and rose upwards, and to whom something had to be said, whether to the master or the journeyman, casually, it was said as a joke, that even more humor was added. Humor characterized every step, but a general understanding prevailed between masters and journeymen, that the Roraty (early morning Advent masses) annually bind the tailoring brotherhood with a knot of Christian love and lead to harmony and unity, and that the Blessed Mary of the Gate of Dawn guides them on the path of virtue to where our Judge and Savior Christ the King awaits us.

tailoring brotherhood with a knot of Christian love and lead to harmony and unity, and that the Blessed Mary of the Gate of Dawn guides them on the path of virtue to where our Judge and Savior Christ the King awaits us.

Leszno, Wielkopolska.

Wojciech Ptasiak.

CRISIS AND UNEMPLOYMENT.

Two problems need solving today; two problems are on everyone’s lips. The millionaire, the capitalist, complains today about hard times and the crisis — of course, about the crisis that has not yet affected him, but he too fears for his capital, lest it remain idle and unproductive. However, the crisis and unemployment have most severely affected the vulnerable, i.e., the craftsman and the industrialist — Why?

must. If we consider the enormous army of these very unemployed people in our country, all official statistics on the crisis and unemployment will prove utterly misleading.

Can this army of unemployed be helped? Yes!

Crafts and small industry operate without capital and are directly dependent on the consumer, i.e., on the worker, farmer, clerk, etc. If they halt their purchases, even for the shortest time, this restraint is immediately felt by the craftsman and small producer. The tailor has nothing to sew, the shoemaker makes no shoes, the construction worker is unemployed, and thus a whole series of people, linked by the chain of work, stand idle. They cannot produce their goods for stock and for better times, because they lack capital and warehouses.

These unemployed are not looking for alms or societal charity. If they had to beg for food, that would be a dire situation. A different relief, another way out of the crisis, must be found for them. Work must be found for them at all costs, as idleness demoralizes the worker, ruins the small producer, and leads to desperate poverty.

Poland, which is 70% an agricultural country, has always been oriented towards small industry and crafts. According to statistics (not very precise), there are 250,000 registered craft workshops in our country, not including small industrial workshops, and at least as many unregistered ones. If this is considered in terms of population, assuming that 5 people live from each workshop, this represents a considerable number, as 2.5 million people, or about 8% of the country’s population, depend on these workshops for their livelihood. Considering 70% farmers, we see that 30% of the urban population lives from crafts and small industry.

The development of cities and towns in our country has barely begun; we lack hundreds of thousands of dwellings in cities. Less affluent people are crowded, several families to one room. The average citizen cannot afford the rents in new houses, which were built for speculative tax write-offs. Construction is now dying out, because if there is no speculation or prospects of large profits, there are no people willing to invest capital in real estate here.

These figures are, of course, not very precise, as despite the existence of craft and commercial chambers, accurate statistics have not yet been collected, given that a large number of workshops are not registered anywhere, and cottage industry is not accounted for at all.

We must observe how neighboring countries have solved this issue of national development. There, from tenant taxes and other revenues, from which no gifts were made to anyone, long-term loans were granted on the condition that small apartments with moderate rents be built, so that even the less affluent could benefit from them, thus creating sources of income for craftsmen and industrialists. Because construction is not just the erection of a house itself. When people move, entire groups of craftsmen benefit; the new occupant of an apartment must purchase new furniture and furnish it appropriately.

And these very craftsmen and industrialists are the unemployed who are not yet provided for anywhere, receive no benefits, own no land, and yet they must live and reside somewhere.

And now we will turn our attention to the clothing trade, which is numerically dominant in our country:

This is the most difficult problem, as it must be divided into three categories: registered craftsmen, cottage workers, and moonlighters. While

the former are burdened with excessive taxes and contributions, cottage workers, being poorly organized, are exploited. Recently, we heard about a large clothing export, supported by the government, but exploited by exporters who pocket the premiums, while tailors, for example in Brzeziny near Łódź, earned 6 gr. per hour from this work. This exploitation of human material will immediately be felt by all tailors, because the Eldorado in England is already ending; it is introducing protective tariffs on clothing, and this whole mass of hungry and exploited people will flood the domestic markets, competing thoughtlessly and destroying the rest of the healthy tailoring craft.

If one considers this enormity and diversity of taxes, taking into account that the current earnings of craftsmen and small producers are minimal due to competition, not exceeding 10% (although tax authorities often show up to 20% for income tax), then the full extent of the poverty of these small producers unfolds before us.