Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-25
Rv HENRY ]. ALLEN,

Former United States Senator and Governor
of Kansas
It Is not easy in England to get away
from the dole very long. On my way
from London to Birmingham, as drove
through the vernal beauties of the Eng
lish country side, I thought that / had
dropped the subject from my mind.
We came to the village of Towcester
and to the Inn of the Ponfret Arms,
given distinction by Charles Dickens In
"Pickwick Papers" The walls OF the
taproom were covered with sketches by
Cruikshank. great depictor of the Dick
ems characters. The feeling that the at
mosphere were thoroughly Dickensian;
we were one hundred years from the
dole Yet when the good-natured pub
lican, who runs the place, greeted US,
the eternal question which for days /
have been asking everybody slipped
through my lips.
How do I like the dole?" replied the
keeper of this seventeenth century tav-
ern. naturally don't like 1T. l have
to work hard for the money get. 1
don't like throwing some of it away to
support some of the idlers know in
this town."
Ten Per Cent on Dole.
It was my first contact with the small
town attitude on the dole. Towcester
has 2,l00 inhabitants. The village is
purely agricultural: despite this fact
$40 of ToWcester's inhabitants, over ten
per cent Of the whole, are on the. dole.
These are the surplus unemployed,
mostly unskilled laborers in lines other
than agricultural and domestic service,
neither of which are eligible to unem.
ployment doles. Some OF these had
been idle internationally for fifteen
years; some undoubtedly were chronic
idlers of the village. but they had COM
piled with the simple rules and were
on the pay roll. When / remembered
that we had passed through many farm
villages larger than ToWcester, where
the experience doubtless is multiplied,
I understood better the things 1 had
heard about agriculture's new interest
in the dole and the fact that they have
started a movement to bring agricul-
tural workers under the unemployment
provisions. It also made more under
Standable the complaint that many ag-
ricultural laborers were leaving agricul-
ture in order to get on the eligible reg
lister for unemployment relief. AS a
matter of fact the amount Of the dole
to a man and his dependents is not far
from the typical agricultural wage.
Before we left Pomfret Arms superior
the housekeeper, entered into the dis
cussion. She had tongue and mind.
1.-THE dole makes for laziness," she said.
st know most of the dole takers here.
All they do Is to attend the cinema
shows in the afternoon, drink beer and
smoke cigarettes in the evening, and
spend what they can get in betting and
backing horses, and the purchase OF
foot bah betting slips"
Traffic Goes on Despite Law.
These lists are published by book
makers in defiance of the law; upon
| the slips are the various teams oppos-
| ing each other in games of the English
Foot Ball League. There are various
odds offered by the bookmakers. rang
| ing from so to ! to 6 to l. Notwith-
| standing the fact that traffic in these
| gambling devices is unlawful it goes on
with freedom which suggests the in
| difference of the American to some OF
! the legal inllibitions at home.
Here also was an echo of the state
ment heard many times in London
! that the dole had given the tobacco
and beer business a record-breaking
prosperity.
recall that had read the report of
Messrs. Guinness & Co., Ltd, wherein
the chairman stated that there had
been a great increase in the selling of
Guinness Stout, which is an alcoholic
beer costing from seven to eight cents
per bottle. The chairman. in congratu-
lating the company upon the increased
business. did not mention the dole as
being the chief factor, but attributed
| it to better advertising.
Has Office Force of so.
Our first stop to investigate the dole
in an industrial center was at the Labor
Exchange in Northampton. whose CHIEF
industry is the manufacture of boots
| and shoes.
Northampton is a city of 10000 in
habitantS; the number of persons eli
| gible for the dole is 38,700; the number
/ Of unemployed receiving the weekly
! payments on the day we visited the ex-
| change was 5000, the greatest proper
/ ton being adult men, Here we were
given every courtesy by the manager oil
| the Labor Exchange. who is an Officer
| of the civil service of the government
| He required an Office force of about
| fifty clerks to administer the system.
He is first and foremost a civil SER
want and devoted to efficiency with
| which the law is TO be carried out. He