Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress. : Appendix Volume VIII. Minutes of evidence (123rd to 138th days) with appendix. This volume contains the oral and written evidence of witnesses relating chiefly to the subject of "unemployment."

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress.
Date:
1910
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress. : Appendix Volume VIII. Minutes of evidence (123rd to 138th days) with appendix. This volume contains the oral and written evidence of witnesses relating chiefly to the subject of "unemployment.". Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    34/674 (page 18)
    IS Mr. William H. Beveridge. minutes op evidence : Labourers' Trade Unions. 14 Oct. 1907. 1892. 1895. 1900. 1904. Members in thousands. Per cent, of 1892. Members in thousands. Per cent, of 1892. Members in thousands. Per cent, of 1892. Members in thousands. Per cent, of 1892. Estimated population of United Kingdom. 38,134-1 100 39,220-1 103 41,152-5 108 42,793-3 112 Membership of all trade unions. 1,503-2 100 1,415-8 94 1,928-9 128 1,866-8 124 Membership of 100 principal trade unions. (15th Keport). 893-3 100 907-5 101 1,149-9 128 1,127-5 126 Membership of 8 trade unions of labourers.f 110-2 100 77-9 71 114-6 104 83-9 76 Membership of remain- ing 92 principal trade unions. 783-1 100 829-6 106 1,035-3 132 1,043-6 133 Short time as a means of meeting trade fluctuations. Better distribution of necessary work as a means of meeting trade fluctuations. All remedies tobeeflective pre-suppose ■organisation of labour market through employment «xchanges. 'tJermau labour exchanges, 5 main tyi>es 74. Short time meets the case of trade fluctuation evec more completely in the other half of the skilled and organised industries (notably textiles and coal-mining). Instead of some men being wholly imemployed during a crisis while others go on full time or overtime, aU go on short time. If the normal working hours in all industries were reduced in times of depression and increased in times of expansion, the actual number of individuals employed could be made to vary less or not at all. The difference between summer and winter hours of work in the building trade is a practical instance to the point. The burden of the seasonal contraction of employment is to the extent of this difference automatically distributed over aU the members of the trade. 75. The better distribution of necessary work implies an attempt to steady the coiu-se of industry, by putting as much as possible of the necessary work of pubhc departments into seasons and years when ordinary in- dustry is slack, rather than into those when it is busy while keeping it absolutely on business hues. This is generally treated as a question of pubhc work only. The principle can be applied to private enterprise by anything putting a premium on getting work done in a slack rather than in a busy time. In this way the principle is already apphed in the movements of wages in the organised industries; in prosperity they rise, in depression they sink. A higher rate of wages for building operatives in summer than in winter could not but tend to make work more even aU the year round. 76. Consideration of these, as of most remedies for unemployment, leads back always to the same conclusion —that, in order to be effective, they all pre-suppose the organisation of the labour market, the bringing together under pubhc or semi-pubhc control of the whole process of industrial engagement. No remedy involving, as does every one of those mentioned in Sees. 69-75, either foresight or associated action can become universal except by the abolition of an industrial class which the conditions of its employment render physically and morally in- capable of effective foresight or association. No safe system of pubhc rehef can be anything but harsh and degrading unless the state is in a position to check the abuse of humane and honourable rehef by the test of work notified through a labour exchange. 77833. {Chairman.) You have also supplemented that paper by a statement as to German labour exchanges ?— Yes. The witness handed in the following statement :~ 1. Labour exchanges in Germany are of five main types, according as they are established and maintained by employees, by employers, by employers and employees jointlj', by special voluntary associations, and by muni- cipalities. There are also registries conducted as com- mercial undertakings and registries forming part of some philanthropic institution or dealing with some special class of people (discharged prisoners, cripples, etc.). 2. The employees' (trade imion) exchanges, though German formally very numerous, are of importance only in a few trade union special trades or towns (hatmakers), exchanges. 3. The employers' exchanges are of two types: (i.) Employers' those established by the guilds or statutory associations exchanges, of small masters (bakers, butchers, barbers, shoemakers, etc.); (ii.) those established by employers' associations in the modem factory or large scale industries. The guild exchanges are, like the trade union ex- changes, very numerous, but generally imimportant and perfunctory. The modern employers' exchanges have been established rather as weapons against the trade imions than as means of bringing would-le employers and employed into communication. In Berlin, for instance, there is a labour exchange established by the association of metal trades employers, and no workman may be engaged by a member of the association unless he possesses a certificate from the exchange indicating that he is not an agitator or otherwise undesirable. The actual engagement, however, very seldom takes place through the exchange ; and the latter is first and foremost a means of black-listing troublesome individuals. Outside Berlin employers' labour exchanges are most developed in Hamburg-Altona and other ports. 4. Of the labour exchanges established by collective agreement between associations of employers and workmen the most notable are those in the printing trades (covering the whole empire) and in brewing (in Berlin, Frankfurt and elsewhere). The Berlin Breweries Exchange is managed by a joint committee representing equally the employers' association (which includes aU the principal breweries) and the men, with an impartial non-voting chairman. The employers are pledged to take all their men—except a defined small percentage—from the exchange, and all looking round for work at the breweries is forbidden. The men registering pay a fee of 2|d. (good for three months, or tUl they get placed); from the money thus collected grants are made to men unemployed. The administrative expenses are met by the employers' association. The situations filled in 1906 numbered 9,782. 5. The last two types of exchanges—those established by special volimtary associations with or without a municipal subsidy and those established by municipalities directly—are the most important, and may be considered together. There are over 200 such amongst the 700 odd exchanges, filling now 150,000 places a month, which report regularly to the Imperial Statistical Officer. Prac- tically there is a public general exchange in every town of over 50,000 inhabitants and in a very large proportion of the smaller towns. Almost the only real exceptions to the first part of the statement are afforded by: (a) certain ports—Bremen, Liibeck, Harburg; (6) mining towns—Beuthen, Bochum, etc. The following table deals with twelve of the principal public labour exchanges, the first six of which I had the opportunity of visiting. Exchanges established by employer! and workmei jointly. Special voluntary exchanges and municipal exchange. t Generiil Liiboureis' Amalj;amated Union; Navvies, Builders and General Labourers ; Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Workers ; National Dock Labourers ; Gas Workers and General Labourers ; Gas Workers, Brick Makers and General Labourers ; National Amalgamated Labourers ; National Amalgamated Union of Labour. [These are all the labour unions included in the 100 principal anions in the 15th Annual Report of the Board of Trade on Unions].