Unemployment

Statisticians have not as vet devised any satis factory method of determining the amount of unemployment. To be complete such figures should show the number of unemployed on a given day; and, secondly, the duration of unemployment for each workman during the year. As a rule, the popular estimates of unemployment are greatly exaggerated, owing to the inclusion of the shift less and chronic poor, and to the inaccurate Meth ods of enumeration. The most important statis tical sources relating to unemployment in ordinary years :n•e the following: (1) Returns from trade unions, as, for example, those published monthly by the Labor Department of Great Britain in the Labor Gazette, and in the Annual Abstract of Labor Statistics, beginning with 1887; by the Labor Department of France since 1894, and of Belgium since 1895; in the United States by the Labor Bureau of New York in its quarterly bulletin (Albany), beginning with 1897, and more recently by the American Federation of Labor in its monthly publication, the A mcricaa Federationist (Washington). Those records are limited as a rule to well-o•ganized trades, and consequently do not throw light on the amount of unemployment in industry as a whole. Again, in ordinary times the best organized trades are inclined to underestimate the numbers of un employed for fear that employers will seize the opportunity to lower wages. The English trade union returns clearly show the seasonal char acter of the building trades, and that in the en gineering aml metal trades unemployment is cyclical. (2) Returns from manufacturers, as published annually since 1886 by the Labor Bureau of :Massachusetts and later by the Labor Bureaus of New Jersey, Connecticut, and WiA cousin. These statistics indicate the number under employment in manufacturing establishments in each month of the year, but do not show the number of those desiring entployment. In 'Massa chusetts, returns from 4397 establishments in 1893 showed that in April of that year 319,818 persons were at work, and in September 248,404, o• only 78 per cent. of the number employed in April. (3) Census returns, as in the chusetts censuses of 1885 and 1895, the Rhode Island census of 1895, and the Pennsylvania cen sus of 1895. The United States census of 1890 on this point proved a failure. The census of Massachusetts in 1885 showed that 70 per cent. of the working population were continuously employed, and that 30 per cent. were unem ployed a month or more The year 1885. how ever, was one of industrial depression. The Rhode Island census of 1895 showed that on the average 5.8 per cent. of all workers were unem ployed at a given time, the maximum amount being 7.3 per cent., in February. In Germany two censuses were taken in 1895, on June 14th and December 2d. The first. returned 292,1178 un employed out of a total of 15,497.000, and the other 762,668. (4) Special investigations, as by the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor in 1878, by the _Massachusetts hoard to Investigate the Sub ect of the Unemployed, in 1894, by Parliamen tary Commissions in Great Britain, and by the French Labor Bureau in 18911. In this category may also be included the police censuses under taken by municipalities, as that of Boston in De cember. 1893, and of Brooklyn in February, 1894. These special inquiries have generally been made in periods of industrial distress, and frequently in winter months, when there is always a large num ber of unemployed owing to seasonal causes. In addition to these direct inquiries fragmentary data may be found in the reports of puhlie poor departments and charitable societies, especially when a record is made of the causes of destitu tion. Care must be taken to distinguish between new applications and the total number, in 'order to avoid duplication. Of sonic service also are the records of employment bureaus and registry offices. Statistics of such offices, however, are not statistics of the unemployed alone; they are rather statistics of the labor market, that is, of the offer and demand for labor, for a certain per centage of those who register have positions and file applications simply in the desire to change. The remedies which have been proposed for the relief of unemployed are of two kinds, those which are especially applicable in times of emergency and those which are permanent in their operation. In the administration of emer gency relief perplexing difficulties are met. for it is easy to transmute unemployment into vol untary idleness. Discrimination must be shown, first, in the selection of the persons to whom re lief work is to he given; second, in the choice of work to be undertaken; and, third, in the or ganization of the agencies by whom the relief work is to be administered. It is difficult to separate the worthy from the unworthy, and to prevent the influx of the unemployed from out side districts. The abuses occasioned by lax methods of procedure are well illustrated by the `soup kitchens' and bread carts in American cities in 1873, and by the indiscriminate dis tribution of the :Mansion Douse Fund in Lou don in 1886. Efforts were consequently made to develop a wiser policy in the relief work of each country in 1894. It is now generally agreed that emergency funds as far as possible should be restricted to those who in ordinary times are habitually at work„ to those personally known, and to those who are willing to accept less wages than customary, o• to work fewer hours per day or fewer days per week, so as to pre vent refusal to work elsewhere under ordinary conditions. In brief, there must he investiga tion and some sort of test; and the shiftless and chronic poor are to be left to the ordinary meth ods of relief. The choice of kind of work con stitutes the most difficult phase of the relief problem. Skilled and unskilled laborers alike must-be provided for. The principles adopted by the Local Government Board of England in 1893 in the selection of work were as follows: (1) Work which does not inrolve the stigma of pauperism; (2) work which all can perform, whatever may have been their previous voca tions; (3) work which does not compete with that of other laborers at present in employ meat; and (4) work which is not likely to inter fere with the resumption of regular employment in their own trade by those who seek it. In ac cordance with the foregoing principles, munici palities were advised to undertake spade in dustry on sewage farms. tile laying out of open spaces, recreation grounds, and new cemeteries, the cleansing of streets not usually undertaken by local authorities, the laying out and paving of new streets, and the extension of sewerage work and works of water supply. These forms

of work, however, do not meet the needs of all— the experience of cities and towns in the United States in 1894 showed that many mill hands and artisans were physically unable to endure out-of-door work in the winter or during in clement weather—and. of course, women are not provided for. As yet no satisfactory scheme which will meet the capacities of all has been suggested; the most that has been done is pro vision for the less skilled laborers who on the whole are less provident and less able to meet unexpected strains.

