PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 679 



5. For the same reason it is essential to enlist the interest of all those 

 engaged in the insured trades, whether as employers or as workmen, in reducing 

 unemployment, by associating them with the scheme both as regards contribution 

 and management. 



6. As it appears on examination that some trades are more suitable to be 

 dealt with by insurance than others, either because the unemployment in these 

 trades contains a large insurable element, or because it takes the form of total 

 discharge rather than short time, or for other reasons, it follows that, for tha 

 scheme to have the best chance of success, it should be based upon the trade 

 group, and should at the outset be partial in operation. 



7. The group of trades to which the scheme is to be applied must, however, 

 be a large one, and must extend throughout the United Kingdom, as it is 

 essential that industrial mobility as between occupations and districts should 

 not be unduly checked. 



8. A State subvention and guarantee will be necessary, in addition to contri- 

 butions from the trades affected, in order to give the necessary stability and 

 security, and also in order to justify the amount of State control that will be 

 necessary. 



9. The scheme must aim at encouraging the regular employer and workman, 

 and discriminating against casual engagements. Otherwise it will be subject to 

 the criticism of placing an undue burden on the regular for the benefit of the 

 irregular members of the trade. 



10. The scheme must not act as a discouragement to voluntary provision for 

 unemployment, and for that purpose some well-devised plan of co-operation is 

 essential between the State organisation and the voluntary associations which at 

 present provide unemployment benefit for their members. 



Our analysis, therefore, leads us step by step to the contemplation of a 

 national contributory scheme of insurance universal in its operation within the 

 limits of a large group of trades — a group so far as possible self-contained and 

 carefully selected as favourable for the experiment, the funds being derived 

 from compulsory contributions from all those engaged in these trades, with a 

 subsidy and guarantee from the State, and the rules relating to benefit being so 

 devised as to discriminate effectively against unemployment which is mainly due 

 to personal defects, while giving a substantial allowance to those whose unem- 

 ployment results from industrial causes beyond the control of the individual. 



Is such a scheme practicable? 



This is a question partly actuarial, partly administrative, and partly political, 

 and it is, of course, quite impossible to discuss it adequately on an occasion such 

 as this. 



I may, however, say that so far as can be judged from such data as exist (and 

 those data are admittedly imperfect and rest on a somewhat narrow basis), a 

 scheme framed on the lines I have indicated is actuarially possible, at least for 

 such a group of trades as building, engineering, and shipbuilding — that is to say, 

 a reasonable scale of contributions will yield benefits substantial in amount and 

 of sufficient duration to cover the bulk of the unemployment ordinarily met with 

 in these trades. 



The administrative difficulties of such a scheme are, of course, great, 

 but none of these difficulties is, I think, insuperable if there be a general desire 

 that the experiment should be made. Certainly the experience of the few foreign 

 schemes which have broken down creates no presumption against success, for the 

 failures have been quite clearly attributable to causes which would not operate 

 in the case of a national scheme such as is now under discussion, especially if 

 it were worked, as it naturally would be, in close connection with the new Labour 

 Exchanges. 



Perhaps the most difficult administrative problem would be the adjustment 

 of the scheme, so that while its benefits are not confined to workmen for whom 

 provision is made by voluntary associations, it would yet operate so as to 

 encourage the work of these associations, and not to undermine and destroy them, 

 either by competition or detailed control. The problem, however, though difficult, 

 is one for which a solution can assuredly be found if it be the general desire that 

 a scheme shall be brought into operation. 



