THE LEISURE OF THE WORKLESS [To the Editor of THE
SPECTATOR.] SIR, —In the issue of The Spectator, dated May 5th, Dr. Delisle Burns has an article on " The Leisure of the Workless." Would your readers like to know how one of the " workless"
spends his leisure time ?
I belong to the labouring class ; I have always desired that I could have been educated for a professBn, but my parents had to take me from school to help to supplement their weekly income. I am now aged 28, and have been out of work for 4 years. There is no sign, and I have lost hope, of ever getting a job. I have a wife and child and home to maintain, and the local Public Assistance Committee have decided that I can do that with 25s. per week. Can Dr. Delisle Burns or any of your readers or anyone else who writes or talks about unemployment, and never experienced it, realize what a long-drawn-out battle with poverty means ? It is terrible. I shall have to make a sacrifice of something in order to post this letter.
What do I do with my leisure ? I have a belief that I can write, but I think must be alone in that belief : sub- mitted articles, short stories, &e., have all been returned ;
and the disappointment in that, coupled with ever-present poverty, is just the last straw. I like the leisure time spend in trying to write, but I am haunted with fear all the time : is that the way the workless should feel in their leisure ?
I would do anything, go anywhere, to better my position ; but is there any chance ? No! The only change that can come will be when I have run my course on the "Means Test," and have been transferred to "Task Work" and the Poor Law proper.
Lastly, I would not let you think I can buy The Spectator every week : I read it, and have written this letter, in the
Public Reading Room.—! am, Sir, &c., WORKLESS.
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