be regulated, as far as possible, by the conditions
of the labour market, so that in a very bad year of unemployment they
can be expanded, so as to increase the demand for labour at times of
exceptional slackness, and thus correct and counterbalance the cruel
fluctuations of the labour market. The large sums of money which will
be needed for these purposes are being provided by the Budget of Mr.
Lloyd-George, and will be provided in an expanding volume in the
years to come through the natural growth of the taxes we are imposing.

I have hitherto been speaking of the industrial organisation of
insurance schemes, labour exchanges, and economic development. Now I
come to that great group of questions which are concerned with the
prevention and relief of distress. We have before us the reports of
the majority and minority of the Royal Commission on the Poor Law, and
we see there a great and urgent body of reforms which require the
attention of Parliament. The first and most costly step in the relief
of distress has already been taken by the Old-Age Pensions Act,
supplemented, as it will be if the Budget passes, by the removal of
the pauper disqualification. By that Act we have rescued the aged from
the Poor Law. We have yet to rescue the children; we have yet to
distinguish effectively between the _bona fide_ unemployed workman and
the mere loafer and vagrant; we have yet to transfer the sick, the
inebriate, the feeble-minded and the totally demoralised to
authorities specially concerned in their management and care.

But what I want to show you, if I have made my argument clear, is that
all these schemes--which I can do little more than mention this
afternoon, each one of which is important--are connected one with the
other, fit into one another at many points, that they are part of a
concerted and interdependent system for giving a better, fairer social
organisation to the masses of our fellow-countrymen. Unemployment
insurance, which will help to tide a workman over a bad period, is
intimately and necessarily associated with the labour exchanges which
will help to find him work and which will test his willingness to
work. This, again, will be affected by the workings of the Development
Bill, which, as I told you, we trust may act as a counterpoise to the
rocking of the industrial boat and give a greater measure of stability
to the labour market.

The fact that everybody in the country, man and woman alike, will be
ent