Anatomy of the Dole
The Unemployment Services. By Polly Hill. (Roudedge.
78.6d.) •
THE piecemeal growth of the unemployment services, the conflict of principles embodied in them and the large pro-. portion of sheer opportunism which their provisions display, the strong feelings which they rouse and the political loyalties on which they impinge, make them a remarkably fruitful field for misunderstanding, muddle-headedness and the confident proclaiming of inaccuracies. One can come across quite fabulous misapprehensions as to the provisions and workings of the system among even politically well-educated persons, and to know them thoroughly and grasp all their human, economic and social implications is an aspiration not merely for specialists but for supermen.
"The toad beneath the harrow knows Exactly where each tooth-point goes and that sort of knowledge is almost essential for the success- ful drafting, and still more the successful administration, of the unemployment code. (Needless to say, it has been singularly lacking.)
But that kind of knowledge—" what does this mean, in terms of bread and butter, health and self-respect and the ties of kinship, for the unemployed man and his family? "- is nowhere near enough in the long run. For unemployment payments constitute one of the forces modifying the move- ment, even as they mitigate the- individual effects, of the broad economic forces on whose equilibrium depend economic well-being and progress. Those who should know best worry comparatively little about that nightmare of the Blimps, the happy dole-drawer content to prop a street-corner in permanent idleness. It is not the incentive to work in general which matters ; though in some circumstancec it easily might. But work where? And work at what?—the effects of unemployment pay on mobility, both between places and between occupations—that is another question. The tempo of economic development, the shift of demand and of technique, grows more and more rapid, and the need fee mobility accordingly grows greater and greater ; when the war ends the problem will become gigantic. The most con- vinced champion of "Work or Maintenance" would harcil% contend that the unemployment services foster mobility
They are an essential to any humanly decent industrial order (Capitalist or Socialist, unless Socialism is to imply outright industrial conscription, otherwise known as slavery). They stabilise and sustain. But they carry with them a certain risk of stagnation.
Miss Hill's book is admirably designed to dispel ignorance as to the administrative working of the services. It is a straightforward, well-arranged, thoroughly documented and beautifully concise piece of work, putting the facts and their background in a form handy for the general reader and particularly well adapted to the needs of political and social workers. Though it is the "toad beneath the harrow" viewpoint which interests Miss Hill, she does not attempt to produce a human document like Bakke, still less an emotional indictment like Haimington. Her book is simply and success- fully what it sets out to be—a handbook with critical com- ments. It is full of reasonable and well-argued suggestions for reform ; for the modification of means tests and waiting periods, for the rectification of the truly anomalous " anoma- lies " provisions, for the use of surpluses and the adaptation of policy to cyclical change. But except for a few sentences on this last point, the author never touches the wider economic implications of her subject. She has nothing whatever to say, for good or ill, description, criticism or appraisal, of such a part of the unemployment services as the Juvenile Instructional Centres and retraining schemes generally ; of industrial transfer, and the trade union attitude thereto ; or, even, of the past history and present status of the "genuinely seeking work" criterion for benefit. She does mention the penalty imposed on the initiative of those who, venturing "on their own account," fail and find themselves outside the scope of both insurance and assistance ; but she mentions it only in passing. The whole huge problem of industrial mobility and inertia appears to have escaped her attention.
Possibly the explanation is to be found in her Introduction. She writes as a Socialist, offering practical suggestions for reforms to be put into practice by a Labour Government purely as a temporary measure during the transition to Socialism. The wider dynamic problems do not arise, for her, because they will be taken care of by the general forward policy of Socialism. This is a logical attitude enough. But it argues a surprising optimism as to the length of the transi- tion period, and a considerable haziness (unfortunately highly characteristic of the Labour Party). as to what will ultimately be the attitude of the " planners " to trade union demarca- tions and industrial mobility generally. There is no sign that Miss Hill has in fact thought these matters out and deliberately omitted them. Her book is a useful contribution, but a limited one, to a narrowly circumscribed section of the
problem of unemployment policy. HONOR CROOME.
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