Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-22
BY HENRY J. ALLEN,
Former United States Senator and Governt
of Kansas


of KANSAS
In many respects the most signif1-
cant and prophetic spot in London is
the place they call the Kew" 1t is
giant one-Story building sprawling near
the banks of the Thames by the Kew
Gardens. Covering eight acres Of
ground, 1t houses over 5000 administra-
tive officers and clerks who comprise
the administration headquarters of the
dole. It is the spot where the new Eng
land with the socialiStic potentialitieS
has set up it's standards. behind which
a growing army of many thousands
who are otherwise unemployed chal-
lenge a startled old England. Yet it is
an orderly place where bureaucratic
life flows on as calmly as the great
river running by to the North Sea.
Whatever may be said of the army of
unemployed whom it serves, it is itself
the busiest spot I've seen in London.
Officially this overgrown child of the
ministry of labor is branch of the
claims and records Office of the min
istry; unoff1cially it is known all over
England as Kew" 1t does all the pa
per work for the dole. The first class
civil service official who administers it
and whose title is assistant accountant
general calls it ''the handmaiden of
the labor exchanges" There are
1000 of these exchanges. all of them
civil service branches under the min
istry of labor. Kew is their first and
last word.
Has 28 Million Names.
Here they have builded the greatest
alphabetical index system in the known
world, with % million names in its
card index boxes together with init
mate facts attached to each name.
These have all passed through the pa
per work of a bureau whose duty 1t Is
to keep record of the name, address
and circumstance of every man and
woman in the kingdom who within
the past twelve years has been unem-
ployed and thus entitled to the atten-
ton of the so-called unemployment in
surance system. Many are dead whose
names fill this incredible register, some
have moved to other lands, some have
been discarded as ineligible, but all
have passed through the hopper of this
mammoth machine within dozen
years An effort to clear the register
would entail great administration ex-
pense of determination Of the indi-
Vidual cases so they carry it not know
ing when information may be sought
upon some individual case, for the live
register of the dole is a fiuctuating list,
although 1t moves steadily upward.
When 1 left New York in July it was
reported as 2,350,00o: when I arrived
two weeks ago it was 2,550,0o0. Today
at Kew they gave me the up-to-the--
minute figures, 1,725, 900. The chief OF
the service did not hesitate to prophesy
that unless drastic changes are made in
the regulations it win reach 3,250.0o0
by Midwinter.
When / contemplated the fact that
the great civil service machine controls
a system all over England. Scotland,
Wales. Ireland (outside the Free State)
and the other British Isles and that it
has a set-up in every village and a
great organization with branches in
every great city, began to visualize
the possibilities of a civil service like
this If we should adopt the system at,
home. I am not sure we Should DO IL
as well as our British friends are doing
it. We should doubtless require more
than 8 acres of building and prob