To Conquer Unemployment —
Aessrs. Lever Brothers have chosen the right moment for bringing out their constructive proposals on The Problem of Unemploy- ment, most lucidly set out in a pamphlet bearing that title. It is the right moment, when the Beveridge plan of Social Security (which the authors of the Lever scheme fully approve) is about to engage the full attention of Parliament. The Lever scheme starts from the hypothesis that irregularities in productive capacity, which are seen in the form of alternating slumps and booms, and cause recurrent mass unemployment, are the result of irregularities in the extension of industrial capital equipment. Government, it is argued, can promote discipline in industrial development by its powers of indirect controi. It is proposed that it should use the power of taxation in precisely the opposite way from that in which it has hitherto been used, and should impose more taxation when a boom is approaching, and reduce it when a slump is indicated, thus reducing or extending spending capacity at the appropriate moment. In times of approaching boom the use of credit would be curtailed, and capital expenditure which is controlled by the Government would be slowed down, and the reverse when there is danger of a slump. The authors outline a variety of measures which should be adopted by means of finance and taxation, the promotion of social security on the lines of the Beveridge Report, and the encouragement of measures which industrialists themselves should take, to get rid of irregularities in national consumption and irregularities in investment expenditure. The scheme is an admir- able summary of known means of fighting unemployment, and pro- vides a useful basis for further study of the means of anticipating trade changes and of the machinery which should be employed by Governments in handling the weapon of finance.
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