UNEMPLOYMENT : HI. THE CASE FOR ACTION
By MAJOR B. T. REYNOLDS
IN the first of these articles, I showed that nowadays, in the course of the year, something like half the working population of this country have first-hand ex- perience of unemployment, short or long, and its effects. Last week I painted a close-up picture of a group of .unemployed men in a London Occupational Club. Most of them were manual workers, but I can testify from personal experience that unemployment amongst all classes produces much the same reactions.
When a man suddenly finds himself divorced from the job that has previously occupied the greater part of his waking time and thought, the first and most obvious effect is an overwhelming • increase of leisure. At first he contrives to fill the void with a fine frenzy of optimistic job-hunting. If this proves unsuccessful, the effect of the xperience on his morale and temper is speedily reflected in the alienation of all save the most doggedly faithful of his friends. lie finds himself thrust back on his own resources to fill his time and, in most eases, makes the discovery that they are utterly and hopelessly inadequate.
That is where the 2,500 Occupational Clubs and centres come in. Something of the kind would appear to be indispensable under present conditions. Onc could wish t hat there were more of them. But, if they are to be of any use, they must be a spontaneous .growth and continue to be run on voluntary and self-governing lines. No official organization could do the work that they are doing, but one could visualize them co-operating with employment exchanges, industrial training schemes, technical insti- tutes and adult educational institutions of all kinds; with mutually beneficial results. If shorter hours of work arc going to be the rule in the future, as they may well be in view of the constant improvement in organization and machine technique, , these Occupational Club- are likely to become a permanent feature of our social life.
But to return to the present, and the effect that their experiences are having on this great body, of people— the stimulus of pressure and hardship, combined with excess of leisure, make ideal conditions for promoting the processes of thought.. I have met men in.. whose heads unaccustomed mental exercise is producing results indistinguishable from the effect of strong .waters. It is just as well that " dangerous thinking " is not an offence in this country. On the other hand, one can only marvel at the good sense and moderation of the great majority. A fundamental change in values is taking place. Samuel Smiles is not taken seriously by this generation. This may be due, in part, to the greater obstacles in the way of those who might set out to emulate the feats of his heroes ; but, whatever the cause, the effect is likely to be far-reaching. The materialism that was one •of the principal driving forces of the nineteenth century is giving place to something else. The new ideals have not taken shape yet. Perhaps, when they are more clearly defined, we shall discover that they are not so new after all.
- Here lies, I think, a large part of our present difficulty. The prevailing sense of '.uncertainty, combined. with the effects of high taxation, .due in large part .to, increased expenditure on social services and unemployment, have gone some way towards hamstringing the motive power that got us out of former slumps—the desire to make profits. Uncertainty causes unemployment, and the effect of unemployment is to increase the prevailing sense of uncertainty. It is a vicious circle. But one thing is certain : it is impossible today to reduce social services. The reception of the new Unemployment Assistance Act showed that very clearly. We are thus inescapably brought up against the necessity for some kind of Govern- ment action.
A fundamental change has been taking place in the economy of this country. In 1928, our main group of exporting industries, chiefly situated in the North, were looked to as their source of livelihood by nearly 30 per cent. of the insured population, and close on 2t million people were actually employed in them. In 1932, they were employing a million fewer—only 17.5 per cent. of the in- sured persons in employment. These industries and our export trade are not dead, but they have suffered a permanent contraction. Simultaneously, another group, consisting mainly of secondary industries and services, and having their seat for the most part in the South, have been expanding. In 1923 they accounted for 32 per cent. of the insured population and gave work to just over three million people. By 1932 they were employing nearly 4f million people, covering some 43 per cent. of the total insured population in work.
Obviously, such a change could not take place without severe dislocation, and this is one of the primary causes of the unemployment from which we ai e suffering. The real comparison today is not with pre-War times but with the era after the Napoleonic Wars. If we had the unemployment statistics for those times, computed on the same basis as they are today, we might well find that the percentages would not be very different. There is a story told of some unemployed men engaged on road making under a Public Works scheme in 1926. They came on a stone tablet embedded in the foundations of an old road. The inscription read—" This road was built by the unem- ployed in 1826."
Public works are a traditional panacea for unemploy- ment, and there is talk of them again today. But public opinion has advanced since a hundred years ago. If they are to be of any practical use now, it is essential that they should be related to permanent schemes of develop. ment, designed to fit our changing national economy to the needs of the future. Otherwise; in spite of unem- ployment, it might well prove impossible to recruit the necessary labour force. An instance from my own experi- ence illustrates the point. Hearing that a new Town Hall was to be built in St. Pancras, I went to see the Mayor, the Town Clerk, the contractor and the Employment Exchanges, singing the praises of the men in my Occu- pational Club and urging them in the name of God and local patriotism to let us have some of the work. I succeeded in making my point and was asked for a list of the men available. When it came to the point, all I could get was twelve, out of something like a hundred who were on hand and qualified. The reason was that he rest would be occupied, on and off, with a variety of odd jobs, and it was impossible to get them to see that this was likely to prove any more permanent.
There is an overwhelming demand at the present moment, amongst the unemployed and all sections of the population, that we should " Get a move on." But we have been fighting a soldier's battle for so long that generalship can only make itself felt by an overwhelming psychological appeal. If the appeal is made to common sense the people will respond.
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