 
 another. 
 
 " 6. The work has all been done, so far, 
 between September and Christmas. An 
 earlier start might be made, l)ut good men
 
 83 
 
 are ott" liai'vcsting till iniddlu of September. 
 Moreover pitting done early in the year 
 would all have to be done over again, and 
 cost would be prohibitive. Cuttings of 
 certain trees, e.g. willow, can be planted 
 till about February, and we hope to keep 
 a few men on at this work pretty well 
 through the winter. Onlv two or three 
 ^^'ill be wanted but we may employ more 
 another year. There will be work for 
 foreman, and perhaps one or two more in 
 pruning, lopping, and generally superin- 
 tending from time to time. On the whole 
 we do not see how we can employ quite 
 unskilled labour except for, say, October- 
 November, nor how we can find employ- 
 ment all the year round for any but actual 
 foresters. 
 
 7. At the })rice named above, plus a charge 
 of one shilling per yard run for fencing, 
 there is a profit of 3 per cent. (C.I.) in the 
 outlay. This allows for upkeep and 
 superintendence, but not for rent or rates ; 
 but in other districts, wdiere conifers can 
 be grown, the rate of profit will be higher. 
 The profit should be returned in, say, 
 20 years. At the last measurement, in 
 summer 1903, Reed's Wood, Walsall, 
 planted very hurriedly on pit-mounds 1<3 
 years previously, was valued at £1 7. 10s. Od. 
 per acre. The actual cost of planting is
 
 84 
 
 quite unknown, being mixed up witli otlier 
 items in laying out of pul)lic park, but it 
 was certainly small. This would point to 
 a much higher profit, l)ut our calculation 
 of 3 per cent. (CI.) errs on the safe side. 
 " 8. A great point which has been made in 
 lectures on our scheme has l)een the 
 absence of any heavy annual charge for 
 labour when plantations haye been estab- 
 lished. The plantations do not appear to 
 me to offer nuich opening — until fully 
 grown, say, 25 years — for regular all-the- 
 y ear-round work, but they would be a vast 
 help to any scheme involving farming, as 
 the work is in full swing at the very time 
 when ordinary farm-work is at its slackest." 
 It is to be gathered from this statement 
 that the actual planting of the trees is a work 
 which must be done by experienced men. 
 Mr. Martineau, also, writing from the point of 
 view of the Association, clearly considers that 
 the town-bred man is at a disadvantnge when 
 put upon the preliminary \\()i'k as compared 
 with the countryman. This is a view which 
 harmonises with the experience gained on 
 farm colonies wheie townsmen have been set 
 to agriculture. But it ought not to be allo\N'ed 
 to have more than its due weight. That 
 afforestation nuist always be more a matter of 
 rui'al employment than of town labour is un- 
 denia])l(\ Nevertheless, we may gather from
 
 85 
 
 Mr. Martineau's statement, that in the initial 
 work of [)reparing the ground tlie unskilled 
 workmen, even of the towns, could be 
 employed, if not with the greatest financial 
 advantage, at least effectively. The affores- 
 tation of the Black Country if taken up as a 
 national work would, no doubt, as far as 
 the expert work is concerned, be done by a 
 permanent staff". The unemployed might be 
 utilised in " pitting," levelling and opening, 
 and in like operations. With a judicious 
 selection of areas and a carefully devised plan 
 of planting it should be possible to occupy with 
 advantage a good many unemployed in the 
 winter months, when work is most needed. 
 
 SUITABLE AREAS FOR 
 AFFORESTATION. 
 
 Important as this and other local projects 
 are, they only touch the fringe of a great 
 problem. Afforestation must l)e taken in 
 hand seriously l^y the State, and on a com- 
 prehensive plan, if adequate results are to be 
 secured. France offers us a striking object- 
 lesson as to what a Government can accomplish 
 in this direction. In the last forty years the 
 State authorities in France have reclaimed 
 nearly 640 square miles, and spent about 
 £2,500,000. The most important work has 
 been on the coast of the Bay of Biscay ; an
 
 86 
 
 area of 200 square miles having been re- 
 claimed and afforested at a cost of £620,000.* 
 
 We have much leeway to make up, but if 
 the right course is taken there is no reason 
 why we should not, in time, effectually remove 
 the reproach which may be laid at our doors 
 of being one of the most backward of all 
 civilised countries in the matter of forestry. 
 The Departmental Committee points the way 
 in which a good start may be made. It 
 suggests that two demonstration areas for 
 forestry purposes should be selected, one in 
 England and one in Scotland, and that forestry 
 schools should be established in connection 
 with each of them. The English centre pro- 
 posed is the Alice Holt Woods, in Hami)shire, 
 which are Crown land, the total area being 
 1,892 acres. In Scotland, where there is very 
 little Crown land, it is recommended that the 
 Government should purchase an estate of the 
 value of £50,000. 
 
