to great suffering, and if immigrants cannot be directed to actual scenes of occupation, they might be sent to the care of a duly appointed agent or representative worthy of the confidence of the home city, who should be responsible for their well-being until an opening for work could be found, and who would receive payment on account of repayment of expenses incurred in connection with their removal from the old country. Persons going out on their own account are, naturally, at liberty to take a more independent line, but no one should venture upon such a course unless in possession of sufficient ready cash to tide them over several weeks. While employment may often be obtained for desirable skilled immigrants in the large centres, it is much better that newcomers to Canada should go out west, where there is ample room and a good opportunity to become experienced in agriculture or other industries of the country, with the hope of later engaging in the same on their own responsibility. It was not my good fortune to go far in this direction, but at a farm visited near Hamilton there were gathered in the season now closing ten tons of grapes and a large quantity of tomatoes, all grown in the open air. It was not pleasing to hear of a party of immigrants who were met on landing by settlers from a district 150 miles west of Montreal, anxious to make engagements, but who informed the farmers that they (the newcomers) were bent on remaining in the city, and nothing would induce them to go into the country.

Few who are advanced in years can be considered desirable immigrants; the younger the people are when they go out as settlers in the country it seems to me to be better, and the hope of Canada as regards population lies in the children and young men and young women arriving there, the latter especially, females being particularly needed. So strongly is this felt by the Canadian Government, that there is a department at Ottawa responsible for the oversight of young immigrants and settlers. No one coming under the purview of distress committees would, of course, for financial reasons be sent out to start farming operations at once. The qualities necessary to an assured success are to be steady and of good character, with a healthy mind in a sound body, and a determination to succeed. Canada has no place for kid-gloved persons seeking a handy fortune, but those who are physically

able and sufficiently in earnest to take the position seriously, and to work hard early and late at times, may expect to achieve a considerable amount of success in a country that is as prolific as it is great. The cost of food in America, both in Canada and the United States, is much the same as at home, and this may also be said regarding clothing. The charge for railway travelling is not excessive, being about one penny per mile. The companies run only one class of carriage for ordinary passengers, but for an extra payment superior accommodation can be had on many of the trains in a Pullman company's carriage.

Outward signs of poverty and suffering are absent, and although I observed one child minus shoes and stockings, it was in a country district, I did not see a man, woman, or child in ragged clothing in either the United States or Canada, and in neither country is there a workhouse. Amongst the people of both countries there is a high tone of character, and a marked regard for the well-being of women and children. Women do not visit the public. houses, at least in Canada, and in that country these saloons, as they are termed, are closed from seven o'clock on Saturday evening to the same hour on Monday morning.

The immigrants into Canada this year may, possibly, reach a quarter of a million, and all suitable persons going out under proper conditions can count upon a welcome from the hospitable Canadians, whose affection for the old country is no more capable of being measured than is their loyalty thereto.

It is considered that the capital value of Canada is increased to the extent of three hundred pounds sterling by the additon of each able bodied man to the population of the country.

Assuring you of my respect,-I am, Ladies and Gentle

men,

Yours faithfully, JOHN LEA, Chairman of the Distress Committee.

Liverpool, 18th November, 1907.

N.B.-Since the above was written a local newspaper has given a cable report of a meeting held at Toronto with the object of checking improvident immigration.J.L.

1. In October, 1896, I was appointed Organising Delegate for the Tees and Hartlepools section of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, which position I still hold. During this period I have been in close touch with all the trade movements in this district. I have been a member of the education authority since 1899 and a member of the town council since 1901, and in June last year was appointed a Justice of the Peace for the borough.

2. The number of men out of work on February 28th, 1907, according to the Return furnished me, was 500. Of these 390 may be classed as belonging to the shipbuilding and engineering trades, and 110 as belonging to the building trades. In addition to the above there are a number (say about 250) of men out of work, principally unskilled labourers, who are not connected with any organisation.

3. Unemployment is chronic in the building trade, and periodic in shipbuilding and engineering trades.

4. For some years there has been great speculation in house property. Houses were built much in excess of our needs, consequently we are now considerably overbuilt, and it will, I am afraid, be some years before this trade recovers its normal condition.

5. We are almost solely dependent on the shipbuilding industry, our iron and steel works, blast furnaces, sawmills and engineering works all depending to a large extent upon the condition of trade in our local shipyards. If other industries were started in the locality there would of course be an increased demand for house property, and the building trade in consequence would feel the benefit of such demand.

