

E-text prepared by Donald Cummings, Adrian Mastronardi, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images
generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries
(https://archive.org/details/americana)



Note: Images of the original pages are available through
      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
      https://archive.org/details/remedyforunemplo00walliala


Transcriber’s note:

      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).





Pass on Pamphlets.      No. 8.
1d.

THE REMEDY FOR UNEMPLOYMENT

ALFRED R. WALLACE







The Clarion Press,
44, Worship Street, London, E.C.


      *      *      *      *      *      *

THE CLARION.

  Edited by...
  ROBERT BLATCHFORD.

_EVERY FRIDAY._ - - _ONE PENNY._

If you want to keep to understand the Socialism which is creating such
a ferment in the country, you must read the CLARION. Order it from your
newsagent, or send for a free specimen copy.


5 Clarion Pamphlets.

  No. 44--FROM BRUTE TO BROTHER.
                            By DENNIS HIRD, M.A.

  No. 46--JESUS THE SOCIALIST.
                            By DENNIS HIRD, M.A.

  No. 47.--SEVENTEEN SHOTS AT SOCIALISM.
                               By R. B. SUTHERS.
      This is an answer in brief to Seventeen Common Objections to
      Socialism.

  No. 48.--THE CASE FOR SOCIALISM.
                                By F. HENDERSON.
      Deals with the Compensation and Confiscation question.

  No. 49.--THE PERIL OF POVERTY.
                        By Councillor McLACHLAN.

_ONE PENNY EACH_ - - _By Post, 1½d._

THE CLARION PRESS, 44, Worship Street, London, E.C.

      *      *      *      *      *      *


THE REMEDY FOR UNEMPLOYMENT.

BY DR. ALFRED R. WALLACE.


The reason why I wrote the present pamphlet (which first appeared in
the “Socialist Review,” and is now reprinted in a slightly modified
form) was that, although there is a small body of avowed Socialists
in Parliament, not one of them has, so far as I am aware, upheld any
of the fundamental principles of Socialism as a means of dealing with
the greatest of present-day problems--that of chronic unemployment and
starvation all over our land. Let me illustrate what I mean by a few
examples. Perhaps the most fundamental and universally admitted axiom
of Socialism is that all production should be, primarily, _for use and
not for profit_; and the next in importance is that the true or proper
_wages of labour_ is _the whole product of that labour_.

But neither in Parliament nor out of it has a single voice been raised
to show that these principles _must_ be adopted in any permanent
solution of the problem, or to explain how they _can_ be applied far
more easily and economically than any of the suggested alleviations.
All the talk has hitherto been of securing trade union rates of wages
for out-of-works of every kind; and the underlying idea has always been
that of the non-Socialist worker--that the Government provision of
work must _not_ be looked upon as permanent, but only as enabling the
worker to live till the capitalist employer again requires him.

An equally non-Socialist view was put forth by one of the most
respected Socialists in Parliament when he advocated the immediate
construction of light railways all over the country in order that when
labour was brought back to the land the products could be carried
economically to market, implying that the “products” were to be sold,
thus competing in the market with those of other producers, lowering
prices, and altogether ignoring the great Socialist principle of
“production for use.” In the discussion of this question it has been
totally overlooked that by a proper organisation of the labour of
the permanently or temporarily unemployed, as well as of all those
whose employment does not supply them with the means of a thoroughly
sufficient and healthy existence, all the necessaries and comforts of
life can be produced in our own country, just as they were produced
down to a few centuries ago. I will now proceed to the exposition of
the whole subject.

In order that those who have not read the Labour Party’s Unemployed
Workmen Bill may understand why it could not have succeeded, a short
statement of its essential provisions may here be given.

The first clause provides that the “Local Unemployment Authority”
under this Bill shall be