Evening Star Newspaper, December 28, 1930, Page 29

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THE SUNDAY 'GREAT EVILS APPEAR IN ENGLAND’S DOLE Politics and Fraud Have Entered Into Unemployment Scheme Much to Disinterest of the Nation. (Continued Prom Third Page.) his own feet. His fighting spirit was not undermined. His hard fiber was not softened. He was encouraged to pre- serve his sense of individual responsi- bility. His family were kept looking to him and not to any body behind him, a union or the state, for the meal ticket when the labor market failed in that locality. ‘The years between 1904 and 1908 ‘were slump years. The treasuries of the trades unions were gutted. Liberals— they look like conservatives now, but they were very radical then, and Lloyd George was in his heyday, baiting the dukes and bringing in & people's budget —were in power. They wanted to get the state into the business which had 8o stimulated the growth of the trades unions, ‘This unemployment insurance sound- od socialistic. But when you got down % it with accountants and actuaries and examined the benefit records of the chief unions you found that the risk was measurable and could be insured sgainst at a moderate premium like any other risk. The grandiose idea of pool- ing the unemployment risks of all ‘workers and replacing the old trade- union machinery by a modern plant—a nation-wide labor exchange system and & compulsory system of contributory in- surance, with the employer paying 5 | 3 cents, the worker 5 cents and the state 8 cents—looked fine. Put Through as Experiment. It was accordingly put through as an experiment scheme three years before | the war. Only 2,500,000 workers were covered by it. They were in trades which statistics showed were especially lable to periodic fluctuations of pros- perity. There were also various safeguards on the lines of the old self-help union rinciple—a_waiting period of a week fore the benefits began, no benefit ayable to any one under 17, 10 con- ibutions by the worker before he was entitled to any benefit, one week's ben- efit and no more for five contributions, no more than 15 weeks' benefit in any year. 8o most dole schemes start. How they end is another matter. The system is and always has been & tripartite one,- with the worker con- tributing his quota (now 14 cents), his employer his (now 16 cents) and the state its (now a sum amounting to half whatever the combined contribution of worker and employer amounts to. But notable changes have occurred. For a start, the scheme has been kicked clean off its actuarial and insurance basis and % now in the blue. Trade in Cycles. . Trade goes in cycles. of the scheme recognized that. They called in actuaries and were advised that their scheme was actuarially sound, the sense t income and expenditure would balance over a pe- riod of from 10 to 15 years, including good, bad and average experiences of employment. If unemployment was light, a reserve would be accumulated in the fund, which could be drawn upon later on when the toll of the jobless in- creased. Conversely, a deficit occurring in earlier years of the cycle would be met by advances from the exchequer— de., the taxpayer. So far, 50 good. What had been fore- told occurred. One year the fund was out about $50,000,000. Another year it was in $100,000, But that was long ago. As I have said; the fund can borrow from the exchequer in hard years. The exchequer takes it from the taxpayer (and doesn’t pay him back!). of this borrowing was fixed by Parlia- ment at $150,000,000. No one thought to $200,000,000, and it Went up $50,000,~ 000 at a time until in November's last week it was notched up amid roars of protest from the opposition repre- senting the taxpayers who have to Zoot the bill to $350,000,000. Taxpayers to Pay. And this colossal overdraft sees the fund through only: until the end of 1930. In theory this loan will be repaid. In fact it will be collected in cash from fhe taxpayers next year and it never Wil be repaid. It would require 20 ears of boom conditions, approximat- those America enjoyed for the first ‘war decade, to accumulate in the und a surplus big enough to wipe out the overdraft. And, so far from booms being in sight, many observers say that England, and indeed most industrial States, have | reached a point where they will have to face for many years a permanent unemployment problem, owing to the gmgreszlve elimination of human labor y the machine and improved processes generally. Apart, then, from what has come into the fund through 1930 from the contributions of employers and workers lus the graduated State grant and has n pald out again in doles, the State thas had to find an additional $335,- 000,000, and is handing this bill to the small body of income taxpayers (in- comes of more than $2,500 number less than half a million in Britain). All this has come as a shock and & surprise to the