BOOKS.
THE PROBLEM OF THE UNEMPLOYED.*
This book, apart from its claims as one of a promising series, is of a well-known class of works which may be said in these days to teem from the press, and which deal with subjects that come before us in so homely a guise, that we seem un- conscious that they may all the while be entering into, and assisting to mould, our daily life. The thinker, of whatever name, who throws a gleam of light on the problem of the unemployed has to that extent done the nation a service, small or great as the case may be. We refer first to what our author says of " unemployment" arising from various causes,—it may be from strikes ; it may be from the work- man's own predilection, his love for holidays included; it may be from the fact that his trade, flourishing perhaps in summer, declines year by year with the return of winter ; all minor "causes," we grant, but all very real, and sometimes when united very formidable. Stonemasonry, house slating and painting, and bricklaying come under this category. These industries seem to suggest to us work and wages to- day, idleness and the eating-up of wages to-morrow, with want and privation following as by a natural law. Mr. Hobson makes an important point in the suggestion that the workers who come under his wide definition might in many cases have alternative trades to fall back upon in times and in cases of their non-employment in regular trades. This, indeed, is the case at present in at least two of the industries we have just mentioned,— slating and painting. The man who "slates," in many parts of the country (and we are taking Mr. Hobson here in a sense larger than a mere local or even a national one) also plasters the walls of the house he slates,—a union of handicrafts which, skilfully directed and its resources husbanded, enables the workman to pass from indoor to outdoor work to some considerable extent at will. The case of the house-painter is still more to the point. In a general sense he may be said to have his summer months filled up with well-paid labour, in winter to be an idler. It is astonishing, however, how much alternative labour he can find and utilise, even in such little things as the painting of Easter eggs, in which his labour is as thoroughly protected as that of the tailor or shoemaker. In some of these cases Mr. Hobson looks to the County Council to devise and apply some methods of balancing the seasons of enforced idleness against those of full employment. We cannot say that we see with him in all these cases, but we do so as regards the principle involved. A very amusing case which came to our own knowledge recently, illustrates the standground of certain workmen with regard to alter- native trades. A man, we will say a gardener, though he was a little more than that, wished to fill up his time by painting his own house outside, and he immediately found himself in a storm of popular opprobrium, as a man who would take away the bread from poor painters. We are glad to say that the man was not merely courageous enough to go on painting his house, but he even turned the tables on his unreasoning assailants by laughing the assault to scorn. Possibly workmen would be able them- selves to rectify similarly a case like this. If they could not, we fear that no outside authority could do it for them.
In dealing with this subject we come also to the fact of the preference that many men have, and perhaps not unnaturally (though it was a thing unknown in what we call old times), for regulating their own hours of labour. The workmen of a generation ago would stand aghast at the train-loads of working-class excursionists who are carried away, not at exceptional times, but in some numbers every week, for pleasure. Once on a time it was thought a marvellous thing in some parts of the country when such a holiday could be
The Problem of the Unemployed. By John A. Hobson, M.A. "Social Questions of To-Day." London: Methuen and Co.
had on the Queen's birthday or some acknowledged occasion of the same kind. Now holidays are things of weekly occurrence. Not to speak of " St. Lubbock," whose fame is so great, the Welsh Member, Mr. Abraham (called " Mabon ") has induced the colliers of a very wide tract of country to keep one day in every month as a holiday (called "Mabon's Day "). It is astonishing how thoroughly successful this popular idea has become. Whatever else is sacrificed, Mabon's Day must not be lost. The fact that the colliers work by " piece," and not by day, renders this comparatively easy, but the operation is one that must be seen to be understood. Mr. Hobson's remark that many workmen would prefer to work five days in the week, and work doubly hard during that time, in preference to working six days of the week at an easy rate
of labour, is perfectly correct, and it explains in some measure the cry for holidays. A brief study of this subject has called to our mind an instance of a different kind which we witnessed very many years ago, and never can forget. A wealthy man decided to inclose with a dry wall (that is, a wall which owes nothing to mortar) a large tract of common land. He had a number of wallers (say eight or ten) regularly employed on his estate, and to them it was announced at one week's end that the new wall would be built by contract. The workmen were nearly all old men, who could not be expected to work as they had done in earlier days. They reasoned in this way, "If any other men can do the work at a cheaper rate than we can, we shall lose our regular employment on the estate." So they determined to take the contract and work " all hours " to make the work passably remunerative. More than passably was hopeless. The present writer saw the old men at times at the end of a day's work, and a pitiable sight it was, but it was contract work, and there must, they said, be no flinching. They carried out the contract to the bitter
end, touched up their work where it needed touching up, and they certainly did not ask for a holiday when the work was finished. With all their extra labour they did not earn ordinary wages, but they retained their regular employ- ment. We wonder what the men of the present time would say of this feat of those noble old workmen, or what the old workmen would say of Mabon's Day, and similar heaven-born institutions.
It will be seen that the " Problem of the Unemployed "in the hands of Mr. Hobson takes a wide range. Of the application of machinery as bearing on the excess of producing power, Mr. Hobson writes :-
"Neither in the proceedings of the Labour Commission nor in the analysis of causes of unemployment contained in the report of the Board of Trade do we find the faintest recognition of the central fact of the unemployed' problem,—viz., the simultaneous general unemployment of labour, capital, and land in periods of depressed trade. Our analysis of the available statistics forced us to the conclusion that the unemployed' question was in the main a leading aspect of the problem of trade depression. From the financial point of view bad trade appears as a general lowness of prices and of profits, but, regarded as a disease of the industrial structure, it takes the shape of a general slackness or under-use of the various factors of production. Now, no serious attempt has been made, by what may provisionally be called the orthodox school of English economists, to explain why it is that at one and the same time there can be in existence more labour, more capital, and more land than are wanted."
We have endeavoured by some homely illustrations from individual experience to simplify a little more the simple statements of this book. We of necessity pass over some vast possibilities, on which Mr. Hobson has evidently fixed his mind, with regard to the wasteful multiplication of the agencies for the distribution of the proceeds of labour. In dealing with "the industrial and financial sides of business" the book touches intelligibly upon what we may call the office-work of great productive firms, and incidentally on bimetallism. With these we cannot at present deal, though we may say in passing that the author's remarks do not repel, but rather invite, the reader's investigation. We can honestly say that we have read this book with a feeling of pleasure not often perhaps
felt by a reviewer of works on labour questions. The Problem of the Unemployed is a very good book,—the work of an evidently sincere man, and one who carefully weighs his words. We trust that he will have more to say on this and kindred subjects in times to come. It would be difficult to
over-estimate the importance of such books when honestly and clearly written. To brighten one cottage hearthstone were a noble act. How many might be brightened if reason and truth speaking could be made to prevail !
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