In the House of Commons on Tuesday Mr. John Burns
moved the second reading of the Bill amending the unem- ployment section of the Insurance Act. The net effect of the changes proposed, while giving relief to employers and work- men by refunds and grants-in-aid, was not to increase the total charge on the Treasury ; though it threw on the Unem- ployment Fund an increased annual charge of about 250,000. Mr. Burns ended by a panegyric of the smooth working of the Act, in which, speaking broadly, he had still to find a defect. Mr. Clynes, the Labour Member, could not share Mr. Burns's excessive optimism. The unemployment insurance scheme bad not been really tested yet. The labouring poor in future, he declared, would never submit with the same patience
to their sufferings as in the past. They had learned something of late from their superiors—viz., that, if they felt strongly Tinder any sense of wrong, they were entitled to take any measures in order to obtain their doe. The Bill was read a second time without a division. -
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