4. A Programme of Expansion (GeneralElection, May 1929)

1

Except for a brief recovery in 1924 beforethe return to the gold standard, one-tenth ormore of the working population of this countryhave been unemployed for eight years—a factunprecedented in our history. The number ofinsured persons counted by the Ministry ofLabour as out of work has never been less thanone million since the initiation of their statisticsin 1923. To-day (April 1929) 1,140,000 work-people are unemployed.

This level of unemployment is costing us outof the Unemployment Fund a cash disburse-ment of about £50,000,000 a year. This doesnot include poor relief. Since 1921 we havepaid out to the unemployed in cash a sum ofabout £500,000,000—and have got literallynothing for it. This sum would have built amillion houses; it is nearly double the whole ofthe accumulated savings of the Post OfficeSavings Bank; it would build a third of all theroads in the country; it far exceeds the totalvalue of all the mines, of every description,which we possess; it would be enough to