Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-10-14
DR|TA|N'S CARE OF
THE UNEMPLOYED
Working of New Insurance
Law, for First Year, Is Told
in Consular Report.

in Consular Report.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 14.-United
States Consul-GeneraI John L. Grif-
fiths has sent from his post at Lon
don a report on workings of the new
English law for insurance for the un-
employed.
The report for the first year of the
operation of the unemployment nsur-
ance law under which provision is
made during periods of unemploy-
ment and illness for the great body
of employees in the United Kingdom
shows that 2,50S939 unemployment
books were issued; 559,021 claims for
benefits were filed; 100000 individual
working men claimed benefits under
the act; ia, 494 payments were made;
the total benefits paid aggregated
81, 150, 722; the lowest payment for any
one week was $23,359 and the highest
$93,436; the years gross income
amounted to $11,039, 1853; at the close
of the year there was an invested
balance of 1886, 065; the maximum of
unemployed falling within the pro-
visions of the act was $4,000; and the
minimum, $1,000.
Where Income Comes From.
OF the total annual income derived
under the insurance act the en-
ployers and workmen contributed
about three-quarters and the State
one-quarter. In a large proportion
of cases the unemployment was very
short, 80 per cent. falling within the
waiting week during which no claim
could be made, 81 per cent. received
benefits, while Z per cent. was ex-
cluded for various reasons, and l
per cent. represented unemployment
which continued after the period dur
ing which benefits are paid.
1t Is stated that the report is only
preliminary in certain respects, as
some of the figures have not been
fully and definitely analysed. 1t is
to be noted also that while the in
surance law has been in operation for
a year, there has been only six
months experience of the payment of
unemployment benefits.
The permanent secretary in his re-
port remarks:
1t Is too soon to judge of the ulti-
mate economic and social effects Of
the scheme of national insurance
against unemployment. So far it has
only operated during a time of ex-
ceptional trade prosperity. We have
a period of depression in the labor
market. What can be said, however,
is that the initial difficulties of bring
ing the scheme into operation haze
been successfully overcome: that so
far as the scheme itself has been
proved to be administratively prac-
ticable it has justified the actuarial
calculations upon which it was based;
that it has increased five Or six fold
the number of workpeople protected
by insurance against distress caused
by unemployment; and that it has at
the same time tended to encourage
rather than to discourage voluntary
provision for the same object.
Finally, it may be added that there
is a prospect that the insured trades
will enter upon their next period Of
depression with an accumulated re-
serve fund of some millions sterling
(pound sterling equals $4.SO laid up
during the present period of pros
perity, together with an organization
already in being capable of applying
that reserve to meet the needs OF
each of the trades in every part of
the United Kingdom.
Labor Directors View.
The director of labor exchanges
states:
The picture presented by the statis-
tics of men falling out of employment
and men remaining unemployed Is
that of a constant irregularity of en-
ployment, even when employment is
at its best, a ceaseless shifting from
job to job, a recurrent loss of produc-
tive power and of wages in the in
terval between one job and the next.
1t seems clear that much could be
done, and needs to be done, toward
reducing unemployment. by shorten
ing these unproductive intervals: in
other words, by fastening through
labor exchange organization the
passage from employment to employ
ment. 1t is not suggested that even
the most perfect labor exchange sys-
tenn could entirely eliminate the in
tervals now found between one job
and the next, even in time of brisk
employment, or supply all needs for
men at one end of the kingdom by
moving. men from the other The
facts, however, that there are so
many intervals and that employment
is so unevenly distributed over the
whole country, do suggest that much
more could be done in this direction
by the cooperation of employers,
workmen and the labor exchanges.
If the question be asked what
amendments of the act itself are sug-
gested by the experience of the past
year as likely to be required in the
near future, the answer must be that
experience has not been long enough
or decisive enough to warrant sug-
gestions of amendment except in a
few points of administrative detail.
No particular amendment appears to
be absolutely indispensable in the i'm
mediate present. The differences to
be drawn from the experience of that
year are strictly limited. First, COM
pulsory State insurance against I'M
employment in scheduled trades ap-
pears to be ADMINISTRATIVE possible
No insoluble difficulties have present
ed themselves as regards the detini-
ton and test of unemployment. Some
sort of demarkation of the insured
trades has been effected. Second,
compulsory State insurance can be
introduced without destroying volun-
tary insurance. On the question of how
far the benefits of this scheme will go
toward preventing distress from I'M