 These proposals are made with reference 
 to the setting up of a State system of forestry 
 training, but their bearing on the unemployed 
 (juestion will be grasped from what has already 
 been stated. If the Government decided to 
 take up afforestation for the double pupose of 
 stimulating timber growing and creating open- 
 ings for the unemployed, it would doubtless 
 
 * Transactions of the Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society. 
 • Vol. XVI. Part 1, 1901.
 
 87 
 
 greatly enlarge the Committee's scheme, and 
 mstead of a single forestry centre in England 
 it would establish a number in suitable 
 localities. The Crown forests,* amounting in 
 all to 66,758 acres, afford a splendid opening for 
 the easy introduction of a scheme. The 
 greatest areas are : Dean Forest (Gloucester) 
 lo,<J(U acres, New Forest (Hants), 2:3,083 
 acres,! Windsor (excluding the Great Park), 
 10,000 acres. High Meadow Woods (Glou- 
 cester), 3,404 acres, Tintern Abbey Woods 
 (Monmouth), 3,000 acres, and Delamere Woods 
 (Cheshire), 2,100 acres. 
 
 The forest land in the vicinity of the 
 metropolis, apart from the Windsor acreage, 
 is small, but there are two places which might 
 possibly be utilised in connection with an 
 Unemployed scheme. These are Eltham 
 Woods (Kent), 240 acres, and Esher Woods 
 (Surrey), 840 acres. It is probable, however, 
 that as far as London is concerned, ajfforestation 
 could not be resorted to as a remedy for un- 
 em})loyment to any appreciable extent. The 
 value of the system would be found in the 
 country districts where extensive operations 
 could be advantageously conducted. Indi- 
 rectly, also, there would be in the future an 
 enormous gain in the addition of an impor- 
 tant new element of wealth to rural life, 
 
 ■ * Appendix No. XI., Minutes of Evidence. 
 
 t Only 16,000 acres can be dealt with as -vsoodlund by the Crown.
 
 88 
 
 and the creation of an influenee wliieli will 
 help to keep the population on the land. 
 
 MUNICIPAL AFFOKESTATION. 
 
 Before leaving this question of afVorest.i- 
 tion I may aj)})ro})riatelY draw attention to 
 the interesting evidence given before the 
 Departmental Committee relative to the 
 desirability of conducting forestry operations 
 in connection with the waterworks of great 
 towns. In Avhat are known as the catchment 
 areas — that is to say the districts surrounding 
 the reservoirs from which Avater is collected — 
 there is great scope for tree planting. Mr. 
 Joseph Parry, Chief Engineer to the Liverpool 
 Corporation Waterworks, supplied some 
 interesting figures in his evidence illustrative 
 of the magnitude of these areas.* The 
 <ii:atliering grounds in Great Britain which 
 contribute to reser\oirs constructed for water- 
 works purposes, he states, amount to something 
 like 900 sipiare miles, or 576,000 acres. 
 Birmingham lias 45,560 acres ; J^radford, 
 27,970 ; Liverpool, :32,74-2 ; Manchester, 
 :]0,220 ; Derwcnt Valley, :n,600 ; Ncnvcastle, 
 6,000 ; Glasgow, 25,752 ; and Dublin, 14,080 
 acres. For the most part the areas are in 
 s})arsely populated districts and ai'c entirely 
 suita1)le for tree growing. Afforestation, 
 
 * Minutes of Evidence of the Departmental Committee on British 
 Forestry, p. ISO.
 
 89 
 
 besides contril)ntiii_L;' an iniportant source of 
 revenue, ultimately would contribute to the 
 yield of water, and would effectually prevent 
 the pollution of the souj^es of supply. From 
 several iniportant points of view the utilisation 
 of these catchment areas for forestry is, 
 therefore, desirable, and there seems no 
 substantial reason why, in the case of the 
 great towns named, the work sliould not l)e 
 undertaken in connection with a comprehensive 
 Unemployed Scheme on the lines which I 
 have indicated. 
 
 LAND RECLAMATION. 
 