island folk outside the Labor-Socialist circle (and they are Qugity sick, aithough for ather reasons). hich only goes to prove that, as Ein- stein demonstrated, things are not al- ways what they seem. The level road upon which the statesmen, sociologists mathematicians and economists thought they had set their scheme towun proved not to be level at W11, but really a long and steady decline which took a steep tilt as soon as a strong radical element crowded into a front seat in the polit- fcal arena. The whole scheme is now toboganning toward bankrupter, having passed the {insurance and actuarial straight and narrow months ago at high speed. Actuaries Held Wrong. Those actuaries have been all wrong. | Nowhere were they more wrong than thelr anticipation nine years back that one-third of the would cut loose insured population | from the genefal | out” by indus- ing their own schemes and getting them approved. These were the banking and insurance workers, totaling only 126,000 persons all told y No industry can get out now—at | Jeast until the unemployment fund has s debt to the exchequer industry, having got the vants to get out. The or- 3 the tax- &nr to foot the whole bill, relieving h the worker and employer of their contributions. If they begin to con- ment as best handled as a gencral risk affecting all industries. Each group is afraid that if it gets out now it may find ftself at some time or other en- tangled in a big slump, when it will s indus T its own workers in- ble to pass the buck as a whole and the of taxpayers. grant from the state act rating the dole sys- has to come up in Parllamens every or rebate and every time it gets its conditions and restrictions ned some more. d bore you—it bores England its progressive deterioration. is one of befiefits gradually and conditions and restric- | and his dependents, not excluding his mistress. Reasonable folk may wonder why the system continues when it is riddled with 50 many abuses and underlying evils. The answer requires only one word— politics. Reasonable folk may again ask whether politics cannot be kept out. ‘The answer is “No.” politics out of a fund controlled in a democratic state by the government of the day, a fund swelled by a state grant of (in practice) an unlimi a fund today maintaining 2,500,000 peo- the | 3 You cannot keep compan: this ited amount, covering 12,000, (all buf ;&i\\\i\\\i\\x\ \ 0 Bed Room Suites Reduced Here’'s How You Save! $99.50 four-piece walnut-finished bed room suite, consisting of a bed, dresser, French vanity and chest of drawers. Pre-Inventory Sale price $167.00 four-piece solid oak deco- rated bed room suite, consisting of a . vanity dressing table, wood bed, dresser and chest of drawers. Pre-Inventory Sale price, differe; I the fund two w0 co-operate. An all-party mmu?:ut lndmflubly falled to Ramsay MacDonald business into a ro; is the traditiona awkward question a British doesn't want to mr, politician will sympathize Adds to Cost of Dole. ‘The situation now is rather as if the representatives of the rgollcyholden had got control of the boa and the bank behind it, with mce: that the bank behind the British insurance company is the income-tax payer, who takes longer to bankrupt ordinary bank. 1930—PART TWO. too much of this sort of (the insurance contributions all |all over the country, and as COTTespON! ly lower) get g&vfly. Girls AR, WASHINGION, D. C, DECEMBER 28, the fund has eon- |under 31 are graded 18- 2.25 i some having wives who | This opening of two votes). siderably added to the cost of main-|and d wide to all | taining the dole. In the November de- | around being the la mand for an additional $50,000,000 to | §: and $3.50, Tes) see the fund through December, it was | under 17 5. disclosed that $20,000,000 was required for married women, seasonal workers and others who, as the Labor ministry put it & year back, “are not really in the :r‘l_ll'klt a8 competitors for employ- ment. T %ig E 1 i Some Prefer to Idle. Still, among the 2,500,000 workers there is a section that prefers the dole to work and gets along; there are boys who draw the dole and live at home; This means that motor coach drivers, | there are married couples who both serving girls in Summertime cafes and | draw the dole; there are men who get the like get pocket money through their odd jobs and earn maybe five or ten off season, no matter how much they |dollars a week and still draw the dole; were earning in their busy season. It|there are a whole multitude of pro- also means that a woman who has kept fessional beggars, street singers, tum- her job after marr! or taken one |blers and what not, all drawing the dole. after marriage gets the dole if she is| Frauds are not easy to detect, and|Started, he found the men idling and out of a job, without reference to what | the will to detect them varies with dis- | employing the most time-wasting method her husband, sons or daughters may