ABSTRACT
Three factors determined the attitude to the unemployment problem in the thirties. First was the belief that it was insoluble. Second was the belief that, although the insolubility of the problem necessitated the distribution of unemployment relief, disbursement of that relief must be so contrived that abuses of the system by the unemployed should be reduced to a minimum. Third was the circumstance that mass unemployment was largely confined to specific areas, of which the inhabitants of the rest of the country remained ignorant. Crises of over-production and unemployment were, according to John Strachey's widely read The Theory and Practice of Socialism, published in 1936, analagous to natural catastrophes. State-subsidised insurance, it was bound to end by becoming unconditional outdoor relief—and that 'addition' to the livelihood of the poor was certain to increase the area of unemployment. In 1934 there were at last signs that the Government recognized that something ought to be done about the areas of high unemployment.
