1 It is only " localized " industrial contraction that is here meant. What might, by contrast, be called " sheer " industrial contraction— that is, a reduction in one plant, without any corresponding increase in others. This, however, we have no satisfactory means of determining. The table shows actual contraction in certain industrial plants, which includes an indefinite amount of " sheer " contraction.
The next table shows the period elapsing between last regular employment and application to the society for assistance. In some instances families doubtless received aid from other sources before the present application. Most of them, however, appear from the records to have had no previous assistance.
Classifying results according to certain time groups, we find :— Mr. McLean presents also a table indicating the length of time covered by the business references given by appli cants, this tabulation covering 578 cases.
1 A large number of these were washerwomen and cleaners.
2 Of these 71 applied during the first month.
8 Includes a number of men who rely for support upon odd jobs.
The extremes from this table indicate that 18.3 per cent of the applicants whose records were examined have no recorded industrial history, aside from cases of misrep resentation. There were 32.7 per cent who gave refer ences which could not be verified. While most of these were fictitious, there were doubtless some who could not be located because of removals or for other reasons. Those who gave no references and a part of those whose refer ences could not be verified are to a large extent men who live by odd jobs. For 16.1 per cent on the other hand employment can be traced over periods ranging from two to five years, and for 16.5 per cent over periods ranging from five to twenty years. More definite information affecting displacement where it involves the greatest hard ship is given in the following table, showing for certain selected trade-groups the period covered by business ref erences ending, it will be remembered, in lack of employ ment, in the majority of instances due entirely to industrial, and not to personal, causes : — One further point in the industrial history of the appli cants is examined, viz., the length of time covered by the last regular employment. In 130 cases out of 578 previ ously examined it is impossible from the record to ascertain this period : — Thus 40 per cent of the cases considered appear to have been, temporarily at least, unable to get permanently placed. They were only irregularly employed even when they last had employment. Thirty-eight and eight-tenths per cent, however, had been regularly employed for over a year. Exclusively of the regularly employed, there were 91, or 23.3 per cent, with whom displacement had appar ently occurred twice within six months. Some of the sea sonal trades are represented in this table, and on the whole it appears to indicate a fair degree of economic stability.
It is of interest to add that, of 473 applicants at the time when the inquiry was made, 190, or 40 per cent of all ap plicants, were satisfactorily returned to industrial activity, either by their own efforts (153 cases), or by the efforts of the society (37 cases). Fifty-one persons, on the other hand, or 10.8 per cent, secured only temporary work in some inferior trade or occupation. Of the 254 persons who secured work of some kind, temporary material re lief had been provided in 50 cases, relief and temporary employment in wood yard, laundry, and workrooms in 76 cases ; and temporary employment in wood yard, work rooms or laundry in 49 cases ; while 109 were advised and directed without material aid.
It is unfortunate that there are not available similar sta tistics from other societies, or from the same society for other periods, and that there are not accessible statistics I Obtained by subtracting the 130 eliminated from 678.
from trade-unions, employment agencies, and labor bureaus in which unemployment, due to natural causes, is distin guished, as in these tables, from lack of employment due to personal qualities of the employee. It is true that the statistics of charitable societies will naturally afford a very much larger percentage of cases in which employment has been lost through inefficiency or personal defects than would be found in statistics from the other sources named in any period of general unemployment. It is, of course, the least desirable who are first displaced and whose periods of un employment are longest. To deduct the total number of those who, from the employers' statement, would appear to have been displaced ou account of personal deficiencies from the number of the unemployed, would be a misleading method of determining the extent of industrial contrac tion. These can better be spared than the more efficient or trustworthy laborers, but it does not follow that if all had been equally capable and satisfactory, all could have been retained.
Among the means by which those who are brought to destitution by lack of employment may be replaced in their original or other suitable occupation are : I. The use of employment agencies and of newspaper advertisements.
II. Direct appeal to possible employers of labor, and cooperation with the trade-union.
III. The creation of industrial colonies or industries in which, under direction, those who cannot be placed in regu lar industries may become, to a greater or less extent, self-supporting.
IV. The use of temporary industries, e.g. wood yard, broom factory, laundry, workrooms for unskilled, etc., as a work test, as a means of training, and as a substitute for direct relief, and V. Material relief, duly safeguarded, pending efforts by the applicant and others to secure employment through one or more of the means above enumerated. In ordinary times, this resource will not be required for the able-bodied.