 From afforestation we may appropriately 
 turn to a kindred work, which, if properly 
 conducted, would also add enormously to the 
 wealth of the country, and which, moreover, 
 would to an infinitely greater extent than 
 forestry provide openings for the unemployed. 
 I refer to land reclamation. We have only to 
 look around us to see what inmiense possibili- 
 ties are offered in this direction. In the 
 estuaries of our rivers, in the marshy wastes 
 of our coasts, and in the mud fiats about our 
 towns, openings for enterprise on a bold, well 
 thought out plan, could readily be found. 
 
 A proposal which has lieen put forward 
 by several writers on this subject, and notably 
 by Mr. W. Crooks, M.P., and Mr. Percy Alden, 
 is that the scheme of Sir John Rennie, the
 
 90 
 
 eniiuent engineer, for the reclamation of the 
 Wash, should be revived and carried out, with 
 a view to providing work for the unemployed. 
 That project was a very ambitious one. It 
 contemplated the construction of embankments 
 and the execution of other works, which, when 
 completed, would have added from 150,000 
 to 200,000 acres of land — ^practically a new 
 county — to the Kingdom. It was a magnifi- 
 cent vista that Kennie opened up l)y his plans, 
 but they were bitterly opposed at the time, 
 and eventually had to be abandoned. Later 
 experience has not tended to strengthen the 
 case for their adoption. Locally, the gravest 
 misgivings are entertained as to the effects of 
 any attempt to jmt the idea into operation ; 
 and for this, and for other reasons, I am 
 reluctantly driven to the conclusion that the 
 enterprise, as a whole at least, is impracticable. 
 That, however, land reclamation on a smaller 
 scale in this locality is possible there can be 
 no question. T'he operations of the Norfolk 
 Estuary Company, which was one of the out- 
 comes of Ronnie's activity in the domain of 
 land reclamation in the vicinity of the Wash, 
 have shown that land can l)e reclaimed, though 
 at considerable cost. Whether such work 
 could be i^rofitably carried through in con- 
 nection with the relief of the unemployed is a. 
 point which only experts can determine. I 
 have only referred to the question because of
 
 91 
 
 the prominence which has been given to it in 
 discussions of the unemployed problem, and 
 l)ecause it seemed to me deserving at least of 
 careful investigation. Probably, if an Unem- 
 ])loyed Board were estal^lished, one of its first 
 duties would be to settle by means of inquiry 
 the practicability, from the standpoint of the 
 unemployed, of reclamation about the Wash. 
 It may be noted as a final word on the subject, 
 that in Holland land reclamation of the 
 character of that contemplated by Eennie is 
 found to be most profitable, and that at the 
 ])resent moment the Dutch Government has 
 in hand a vast scheme for reclaiming the 
 Zuyder Zee, where it is expected that land 
 reclaimed at a cost of about £18 per acre will 
 sell at £34 per acre. 
 
 LAND KECLAMATION OX THE 
 THAMES. 
 
 Eeclamation or embankments within the 
 limits of the Port of London also afford a con- 
 venient opening for work for the unemployed. 
 The river is a highway which supplies cheap 
 and effective means of communication, and a 
 daily boat or boats would in most cases suffice 
 for the needs of the workers. Only a careful 
 survey could determine the most suitable areas 
 for reclamation work, Ijut, in the event of the 
 affairs of the Port being, as seems probable in
 
 92 
 
 the not distant future, administered by one 
 great rei)resentative body, there would be no 
 la(;k of opportunities. The experience of 
 other great ports shows what may be done by 
 judicious reclamation, in Bombay, the Port 
 Trust b}^ such work has built u]) an 
 innnensely valuable property, the proceeds 
 from which have enabled it to carry out a 
 great scheme of docks, and at the same time 
 to adopt a scale of dues which is one of the 
 lightest obtaining at any great }>ort in the 
 world. English and Indian conditions, of 
 course, widely differ, but the principles under- 
 lying great port improvements, whether here, 
 or in the East, are identical, and we might 
 expect to reap from a wide-reaching scheme of 
 foreshore reclamation as rich a harvest as has 
 been garnered in Bombay. It is too much to 
 hope that the work can be undertaken in its 
 entirety within a reasonable time. We have 
 yet to reach an agreement as to the general 
 lines which shall mark tlie future a(hninistra- 
 tion of the I\)rt. What can be done, however, 
 is to select one or two points where reclama- 
 tion work may be conducted witli the certainty 
 that it will fit into any general scheme which 
 may hereafter be adopted. The construction 
 of a Jciigth of v'wcv wall, tlie laising of the 
 level of low-lying land now derelict or nearly 
 so, and the creation of sites for dee])-water 
 wharves, are samples of the undertakings
 
 93 
 
 which could be entered upon. An intelligent 
 management would, in fact, have but little 
 difficulty in deciding upon the right policy 
 if a fairly free hand were allowed it. 
 
