

EMPOLI 



Kingdom is of comparatively re- 

 cent date. They were established 

 under the Unemployed Work- 

 men's Act, 1905, and managed by 

 local authorities. The royal com- 

 mission on the Poor Laws and Re- 

 lief of Distress, 1909, recommended 

 the setting up of a national system 

 of labour exchanges to deal with 

 unemployment. The Labour Ex- 

 changes Act of that year provided 

 the necessary machinery, and the 

 first exchanges under the Act were 

 opened Feb., 1910. Their control 

 was placed in the hands of the 

 board of trade, with general ad- 

 visory committees in principal 

 centres. Exchanges exist hi all the 

 larger, and also in many smaller, 

 towns and country districts. 



As first established in 1910, their 

 functions were to act as a clearing 

 house for labour, and to bring 

 master and man into touch. They 

 formed the basis of the unemploy- 

 ment section (Part II) of the 

 National Insurance Act of 1912. 

 No fees were charged, and the 

 system was purely voluntary. The 

 organization was solely industrial. 



Originally the exchanges were of 

 much use in coping with prevailing 

 unemployment and the disorgan- 

 ized casual labour conditions. Men 

 of the labouring class used them in 

 particular. They entered their 

 names at the local exchange, and 

 called daily until suited. Registra- 

 tion of application for work held 

 good for seven days from date of 

 registration, but could be renewed 

 within that period for a like term. 

 Employers registered their re- 

 quirements at the exchange, and in 

 this way master and worker were 

 put into touch with each other. 

 The exchanges took no responsi- 

 bility with regard to wages or other 

 conditions, but were merely the 

 agents whereby a man found work. 



During the earlier part of the 

 Great War the exchanges did much 

 to maintain industries and muni- 

 tion establishments, and later on 

 placed a large number of dis- 

 charged sailors and soldiers in civil 

 employment. With the end of the 

 war, Nov., 1918, they were con- 

 fronted by serious difficulties, as 

 not only the demobilised service 

 men, but demobilised war workers 

 at home were thrown upon their 

 organization. In addition to pro- 

 viding work, and administering the 

 unemployment insurance scheme, 

 they had to administer the out-of- 

 work donation which was paid 

 both to ex-soldiers and munition i 

 workers, male and female. The 

 work done by the exchanges in the 

 period of resettlement, 1918-20, 

 was, therefore, very onerous and 

 responsible. Later the exchanges 

 came under the control of the 



2895 



ministry of labour, under whose 

 auspices domestic servants were 

 dealt with, and a scheme for the 

 co-operation of private registry 

 offices with the exchanges was in- 

 augurated in Oct., 1919. 



At the end of 1919 there were 

 414 exchanges, and 1,203 branch 

 exchanges in operation. The total 

 cost of the employment exchange 

 service during the six months 

 ended June 30, 1919, including the 

 cost of special war services charge- 

 able to the vote of credit, and all 

 expenses incurred at divisional 

 offices, was 1,500,000. The num- 

 bers of individuals who applied to 

 the exchanges since their institu- 

 tion in 1910, and the numbers 

 placed in employment, down to 

 1919, were as follows : 



The out-of-work donation paid 

 through the exchanges between 

 November 11, 1918, and June 18, 

 1920, was 53,209,000, of which 

 30,813,000 was paid to ex-service 

 men and women, and 22,396,000 

 to civilians. The number of sep- 

 arate payments was 42,350,000, of 

 which 21,973,000 were to ex- 

 service men and women, and 

 20,377,000 to civilians. Criticism 

 having been directed against the 

 exchanges on the grounds of their 

 cost to the nation and practical 

 use, a committee was appointed 

 by the ministry of labour in June, 

 1920, to examine their working and 

 administration. See Labour ; Un- 

 employment ; Wages 



G. A. Leask 



Empoli. Old town of Italy in 

 the prov. of Florence. It stands 

 on the Arno, 20 m. by rly. W. of 

 Florence, in a fertile district. The 

 collegiate church, founded 1093, 

 retains part of its curious original 

 facade ; its pictures are mostly 

 housed in a neighbouring gallery. 

 Jacopo Chimenti, 

 the painter, was f 

 a native. It has I 

 manufactures of , 



cotton, leather, 

 glass, and art pot- 

 tery. Pop. 21,566 



E m p r e s s. 

 Feminine of em 

 peror. It is a 

 corruption of the 

 Latin imperatrix.. 

 and is applied by 

 courtesy to the 



EMPYEMA 



wives of emperors and also to the 

 few women who have ruled over 

 an empire. Maria Theresa was an 

 empress or kaiserin as the Ger- 

 mans call it, and Queen Victoria 

 was empress of India. The women 

 rulers of the Byzantine empire, 

 Irene, for instance, and Catherine 

 and Elizabeth of Russia, are also 

 known in English as empresses. 

 See Emperor ; Sovereignty. 



Empress of Ireland. Passenger 

 steamer belonging to the C.P.R. 

 On May 29, 1914, outward bound 

 from Quebec to Liverpool with 

 1,367 people on board, the Empress 

 of Ireland was rammed by the Nor- 

 wegian collier, Storstad, in the St. 

 Lawrence river during a fog. The 

 Empress of Ireland sank in ten 

 minutes, and 934 persons went 

 down in her. 



Eznpson OB EMSON, SIR RICH- 

 ARD (d. 1510). English lawyer. 

 Born at Towcester, Northants, 

 he became member of parliament 

 for that county, and speaker of 

 the house in 1491, and, knighted 

 in 1504, was made chancellor of the 

 duchy of Lancaster. A favourite of 

 Henry VII, he collaborated with 

 Edmund Dudley (q.v.) in that 

 king's obnoxious fiscal policy, and 

 became universally unpopular for 

 his harshness. After Henry VIII. 's 

 ac6ession he was tried on a charge of 

 constructive treason, attainted by 

 parliament, Jan. 21, 1510, and 

 beheaded with Dudley on Tower 

 Hill, Aug. 17, 1510. 



Empyema (Gr., suppuration). 

 Collection of pus in the pleural 

 cavity that is, between the layers 

 of membrane lining the chest- wall 

 and the lung. The condition may 

 be due to infection from within, 

 following simple pleurisy or septic 

 pneumonia, or sometimes tuber- 

 culous broncho -pneumonia ; less 

 frequently to infections from 

 without, as a result of fracture of 

 a rib or a penetrating wound of the 

 chest. The symptoms may begin 

 suddenly with pain in the chest, 

 sweating and rise of temperature, 

 but when, as usually, the condition 

 develops in the course of simple 

 pleurisy or a morbid condition of 

 the lung, there is no marked line 

 of separation in the symptoms. 



BOB 



Empress 01 Ireland. C.P.R. passenger steamer rammed 

 and sank in the St. Lawrence river, May 29, 1914 



