UNEMPLOYMENT 129 



" It was an effect of a great many different, and in some cases, of 

 obscure, causes, to try and unravel which was the business of 

 Parliament." 



" Unemployment had puzzled some of the most acute brains and 

 warmest hearts." 



It may be that this philanthropic meeting was not con- 

 sidered a fitting time and place by these eminent peers, to say 

 a word that would help the position ; but when brought face to 

 face with it, as they were on that occasion, and they utter a 

 few words which may mean anything or — nothing, it bodes ill 

 for the settlement of a question than which there is none more 

 important in this or in any other country. 



iSToSTKUMS EVEN FKOM TRADES UNIONS 

 When we get right down to the bed-rock of labour itself, 

 we find no more hope there than elsewhere. The Trade Union 

 Congress at Nottingham, last September, were as bewildered 

 in regard to an abiding cure for the disease as are other people. 

 The feeble palliative of Shorter Hours was the only thing 

 they could think of Mr. Shackleton, M.P., the President of 

 the Congress, dwelt on the necessity of — 



" finding some plan by which the man or woman willing and able to 

 work, may be permitted to find that which is required to maintain 

 them in reasonable comfort. I cannot help feeling that the first 

 step to real and effective alteration must be in the direction of 

 reducing the hours of labour of those who are in employment. A 

 sincere effort should be made to stop all systematic overtime. A few 

 hours' overtime a week in a great industry means thousands going 

 without work entirely." 



This proposal of the President of a great " Labour Con- 

 gress " was received with a loud cheer, denoting how completely 

 the members were in agreement with the President's views. 



o* 



Labour Congress remedy an Economical Error 



At first sight there seems to be nothing fundamentally 

 wrong with this very natural proposal, nor does it seem to 

 point to the existence of a huge economical blunder ; but when 

 it is examined closely, it becomes clear that it is based upon a 

 misconception of certain economic facts, and it therefore in- 

 volves an economic error of the first magnitude. To state that 

 the vast, yet simple, problem of unemployment depends upon, 

 and can be regulated and put right by curtailing the working 

 hours, or by closing the overtime tap, is to affirm that you could 

 empty the mighty waters of the ocean with a child's sand- 

 bucket ; and as long as the labour leaders and the labour party 

 maintain this impractical and ostrich-like attitude, so long will 





