Ministry of Labour.

Part of Civil Estimates, 1929. – in the House of Commons at on 24 April 1929.

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Photo of Mr George Barker Mr George Barker , Abertillery

Once again the Minister of Labour has been ignoring the main facts in regard to the unemployment problem. During the whole life of this Government no opportunity has been lost by the Opposition of forcing the unemployment problem upon the attention of the Government. This question has been raised over 20 times during the lifetime of the present Parliament, and every time it has been ignored by the Government. We have three parties in this House, and two of them have produced schemes, or profess to have schemes, to deal with this great problem. The Liberal party within a few months of the General Election brought forth their scheme, and there is one thing to be said for that scheme, namely, that it has arrested the attention of the whole nation and has made the unemployment problem the main issue of the General Election.

The Labour party embodied their their scheme to deal with unemployment in a Measure known as the Prevention of Unemployment Bill, which has been introduced into this House on no less than three different occasions. That Bill will eventually find its way on to the Statute Book, and it will be placed there by the Labour party. The 30th of May next will be the judgment day for the present Government. I am not going to make any predictions about the result of the General Election, because no one can predict with any certainty what the verdict will be. Nevertheless, I strongly believe that this country will not endure for another generation a Conservative Government. The present Government have left a terrible legacy behind them. The Minister of Labour and his Department have been engaged during the whole time they have been in office in digging the grave of the Government, and to-day they are deservedly held in contempt by the entire nation.

The question of unemployment will destroy the Government, because they have done their best to destroy the moral of one of the finest industrial populations on the globe. The action of the Government towards the miners has been callous in the extreme. At the eleventh hour the Government brought forward their de-rating proposals, but what have those proposals done for the coal industry? It is claimed that they will give the coal industry the benefit of 7d. per ton. but before that money reaches the pockets of the coalowners the shipowners are going to put up their freights by 2s. per ton. Since the de-rating proposals have come into operation the price of coal has gone up 2s. or 3s. per ton, which shows that those proposals have had nothing whatever to do with the revival of the coal trade. The Government have no plan or scheme to deal effectively with unemployment, and they have inflicted incredible and indescribable misery upon huge masses of the population.

Not only this, but they have forced into bankruptcy many necessitous areas, and they have done nothing for those areas. The Government have found money to relieve the landowners and rich capitalists like the Courtaulds and the Coats, but they have done nothing to help the necessitous areas. In the area in which I live the rates have gone up 1s. 6d. in the £, and they are now over 26s. in the £. The assessments have also gone up during the last seven or eight years by over 40 per cent. By their inactivity, the Government have so burdened the necessitous areas that it is now quite impossible for people to live in them. Hundreds and hundreds of people are brought up at every police court for neglecting to pay their rates, and they are let off because they have no money. That is the result of the work of the Government. We have heard a good deal about the transference scheme inaugurated by the Government. The Minister of Labour was indignant to-day because he had been charged with administrative oppression, but the hon. Member for West Nottingham (Mr. Hayday) dealt very amply with that point, and he has proved up to the hilt the charge that has been made against the Minister himself and against his administration.

The condition which has been in force about "genuinely seeking work" is a disgrace to any Government. The result has been that men living in an extensive area are expected to walk as far as 50 miles in search of work, or else they are liable to have their unemployment benefit stopped. I think that is oppression in the worst sense of the word. That is what has been done, and it is being done at the present time. The Labour Department have actually sent men to the allotments in order to find out if any of those in receipt of unemployment pay were digging their allotments during certain hours of the day. What a stupid thing that is from an economic standpoint. By working on their allotments these men could add something to their unemployment pay. Not only that but they would be enriching the country because, metaphorically speaking, they would be "making two blades of grass grow where only one grew before." I have been amongst these allotment holders and I know that they are afraid to go to their allotments during the scheduled working hours and they are obliged to go there only in the evening. I think that is persecution and tyranny, in fact, it is despicable tyranny and the Minister of Labour knows all about it. The right hon. Gentleman is bound to know of this kind of tyranny because it is going on continuously.

With reference to the transference scheme, I have given the right hon. Gentleman one or two cases. He has one before him now, and I hope he will deal with it quickly, because it is a very serious matter. A man and his wife went from Abertillery to Norfolk, a distance of nearly 300 miles, taking their goods and everything that they had, on the strength of the assurance of the Ministry's officials in Abertillery. When they arrived, there was no one to tell them where to go, and at last they found that the place was five miles from the railway station. There was no water, the house had not been inhabited for 12 months, and it was damp and unfit for human habitation. There was nothing for them to do but return at their own expense, bringing back their goods to Abertillery, and last Saturday they came to my house to ask me what I could do for them, because the railway company would not liberate their goods as they had not paid the whole of the fare. I told them that the case was in the hands of the Ministry of Labour. I have told the right hon. Gentleman of the urgency of the case, and I hope that, as a result of the representations which have been made to him, he will find out the rights and wrongs of this matter and bring speedy relief to these people.

The transference scheme is all moonshine. It is a mockery to try to deal with a problem involving 1,200,000 people by such a scheme. The Minister himself has to admit that he has only found employment for 17,000, and he cannot tell this Committee how many have been displaced by those people. It is absurd to say that you can draft unemployed men into an area where there are already thousands unemployed and not displace some of these. In the mining areas of South Wales our people are being martyred by this Government. It is an awful disgrace that the Government should have gone on for years until they have reached the eve of a General Election, and then dispense charity in the shape of a Mansion House Fund. They are utterly bankrupt of ideas. All that they can say is that trade will revive. They have been saying that for five or six years, and during that time our people have been starving. The Government have occupied the benches opposite, they have drawn their salaries, and they are the accredited Ministers of the Crown, but they have scandalously neglected their work. They have looked on unemployment with absolute indifference, if not disdain. In my opinion, under a Conservative Government the country will go from bad to worse. It will only be when the country gets a change of Government and a new social order that it will be possible to deal with a problem like this.

Every improvement that is made in the process of production under the present system throws people out of employment. In the mining industry, coal-cutting machines, conveyors, electric haulage, and other improvements are being introduced, throwing men out of work, because the working man is not allowed to get any benefit from the machine. The Government go on year after year preaching these obsolete, worn-out ideas in this House, but they have no vision and no intention of doing anything for the country. They are rapidly bringing this country down to the lowest level that it has reached for a century. I have heard nearly the whole of this Debate, and have heard 20 Debates of the same kind, but I did expect that at the eleventh hour the Government would make some attempt to deal with this problem. All that they can do, however, is to jibe and sneer at the two Opposition parties. At any rate, we can say that we have a scheme. We have brought it before this House, and the Government themselves have turned it down, but the Government, upon whom the responsibility lies, have never brought an alternative proposal before the House. Their own record would condemn them, even if no one on the Opposition side of the House said a word to the country about them. The country itself is thoroughly disgusted with them, and even their own supporters know very well that to contemplate another period with this Government in office is utterly impossible. "Ye shall know them by their fruits," and at long last, at any rate, they will have their reward.