I do not underrate the difficulty of applying this principle of
industrial relief over the whole field of industry. There is the great
difficulty of defining an industry, or drawing the lines of demarcation
between one trade and another. I have not time to elaborate those
difficulties, but I consider that they constitute an insuperable
obstacle to anything in the nature of an Act of Parliament, which would
impose forcibly upon each industry the obligation to work out an
unemployment scheme. The initiative must come from within the industry;
the organisations of employers and employed must get together and work
out their own scheme, on their own responsibility and with a free hand.
And, if it happens in this way--one industry taking the lead and others
following--these difficulties of demarcation become comparatively
unimportant. You can let an industry define itself more or less as it
likes, and it does not matter much if its distinctions are somewhat
arbitrary. It is not a fatal drawback if some firms and work-people are
left outside who would like to be brought in. And if there are two
industries which overlap one another, each of which is contemplating a
scheme of the kind, it is a comparatively simple matter for the
responsible bodies in the two industries to agree with one another as to
the lines of demarcation between them, as was actually done during the
war by the Cotton Control Board and the Wool Control Board, with
practically no difficulty whatever. But for such agreements to work
smoothly it is essential that the industries concerned should be anxious
to make their schemes a success; and that is another reason why you
cannot impose this policy by _force majeure_ upon a reluctant trade. It
is in the field of industry that the real move must be made.
But I think that Parliament and the Government might come in to the
picture. In the first place, the ordinary national system of
unemployment relief, which must in any case continue, might be so framed
as to encourage rather than to discourage the institution of industrial
schemes. Under the Insurance Act of 1920 "contracting out" was provided
for, but it was penalised, while at the present moment it is prohibited
altogether. I say that it should rather be encouraged, that everything
should be done, in fact, to suggest that not a legal but a moral
obligation lies upon each industry to do its best to work out a
satisfactory unemployment scheme. And, when an industry has done that, I
think the State should come in again. I think that the representative
joint committee, formed to administer such a scheme, might well be
endowed by statute with a formal status, and certain clearly-defined
powers--such as the Cotton Control Board possessed during the war--of
enforcing its decisions.
But--and, of course, there is a "but"--we cannot expect very much from
this in the near future. We must wait for better trade conditions before
we begin; and, as I have already indicated, the prospects of really good
trade in the next few years are none too well assured. For a long time
to come, it is clear, we must rely upon the ordinary State machinery for
the provision of unemployment relief; and, of course, the machinery of
the State will always be required to cover a large part of the ground.
The liability which an industry assumes must necessarily be strictly
limited in point of time; and there are many occupations in which it
will probably always prove impracticable for the occupation to assume
even a temporary liability. For the meantime, at any rate, we must rely
mainly upon the State machinery. Is it possible to improve upon the
present working of this machinery? I think it is. By the State machinery
I mean not merely the Central Government, but the local authorities and
the local Boards of Guardians.