 IMPEOVEMENT OF CANALS. 
 
 If we glance at the Canal system of the 
 country we are struck at once with the vast 
 and extended opening there is for labour in 
 this direction. Greatly as we have progressed 
 in many respects in recent times, we are 
 extremely backward in our utilisation of 
 internal waterways as a means of transit. On 
 the continent, especially in France, Belgium 
 and Germany, enormous improvements have 
 been made in canal navigation. But in this 
 country we have remained stationary ever since 
 the early part uf the nineteenth century and in 
 some respects have even gone backwards. 
 Many canals, which a hundred years ago were 
 in continual use, are to-day practically derelict, 
 nor is the reason of their decay far to seek ; 
 the neglect of their maintenance is largely the 
 direct consequence of the action of the Rail- 
 way Companies which were allowed to acquire 
 about a third of the total canal mileage of the 
 country ; in this ac(]uisition were included 
 many sections which are in(lispensal)le links in 
 the general systeni of connnunication, and the
 
 94 
 
 Companies have delil)erately al)stained from 
 improving them in order the better to establish 
 their own monopoly of the carrying traffic.^' 
 
 POSSIBILITIES OF CANAL 
 DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 The possibilities of canal development 
 under a progressive and enterprising scheme 
 are ably summmarised in the following 
 passage from the article on Canals in the last 
 edition of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica." f 
 
 " There may be agricultural districts where 
 the traffic would not justify the cost of 
 bringing the early canals up to the standard 
 of the improved navigations of the present 
 day, but main lines of canals from large 
 manufacturing or mineral districts, capable 
 of taking large barges in trains towed by 
 steam power would greatly benefit traders, 
 who now undergo severe competition from 
 the countries that have improved their 
 waterways as being the most economical 
 means of giving cheap carriage of minerals 
 and goods. Mr. Samuel Lloyd has proposed 
 
 * The Joint Committee of the two Houses of Parliamciit which 
 met in 1872 repoited on this point as follows : — 
 
 "The most important method by which the Railways have 
 defeated the competition of Canals has been the purchase of 
 important links in the system of navigation and the discourage- 
 ment of through traflBc." 
 
 tVol. XXVr., p. 552.
 
 95 
 
 taking Birmingham, with its large manii- 
 fiicturing and coal and iron industries, as a 
 centre and joining it with the rivers Severn, 
 Thames, INIersey and Hiimber, by improved 
 canals which, passing through other im- 
 portant districts, would convey exports and 
 imiDorts to and from the principal ports on 
 the English coast and serve local trade." 
 
 Mr. H. Gordon Thompson in his valuable 
 work on " The Canal System of England," 
 published by Mr. T. Fisher Unwin in 1902, 
 and re-issued in 1904, also demonstrates 
 most effectively the magnificent possibilities 
 which there are in our canal system. He 
 writes, on page 57 : — 
 
 " In spite of numerous defects and disadvan- 
 tages the capacity of the English canals for 
 traffic is very great. This is readily proved 
 by the traffic returns, in which we find that for 
 1888, the Birmingham canals alone carried 
 nearly 8,000,000 tons of traffic, or 48,500 
 tons per mile of canal. Even these figures 
 give but a poor idea of the carrying capacity 
 of our waterways, for on the 21 miles of 
 the Weaver during the same year, no less 
 than one-and-a-half million tons, or 75,000 
 tons per mile, were transported, and on the 
 busiest portion of this navigation at least 
 120,000 tons per mile must have been 
 carried."
 
 m 
 
 DEFECTIVE STRUCTURAL 
 CONDITIONS. 
 
 ]\Ir. 'Jli()iin)S()ii, in another portion of his 
 book, draws a vivid picture of the present 
 deplorable structural conditions of the English 
 Barge Canal System. He says, on page 23: — 
 " On no important through route, as far as the 
 writer has been able to ascertain, is it 
 })ossil)le for anything but narrow boats to 
 travel tlie entire length, whilst many canals 
 have become so shallow for want of 
 dredging, that they form an impassable 
 block to all through traffic ; such for ex- 
 ample is the case on the Kennet and Avon, 
 a long canal on the most direct Thames-to- 
 Severn through route." 
 " The Case and its trilnitaries were investi- 
 gated in 1890 by the Board of Trade, and 
 it was then reported that on this navigation 
 from St. Neots to Louth, the tindoer work 
 had become rotten and decayetl, the masonry 
 was falling to pieces, whilst the locks were 
 almost useless ; yet on this navigation there 
 are niiie toll-tdkiini l)0(l}(\<, all having a voice 
 in its administi-ation." 
 
