3 OCTOBER 1914, Page 20

KEEPING EMPLOYMENT STEADY.

[To THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—No more useful service can be rendered the country at the present time than the maintenance of employment. It is generally admitted that the building of houses, the making of roads, and the general work connected with the develop- ment of Garden Suburbs is one of the best means of keeping this steady. Of every £100 invested at the present time in the development of co-partnership estates at Ealing, Stoke-on- Trent, Hampstead, Leicester, Liverpool, and elsewhere, fully fifty per cent. will be required for wages on the actual build- ing site. More than that, two-thirds of the remainder will be expended in the labour required for the British materials and manufactures used on such suburbs. Hence it is clear that eighty per cent. of the capital raised in connexion with the movement will be utilized for the maintenance of employment —a most valuable contribution to the national good at the present time.

The federation of Co-partnership Tenants, Ltd., employ upwards of seven hundred building trade operatives and staff. Many of these are married, with ,families dependent on their efforts ; more than two thousand five hundred look to these societies for maintenance. Those who have capital to spare and who are anxious to obtain security for their savings, as well as assist a work of national benefit, should take up an immediate investment in the 44 per cent, loan stock of this society, particulars of which I shall be pleased to send to any of your readers. Investments—whether small or large—are giving assistance to deserving workmen through productive channels without the demoralizing effects often resulting from charity and relief work, while the man with limited surplus capital is assured of employing his money in a safe as well as a useful manner.—I am, Sir, &c.,