THE BRITISH ATTACK ON UNEMPLOYMENT

By A. C. C. Hill Jr. '25 and Isador Lubin. The Brookings Institution, 1934.

In The British Attack on Unemployment, Mr. Hill and Mr. Lubin discuss the most pressing problem of our time, in the light of British experience. Americans too often see the British experience in terms of unemployment insurance alone. But the British attack has been carried out on many fronts. And for Americans who imagine that the problem of social security can be disposed of by instituting unemployment and other kinds of insurance, the British example is a necessary guide.

The British System revolves importantly around the Employment Exchanges. Here workers register and employers apply for labor; here jobs are found and workers transferred to other markets, given aid, removed from the market. The great task of the Exchanges is the managing of the insurance scheme.

In dealing with the problem of unemployment, the British have found that prevention has a part no less important than provision. Accordingly, they have developed agencies for the transference of labor, the guiding of juveniles, the training of workers for new occupations or restoring industrial soundness, the creation of relief projects, and public works. In spite of so complete a system, the need for agencies of Poor Relief and private charities has not disappeared.

The book, approximately 300 pages in length, is heavily documented. It contains many tables and explanatory notes, but it it is not difficult to read in the sense that it requires an elaborate economic technique. It is well and clearly written.

A quarter of a century ago the British attack began. It has undergone many changes. Though certain of the methods have been questioned unemployment insurance has received the warmest support from all political parties and all classes in the community. Fears that insurance has increased the immobility of labor, raised the costs of production, demoralized the workers, are all proved by the authors to be without foundation.

At a time when social security has come to occupy first place in American economic policy, "a sister country's experimentation" —in the words of the director of the study —clearly cannot be ignored. For Britain is the only country comparable to America in institutions and industrial development. And lacking experience of our own in America, it is inevitable that, in large outline, the British example must be followed closely.

Anyone who seriously concerns himself with the problem of unemployment can hardly afford to neglect a study such as this.