 FOREIGN CANAL ENTERPRISE. 
 
 In striking contrast with the neglect 
 of tlie canal svstem in this countrv is
 
 t)7 
 
 the enterprise shown in this direction by 
 foreign nations. Some facts derived from a 
 series of reports from His Majesty's Repre- 
 sentatives abroad, and embodied in an official 
 paper presented to both Honses of Parliament 
 in 1900, may be cited. In Austria, in 1901, a 
 smn of £10,000,000 was voted for the com- 
 mencement of a network of navigable canals, 
 and for the necessary river regulation con- 
 nected therewith. In Belgium, in the period 
 extending from 1875 to 1900, a total of 
 £16,000,000 was expended by the State on 
 the improvement and upkeep of the navigable 
 waterways, harbours and coasts. France, not- 
 withstanding the strain of the Franco-German 
 War, expended between 1871 and 1878 a sum 
 of £9,640,000 on the im})rovement of her 
 waterways and maritime ports. In 1879, a 
 new and comprehensive scheme was drawn 
 up, and upon it £18,000,000 was spent in the 
 years 1879-1900. Under a law of the 2:3rd 
 December, 1903, .sanction was given to a 
 further estimated expenditure of £8,840,000, 
 of which a sum of £1,160,000 is to be ap})ro- 
 priated to improvements, and of £7,076,000 
 on account of new works. Germany, between 
 1890 and 1900, spent over £5,000,000 on the 
 construction of canals and the canalisation of 
 rivers, and there is at present under considera- 
 tion a new scheme involving an expenditure of 
 £16,450,785.
 
 98 
 
 These facts, illustrative of the development 
 of canals on the Continent, speak for them- 
 selves. There is, indeed, little need to dwell 
 further upon the importance of canal improve- 
 ment, since the announced intention of Sir 
 Henry C'ampbell-Bannerman's Government to 
 institute an inquiry into the working of the 
 canal system shows that the character of the 
 situation is appreciated in responsible quarters, 
 and that the desire exists to remedy it if 
 possi])le. 
 
 CANAL DEVELOPMENT A MATTER 
 FOR THE STATE. 
 
 The point of interest, in the connection 
 in which we are dealing with the subject, 
 is the method by which a system of canal 
 development might best be carried out. Sir 
 John Brunner, Bart., jNI.P., who has given 
 the question much consideration, and has 
 taken an active })art in In'inging the short- 
 comings of the existing system to public 
 notice, is strongly in favour of State action. 
 In an interesting article he contributed to the 
 Dally Graphic in December of last year he 
 wrote : — 
 
 '■' This is pre-eminently a case in which we 
 slioiild imitate the example that has been 
 set us by the great nations of the Western 
 worM, who ai'c all busily engaged in nationa-
 
 1)9 
 
 lising their waterways. What is above all 
 things wanted is a management Avhich shall 
 be as nearly as i)Ossible impartial in its 
 dealings with local interests, which shall 
 have in view the })rosperity of the nation 
 as a whole. Such impartial manage- 
 ment can only be obtained by the Govern- 
 ment taking charge of the whole of the 
 waterways of the Kingdom and working 
 them in the public interest. The total cost 
 of acquisition would not he much mare 
 than the cost of one of our many little 
 wars, none of which appear to me to l)ring 
 much grist to our mill. By the application 
 of the principle of ' betterment,' moreover — 
 the principle, in other words, that when a 
 private individual's property is increased in 
 value by a national work, part of that in- 
 creased value should belong to the nation — 
 by the application of this principle the 
 work will be cheapened for the community 
 without the infliction of pecuniary loss upon 
 any individual. On the other hand it will 
 ensure, as between private interests and the 
 State, a more equitable division of advan- 
 tages than we have been accustomed to see 
 hitherto." 
 
 This is a forcible exposition of the 
 case for State ownership. Whether Sir John 
 Brunner's views are accepted or not, it is 
 Dracticallv certain that the (Tovernment must
 
 100 
 
 have a considerable share in the work if it is 
 to be carried out on anything like compre- 
 hensive lines. Private enterprise would shrink 
 from the formidable task involved in the 
 rehabilitation of canals which w^ere not main 
 arteries, or Avhicli ran through districts outside 
 the manufcicturing areas. Even if it was 
 prepared to undertake the task, there would 
 probably be w^anting that uniformity of design 
 which is so desirable. 
 