be | tricts. There was an experimental drive of doing the job. Accordingly, he took making. one year. Suspects amounted to 11,413, |0ff his coat and went to work with |H ‘The dole is not enough to keep the [ But evidence sufficient to warrant pros- them, showing them how things should nuinely unemployed from looking und in only 1,964 cases, (be done. Next day 8 of the 22 had de- d and anxiously for work. It is 1964 cases convictions |cided to go back to the dole. $4.25 a week for an adult male up to | were obtained in 1844 cases. From Jobs Are Open. 65, plus $2.25 for his wife or any other | which it may be thered that the au- one adult dependent upon him, plus 50 | thorities have to very sure of them- | Evidence of a letter in an inquiry into cents for every dependent child. (He | selves before y move, and also that | the seasonal unemployment fleld: “Dur- may add union benefits to that) A |the fraudulent dole drawers have to be|ing the three months’ season in this woman gets slightly less and the grad- south coast resort boarding houses, ho- ing is slightly different. For instance, she has a 21-25 years' class, when she $3.75 & week dole. were convicted of obtaining the dole by false declarations of unemployment. The English representative of a lead- ing American ba: house, who owns an estate in Kent, told me this story. He thought he would help the local problem a bit by es work on his | garden. Through the local employment agency he engaged 22 men, and on the agency’s advice paid the minimum wage for that district. Visiting the garden on the first day after the work had been : i to, invited the other i | 2 g Observation on anomalies by Blanes- burgh committee commission, which has pigeonhole for any vernment tackle for quite a while. with of an insurance very stupid before they get caught. A few sidelights on the dole from day to day may be ill tels, laundries, etc., employ numerous women, both married and singl At the end of the season these women are TR The HUB Furniture Co. The HUB Furniture Co. RE-INVENTORY DAys AT THE Hus “Clearing the Decks for Clearance!” Here's Where You Save Money by Spénding It Pull-Up Chait Boudoir Chair $8.95 Value $8.98 Value 4.8 4 .98 seit chath: A comfortable arm- u 0l 8 tered all over in chair of mahogany- cretonne. finished hardwood, Finished with form -fitting with valance seat and back, cov- ered with velour. An all around. A decorative chair for ideal chair for hall or living room. luminating. Here is a November: “There is Cabinet Smoker $2.98 Regular Price $6.98 $3.98 Bird Cage & Stand $1.98 A limited number of these bird cages are to be sold out at a reduced price. ‘They are made of metal in an artistic design. SN A 0 \ No Phone Orders o 50c @ Week Super Values in Dining Suites Furnish Your Living Room at a Which Say “Buy Now and Save” Saving—Here Are Real Values $127.00 four-piece genuine welnut- veneered bed room suite, consisting of @ cheot of drawers, dresser, wood bed and venity. Pre-Inventory Sale price, ‘84 $209 Colonial maple four-piece bed room suite, consisting of a poster bed, vanity dressing table, dresser and chest of drawers. Pre-Inventory Sale price, Fiber Suites 10% to 30% Discounts $53.00 Fiber Suite, consist. ing of a three-cushion set armchair and rocker. Cretonne covered seat cush- $39.75 Fiber Suite, consist- ing of a settee, srmchair and rocker. Cretonne cov- ered auto type seat cushions, $25.80 tee, [ - o $38.90 | Wi . Less Tubes See and hear it Tt T, d accuracy in Philco Radio i69:2 Pey Next Year $119 ten-piece walnut-finished dining room suite (gumwood foundstion), im- cluding leather seat chairs. 79 $215 Louis XVI tea-piece genuine walitut-veneered dining room suite with velour seat chairs. Crotch vencered s $179 gonuine walnut-veneered dining suite of ten picces (gumwood founds- tion), including e pedestal table and velour seat chairs. ‘119 $249 genuine mahogany - veneered Duncan Phyfe dining room suite of ten pieces, including tapeitry seat chairs. 189 Invest Your Christmas “Money Gifts” in a Radio Before you invest your Christmas savings in- vestigate the bountiful returns to be derived from the ownership of a RADIO. At The HUB you will find the leading makes of nationally known Radios at national re-sale prices and on EASY TERMS. NO ADDED COST FOR CREDIT $5.00 Down Delivers a Radio LB 7th and D Streets. N.W. Atwater Ként ht-tube, all-electric in ‘walnut-veneered the new quick- uminated $98.7§ three-piece corduroy wuphol- stered living room suite—settes, arm« cheir and butten-beck chair. Loose cushions. -60 $129.75 combination (wool) mohair suite, consisting of a settes and two pring-filled seat $109 three-piece living reom suite uphelstered in jacquard velour. Laoss oushiems. Reduced to 792 _8209‘ nuine mohair Emhn&-l suite of ‘three pigces. Ve feet. Moquette ?.f n\u side of 5149 Breakfast Suites’ 10% to 30% Discounts

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