We look upon Mr. Baldwin's letter as a useful and
timely reminder that no employer should sit still if he cannot find locally all the labour that lie could profitably employ, but that all should take active steps at once to find it elsewhere, and as an encouragement to all to surmount the obvious difficulties that must be faced. One of these, the cost of travelling and moving families, is met by the Ministry of Labour offering to advance the money therefor through the Exchanges. The difficulties of housing remain, and the Rent Restriction Act rightly or wrongly makes those who have cottages very chary of their use by people whom they do not know. Agri- culture is, of course, the industry in which more men could most easily be absorbed even now when the harvest is so well advanced. Domestic service could absorb and house well a very large number of women and girls. But we know that the unemployed are not willing to enter those spheres of work in large numbers. The steady flow from the black areas to the prosperous industries, eleetfical, motor cars, &c., established south of the Trent must already account for a. very large transfer. But we hope that the Prime Minister's letter will much more than justify itself.
