Britain's Unemployed.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18422, 1 July 1925, Page 8

Britain's Unemployed.

There is a depressing summary'in our cables this morning of another Commons debate on unemployment. How many days have been devoted to this subject since the Baldwin Government came into power only the statisticians could now say; but it is a largo number, and it is going to bo larger. It seems certain, too, that the number of unemployed is going to be larger, though it is a million and a-quarter now at least, and includes nearly a million married or marriageable men. On the other hand there is no unemployment to speak of in Prance, and next to none in Belgium and Germany, and that state of affairs also -will continue —as in and by itself it is a mercy that it should—for many months yet. The Labour Party, with a flagrant lack of principle and of fairness, seeks to make it appear that the situation was created by (he Government, or at least could, and should, have been ended by the Government and was not. The truth is that no one has, and that no honest person pretends to have, a remedy for a misfortune, the roots of which reach back into another century; but what party has been able to do to influence the situation, the Labour Party has done, and it has done it on the wrong side. For if there is a fundamental cause of tho present distress that is independent of the World War, it is the failure of all sections o£ the community to puJI together. Industry will not recover until there is peace and goodwill in its ranks again, and when all the sins of all the bad employers are taken into account, they mean very little by comparison with the persistent preaching of Labour leaders that Capital is the enemy of tho workman and not his friend. The censure motion moved by tho Party's leader has, of course, been defeated, but until there is proof that no Party will try to make /capital out of a situation which must bo equally distressing to all, there can be little hope of useful action by Parliament. It is to be noted also that the tone of the debate which is reported to-day is very much less helpful than tho mood of the House seemed to be several weeks ago. It is true that.the most striking feature of the last debate was a prevailing air of pessimism—that not a single speaker expressed faith in an early recovery, and that the best the Minister of Labour could do was to beg the Houso not to discuss the subject as men would who had entirely lost hope. But on the other hand very few speakers had harsh or reckless or uncharitable tilings to say, and it appeared as if the members of all Parties were genuinely and equally eager to tackle the problem in a national spirit. The chief feature of the debate reported to-day seems to I have been the petty spirit of Labour, and while that lasts the outlook re- | mains black for industry.