Their weekly income consists of 168 Unemployment Insurance Grant for the man, and a depend. ants, allowance of 6s for, the wife and a shilling each for the children. The grandmother was drawing the Old Age Pension of 10s per weeks. the man's trade union paid him 108 per week from a fund maintain by a special levy on his fellow craftsmen in work. Most of the akuled trade unions pay a grant of this kind. This made the joint come of the family 428 per week Their house was 1 six-roomed one ina working das suburb and the out was 11s 2d por week. They sublet one room for 6s Gd, which made their net rent 4s 8 His wife was very discursive on the standard of living possible with this income. From her we gather-fed that breakfast consisted of and toasted bread and margarine, he midday meal consisted of meat and two vegetables followed by Boiled rice. Tea was the same as breakfast with the occasional addition of herrings or kippers when they were cheap, and for supper there was bread and margarine and cocoa. Gas for lighting and cooking cost 1s. Sd per week, and coal 38, The housewife's greatest. pro-Blom was clothes and boots. Her house was clean and neat, but it was evident that all the curtains, tablecloths, and clothes of the family were threadbare and badly worn. She said it was only possible to spare 38 por week for clothes and boots, and that only paid for leather and materials for monding.
Vested Interests.
should be noted that although the whole of this family's income consisted of grants, none of them were strictly charitable grants or Poor Law Relief. They were a part of what might now be called the vested interests of a British workman. And in addition to these Girect [payments there were other benefits. Ten minutes walk from his house there are municipal baths and wash houses carried on at great Joss by the corporation. "In these his wife for a few coppers could have the use of every modern power-driven Laundry device for doing her week's washing in a few hours and drying and mangling it. This abolishes the dirt and discomfort of the old washing day in the home. And for 24. it is possible to get the use of a sumptuously appointed private" bathroom with unlimited station and with it he was receiving a seven-hour daily programme consisting: of the latest news, the best voeul and instrumental music, and the most interesting lectures and plays.
He said that he got up about 8.30, after breakfast went to the trade union "out-of-work room" to ign on' and see if there were any jobs in the papers. Twice a wack he had also to go to the Labour Exchange und make a formal application for work at the vacancy counter. There never was any work to be had there, he said, but it was necessary to do this to fulfil the Uuemployment—Committee's demand that he should prove he was looking for work. His trade union forbade its members to 40 round the workshops seeking work as it had a tendency to bring wages down. Applications for men had to bbe sent to the union offices who then supplied the employer with a list of the men out of work.
After signing on at the out-of-work room he usually went on to the allotment garden he rented from the municipality at a nominal rent and did a few hours' work. After dinner he did any boot mending or other sensual job that needed doing in the home and then spent the rest of the day reading or listening in' on his wireless set.
There are tens of thousands of unemployed in the same position as this man and his family. The two circumstances that lift them above the destitute remainder are membership of a good trade union that has not frittered its reserves away in hopeless disputes, and the luck of being a householder. When all the expensive indirect benefits are added to the direct cash payments which the State and the municipality give these members of the community, the cost of providing them with food and amusement must be enormous. And yet it is almost in-possible to put a finger on any specific benefit and say that it should be abolished or reduced, and it would be dificult to argue that some of them should not be increased.
This man is a skilled workman getting on in years and willing to work to the utmost of his capacity. There isa slump in his trade and every time there has been a vacant ey the employer or foreman has chosen a younger and more active man. For all the signs there are fat present of improvement there
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.