As our readers know, we are all for insurance, and
we dream of that ideal scheme which will insure every worker against all the changes and chances of life. Un- employment will be only a single incident against which protection will be afforded. But the danger of the present Bill is that attention will be diverted from what is by far the most important end in the circumstances, and that is the finding of work. Mr. Shaw reckoned that there would be about a million unemployed during the whole of the next year. The Bill, in fact, is remark- ably like a confession of failure after all the promises that were made about "ending unemployment." Mr. Shaw quietly faced the prospect of having about 800,000 men permanently out of work? We must see what can be done in the Committee stage. At present the Govern- ment are doing precisely what they used to say they would not -do—offering maintenance instead of work.
Previous page
