A very large employer in the United States, who has
been in Great Britain during the past week, in the course of a discussion on the present labour shortage asked the writer : " What would the British people think if the United States were to offer to find jobs for two or three hundred thousand British workers ? " My friend believed that it immigration be possible to abolish the present restrictions . on mmigration from Great Britain now operative in America, and thus put the Old Country in the same position as Canada. Whether American opinion would be prepared to make this move or whether British opinion would be willing to divert such a large proportion of its human surplus to the United States instead of to the Dominions is problematical. Anyhow, the mere fact that the question was asked shows how real is the labour shortage in the United States at the present time. There is certainly food for reflection in the thought that in the European section of the English-speaking world there is a vast surplus of workers whose maintenance imposes a heavy load on the community, while in the American section of the English-speaking world employers are clamouring for labour and would much prefer workers born in the British Isles to Southern and Eastern Euro- peans. Can nothing be done to bring the supply and demand together ?
Previous page
