Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-10
Two Million Are
Idle in England
BY A. G. GARDINER,
England's Greatest Liberal Editor.

| LONDON, August 9.-This week the
Ministry of Labor announced that the
unemployment figures have passed the
! 100000 mark. Apart from the period
of the general strike, this is the highest
reached since the war and all omens
point to a serious extension of unem-
| ployment owing to the ceaseless decline
| in trade returns
The blacklist spot in the country is
in Lancashire where so per cent of the
looms are idle and, owing to the coll
| lapse of the Eastern market, especially
the Indian, no revival is anticipated.
| The prestige of the Labor govern
ment is shattered by this failure to
arrest the movement and the failure to
fulfill the election promise that it aIone
had policy which would bring a re-
vival of trade. During Labor's first year
OF office unemployment nearly doubled
and much bitterness was expressed in
regard to the extension of the dole
system, which is largely responsible for
the increase in the unemployment
| figures.
The industrial insurance system Is
now completely insolvent. The deficit
exceeds 100000 pounds sterling and
| it is increasing by leaps and bounds.
This deficit falls on the taxpayer and
the prospects Of repayment are negligible.
This. taken in connection with the
deepening depression OF industry, Is
creating grave concern in regard to
the national finances
1t is improbable that Philip Snow
den's new measures Of taxation will
achieve anything like the expectations
of the budget.
while industrial insurance has been
invaluable in steadying the country
| through the postwar misfortunes, grow
ing indignation is felt at the widespread
abuse Of the dole. The effect OF lax
administration has been to develop a
class who aim to live systematically
on the public funds.
Harvesting operations are suffering
widespread disability, owing to the TACT
that the harvesters, by little manipu-
| lation, can get as much money by
loafing as by working. The male hop
pickers have practically disappeared
| from the Kentish hop fields. 1t Is a
Rrotesoue paradox that while hundreds
| and thousands of women are on the
dole. there was never such famine
| of labor for domestic service, One OF
the worst features of the system Is
encouragement of idleness among boys
who automatically come on the dole II
nne1nDlOVeQ
berless cases find it pays the family
better to have them out OF work
than in.
It is undoubtedly these factors which
have largely contributed to the Sensa-
tional rise in the unemployment ng-
ures. and they explain the dlmcuity OF
getting a certain sort OF labor. The
dole. in fact, has provided an alterna-
tive career, and abuses in connection
with it are admittedly one OF the causes
of the disquieting condition OF the
trade of the country, which staggers
under a burden of impossible taxation
and overhead charges.
There is an insistent and growing de-
mand for a drastic revision of the dole
system. which is becoming a serious
menace to the state, not merely finan-
cially. but morally, by the creation OF
a large wastrel class who from their
youth up are parasites on society.
But an even larger question aSso-
ciated with the present gloomy outlook
is that OF wages The price of COM
modities has fallen rs per cent since
1924, but wages are practically I'M
changed. 1t Is this disparity which Is
chiefly responsible for the handicap of
British trade in competitive markets.
German. Belgian and Erench wages arr
40 per cent below the English stand
ard, and the irony of the situation Is
that 1t is the sheltered callings, which
are not subject to world competition,
that have the highest level of wages.
Municipal road sweepers, tram conduc-
tors and such like keep their places and
their war standard of wages, while en-
gineers. textile workers and trained ar
tisans are largely unemployed owing to
the high cost Of production. If high
wages were accompanied by increased
output, the problem might be solved,
but that is not the case. and the Ques-
ton is how long trade union resist
ance to economic facts can be main
tanned in the face of declining indus
trial activity.
(Copyright. Isa0.)