the university of Virginia (1881-4), was admitted to the bar in 1884, and practised law thereafter in Birmingham, Ala. From 1895 to 1915 he was a member from Alabama of the National House of Representatives, and during his last two years chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means. After the Democrats came into power in 1913 he had a large share in framing the tariff bill passed the same year; but his attempt to establish a House Budget Committee was defeated. In 1914 he opposed the Panama Canal Tolls Repeal bill, but supported the resolution authorizing the President to use armed force in Mexico. He was opposed to the woman suffrage amendment to the Federal Constitution, holding that the question was a state issue. He also opposed the national prohibition amendment. In 1914 he was elected to the U.S. Senate, and in 1920 reflected. In 1919 he favoured the anti- strike clause of the Cummins railway bill. He was a strong supporter of the Peace Treaty of Versailles without changes; but when its ratification had been blocked by the Republicans, he attempted to bring about a compromise. In Dec. 1919 he offered a resolution in the Senate providing that the president of the Senate should appoint a committee of 10 senators to work out some acceptable plan for adopting the Peace Treaty; but this was blocked by Senator Lodge. In April 1920 he was chosen Demo- cratic leader in the Senate. He was one of the four U.S. dele- gates at the Washington Conference on the Limitation of Ar- mament which assembled in Nov. 1921.
UNEMPLOYMENT (see 27.578). Subsequently to 1910 the
provision made in the United Kingdom for the remedy of
1 unemployment was further fortified and extended. The Unemployed Workmen Act, 1905, was included each year after its
- enactment in the annual Expiring Laws (Continuance) Act.
The Act empowers local authorities to form distress committees
consisting of their own members, of representatives of boards of
guardians and of coopted members possessing special knowledge of
problems of distress. Their functions are to maintain a register of
i unemployed persons, to assist such persons to obtain work, to provide
- relief works and to assist unemployed persons to emigrate. Funds
' are provided by Government grants, from charitable money and from
! a id. rate. Hitherto, Government grants have been made to cover
' the difference between the actual value of the relief work done and
I the cost of doing it. The annual amount of Treasury grants never
- exceeded 300,000 (1908), and from 1911 was 100,000, which was
i not in any year fully expended. No grant had been made from 1913
to 1921. It proved impossible to provide relief work of a kind to
which many of the unemployed applicants were accustomed, and
i consequently workpeople were employed upon work, generally
I approximating to navvy's work, for which they were unfitted. A
' heavy financial loss was incurred in almost every case. It proved
' impossible to obtain anything like a reasonable standard of work or
. output upon relief works, and employment upon such works was
i found to be demoralizing to workpeople of a good type. This method
. of providing for unemployment is discredited.
Labour Exchanges. Under the Labour Exchanges Act (1909), 61 labour exchanges were opened in Feb. 1910, and this number
' was increased to 175 in Feb. 1911 and to 272 in Feb. igr2. As the result of the operation of Part II. of the National Insurance
Act of 1911, the number of exchanges was further increased to 425 in Feb. 1913, and in June 1920 there were 395 exchanges.
The organization established by the Board of Trade consisted of a central office in London the Labour Exchanges Branch
i and n divisional offices, to which areas covering the whole of
i the United Kingdom were attached. The number of the divisional offices was subsequently reduced to ten and Scotland, Ireland
( and Wales each formed a division. Labour exchanges were opened in practically all towns with a population of 15,000 or more. Responsibility for this service was transferred to the Ministry of Labour upon its creation in Jan. 1917, central control being exercised through the Employment Department of the Ministry. The facilities provided by the labour exchanges (whose name was changed to " Employment Exchanges " in
, Oct. 1916) were made available without charge to all employers and workpeople with the exception of " private " domestic servants over 17 years of age. This exception was suspended during the World War and had not been reimposed up to 1921.
