[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week
as have not been reserved for review in other forms.] The Unemployed : a National Question. By Percy Alden, M.A. (P. S. King and Son. ls. 6d. net.)—Mr. Alden sees the main causes of the unemployed difficulty in the change from the home industry system to the system of factories, and in the decline of agriculture as a profitable employment. Tho second reason com- mends itself as probable, even certain; the first is very doubtful. It really is an indictment of machinery. " Industries carried on in the homes of the people, often in small villages," have long since ceased to be adequate to the wants of the world. Should we have been better off if the house-loom and the spinning-wheel had never been displaced by Arkwright's inventions? Causes, however, are not of so much importance, now that we have to face accomplished results, as remedies. What, then, does Mr. Alden pro- pose ? First, there are administrative changes which would enable us to deal with the tramp class, and foremost among these is the abolition of the casual ward. How about the real "unemployed" ? We may pass over improved education, repressive legislation (in regard to gambling and drink), changed taxation (of ground values and large incomes), and ask, Can we check the exodus from the country to the town? Mr. Alden's general prescription is small holdings. He then passes to " direct remedies,"- i.e., how to deal with the actual multitudes that want work. We cannot follow him here, so vast is the subject. Our duty has been fulfilled when we have called attention to the book, which, whatever wo may think of this or that speculation or suggestion, is a genuine attempt to deal with a great problem.
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