CHAPTER  VIII
PALLIATIVES  OF  UNEMPLOYMENT
/.  A  Test  for  Palliatives.  Do  they  Raise
Consumption  ?
If  under-consumption,  chiefly  due  to  excessive  attempts
to  capitalise  unearned  elements  of  individual  income,  is
the  direct  cause  of  the  mass  of  unemployment,  no  remedy
will  be  effective  which  does  not  help  to  raise  the  general
standard  of  consumption.  The  radical  and  permanent
remedies  will  lie  in  the  lines  of  that  progressive  movement
outlined  in  the  last  chapter.  But  our  analysis  must  also
furnish  a  test  which  is  applicable  to  the  numerous  proposals
which  seek  by  special  measures  to  cure  or  to  alleviate
the  malady  of  unemployment.
It  is  quite  beyond  the  scope  of  this  enquiry  to  examine
or  even  to  describe  most  of  these  proposals.  But  some
short  summary  under  several  heads  may  be  of  service  in
order  that  we  may  ascertain  how  far  they  satisfy  the
essential  economic  test.
§2.  Labour  Bureaux  as  Clearing-Houses.
At  the  threshold  lies  the  proposal  for  the  establishment
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