New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1919-01-08

urgently needed public works as (d),,
the rehousing Of the population alike
in rural districts, mining villages, and
town slums, to the extent, possibly, Of
a million new cottages and an outlay
|of three hundred millions sterling;
|s(b) the immediate, making good Of the
shortage Of school, training colleges,
technical colleges, etc, and the engage
ment Of the necessary additional teach
ing. clerical, and administrative stats;
(c) new roads; ca light railways; (e) the
unifcation and reorganization OF the
railway and canal system; y afforesta-
ton; {g the reclamation Of land; Gu the
development and better equipment Of
our ports and harbors; az the opening
up Of access to land by cooperative
small holdings and in other practicable
ways. Moreover, in order to relieve
any pressure Of an overstocked labor
market, the opportunity should be taken,
| if unemployment should threaten to be-
come widespread, {a) Immediately to
raise the school-leaving age to sixteen;
I (b) greatly to increase the number OF
scholarships and bursaries for secondary
and higher education; and (c) substantial
! ly to shorten the hours OF labor of all
young persons, even to greater extent
! than the eight hours per week contem-
plated in the new Education bill in
order to enable them to attend technical
and other classes in the daytime. Finally,
wherever practicable, the hours Of adult
labor should be reduced to not more than
forty-eight per week, without reduction
of the standard rates of wages. There
can be no economic or other justification
for keeping any man or women to work
I for long hours, or at overtime, whilst
others are unemployed.
Social Insurance Against Eon-
Employment
In so far as the government fails to
prevent. unemployment whenever it
finds it impossible to discover for any
willing worker, man or woman, a
suitable situation at the standard
rate the Labor party holds
that the government must, in
the interest Of the community as a
whole, provide him or her with adequate
maintenance either with such arrange
ments for honorable employment or
with such useful training as may be
found practicable, according to age,
health and previous occupation. In
many ways the best form Of provision
for those who must be unemployed,
because the industrial organization Of
the community so far breaks down as
to be temporarily unable to set them
to work, is the Out Of Work Benefit
afforded by well administered trade
!.union. This is a special tax on the
trade unionists themselves which they
have voluntarily undertaken, but to-
wards which they have right to claim
a public subvention "a subyention
which was actually granted by Parlia-
ment Though only to the extent Of a
couple Of shillings or so per week. under
Part II of the Insurance act.
The arbitrary withdrawal by the
government in 1915 Of this statutory
right of the trade unions was one Of the
least excusable of the war economics;
and the Labor party must insist on
the resumption of this subvention inn
mediatey the war ceases, and on its
increase to at least half the amount
spent in Out Of Work Benefit. The ex-
tension Of state unemployment insurance
to other occupations may afford a.
convenient method Of providing for
such Of the unemployed, especially in
the case of badly paid women workers
and the less skilled men, whom it is
difficult to organize in trade unions.
But the weekly rate Of the state un-.
employment benefit needs, in these days
Of high prices, to be considerably raised;
whilst no industry ought to be COM
pulsorily brought within its scope against
the declared will Of the workers con-
|cerned, and especially Of their trade
Unions. In the twentieth century there
must be no question Of driving the un-
employed to anything so obsolete and
|discredited as either private charity,
with its haphazard and i'll considered
doles, or the Poor law, with the fulfill
ties and barbarities Of it's .'Stone Yard,
or its "Able Bodied Test Workhouse".
Only on the basis Of universal ap-