DOLE, a portion, a distribution of gifts, especially of food and money, given in charity (0.E. dal, cf. mod. "deal"). The distribution of alms to the local poor at funerals was a universal custom in the middle ages. Thus in 139g Eleanor, duchess of Gloucester, ordered in her will that 15 poor men should carry torches at her funeral, "each having a gown and hood lined with white, breeches of blue cloth, shoes and a shirt, and L20 amongst them." Later, doles usually took the form of bequests of land or money, the interest or rent of which was to be annually' employed in charity. Often the distribution took place at the grave of the donor. Lenten doles were also formerly common. A will of 1537 bade a barrel of white herrings and a case of red herrings be given yearly to the poor of Clavering, Essex, to help them tide over the fast. A pilgrim's dole of bread and ale can be claimed by all wayfarers at the Hospital of St. Cross, Winchester. This is said to have been founded by William of Wykeham. Emerson, when visiting Winchester, claimed and received the dole. What were known as scrambling doles, so called because the meat and bread distributed were thrown among the poor to be scrambled for, were not uncommon in England. At Wath, near Ripon, a testator in 8 o ordered that 4o penny loaves should be thrown from the church leads at midnight on every Christmas eve. The best known dole in the United States is the "Leake dole of bread." John Leake, a millionaire, dying in 1792, left LI ,000 to Trinity church, New York, the income to be laid out in wheaten loaves and distributed every Sabbath morning after service. (X.) Dole in Unemployment.—While, as explained above, a dole is strictly a charitable gift, usually of food, the term came in Great Britain after the World War to be applied loosely to the various kinds of weekly payments to the unemployed. • These payments were first made on a national scale under the out-of-work donation scheme which was instituted immediately af ter the Armistice in 1918, and inasmuch as the scheme was entirely non-contributory, the term "dole" might be regarded. as not inappropriate. The expression "dole" in relation to donation payments obtained currency soon after the scheme began.
The scheme applied not only to unemployed ex-members of the Forces who had served during the World WIr, but to civilian unemployed workers also. The payments came wholly from the Exchequer and amounted to i62,448,000 (L40,723,000 to ex-mem bers of the Forces and .£21,725,000 to civilians). The scheme for civilians was in existence for the year Nov. 1918 to Nov. 1919. For ex-members of the Forces it continued until March 1921.
By what may be described as a natural, or at least an easy, transition the term "dole" was afterwards applied to the weekly payments made under the National Unemployment Insurance scheme (see UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE). This general scheme of insurance against unemployment was, however, on a contribu tory basis from its inception. The contributing parties were the employer, the employed person, and the Exchequer, the share of the contribution borne on national fuhds being only one-fifth of the whole. (The Exchequer share was later increased and in the year 193o amounted to one-third of the whole.) From 1920 to Dec. 1929, over L284,000,000 were contrib uted by employers and workers and over LI 0,000,000 by the Exchequer.
Unemployment Benefits Subscribed For.—The unemploy ment insurance scheme was launched on what may be called a strictly insurance basis, persons who contributed to it being en titled when unemployed to receive benefit in proportion to their contributions, subject to a maximum period in each year. Owing, however, to the scheme coming into operation just when the severe industrial depression began, it became necessary to graf t on to it a supplementary scheme under which benefit might be drawn by persons who would normally have contributed to the scheme but who, owing to the slump, either had not paid a sufficient number of contributions or had exhausted their benefit rights. The term "dole" was soon commonly applied to this extra or uncovenanted benefit, and it almost inevitably became associated with the insur ance scheme as a whole, to which, however, as an insurance scheme it is quite inappropriate.
The term has also been applied to payments by the Poor Law authorities for relief of the able-bodied unemployed—an applica tion which, having regard to the nature of the payments, is more justified than one referring to the unemployment insurance scheme.
Generally, it may be said that from the year 1919 the term "dole" has been loosely applied to payment made from national or local funds to the unemployed and even to benefits paid from insurance funds to which the recipients themselves contribute heavily. (J. F. G. P.)