president's address — SECTION GI. 457 



the workless are being classified, the inescapable residuum is being 

 analysed, the industrial census records the details of those idle in 

 the market place, theorists produce books on the subject, and ex- 

 periment after experiment is made to find or make work for super- 

 fluous labour. 



From the mass of theories and discussions, more or less academic, 

 on the problem of unemployment, there are several principles- 

 which seem to rest on solid ground. They are these : — 



Every man should be given a chance of employment, but not 



necessarily continual chances. 

 Sentimental treatment of the unemployed is futile ; the 



time has come for a sceintific handling of the problem. 

 The problem is more than local. It is national. 

 Different conditions obtain in different countries, and these 



require different remedies. 

 There is no one cure-all. The theorists who imagine a land 



tax or any other one reform will automatically eliminate 



the unemployed have been completely discredited. 

 Although there are special conditions in different localities, 



the same causes produce the same results the world over. 



The propositions which are still debatable are : — 



That every workman has a claim on the State to be provided 



with work. 

 That the unemployed is a necessary and permanent factor 

 in our present industrial system. The poor we may 

 have always with us. It does not necessarily follow 

 that we should always have the unemployed. 



The Problem stated — For the purpose of scientific treatment, 

 the unemployed may be classed thus : — 



I. Those temporarily without regular employment 



[a] with a prospect of tiding over ; 



[b] without any prospects. 



II. Those permanently without regular employment 

 {a) Casuals 

 [b Unemployable 



Statistics show a marked tendency in each of these classes to 

 deteriorate. I [a) is the most hopeful class, but some of the hopes 

 are doomed to disappointment, and a percentage of I [a) inevitabty 

 fall to the rank of chronics in I {b). Similarly, from moral reasons 

 within them, as well as from economic causes without them, some 

 of the unemployed in I {b) invariably gravitate to II (a). And 

 when II (a) is reached — jacilis descensus Averni — the " Casual " — 

 unless he is made of rare material, insensibly drifts from bad to 

 worse, until at last no man wants his unreliable services, and he 

 enters the rank of the unemployable. The law of the survival of 

 the unfittest puts him in his appropriate class, and makes him 

 ultimately the despair of- the humanitarian. 