6. Enforced idleness causes physical degeneration, lowers the moral standard and, if long continued, brings about a loss of desire to work.

7. I am unable to suggest anything likely to prove an effective remedy for unemployment, but would mention "shorter hours and the "abolition of overtime as tending to that end. A farm colony would not, in my opinion, be suitable for this district. The expense of working it would be greater than the benefit derived would be worth. Land might be procured to be let off in portions suitable for egg and poultry farms." If this were done it would prove more profitable and would not demand a special knowledge of agriculture.

66

8. Improved machinery and more systematic organisation in the workshops has displaced, and is displacing, large numbers of men who are unable to find work elsewhere.

1. The facts appended have been collected by members and friends of the Women's Labour League, an organisation composed largely of working women. The hours of work and the wages quoted relate to individual cases, but where these differ in the same district an attempt has been made to obtain an average.

66

2. It may be taken for granted that a large number of women's trades are seasonal in their nature, and all who know the facts agree that the slack season is a very great evil. The workers are deprived of the necessities of life at this time; they get into debt, which they pay off week by week during the busy seasons; and they contract habits of laziness which it is very difficult for them to shake off. It is always impossible for them to save money. Factory and sanitary inspectors and dis

5.-In January she worked 6 days, earned

trict visitors testify unanimously that it is impossible to over-estimate the misery caused by the slack seasons. Dressmaking.

3. The dressmaking trade, about which we have most information, is slack in London during September, January and February. In August most workrooms are closed altogether. Work is never very plentiful in March.

4. We append an exact statement of the number of days worked by a visiting dressmaker during last year, the wages she earned each month, and also the amount of money she borrowed. This woman is thirty-five years. of age. She lives alone and provides entirely for herself. She is a clever dressmaker, having a teaching certificate from the London County Council dressmaking classes.

February

7

1

17 6 12 0

10s.

10s.

دو

وو

April

May

June

26

July

25

August

9

November,,

17

662232E

O and paid back 10s.

6 0

5

10s.

15s.

15s.

1

1

2s. 6d. and paid back 10s.

6 and borrowed 5s.

وو

She reckons that when she lives properly it costs her about 12s. a week. She receives her dinner when she is working.

6. The pay in dressmakers' workrooms is rather lower, and the slack seasons are practically the same. No dinner is provided in the workrooms, and the payment in suburban dressmakers' workrooms is seldom more than 12s. a full week for a practised skirt or bodice hand. Tea is sometimes provided. The fitters and cutters are paid more, and they are not dismissed during the slack season.

7. We are able to present the Commission with the exact wages earned by a woman, aged twenty-five, in a South Kensington workroom, charging West End prices: -January, 20s.; February, 30s.; March, 41s.; April, 60s., and 3s. 6d. overtime; May, 60s., and 2s. overtime; June, 60s.; July, 60s.; August, nothing; September, 10s.; October, 50s.; November, 60s.; December, 60s. The earnings in lower class workrooms would be quite 3s. a week less in busy periods. Meal times are sometimes encroached on.

8. Dressmakers rarely apply for poor relief until they are incapacitated through ill-health, but they are nearly always in debt and quite unable to save.

9. In seaside places the season is shorter and somewhat different. In Brighton, for instance, work is fairly constant during the year, but in Hunstanton there are only two months really busy.

Millinery.

10. The busy season for millinery is very much shorter than dressmaking. Here we have two distinct trades— the wholesale and the retail. Wholesale millinery work is done in the E.C. district of London, and would be an exceedingly good trade if it were not rushed entirely into the Spring season of the year-from January to June, when the chiffon hats are made for summer wear. A small amount of trade is done for export to the colonies for eight weeks during August and September and October.

11. A good wholesale milliner can scarcely hope for work for more than seven months during the year, and copyist and junior milliners are almost invariably out of work for five months.

12. The earnings of a very good junior milliner are given. For seven months in the year she earned £1 a week. She was kept at the shop during the slack period-five months -and earned 4s. a week; but this was because she was so exceptionally good that the firm did not want to lose her.

