For those who refuse to be put off by statistical
tables and graphs the latest of the Studies and Reports of the For those who refuse to be put off by statistical tables and graphs the latest of the Studies and Reports of the International Labour Office. Unemployment—Some Inter- national Aspects 1920-1928 (P. S. King and Son, 5s.), is a little gold mine. It contains more common sense and per- tinent information than we have read or heard about in all these months preceding an election in which unemployment ma pronounced to be the main issue. No praise can be too high fora. publication of this kind, whicheompletes the serious and. dispassionate study of world problems as world problems undertaken by the economic organisations of the League. In :Chapter .I. facts and figures, taken country by country, bear out the ordinary conclusions of economic theory, namely, that the ;movements of unemployment correspond broadly
fluctuations in the general price level. This gives point to the conviction openly expressed by some of the best minds to-day that pin must first secure stability of money values— which represents the achievement of the last five years—and then use this in. order to reduce the extent of variations in the general price level. As long as American finance, however, is shackled by obsolete political shibboleths, we nmst agree that it will beimpossible to cheek undue fluctuations in the purchasing . power of gold. Chapter II. deals with 'mem- ployment - in the coal-mining and textile industries and. confirming the Interim Report on the Coal Industry, of which we -have written in the Spectator, makes it clear that over, 'equipment and acceptance of the principle: of unrestrained -competition is likewise the chief trouble with cotton; wool and . silk (excluding artificial silk). Finally, in a survey of international migration as it affects unemployment, the Repiart -chases- a serious gap left by the Preparatory Committee in drafting the agenda of the World Economic Conference. .
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