There is something attractively picturesque abmit the proposal, sponsored by
the Dean of Canterbury," to institute pilgrimages to cathedrals for the benefit of the unemployed, and, of course, the first commentators inevitably recalled, as I studiously refrain from doing, the fact that a man of the name of Chaucer referred to the idea of pilgrimages to Canterbury some time ago. But the economics of the Dean's proposal is (or are) a little worrying. Each pilgrim is to buy a half-crown ticket, on the strength of which he will be welcomed by a Dean, and for all I know a Chapter too, at the west door of the cathedral to which he may decide to repair. He is to get there, as he likes, " on foot, by bicycle, by rail or motor-car," and his half-crown will go, without deduction, to the service of the unemployed. But if he stayed at home and added the cost of petrol or his railway-ticket to the half-crown, and sent the sum by post, wouldn't the unemployed be better off still ? The answer, no doubt, is that, but for the pilgrimage idea it would never occur to him to do either. And as it is people who cannot get to cathedrals, or prefer not to, can still send the half-crown and their fare. I hope they will.
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