13. Some firms take advantage of the slack season to get cheap work done, and then a hat is made for 4d. instead of 1s.

14. The retail trade is also seasonal, and retail milliners are only busy in April, May, June and November. In some houses they work half-time during the slack season, coming to the shop at dinner-time. The pay of a retail milliner is about 12s. a week, and she would earn about 6s. when working half-time. In West End shops the season is very short, and considerable hardship is experienced. The trade is mainly taken up by girls whose parents are able to keep them at home during part of the year. They belong usually to a class far above those who apply for poor relief. As this is a skilled trade and an important trade, it seems curious that the workers should not be self-supporting.

Jam Workers-Lambeth and Isle of Dogs.

15. Jam is made entirely during the summer monthsJune, July, August and September-and marmalade from Christmas until February. During the other six months the workers are entirely without work unless they find employment at pickle filling. In one or two factories there are also departments for preparing soldiers' rations. In most jam factories quite half the workers are dismissed and the others have to “stand by "—that is, wait in the factory for work. No pay is received except for work actually done. Wages in busy seasons are from 10s. to 16s. a week, while in the slack seasons workers seldom earn more than 4s. a week.

16. Employers are said to prefer women with children or other relatives dependent on them, because the pres sure of their responsibility forces them to work quickly, Girls prefer more regular work. As widows with children are generally in receipt of poor relief it follows that a large number of jam workers are supported out of the rates or receive assistance from charitable sources.

Artificial Flower-makers.

17. This is a very precarious trade and the skilled worker may tramp to the factory six days a week and find no work. Flower-makers are busy in the early spring in the years when flowers are fashionable and sometimes in autumn. The pay is so low and varies so much according to the nature of the work that it is impossible to give details of the rates, but from many independent inquiries

the average may be estimated at 1d. for two hours' work. The work is usually done by widows receiving poor relief or having some other sources of income.

Jam Making-Swanley. (Information given by the Foreman of the Factory.)

18. The busy months are July, August, September, and October. The slack months are November, December, January, February, when most of the women are dismissed. In busy periods the earnings are from 12s. to 24s.; in slack periods, 10s. to 12s.

Mantle-makers (Wholesale).

19. Mantle-makers are busy from February to May, and September to November. During these months they work eleven hours a day, and earn from 10s. or 12s. to 24s. a week, according to the quality of the work and the skill of the worker. During the rest of the year there is sometimes work for eight hours a day and five days a week, and they earn from 5s. to 14s. The cheaper work is done in the slack season. The workrooms are entirely closed for a month. Very cheap work is taken to the homes of the workers.

20. Some of the workers in one factory borrowed money during the slack season from a loan club and the rate of interest worked out at 105 per cent.

Machine Hands for Cycle Trade-Coventry.

21. These workers are busy from December to July, and slack from July to December. Work ceases altogether during stocktaking. In the busy time the wages average 12s.; in the dull season they average 3s. Some workers save a little when work is very good; the majority depend on poor relief, relatives, or get into debt. Every" hand" is said to be in debt about Christmas time.

Seaside Servants-East Coast.

22. These women are busy in July and August, and work ceases altogether during the rest of the year. The workers get into debt and receive poor relief or beg. The tradespeople in these seaside resorts suffer greatly from the fact that their customers are always indebted to them.

Seaside Servants-South Coast.

23. In towns on the south coast there are three and a half months of busy work. The earnings during this period vary so much that it is quite impossible to specialise, but it may be taken for granted that distress is always rampant in seaside resorts during the winter.

There are generally nine months in the year in which there is no work, and during this period it is necessary for the worker to have poor relief if she has no other sources of income.

Felt Hat Trimmers.

24. Four months of the year are quite slack, but scarcely any of the workers are turned away in the Stockport district. In the Denton district the shops are entirely closed. Ladies' felt hats are made in the summer; men's goods in the autumn and spring. In Stockport workers wait in the factory for work. They earn from 9s. to 12s. during the slack period, and from 18s. to 25s. in the busy period. These workers are able to save. It is a very skilled trade.

Waterproof Garments.

25. These workers are busy between Whitsuntide and November, and slack for nearly four months. Work ceases almost entirely during December, January, Feb. ruary, and March. In busy periods the workers earn

from 15s. to £1 a week. In slack seasons the workers earn from 1s. 3d. to 5s. When a contract is on hand the workers are driven very hard.

Upholsterers.