 ADAPTABILITY OF CANAL WOKK 
 FOE THE UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 Once the State had taken the canal system 
 in hand, if only in a restricted form, we should 
 be brought into touch with conditions which 
 will allow of the incorporation of canal work 
 in our unemployed scheme. There are in 
 Great Britain 3,907 miles of navigable water- 
 ways, and there is scarcely any part of indus- 
 trial England which is not within easy reach 
 of some canal which stands in urgent need of 
 imjn'ovement. I fully realise that a great deal 
 of the necessary work is of such a character 
 that it could only l)e profitably ])rosecuted on 
 continuous lines with a regular staff. But I 
 maintain that there will still remain many 
 promising oi)portunities for the utilisation of 
 labour such as could be provided by bodies of 
 unemployed. In the deepening of channels,
 
 101 
 
 the construction of embankments, in levelling 
 ground for canal ])uildings, and in making 
 cuttings for locks, there would be many 
 openings which could be turned to account. 
 The necessity here, as elsewhere, would be to 
 find a man w itli a practical mind who could so 
 organise the undertakings that they could be 
 adapted in part at least to the needs of the 
 unemployed without detriment to the general 
 efficiency. That the right type of administrator 
 would be forthcoming we have every reason to 
 believe from the exj^erience of the Irish Con- 
 gested Districts Board, the records of which, 
 as I have shown, are rich in instances of suc- 
 cessful direction. 
 
 DEFENCES AGAINST SEA 
 ENCIiOACHMENTS. 
 
 A work well deserving of attention in 
 connection with any scheme for utilising the 
 lal)our of the unemployed is the construction of 
 protective works to prevent the encroachment 
 of the sea on exposed jmrts of the coast. 
 In several directions, notably in the East of 
 England, this question of coast })rotection is 
 becoming one of serious importance. Favoured 
 by the geological formation of the country, the 
 sea has for centuries ])cen eating into the land 
 in this quarter. The story of Dunwich is 
 historic. Originally a great commercial
 
 102 
 
 centre and a Bisliop's See, and luiving v.iriiin 
 its limits six, or, as some writers think, eii^lit 
 parish churches, this tov\'n was gradually 
 swallowed up by the sea, and now all th.it 
 remains of it is a little hamlet with a ruined 
 church on the edge of the cliff, and some other 
 ecclesiastical ruins in its vicinity. The agency 
 which swept oway JJunwich is still active. 
 At several })oints the sea is gaining on the 
 land at (juite an alarming rate. I have 
 before me a report, courteously supplied by 
 Mr. K. Beattie Nicholson, the Town Clerk of 
 Lowestoft, in which the effects of sea erosion 
 at the popular East Coast watering place are 
 set forth l)y the Assistant Engineer. It is 
 pointed out in this document that the cliffs on 
 this part of the coast are principally composed 
 of sand, topped in varioiis places by boulder 
 clay of varying thicknesses, and that the sea 
 readily undermines the cliffs where there is no 
 protection. The extent to which damage has 
 been done in the innnediate past, is shown l>y 
 a comparison of the latest Ordnance Sui-vej 
 map recently published with its i)iedecessor 
 which was issued in 1884. On the Nortli 
 Beach there has been a loss in twenty years 
 of •2*^8,800 square yards, or some 59| acres. 
 To the South, from the South Pier to the 
 Pakefield l»oundnry, the loss in the same 
 period is 229,729 sipiare yards, representing 
 some 47f acres. In the central area, north
 
 10:3 
 
 (»t tlio North Pier Kxtension, there has been 
 an accretion of beach since 1884 of 10 acres, 
 due, it is boHeved, to the protective influence 
 of a jetty groyne erected a few years ago by 
 the Great Eastern Railway Company. The 
 net loss of beach in the twenty years has, 
 therefore, been a little under 100 acres, which 
 is a considerable slice out of the 2,1306 acres 
 which represent the area of the borough. The 
 process of erosion is, in places, very rapid. 
 
 On the southern side, between Claremont 
 Road and the borough boundary, a comparison 
 instituted between existing and past bound- 
 aries, shows an average loss of cliff per year 
 of some 2 feet for the past 20 years, but the 
 writer of the report " has no hesitation in 
 estimating that the past eight years have 
 averaged quite four feet per year." At Pake- 
 field for a length of 430 yards from I^aketield 
 Street there has been an average loss of cliffs 
 from 1884 to date of 1:30 feet. The greater 
 portion of this erosion has taken place within 
 ^ery recent years. 
 
