S 2o ENGLISH LABOUR QUESTIONS 



terms made for the treatment of tuberculosis, which had already been accepted. Out 

 of a total vote of 13,731 only 2,422 were in favour of accepting, 11,309 being for rejec- 

 tion, an adverse majority of considerably more than 4 to i. On December 

 and (/nf/fl- 8 2ot ^ ^ re P resentative meeting of the British Medical Association was held, 

 suraace Act. to consider what action its members should take in view of the voting, and 

 by 182 votes to 21 a resolution was passed rejecting the Government proposal 

 and advising the profession to decline service under the Act. In the previous February 

 practically the whole profession at all events 27,400 doctors had signed an undertak- 

 ing to stand together by the policy to be decided upon by the British Medical Associa- 

 tion, and if they held to their pledge this meant a complete breakdown in the provisions 

 of the National Insurance Act for medical benefit, which were to become operative on 

 January 15, 1913. On the other hand, a scheme for an alternative policy was coupled 

 with this flat refusal of Mr. Lloyd George's own proposals. It was recommended that 

 the profession should express its willingness to treat insured persons, under arrangements 

 to be made between local committees of doctors and the insured or their representatives 

 (i.e. the approved societies) for a minimum capitation rate of 8s.6d., inclusive of drugs, 

 or a minimum fee of 2s.6d. a visit, on condition that each insured person should have free 

 choice of doctor and that the doctor should consent to act. Under this plan the doctors 

 would not be dictated to by the lay insurance committees, but the financial terms would 

 be practically the same that Mr. Lloyd George had last offered. It was promptly 

 announced that the Government could not fall in with this proposal, which would in- 

 volve handing over public money without public control; and the question now was 

 whether there would be sufficient breaking-away from the pledges given to the British 

 Medical Association for the insurance committees to be able to secure their panels of 

 doctors in accordance with the regulations under the Act. Only about half of the 27,000 

 doctors who had ranged themselves with the Association in February had actually taken 

 the trouble to go to the poll in December, and though this was generally believed not to 

 indicate in itself any corresponding failure in the solidarity of the profession, there were 

 now signs of a good deal of independent action in certain localities, and notably in Scot- 

 land. Already in November a few doctors who thought it a public duty to fall in with 

 the Government scheme had started a new organisation in opposition to the British 

 Medical Association, called the National Insurance Practitioners Association; and its 

 influence, backed by Government support, was being exerted in the same direction. 

 On Jan. 2, 1913 Mr. Lloyd George, addressing the Advisory Committee, took a sanguine 

 view of this situation, and declared that some 8,000 doctors were available. Nevertheless 

 the strike now proclaimed against the Insurance Act by the recognised leaders of the me- 

 dical profession was a very awkward fact for the Liberal party to reckon with. The year 

 thus ended with the promise of a full crop of domestic political difficulties to be har- 

 vested in 1913. (HUGH CHISHOLM.) 



IV. The Labour " Unrest." 



Allusion has already been made to the complications attending the political situation 

 during 1911 and 1912 on account of the industrial unrest, which had taken a peculiarly 

 acute and dangerous form. Though trade generally was busy, and " unemployment," 

 which had been a serious problem only a little while previously, steadily diminished, 1 

 the demand of the wage-earning classes for a proportionately larger share of the good 

 things of life better pay and less work for it had become more articulate and more 

 organised than had been known before. Socialist and particularly "Syndicalist " 

 theories had for some time been getting a strong hold of the younger generation of trade- 

 unionists; and a growing sense of the impotence of the Labour members in Parliament, 

 added to increasing suspicion that Liberals and Tories alike were in league with the 

 " money power," encouraged the idea that " direct action " by means of strikes was 



1 The only official figures for "unemployed" issued by the Board of Trade are for the 

 trade unions. In these the percentage of unemployment, which was 9 in 1908 and 1909 

 fell to 5 in 1910 and 3 in 1911. For the first eleven months of 1912 it was as follows: Janu- 

 ary 2.7, February 2.6, March 11.3 (coal strike), April 3.6, May 2.7, June 2.5, July 2.6, 

 August 2.2, September 2.1, October 2.0, November 1.8. 



