On Wednesday the Minister of Labour inaugurated at Birmingham an
experiment in providing a handyman's ,training for young men. Four hundred young men will "be trained at Birmingham, four hundred at Newcastle, and two hundred at each of the two rural centres. Clearly this will have little effect upon unemployment, but it is all to the good that the personal fitness of several hundreds of young men should be increased by a six months' training. One of the greatest dangers of the present unemployment is the demoralization of boys who are learning no trade. We wish that something could be done—why not through the Labour Exchanges ? —to direct boys to the land. It is a hopeless policy to try to divert to the land men who have town habits and town occupations. But boys could learn the skilled trades of the land worker. They ought to be definitely encouraged with the hope that in future they will be able to own their own bit of land. Is it not extraordinary that so little is done to meet the glaring fact that the land is crying out for labour ? Here is a policy for the Government that does not admit of delay. * * * *
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