It is an important function of the exchanges to bring together unemployed applicants and suitable vacancies which may exist in different districts, when it has been found that the vacancies can-
not be filled by applicants from the immediate locality. Arrange- ments are made, therefore, for the prompt circulation of particulars of vacancies which cannot be filled by local applicants, provided that the vacancies are of a character for which it is probable that applicants from a distance can be obtained. Such vacancies are notified as a rule by telephone to neighbouring exchanges within a defined " Clearing Area," and should this fail, the particulars are circulated more widely. Up to 1914 a system of divisional clearing houses was used. Particulars of unfilled vacancies were sent by each exchange to the divisional office to which it was responsible, and a classified list of all the vacancies so received was issued daily by the divisional office to all exchanges in the division. Lists of unfilled vacancies were also exchanged each week as between the divisions. In Aug. 1914, the system was superseded by the institution of a " National Clearing House " in London. While the immediate cir- culation of particulars within the " Clearing Areas " was retained, the circulation of lists of vacancies by the divisional offices was abandoned in favour of the circulation of a classified list for the whole kingdom. The information for this publication is received direct at headquarters from the various exchanges; a complete printed list of vacancies is issued once a week to all exchanges, and the list is kept up-to-date by the daily issue of a statement of vacancies to be added to the list and of cancellations of vacancies which have appeared upon it and are no longer open.
In order to enable workpeople who have, through the exchanges, found employment at a distance of more than 5 m. from their homes, the exchanges are empowered to advance the amount of the travelling expenses. Such advances are as a rule recovered through the employer by small weekly deductions from wages. During the World War, and until the Unemployment Insurance Act (1920) came into operation (Nov. 8 1920), tickets for railway journeys, etc., were issued at less than the normal rates by the exchanges to all workpeople for whom the exchanges had found employment. The cost was borne by exchequer funds. Under the Unemployment Insurance Act (1920), the exchanges are enabled in the case of insured workpeople who have found work through the exchanges to remit (at the cost of the unemployment fund) one half of the amount by which railway and other fares exceed 43. for a single journey.
In cases of strikes and lock-outs it was decided not to deny the use of the exchanges to the employers and workpeople concerned. In such cases the officials of the exchanges are oound to accept from an employer the notification of a vacancy created by the dispute and are further bound to bring to the notice of any unemployed applicant, with the particulars of such a vacancy, the fact that a trade dispute exists at the establishment of the employer concerned. As a rule formal notification of the .existence of a trade dispute is made to the exchanges either by employers or workpeople and when this occurs the terms of the notification are laid before unemployed applicants. Travelling expenses cannot be advanced to enable workpeople to travel to vacancies caused by a trade dispute, and particulars of such vacancies are rarely, if ever, circulated to other exchanges.
The Labour Exchanges Act authorized the formation of advisory committees to assist in the management of the employment ex^ changes. The intention of this provision was to secure the coopera- tion of representatives of industry in the administration of the exchanges. From 1912 onwards advantage was taken of this pro- vision to form 17 advisory trade committees consisting of repre- sentative employers and workpeople in equal numbers; the number of the members of each committee varied from 12 to 36, and the usual number was rather more than 20. The chairman was chosen by the committee itself or, in default of agreement between the two sides of the committee, by the Board of Trade. The areas covered by the advisory trade committees were as a rule large, consisting of as many as five counties. It was the duty of the committees to advise the Board of Trade' upon matters referred to them, and the matters so referred were as a rule questions of policy arising in the administra- tion of the labour exchange service, e.g. the attitude which should be adopted by the exchanges towards employers and workpeople concerned in trade disputes and the extent to which " references "' should be taken up by the exchanges in respect of applicants for employment. It was found that the areas assigned to the committee were too wide to permit of any close association with the current work of individual exchanges, and the restriction of the functions of the committees to the consideration of matters referred to them, prevented the development of a sense of responsibility for the con- duct of the exchanges. When, therefore, it became evident (in 1917) that upon the conclusion of the World War the exchanges would be faced with tasks of special difficulty in every area, the Minister of Labour, to whom responsibility for the exchanges was transferred upon the creation of that office in Jan. 1917, decided to replace the advisory trade committees by a larger number of local employment committees, associated much more closely with the work of each exchange. Three hundred and two local employment committees were formed in connexion with the 395 exchanges. As a rule, there- fore, each committee is associated with a single exchange, and with more than one exchange only in some cases in the provinces where several are situated within a single industrial area.
Members of the local employment committees are appointed by the Minister of Labour, as a rule upon the nomination of local organi- zations of employers and of workpeople. The chairman of the com-
