108 BRITAIN FOR THE BRITON 



Productive Industries no Avail without Agriculture 



Is it not clear to every living soul who is not swayed by 

 party considerations, and who is determined to look at this 

 vital question from a rational, common-sense point of view, that 

 it is because our productive industries have failed us we are in 

 this sad plight; because our trades, professions, and our pro- 

 ductive industries combined have failed to afford employment 

 to our men and women that this dread thing has come 

 upon us ? 



And yet, when a reformer comes along, when an economist 

 takes up his pen to aid in the solution of the problem, we get 

 nothing but the old platitudes about the necessity of improving 

 and developing our productive industries. 



Here are a few more references to the subject. 



" The Board of Trade Eeturns show that vmemployment, more 

 especially in the shipbuilding and engineering centres, is already 

 great and is on the increase. Two years ago the percentage of 

 unemployment in the shipbuilding trade unions was 7*2 per cent. 

 In July of the present year it had risen to 21 "9 — more than three 

 times as high. ... It is possible for the Government to provide 

 some measure of alleviation for this deplorable state of affairs." * 



The foregoing is an extract from that journal's leader of 

 that date entitled, " Matters of Moment." 



The Navy and Unemployed 



The article then advocates a more liberal war-shipbuilding 

 programme as a means of affording employment and relieving 

 distress. 



Another of our London dailies suggests similar remedies. 



" ' The question of unemployment,' it has been said, ' is at the 

 root of all the social reforms of our time,' and it is, therefore, not 

 surprising: that it should have engaged so much of the attention of 

 the Trades Union Congress. At Nottingham yesterday that body 

 passed a resolution declaring that the Grovernment must find ' work 

 of public utility' for all sections of unemployed men and women. 

 The position will be admitted by all to be serious. The depression 

 in the shipping trade, and the sudden cessation of orders for new 

 ships, have caused immense suffering in the great cities on the sea- 

 board. In Liverpool, according to official returns, one man in ten 

 of the working population is without work. In Glasgow the pro- 

 portion is even higher. The monthly reports of the Board of Trade 

 show that the tide of distress is steadily rising, and in July more 



* Daily Express, Sept, 11, 1908. 