 Very large sums have l)een sj^ent l)y the 
 local Corporation in protective works. A 
 near approximation of the ex])enditure (jn the 
 North Beach represents the total outlay at 
 £3:3,088, which works out at about £17. 15s. 9d. 
 per yard of frontage. On the South Beach 
 the joint expenditure of the Corporation and 
 jH'ivate owners amounts to £48,770, or about
 
 104 
 
 £23 19s. 9d. per yard of frontage. For the 
 loans raised for the purpose, it should more- 
 over be noted, that the periods of repayment 
 allowed by the Local Government Board were 
 very short ; the average, indeed, of the last 
 five, representing some £49,235, is only lOf, 
 and the works accordingly, on which this 
 heavy expenditure have been laid out, must l)e 
 regarded as of but a tem])orary character. 
 Other places along the coast have also suffered 
 severely from the ravages of the sea. At South- 
 wold for many years })ast a continual battle 
 has been waged against the waves. The works 
 have been very expensive, the outlay repre- 
 senting, according to the report from which I 
 have quoted, a sum equal to the entire rateable 
 value of the borough, and here, as at Lowes- 
 toft, it is a continuous expenditure. I gather 
 from some notes kindly supplied me by Mr. 
 Ernest Ixeed Cooper, the Town Clerk, that all 
 through last year the sea was attacking the 
 cliffs, and costly works were in progress. 
 
 At centres like Lowestoft and Southwold 
 the situation is bad, l)ut it is worse at })()ints 
 along the coast where there is no iaq)ortant 
 local authority to undertake protective works. 
 There the sea is connnitting its ravages un- 
 checked, and hundreds of acres of valuable 
 land in the past few years have fallen a prey 
 to the waves. The loss is one which cannot 
 be regarded with equanimity in a small
 
 105 
 
 country like England, where the increasing- 
 pressure of the population makes it desirable 
 that every incli of ground should be conserved. 
 The (|uestion is whether in the circumstances 
 the State should not intervene a,nd make 
 coast protection a national charge. This is a 
 matter upon which there are and will be wide 
 differences of opinion. But the time may 
 come when the responsibility will have to be 
 undertaken. The nation, for example, could 
 not stand quietly with arms folded while 
 Southwold with its magnificent church shared 
 the fate of Dunw ich. In some form or other, 
 sooner or later, the Government will probably 
 have to move, and in that event we might 
 have a system of works which could be dove- 
 tailed into an unemployed scheme. 
 
 OPPORTUNITY FOE UNSKILLED 
 LABOUR. 
 
 Skilled labour, of course, would be re- 
 quired at some stages of the operations. But 
 above and beyond this there would be a great 
 field for the employment of men of the class 
 who fill the ranks of the unemployed. For 
 example, foundations would have to be dug 
 for the sea walls, concrete blocks would have 
 to be made, piles would have to be driven for 
 the groynes, and there would be other oper-
 
 ations which coiikl be carried tlirough ))y 
 iiangs of unskilled men under })roper super- 
 vision. The work, moreover, would be of 
 such a character as to give employment in the 
 winter time when the pinch of want is most 
 felt. 
 
 The system under which a scheme of sea 
 protective works would be undertaken l)y the 
 Government in association with unem})loyed 
 relief measures would have to be carefully 
 thought out. A method of procedure which 
 may be suggested is this : after a careful pre- 
 liminary survey by experts of the whole coast 
 line, several points would be selected for |)ro- 
 tective treatment, these, of course, being the 
 localities most seriously menaced. Operations 
 would then he started with a permanent staff 
 sufficiently large to keep the work going with- 
 out deterioration. When times of distress 
 came batches of unemi)loyed would be drafted 
 to the spot, and the sphere of action would be 
 extended. On the ai)proach of better times the 
 work would drop into its old groove, and [)ro- 
 ceed in leisurely fashion until a new crisis arose. 
 The cost of the works nn'glit be apportioned 
 between the State and the locality benefitted. 
 A special recou})mcnt rate, which would fall 
 heaviest on the property most improved by the 
 protective works, would, possibly, meet the 
 necessities of the case.
 
 lo; 
 
 THE PERMANENT STAFF OF THE 
 '' B(3A1ID FOR THE UNEMPLOYED." 
 
