The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-08-12
WORK FOR THE UNEMPLOYED.

Ii the SALISBURY Ministry keeps Its
promise to the English people and seriously
attempts to solve the problem of providing
work for the unemployed, the course of the
experiment will be watched with almost
as much interest in this, country as in
England itself, for an experiment of the
kind in a country like England will take
the question out of the domain of abstract
socialism and make it an issue of practical
politics.
OF course such attempts have been made
before. France has tried National work
shops, but the trial resulted in failure.
Germany does something in the way of
finding work for her idle people, but it is
done more as a police protection against
tramps than as an effort to improve the
chances of the poor to get work at all
times. Australia also has been the scene
of considerable efforts in this direction,
but the attempts there have been made
under conditions too different from ours
for the lessons to be of much value to u.s.
In England the first attempt will be made
in country with a complex social organ
ism and a political system which leaves
almost everything to the initiative of pri-
vate enterprise. and the conditions, there
fore, are sufficiently similar to our own to
make. the industrial experiments of her
Government serve US either as guide or a
warning.
1t seems to be conceded by nearly all
students of the tendencies of social devel-
opment that the struggle for existence has
become such that only those who can enter
upon some system of combination or CO.
operation can hope to maintaia them
selves in the face of the fearful petition
engendered by our present industrial con-
ditions, and thence arises the question,
What shall be done with those who for any
reason are unable to cooperate with others
Shall we leave the unemployed to perish,
or shall we help them by the power of the
Government, which, after all, is no more
than the cooperative power of the whole
people? That is the question which Eng
land has to answer now, and which this
country may have to answer before long.
1t will not be so easy to answer as may seem
at first sight. The attempt of any Govern
lnent TO set the prisoners in the jalls to work
nearly always results in bringing about a
protest from some labor union against the
competition of prison labor. What would
be the result, then, if the Government
should undertake to set all the unem-
ployed to work? They would have to be
put into competition with somebody, and
from that person a vigorous protest would
be only natural.
When, in country so sparsely settled as
California and in a City SO wealthy and
prosperous as San Francisco, industrious
white women have to work in Chinese can
neries to earn the means of subsistence,
and even there gain only the wages that
Chinese will not accept, there is GER
tainly needed some change in our civiliza-
ton. The pressure in England is even
worse than with us. The lords, to save
themselves from the demand for the aboli-
ton of their privileges, have apparently
concluded to take the lead in the move
ment for industrial reform, and whatever
may be the opinions held of the leader
ship, no student of social conditions can
hesitate to wish them success in their work.