Mr: Asquith then went on to give by far the
most important figures that have yet been presented in con- nexion with Ms. Baldwin's proposals :— " But let us make the best we can of such disclosures as it has been found so far possible to make, as to the policy of killing un- employment by import duties. The first question is—What evidence is there for the proposition, which was never suggested or even hinted at a year or even six months ago, that a main, if not the principal, cause of unemployment, is our import of overseas goods ? What are the facts ? In 1913 unemployment had reached its minimum (2 per cent.). For the last three years it has been over 15 per cent. But what are the comparative figures of our import trade ? Our imports were very substantially greater in 1913 than they were in any of the last three years, on the basis of pre-War prices. This is true of our imports as a whole, and most strikingly of our imports of manufactures. But the matter does not rest there. An analysis has been made for me of the proportion of the total unemployment which belongs to industries that could be helped by the new tariff. The total of unemployed is roughly 1,340,000. The number of those who belong to the trades in question is not greater than 140,000—that is to say about 10.4 per cent, of the whole. I will sec that the details of this calculation receive publicity. The trades which are most depressed, to which the great majority of the unemployed belong—shipbuilding, engineering, cotton, and, I am afraid, some branches of the woollen industry, not to mention transportation and distribution—are of a kind that no tariff would help. It would do a great deal to hinder and harm it. So that this new weapon, which Mr. Baldwin declared at Plymouth was the only way of fighting unemployment, would under present conditions give no relief to some 90 per cent, of the
whole.' . • * *
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