THE BRITISH WORKER.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 767, 16 March 1910, Page 7

THE BRITISH WORKER.

SEEN THROUGH AMERICAN SPECTACLES. ' '

A PESSIMISTIC VIEW. By Teleeroph—Press Association—Copyright New York, March 14. Tha "New YoTk Herald's" London correspondent interviewed Mr. Henry Studnisza, tho American Government's special agent, who is investigating the conditions of British labour. The American worker is represented by him as being a hundred per cent, better off in condition than the English worker. ■Tho homes of tho latter's children were pitiable, the family- must dress in rags, and economise to tha'veriest limit to enable the wage-earner to keep fit for toil. The unemployed jammed the labour exchanges, but the matter ended there, as work was not to be had." FIRST DAY OF LABOUR EXCHANGES. : the system at woke. The Government's scheme to mitigata the pressing evil of. unemployment by means of a system of State-organised registry/offices, or "Labour Exchanges" as they are called, was inaugurated on February 1.

All over London there was a rush of eagerly-expectant men to the exchange's. Unhappily, the first day's, operations coul dnot provide many, applicants "with employment, for the reason that there were very few jobs to offer. In London either employers wanting men were few or they had not informed the officials at the exchanges of their requirements. Both in Birmingham and in Nottingham the feature of the inauguration, of, the system was the number of employers who urero making use of . the exechanges. But in London, this was far from being the case. Men found, when at length they gained admission to the exchanges, that the officials could do no more for them than register them as unemployed. Always applicants .eagerly professed themselves prepared to go anywhere that work was to be found. Generally, in default of employment as' bricklayers, carpenters, mechanics of every kind, they • declared . themselves willing to work as "general j labourers"'at anything so long as there 1 wero wages attached to it, -

When the form of particulars had been completed the official took from a stack by his side a card, stamped it with a number, markod it with an official seal,, handed .it to the applicant, and said: "If ; you - find employment before next Tuesday, this day week, post this to us to say so; it wall-cost you nothing to post. If not, call again'hero, on Tuesday. Next please.". The period of registration, it was explained, was for seven days. After that a man would-have to register again. In one'case a compositor seeking work had arrived at the exchange simultaneously with the'application of : a printer for . the services of a compositor, with.the result that the man and the master had 1 been mutually accommodated. Orders from employers for men at the Finsbury Exchange iuimbered'twenty-one, of which eight were filled, one by. ah employer on the spot; and for boys sixteen ana women forty. At Islington fourteen orders from employers were received.' It is stated that one employer in the country asked, for 100 men..