New-York tribune., 1908-10-25
ASQUITH. GAINS GROUND
AID FOR UNEMPLOYED.
WorAmem IN Shipyards accept Co.
partnership Offer of Employer.
. JgneciaI hv French Gable to The Tribune.1
rr-tl,,,ro Association

-,
London. Oct 24.-Premier Asquith mas cameo
ground during the week by his dexterous man
agArnsnt of the question of unemployment He
has supported John Burns against Messrs.
Lloyd George and Churchill, kept the CABINET
together and rallied the Nonconformists py re-
viving the education bill. for which compro-
mise may be worked out by g conference Inc
temporary relief measures promised for the un-
employed are less important than a permanent
remedy which he promises in legislation next
year The nature of this measure Is not re-
vealed but without doubt it will deal with the
efforestation of waste lands. commission
made up of men OF all parties, but taking evil
dence from experts and labor leaders, is likely
to agree on a report which may be expected be-
fore Christmas.
The commission is impressed with the vast
area of waste land in the kingdom and with the
practicability OF restoring the forests ON large
scale and providing employment during the win
ter for men out of work One OF the commits
sioners admits that not more than twenty thou
sand men be employed in planting trees
The number of trade unionists now cut OF work
IS estimated at 10 per cent Of the whole body
When the unemployed non-unionists added
the estimate exceeds half million men. The
afforestation of waste lands can hardly be
garded as a permanent remedy for the evils of
a lack of employment. Probably encourage
nent of market gardening will be a feature OF
the proposed legislation, and the scheme Will be
widened out into measure Of land reform.
which the Lords will veto.
Mr.. Asquith will be a great statesman il he
can find permanent remedy for unemployment
when social reform has failed to do so, although
it has introduced tree planting a large scale.
The administrative Devices with the promise
OF legislation next spring will carry the gov
ernment through a hard winter, yet it VIII be
difficult to avoid the displacement of employed
by unemployed men IN carrying out the relief
works and even more hazardous to dismiss the
workers when the public works are finished.
Relief measures must tend to place a premium
inefficient labor This fact makes John
Burns a Conservative, despite his training
workingman and exposes him to the relentless
hostility of the labor party and even to that Of
the advanced Radicals. is shown by the Mas
sngham attack upon him in to-day's Nation"
Messrs. Lloyd-Geor and Churchill, on the other
hand are becoming daily more radical and pos
Ing as the strenuous champions OF a Liberal
coalition with labor.
More promising than the makeshifts OF poll
ticians IS the acceptance of Sir Christopher
Furnesss offer of limited copartnership by the
workmen in his shipyards. The experiment is
restricted to single year in the West Hartle-
pool works by vote OF the trade unions, and II
the results are satisfactory there may be a per-
manent agreement for profit sharing similar to
the arrangements carried out by the late Sir
James Whitworth and the late Sir George
Livesey.
1t will release Sir Christopher from the risks
OF labor strikes and enable him to guarantee
prompt deliveries when he obtains orders for
ships. Profit sharing will tend to make the
workers conservative. whereas the government
relief measures and political agitation are de-
moralizing them.
There are many rumors OF railway pooling ar
rangements. with a cessation of competition in
passenger and freight traffic. There cannot be
an analgamatiOn without an act of Parliament
but the course of the railways in enforcing
economies and reducing their working forces is
apparently legal and cannot be prevented by the
Board of Trade under the existing statutes