THE MINORITY REPORT.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 788, 11 April 1910, Page 7

THE MINORITY REPORT.

■' As is indicated in,the cablegram, the minority report of the Poor Law Commission,, as regards control of the svstem,; separated the able-bodied from the not able-bodied. -For the relief of the former, the minority proposed:-that there should be either a mew. national authority, or else county and borough councils' controL For the not ablebodied, 'the existing committees of the councils should:control, relief. ■~ ■ . Common Features/ '. ■ Hie following features were common to both reports (majority and minority)": . To abolish 1 general worthouses. ,• . To abolish the boards of guardians. To' give separate treatment to the ■ aged, the weak,' the' able-bodied unemployed, and the loafer. To detain the vagrants in colonies. Uo institute labour exchanges. To discourage or prevent boy-labour. .The Mowing are the main points of the minority report. (which was "signed by -the Rev. H. Eussell Wakeleld, chairman; Central Unemployed Body; Mr. Francis .Chandler; Mr. George Lansbury ;■ Mrs; Sidney Webb). ' Minister for Labour.- ; ; A Minister for Labour should' organise the national labour market'to prevent or minimise unemployment. Use of the National Labour Exchange by employers should be' compulsory in trades with excessive discontinuity of employment, and especially for the en-, gagement of casual, labour. . No, one should be employed under if teen, and those under eighteen should work only thirty hours a week, and ■have to attend trade Schools for thirty hours. ■• ■' ■ :. ■ ' '' . ■ ■ There should be prompt reduction of railway, tramway, and omnibus , workers' hours, if not to forty-eight, to at least not more than sixty a week. : Mothers needing relief should get euough to keep their families, and not have to work outside. . : £40,000,000 of Work In Ten Years. The '■ Government should arrange £4,000,000 of Departmental work a year for ten years, , so that it should.be put in hand not regularly, but exclusively at lean periods. . • : This work should include afforestation, coast protection, and land reclamation by suitable labour taken on in the ordinary way. at local rates. Compulsory Government or other insurance against unemployment, is not recommended, in view of the bad effect on. trade unions. \ Tlie Government should , pay each 1 : trade union half the- sum it gives in out-of-work benefit. Training For Workers. \ All left unomployod after the above schemes are in force should bo assigned to day training depots or residential farm colonies, their families receiving homo aliment. . . . There should bo relief without disfranchisement. . Vagrants and snch others should be kiDt in detention colonies,