THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1909. UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3120, 22 February 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1909. UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE.

We have insurance against sickness, invalidity, old age, and death. Can we take another step and virtually complete the circle of personal safeguards by insuring against unemployment? This question has forced itself on the notice of many peoples, some of whom are systematically trying to answer it in the affirmative, and it is discussed by Mr Harold Spender in the "Contemporary." j The evil condition that suggests it is rampant among most of the greater industrial nations just now, notably 1 in Germany, Great Britain and the >

Unitd States, and, as U3ua', sympathetic human nature is busily applying temporary remedies, though somewhat improved. The British Unemployment Act, of course, represents an advance on older methods to the extent that it systematises and co-ordinates effort, and facilitates purely local treatment. The principle is the same old principle, however, and in fact is the only recourse society now has when the trouble i 3 actually present. Afterward comes the time to inquire what the cause was and whether preventives are possible, and this is what is being done in England now, with the greater activity because of the presence of Labour members in the House of Commons. These politicians, however earnest as they are, cannot be said to have devised anything likely to fortify the public with hopes of a preventive. Their big suggestion is that of "thb rig ht to work," which may be dismissed with the remark that, apart from other objections, if men are givtn work as a right they must place themselves under compulsion to work, which they are no at all likely to do. Another idea is that the hours of labour should be shortened and overtime abolished. But if that were done wages must come down, which the workers could not afford. Besides, industrialism is not continuous or regular. It is neccessarily subject to booms and depressions, and has its spurts and slack times under the influence of which work is plentiful for on2 perio.l and then, almost necessarily, scarce for another—which is, the superficial explanation of i unemployment. Mr Spender describes j unemployment nicely as "a tidal trouble," pointing out that it is at least fairly regular in its appearances, and that the Board of Trade records, covering a period of forty years, "show that these periods of unemployment recur at almost precisely similar periods." That being so, if we cannot see our way to grapple with the cause is it possible to mitigate its effects and relieve the worker of that tragic liability behind which deprivation, despair, and moral decadence stalk in grim procession? Already this is being attempted to an extent that is, perhaps, not generally appreciated. The British trade unions have for years laid up unemployment insurance funds, out of which they distributed no le3S than £3,700,000 between 1906 and 1905. or nearly a million and ahall more than they expended in dispute pay. In 1904 a hundred unions spent £647,000 in unemployed pay, and in the same year £304,000 was paid out to unemployed men in the metal, engineering, and ship-build-ing group trades alone. That in 1906 the principal trade unions' unemployed benefit and sickness-accident payments each amounted to 21 per cent, of their funds, aud their dispute pay to only 7 per cent., gratifyingly proves to wnat an extent, as Mr Spender says, "the great trade unions in this country are practically becoming great insurance societies." In Germany some experiments, generally under municipal direction, and based on voluntary contributions of 3d or 4d a week by workmen, have been made, but they are small, and unimportant in their scope and lessons. Greater success has attended what is called the Ghent scheme in Belgium. The fund there consists of contributions given by the municipalities and the trade unions on the understanding that they are _not to be levied on in aid of strikes, lock-outs, sickness, or incapacity. It is supervised by the municipality and managed by a committee of employers and workmen, with the mayor as president. According to the last report, in 1905 this scheme was in operation in 25 districts, 5,000 members had received benefits, and £3,500 had been contributed by th« unions to £2,000 by the community. The unions showed such practical interest in the work that their payments into the fund rose from £I,OOO in 1900 to £1,648 in 1902. Some isolated ventures in unemployed insurance have also been made in different countries, especially in Germany, where employers ! and employed each make contribu- j tions.