There's Work for All. By Michael Young and Theodor Prager.
(Nicholson and Watson. 5s.) SAID Vice-President Wallace in October, 1943, " Are we willing to take peace as seriously as we took the war? It will take much more ingenuity to defeat Lieut.-General Unemployment than it will do to overthrow Hitler. The trouble is that our people are too willing to appease Lieut.-General Unemployment. Some business men like to have him around in times of peace so as to scare labour." But the unemployed are the best recruiting ground for the battalions of would-be dictators- " Between July, 1929, and January, 1932, the number of un-
employed in Germany increased from i,25t,000 to 6,042,000. Every
increase multiplied the strength of the Nazis. They opened food
kitchens. established barracks in which the destitute could live, recruited hundreds of thousands of unemployed to their own ranks." In fact, mass unemployment is a menace to the rich as to the poor. Essentials of a satisfactory full employment policy are, suggest the writers of " There's Work for All": the elimination of gross wage disparities to facilitate distribution of labour between industries, and at need the change of workers from one industry to another ; the location of new industries where labour already is ; constant awareness of Adam Smith's dictum that " consumption is the sole end and purpose of production "; the gearing of production to needs rather than simply to effective demand. The authors_give a warn- ing against over-simplification ; but the main cause of unemployment is undoubtedly under-spending, and the essence of their argument is, so order things that all workers can buy the necessities and at least some of the luxuries of life for themselves and their families, and there will be steady work for all. The book is well and amply illustrated with photographs and diagrams.
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