Relief of In the foregoing pages attention has been given to those devices that might be adopted to prevent unemployment. As stated at the commencement of the discussion, however, nearly all the measures that have actually been put into operation are of an alleviative, rather than preventive character. Until recent years the Poor Law was the principal instrument for relieving the distress consequent upon unemployment, but since the war Unemployment Insurance has come to be the chief scheme for coping with the evil. As the Poor Law and Unemployment Insurance are specially considered in the next two chapters, it is unnecessary to say anything here except that, of the two, Unemployment Insurance is vastly the superior. Apart from improving and extending the Unemployment Insurance Acts, the post-war Governments of this country have passed several measures to provide national and local schemes of work. These schemes differ mainly from insurance in that money is expended on more or less productive work. The principal measures may be briefly indicated. The Unemployment Grants Committee, appointed in 1920, assists approved public utility schemes, (a) Unemploy carried out by local authorities, by (1) grants based on wages paid, and (2) grants towards interest on loans. Under the first heading, approved schemes, financed otherwise than by loans, are assisted by grants of 60 per cent. of the wages bill of additional men employed. The Committee, down to 31st March, 1924, had been authorised to pay grants of over £3,250,000 in respect of schemes estimated to cost. altogether about £14,000,000. ment Grants Committee. Under the second heading, approved schemes, financed by loan, are assisted by grants on the following basis :(i) revenue-producing schemes: 50 per cent. of interest in respect of expenditure on approved schemes for a maximum period of 15 years; (ii) non-revenue-producing schemes: 65 per cent. of the interest and sinking fund charges for a maximum period of 15 years. By the 7th February, 1924, the Committee had approved loans for grant amounting approximately to £44,000,000, the estimated capitalised Exchequer liability being about £14,500,000. These limits were somewhat extended during the year ending 31st March, 1925.* The relief to unemployment afforded by these schemes does not appear to have been considerable. It was estimated that, during the first thirty months, the total volume of direct employment provided by the various schemes amounted roughly to 1,500,000 man-months. To deal adequately, however, with the total unemployment this amount of labour should have been provided, not throughout two and a-half years, but every month; i.e. only onethirtieth of the unemployed were supplied with work under these schemes. The Ministry of Transport makes grants up to 50 per cent. of the total cost incurred by local (b) Government authorities in the construction and improveDepartmental Schemes. ment of roads and bridges, over and above the ordinary programme of maintenance and repair work. The total cost of the 1920-23 programmes (expected to cover several years in some cases) was estimated at approximately £26,000,000, to be borne jointly by the State and the local authorities. Since 1923 additional programmes have been authorised, bringing the total to more than double the above amount. Under the Ministry of Agriculture, authority has been *For full statistics relating to Government Unemployment Schemes, see Memorandum on Provision of Work for Relief of Unemployment, 1924 (Cmd. 2196). given to conduct schemes of land drainage and water supply, while the expenditure on afforestation is being increased. The total cost, however, in 1924-25 was less than £500,000. To relieve unemployment during the winter of 1923-24, the Admiralty, the War Office, the Office of Works and the General' Post Office were instructed to undertake work and place contracts at an earlier date than would have been necessary in the ordinary way. Approximately £1,500,000 was spent in this manner. (c) Trade Under the Trade Facilities Acts of 1921, 1922 and 1924, the Treasury was authorised to guarantee the payment of interest and/or principal of loans, the proceeds of which were to be expended in such a way as to relieve unemployment. The Act of 1924 increased the Exchequer contingent liability from £50,000,000 to £65,00,000. The actual amount in respect of which the Treasury had stated their willingness to give guarantees stood in May, 1924, at a little over £45,000.000. The Export Credits Scheme aims at stimulating foreign trade. Traders are given facilities to finance their export trade, the Government guaranteeing drafts against shipment of goods exported to approved foreign countries. Though the maximum Exchequer contingent liability stood in June, 1924, at £26,000,000, the amount actually in use or earmarked was only a quarter of this sum. The first three years of the Export Credits Scheme provided the equivalent of merely two or three days of foreign trade, and the relief to unemployment therefore was very small. The various Government measures just indicated have not provided for more than a very small (d) Proposed proportion of the unemployed, and numerous schemes have been proposed from different quarters to cope with the problems. Electrical development, Schemes. for example, finds many supporters, who urge that use should be made of the undisputed water power resources, and propose also that super-power stations should be established in different parts of the country. It is claimed that such electrical schemes would provide work for engineers and other skilled workers, as well as for labourers, and that cheap electric power would be of great benefit to other industries, and, indirectly, would stimulate further employment. Railway electrification and other developments are also urged. The Government is exhorted to bring pressure to bear upon the railway companies to electrify and recondition their systems, with a view to providing present employment on work that will have to be done sooner or later. Other proposals cover the building of houses and schools, more expensive afforestation schemes, increased expenditure on roads and bridges, and the construction and improvement of canals, docks, and harbours throughout the country. It should be borne in mind, however, that these measures are mainly of an emergency character, and that, while they may help in a small way to alleviate the acute post-war unemployment, they can do little more than touch the surface of the main problem. Treatment of the disease of unemployment must be more radical, if one aims at something more than merely temporary relief. CHAPTER XII. Charity and CHARITY AND THE POOR LAW. I. PRIVATE AND PUBLIC AID. Since 1601 there has been a marked change in the principles and methods of poor relief. Then, and for a long time afterwards, there was not the same distinction between private and public relief as there is at the present time. It is now generally recognised that the relief of the poor, at any rate so far as the minimum necessaries of life are concerned, should be the concern of the community at large, and that, while voluntary gifts should not be discouraged, they should not be permitted to conceal the obligation of the State to persons in destitution. The scope of charity is not so restricted as that of the Poor Law. Whereas the Poor Law deals mainly with destitution, charity gives aid of a wider character. Thus charities may be instituted for religious or educational objects, e.g. the establishment of scholarship funds. They may be intended for the preservation of character, such as probation and rescue work. Or they may take the form of orphanages and homes, and of welfare institutions for juveniles and adults. They may promote apprenticeship and emigration schemes. The work done by charities in fighting ill-health and disease is enormous. Hospitals, clinics, nursing, assistance for the blind and dumb-these are but a few of the invaluable charitable activities engaged in looking after the life and health of the less fortunate members of the community. |