now OUR PUBLIC MEN MISS THE WAY 



109 



than eif^'ht per cent, of trades unionists, the aristocracy of labour, 

 were unemployed." 



" It would further relieve the distress iu those centres where the 

 suffering is greatest, and would relieve it in the best way, by giving 

 work to the industrious and independent artisan. Each Dreadnought 

 built means an outlay of two millions, four-fifths of which goes 

 directly in wages to the worker. Fimilly, such a course has the 

 advantage of economy. Materials are now at the lowest figure, 

 contracts could be cheaply placed, and the work could be executed 

 with expedition." 



" It is surely the duty of any Government to place its contracts 

 in such a way as to mininiise unemployment. The winter beiore the 

 country must, it is to be feared, in any event prove a black one. 

 But the worst suffering would be alleviated by large orders for the 

 Koyal Navy. We want ships, yet we have thousands of shipwrights 

 unemployed. It would be wiser and kinder to set these unemployed 

 to build the ships, rather than to lavish money upon schemes pro- 

 viding artificial work which is not really reijuired, and which the 

 men in question cannot accomplish because it is not one of the 

 kind to which they are accustomed." * 



Another Example. Flight froiM England 

 Here is another contribution on the same subject : — 

 "FLIGHT FKOM ENGLAND 



TEN BllITISH EMIGRANTS TO ONE GERMAN 



" The extent of unemployment in the United Kingdom, and its 

 inevitable corollary, emigration, is shown in a striking article in 

 yesterday's Pall Mall Gazette, which declares that in the last few 

 years, in proportion to j)opulation, for every man who has emigrated 

 from Germany ten have left the United Kingdom. 



" The foUowin.; table, which shows that in the last eight or nine 

 years the percentage of unemployment among trade unionists, and 

 the number of emigrants, has more than doubled, is an overwhelm- 

 iuK answer to the Cobdenites : — 



* Daily Mail, Sept. 11, 1908. 