 I could indicate several other directions 
 in which unemployed schemes could be worked 
 under the conditions I have laid down ; Init I 
 thiniv I have probably said enough to sliow 
 that it is possible for the State to employ 
 the workless without necessarily demoralising 
 them, with a certainty of national gain and a 
 fair prospect even of financial advantage. It 
 remains for me, however, l)efore oncluding, 
 to deal with the question of a permanent 
 staff for the Board for the Unemployed, whose 
 establishment is the main feature of the 
 scheme I have outlined. 1 have already said 
 that a skilled engineer with experienced 
 organisers would be essential. These would be 
 the directing executive of the organisation — the 
 men upon whom the Board would have to 
 largely rely foi* the due carrying out of the 
 principles it laid down. They would all be 
 picked men, capable of assuming responsibility 
 and endowed with keen judgment. Neces- 
 sarily they could do little without assistants. 
 There wcnild bo required a select body of 
 WT)rking men to act as foremen and super- 
 visors and in other capacities. With the 
 development of the scheme something further 
 might be demanded. The schemes of im-
 
 108 
 
 provement, whatever tlieir characler, could not 
 be expected to stand periodical al^andon- 
 nient, and it would therefore in all likelihood 
 be necessary to retain the services of a body 
 of men to act as a skeleton staff; the work 
 would thus he kept going until the next 
 period of unemployment came round. Such 
 staffs mis^ht with advantage be drawn from 
 the ranks of old soldiers or reservists. To 
 these men the Government certainly owes a 
 debt, and they would be admirably suited to 
 the duties which they would be required to 
 discharge. The general effect of such an 
 arrangement could not fail to be good. Xot 
 the least beneficial of its effects would be to 
 popularise the army service. ]\Ien would 
 unquestionably enlist much more freely if at 
 the end of their service they could look for- 
 ward to the prospect of an engagement on 
 State work. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Here for the present T leave the suliject. 
 In putting it forward I make no pretensions 
 to having sui)plied a patent remedy. I am 
 too conscious of the tremendous difficulties 
 in the way of any scheme to make any such 
 claim. All I have sought to do is to bring 
 to light and i)ut into regular form a few
 
 109 
 
 ^suggestions which seem to me to be deserv- 
 ing of serious consideration. 
 
 These suggestions are not advanced with 
 any expectation that tliey will be Hghtly 
 adopted. Caution, I know, is above all things 
 necessary in dealing with this diiticult and 
 most complicated problem, and 1 am the last 
 person to advocate any great " leap in the 
 dark." But of the sf)undness of the main 
 principle underlying my arguments — the 
 principle, that is, of State intervention, limited 
 by rigid safeguards —I am convinced. The 
 evils of unemployment are too widespread 
 and menacing to be dealt with longer on local 
 lines. For the sake of our national prestige 
 and our domestic well-being we must remove 
 this canker which is OTawins; at our vitals. 
 Any scheme that is adopted should be three- 
 fold — ^for weaklings due provision should be 
 made, for those who will work employment 
 should be organised of a reproductive 
 character, and for those who can but will not 
 work a proper system of discipline devised. 
 The outlay will necessarily be considerable, 
 but it will probably not be in excess of the 
 sums which are now annually squandered on 
 local relief works which, when not positively 
 mischievous in their results, are often of no 
 permanent value to the community. If we 
 take into account the saving in our Poor Law 
 expenditure which will inevital)ly result from
 
 110 
 
 the introduction of a comprehensive scheme 
 for dealing with the unemployed, I am not sure 
 that there will not be eventually a positive 
 monetary gain on the transaction. Our outlay 
 on Poor Relief at the present time is pro- 
 digious, and it is growing at an alarming rate. 
 In 1904 we spent £13,369,494 as compared with 
 £8,4(J2,.")53 in 1884. The gravest feature of 
 the returns to my mind is the large proportion 
 of the total sum which goes for administration 
 and other i)ur})oses outside actual relief. Of 
 the former total £5,040,906 was what may be 
 termed achninistrative expenditure, and of the 
 latter £2,749,212. Thus the charges for pur- 
 poses other than actual relief have nearly 
 doubled in twenty years. The i)osition is a 
 serious one, and a resolute effort should be 
 made to alter it for the 1)etter. This can only 
 be done by reducing the stream which feeds 
 our workhous8S and casual wards. Our object 
 must be not to pau[)erise misfortun(\ but to 
 alleviate it l)y practical resources which 
 strengthen the spirit of inde})endence and 
 demonstrate the virtues of well-directed 
 labour. 
 
 Sooner or later this question will inevit- 
 ably have to be taken u]) again and if I am 
 successful in directing public thouglit info 
 this new channel, my etfbrts will ha\e becni 
 amply repai<l. 
 
 T'l-intcil and Piiljlishcd I'.v WiUcrlow siinl Suns liiiiiifi'il, LoihUui Willi, I.umloii.
 
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