The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-02-22
UNEMPLOYMENT
 INSURANCE
British System Success for B. 100000 Wage EarnersPlan Needed in America.
HENRY R. SEAGER Professor of Political Economy, Co., Iumbia University.


 Iumbia University.
 6Exclusive Service the Survey Press
 Bureau.1
 Tt is an i'll wind that blows no one good!" The one discernib1e benefit from the widespread unemployment. from which we have suffered this win terest in the problem.
 All economists agree that unenn- ploynent is problem of growing seri- ousness Tariff changes, foreign wars, or other extraordinary causes may raise it to the position of a national fluences, it has become one of the gravest evils that threatens our wage earnefS. It's chief causes, on the in dustrial side are the increasing spe- cializatin of industries andsa nllItipli- cation of those which are seasonal rather than continuous
 Seasonal Work.
 1 Farming. our most important indus try is seasonal. Very active in spring. | summer and autumn, it becomes dull, almost stagnant, in the winter. The president in his address at Indian l apoIis recently told of the good work the Department of Labor did in ad- lvertising in the post offices the need of 10000 men to harvest the crops
 
 not go on to explain what became of Ethese 3o,000 men after the crops were harvested and the farms had no fur ther use for them
 Not merely 30,0O0 men but hun dreds of thousands of men, women, land children are employed for a few months every year harvesting crops l picking berries and fruit, and in the l canning industries. At the close of the short season they are thrown out of employment. Other hundreds ot l thousands are employed in construc- I ton work-as 1ongshoremen on the Great Lakes. and in navigation or lakes and rivers that are frozen over in Winter-Who are regularly thrown out of work during the winter months Seasonal industries result not mere Iy from the division of the year into seasons, but from vagaries of fashion All branches of the clothing industry including even the manufacture o1 boots and shoes, are seasonal The element of risk due to changing fash ions tends to make the busy seasons in the clothing industry feyerishly busy, and the dull seasons periods o1 wholesale unemployment.
 Thus in town and country seasona. industries are no longer the exception but almost the rule. They seem in evitably irregular employment for 2 large proportion of our working peo
 
 shorter periods for a. great and in creasing number.
 Remedies.
 In addition to the remedies mad prominent in current discussions-al expansion of public work. the open ing of Workroorns, an efficient organ fzation of connected public employ 7 nent bureaus, national, state and mu nicipal, etc--we need urgently, an ad equate system of unemp1oyrnent in surance. For wage-earners, a mod crate amount of unemployment eac : year is not, or should not be, a ba , thing. The only way they can ge a vacation is by being unemployed
 I believe, that through a well work l. ed-out system of unemployment in surance wage-earners might be reliy ed from the worry, uncertainty, an f actual suffering which unemploymer now causes and at the same time b enabled to enjoy the holidays whicl especially in this country, they. no so much lack. This is not merely a amiabIe theory. Several Europea
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