moothly 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.

THE PRESENT MACHINERY OF RELIEF

At present what is the situation? Most unemployed work-people are
entitled to receive certain payments from the Employment Exchang