LABOUR EXCHANGE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 537, 18 June 1909, Page 7

LABOUR EXCHANGE.

BRITISH BILL. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright.) (Rec. Juno 17, 10.45 p.m.) m, r i „ . London, June 17. Tho Labour Exchanges Bill, introduced by tho President of the Board of Trade, Mr. Churchill, has been read a second, time in the House of Commons. PURPOSES OF THE EXCHANGES. In a recont article on what the labour exSK 6 ! accomplish, Mr. F. A. Maokenzio "No one professes that the national exrJ'ViPfn e tlle unemployed pioblenr or that they will mcrcaso the amount of work to any great extent. What they will do is to reduce the chaos of the present way of bring, lugemployers and men together to a regular s>stem. Once startod; a still wider organisak°nlmn«t- 1V ! e uncm Pl°3'«d problem is almost certain to grow out of them. Tliov nil give us a more acourate idea than we can low obtain of the numbers of the workless. J. hey will gradually sift ont the loafer and tho unomploynble. Tho man who crops up at Uw exchange time after tune,, losing cach job iuat is found for him, will become marked JJ' 1 ' „ noß Zf' •T' 1 ® tramp—the greatest blot on our countryside—will at once loss the exouso which now forces us to aid him. 'Tho proposcci national exchanges axe not' without their perils. The dange?: froni tt& SH 1 casn,ls hw, already been hinted at. these have swamped the., distress committees: tlioy must not be allowed to blot out the newer • 19 fc ?, l ! ed ' n 5011,6 quarters that the trade unions will seek to confine the' use of the exchanges to employers who pay not less than the recognised union rate o! wages. Once thoro arose even, a suspioion that the exchanges were beinf; manipulated as forces in the fiuht tor or against unionism their usefulness would bo don©.

li"* Bood reason for skating that, many of liu ? nion , s • no ' ' €n d themselves Jo an agitation for this purpose. Their leaders have Sii m 3 ny .n ftS f? publicly announced that thev. will do all that they oan to help tho new eohome, even by plaoing their union employment books with them. What they miy ask —tho domand is a reasonablo one-is that when an_ employer seeks men because of a strike or fact bo required to state that

Tberoisstm another development that'should came. Why could not the national exchanges work hamlin hand with an imperial ,or c*Act details of opportunities ™«i C h? lon s °f 'abour dominions boftKJ. A number of local information agencies 111 Canada; v- withr»headquarters in Toronto or Montreal, could keep flio British offices informed of the ml facts about labour requirements there. ; The information could not be gathered better than through tho Canadian press. , . . , "TJnkps employers co-operate with tbe new oxchantiesthey must, of ceursa, completely fail. Suroly thoy. will realise that a plan which promises soma* relief' to a. great national ovil is worthy of their whole-hearted support."