26. Upholsterers are very busy from Easter to the beginning of May, and from September to November. They are slack for nearly six months in the year. The forewomen and apprentices are regularly employed; the other workers are dispensed with altogether, except that they can if they choose go to the workroom to see if any work has come in. They are not allowed to bring needlework or to read. In busy seasons the women earn from 15s. to 16s., and 6d. an hour overtime. The most overtime worked is five hours weekly. In slack seasons they think themselves lucky if they earn 4s. a week. In busy times they pay back debts, and they are never able to save. Great improvements have been affected in this trade by the visits of inspectors. The overtime in busy periods is much less, and consequently the work is spread more evenly over the year.

Tailoring Trade.

27. The ready-made tailoring trade is not seasonal, as a rule; at any rate, not to the same extent as many other trades in which women are engaged. In some places, however, only half the usual wages are earned in the summer, perhaps 7s. 6d. instead of 15s. The workers stint themselves in necessaries, but they are not in actual distress.

1. Its Extent.-I have consulted the town clerk, who informs me that you have received the fullest information direct from his office upon this subject.

2. Its Causes. The trade of Northampton is to a great extent the manufacture of boots and shoes, and during the last few years important changes have taken place in the methods of manufacture.

Forty-eight years ago machinery was unknown, and since then it has been rapidly introduced, more particularly during the last ten years. The older men engaged

in the trade have been unable to adapt themselves to the altered conditions, and have been to a great extent cast aside.

With few exceptions the manufacturers do not get sufficient profit on the volume of trade they conduct, and owing to this, and the pressure of other circumstances, men are discharged from the factories and find it difficult to obtain positions elsewhere. In my opinion the great increase of unemployment in recent years is due to the depression consequent upon the South African War,

as Northampton, in common with other towns, has suffered severely, and this again has produced a crisis in the building trade, most of the builders within the last few years, with the exception of a few more important ones, having been forced to relinquish their business.

Many men went to the war, and have never since obtained regular employment.

3. Its Effects. It is evident to the most casual observer that the effect of unemployment is demoralising to the highest degree. When men who would have continued to work fairly well under the regular conditions are once thrown out and unable to obtain employment elsewhere, they lose heart after a time, and never hope, and in many cases never desire, to get regular work again.

Owing to the great pressure that is brought to bear on governing bodies, i.e., both the Corporation and Poor Law Guardians, employment has been found in many ways, and men, finding they are able to shift with the pittance they receive in this way, prefer the irregular life and make no further attempt to get back to their previous occupation.

4. Its Remedies.-I cannot speak favourably of any local experiment that has been made as a remedy, and I am afraid that the latter paragraph of the preceding clause would give my opinion of the Unemployed Workmen's Act.

1. My knowledge of working-class conditions has been gained chiefly in the course of an investigation into the conditions of women's work in Birmingham, which occupied nearly three years. The papers, etc., collected during this time are the property of Mr. Edward Cadbury, Westholme, Selly Oak.

UNEMPLOYMENT.

2. The Class of Men out of Work.- A great number of labourers, brass-casters and other brass-workers, and a certain number of men in the jewellery-trades.

3. Extent Over-time.-We come across many men who have only been casually employed for the last four or five years and who are therefore chronic out-of-work cases. Labourers as a class suffer from much irregularity of work, and many in this neighbourhood are always short in the winter. Figures relating to unemployment in Birmingham can be obtained from the City of Birmingham Aid Society.

4. The Causes of Unemployment :—

(a) Misfortune. For example, many men drift into the ranks of the unemployed when a firm fails or winds up business. If they have been long in the one place they do not seem to settle again.

(b) Slackness of trade, or short work. Though trade is better in most respects than it was three years ago, there seems to be still much slackness in the brass-trade.

(c) Want of adaptability in the men. When driven out by a machine they seem unable to turn to any fresh trade. Similarly, few adapt themselves to change of method, etc.

(d) Want of moral stamina in the men. There is a lamentable number of men who are lazy and will not work more than they can help.

These are the causes as they strike a settlement worker. I cannot speak on the effects brought about by the state of the market etc., etc.

5. The Effects of Unemployment :

(a) Privation often brings about great deterioration in the man himself and renders him unfit for sustained employment.

(b) The children are insufficiently fed and are developing into another generation of shiftless, improvident labourers, without either physical or moral strength to persevere or to learn a proper trade.

(c) The children, and especially the girls, are forced to become unskilled workers in their turn, as a period of earning on a pocket-money wage cannot be afforded by the parents.