The agencies to relieve distress among the un employed are of five classes: First. special citizens' relief committees, organized primarily to aid the unemployed; second, municipal de partments having charge of public works upon which it is possible to give employment; third, labor organizations giving aid either by the usual out-of-work benefits or by extraordinary methods; fourth, private charities. including all permanent relief-giving organizations not con nected with State or municipal governments; fifth, the permanently established relief agencies administered for the State and for municipali ties, such as poor departments. No one of these agencies is complete in itself. The organization of a special relief committee is too apt to be delayed until suffering has been acute. and its methods are likely to be ill-considered if not injurious to society. The undertaking of new public works by municipalities is liable, in the present stage of political development, to be un economical. and possibly demoralizing to the civil service. Its virtue is that it may have less of the demoralizing taint of charity. Trade unions cannot make work, and generally oppose any reduction in the standard rates of wages in fear that they cannot recover the concession ex cept by prolonged struggle. Nor do they pos sess adequate funds to meet extraordinary de mand. Private charities are hampered by the cautious, and to able-bodied workmen often irritating, methods of investigation which must govern the ordinary administration of charity; and there is a natural objection on the part of laborers to receive official aid when it is accom panied by what is termed the stigma of pauper ism. Illustration of the work of all these agencies may be found in great detail in the Report of the llassachusetts Board to Inresti gate the Subject of the Unemployed, made in 1S95. and in the Report on the ageneias and Methods for Dealing with the Unemployed, made by the Labor Department of the Board of Trade of Great Britain. in 1893.

The more permanent agencies which have been recommended for the relief of unemployment are as follows: (1) Publication at frequent tervals by responsible authorities, either trade or governmental, of the condition of the labor market, for the purpose of assisting workmen who seek employment, and of preventing an excessive migration from the country into the city. (2) The establishment of employment bureaus and registry offices in order to bring employers and laborers together more promptly. Neither of these agencies can greatly increase the amount of work to be performed; they do, how ever, reduce loss of time and futile effort. (3) Establishment of boards of conciliation and arbitration in order to prevent strikes and lock outs, which throw men out of work. (4) Adop tion of a shorter day of work, so as to give op portunity of employment to a greater number of workmen. This recommendation, however, does not take into account the results of past experi ence: either the productive power of those work ing is proportionately increased by the reduc tion in hours, or the cost of production is in creased, thus diminishing the purchasing power and standard of comfort of those dependent upon that particular product. (5) Restriction of immigration. In some industries, as the gar ment-making trade in the cities of the Atlantic seaboard. and the mining industry in Pennsyl vania and Illinois, there has undoubtedly been a congestion of labor owing to an excessive in flux of workmen from foreign countries; the restriction of immigration, however, involves so many consequences entirely apart from that of regularity of employment that its discussion must be omitted. (6) Establishment of labor farms or colonies for the purpose of training workmen for agricultural life. The most notable of these experiments are the Labor Colonies of Germany; that of Hadleigh, in England, estab lished by the Salvation Army; the Jewish colo nies in Alliance and Woodbine, New Jersey; and certain land settlements in New Zealand. Nearly every country. moreover. has experimented along this line. hut the results are not as a whole en couraging. It is undoubtedly one of the methods to be utilized, but it appears to be unfitted to serve as a complete remedy. Agricultural labor is not highly paid, and during the past half century has been subjected to enormous strains caused by the opening up of new markets of supply. Nor can it be expected that a miscel laneous collection of workmen taken from the city will succeed in entirely new pursuits upon the land. Again, urban workmen who have been unused to farm life are likely to be attracted by numerous associations to the charm of city residence. Success can be hoped for only when the colonists are inspired by an earnest spirit, can settle upon land of especially favorable quality, and are supplied with a considerable amount of initial capital. (7) insurance against unemployment. This has been tried in a few towns in Switzerland, as Bern, Saint Gall, and Basel. In Bern the insurance is voluntary; in Saint Call compulsory. In each the enterprise is undertaken by the municipality. The scheme adopted in Bern in 1S93 provides for the pay ment of monthly dues of 40 centimes, to which the town adds a small subsidy of 5000 francs. The value of the out-of-work benefit is one franc for unmarried, and one and a half franc for married men. per day. Relief is granted only during the winter months. The Swiss projects have been in operation for too short a period to justify any conclusion as to their applicability elsewhere on a large scale. It may, however, be seriously doubted whether any employment is a sufficiently regular phenomenon to admit of actuarial calculations as is the case with death, sickness, and even accidents. (8) The extension of State industrial enterprise. This in particular is the remedy offered by the Socialists. (Sec