6. The Remedies for Unemployment.-With regard to the working of the Unemployed Workmen's Act I am unable to speak. Leaving willing and able workmen out of the question, I think that the idle should be treated on some system similar to those in force in Denmark and Austria. Children should be obliged to learn a proper trade when they leave school, and should also be kept alert and intelligent by some kind of teaching. At present a woman of thirty is often unable to change even from one kind of press to another. The years of purely mechanical work seem to kill the power of learning.

1. I am forty-six years of age, and from the age of sixteen, when I was apprenticed to the carpentry and joinery, to the age of thirty-four I was employed at that trade. Since then I have been in business as a builder and contractor, and have always a number of men in my employ varying according to the state of trade. I have, for the past twenty-six years, been a member of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, and prior to my starting in business was a member of the management committee for the local branches. I am also parochial secretary for the parish of St. John's, Cauton, Cardiff, a working class parish of about 20,000 population.

I have been a member of the Cardiff Board of Guardians for the past six years, and was elected by that body a member of the distress committee for the city of Cardiff under the Unemployed Workmen Act.

2. In Cardiff at the present time there are a great many men out of employment, equal, I think, to that of last winter, 1905-6. My reasons for thinking so are these: the out-relief paid by the Cardiff Board of Guardians at the present time is more than that paid during the winter of 1905-6, and the numbers greater.

3. The members of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners in Cardiff consist of five lodges with an aggregate membership of 600 to 700; in the winter of 1905-6 the largest number out of employment in one week was about eighty; within the last month 120 men were out of employment in one week. The same thing would apply to the other artisans and the labourers engaged in the trade.

4. It is almost impossible to give the number of men out of employment in Cardiff, and for this reason a very large proportion are engaged in work which is only casual, viz., the loading and unloading of ships, artisans, skilled and unskilled labourers, employed in the ship repairing yards and dry docks. This I should say is the staple trade of the city as far as numbers of men employed are concerned, but it is most uncertain; sometimes the yards are full of work, other times there may not be a ship in most of the dry docks.

5. I will give a case in point: one steamer came into the port a few weeks ago, employment was given, for a short period, to seventy joiners and numbers of men of other trades.

6. One great evil of this casual employment is the large number of men who come into the city from the agricultural districts in Wales and the counties of Devon and Somerset. They are tempted here by the high wages paid, compared with those paid in the agricultural districts.

The inevitable result is, they are out of employment more than they are in.

7. The problem would be very near a solution, in my opinion, if something could be done to keep them in their agricultural pursuits.

8. The depression in trade in Cardiff during the last two or three years has been very great. The building trade I should say the worst in its history. This also applies to other towns, seeing that the members of the Carpenters' and Joiners' Society have been paying nearly 2s. per week contribution instead of 1s. per week. This has been caused by the levies for the paying of out of work pay to its members.

9. Unemployment in Cardiff is caused, in my opinion, by the overstocking of the labour market generally speaking. But in the building trade, which in the past

has been one of the chief industries of Cardiff, there are at least two other reasons, viz., houses have been built far more than the requirements and the great depression which for the last three or four years has existed all over the country, from my own observation, the building trade is the last to feel a depression and the last to recover from it.

10. The Unemployed Workmen Act.-In the winter of 1905-6, when the Act was put into force in Cardiff, assisted as it was by grants from the Queen's Fund, a lot of distress was relieved. Some 800 or 900 signed the out-ofwork register, but I do not think this was one half of the number of men out of employment: a large number of men were too proud to sign it, and there was not in my recollection a member of a trade society where out of work pay is given amongst those who signed the register. They would make up a very large number, taking all the different trades engaged in Cardiff.

11. The men who signed were principally skilled and unskilled labourers, the remainder were artisans, clerks,

shop assistants, etc. I should say three-fourths of them were decent hard-working men anxious to get employment. The others were men who would be out of employment most of the time, whatever the state of trade.

The employment given and the methods are as follows:12. We put on batches from sixty to 100 per week, working for four days at the standard rate of wages of the town; laying out a new park, and cleaning out the lake of the large park at Roath. I would mention here that this work would have had to be done sooner or later by contract or otherwise.

13. This winter we have no funds; this, I think, may account for the increase in the out-relief. If the large amount of imported joinery used in this district was. made here every joiner would find employment.