Mr. McLEAN (Melfort):

Not very many thousands are doing it.

Mr. DOUGLAS:

I wonder whether the hon. member for Melfort realizes that in this city of Ottawa, the capital of Canada, there are about 700 transients living at the mission or the shelter or at Friendship House. I wonder if he and the Minister of Labour know that these men get two meals a day-a breakfast consisting of porridge and bread and tea, and an evening meal consisting of either soup or stew and bread and tea-and a bed.

Mr. McLEAN (Melfort):

Does the hon. member propose to allow me to answer the question?

Mr. DOUGLAS:

The hon. member for Melfort has all the opportunity that I have; he can have forty minutes at any time.

The Budget-Mr. Douglas

Mr. McLEAN (Melfort):

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker, the hon. member asked me a question a moment ago. A day or two ago his leader objected to rhetorical questions being put to that side of the house. May I say in answer to the hon. gentleman that last year in the constituency of Melfort there was a real shortage of young, unemployed men willing to take jobs available during the fall and winter.

Mr. DOUGLAS:

I will continue my speech. The hon. member says there is a shortage of men in Melfort.

Mr. McLEAN (Melfort):

In the constituency of Melfort there was, I said.

Mr. DOUGLAS:

If he can influence the Minister of Labour, who sits in front of him, to transport some of these men who have been living on two meals a day, I am sure they will be glad to take the jobs.

Mr. McLEAN (Melfort):

Would they be any good when they got there?

Mr. DOUGLAS:

No, not after living on two meals a day. I doubt whether the hon. member for Melfort himself would be any good if he lived for any considerable length of time on two meals a day. The fact is, talking about moving these men, they come to town and are allowed one night's lodging and two meals, and then they must move on; but when they go to the station to catch a freight train to go to my hon. friend's constituency the mounted police will not allow them to get on the train; they must wait until it is moving quickly and then try to catch it, with danger to life and limb. They must either do that or stay where they are and beg on the streets.

Mr. McLEAN (Melfort):

Why did they come here in the first place?

Mr. DOUGLAS:

Because there was nowhere for them to go. The average young man to-day is caught on the horns of a dilemma. He must either look for work elsewhere or stay at home, in which case he is not eligible for most of the government projects such as the home placement scheme. If he leaves home to try to get on any of these projects he at once makes it impossible for himself ever to come back to his home and get relief. He is penalized either way, because if he stays at home he cannot get work, and if he leaves home and wanders about the country looking for work he cannot come back home because the authorities are not willing to accept him as a responsibility.

Let us look at the matter of farm placements. In the first place it is of very little value to those who would like it, the young farmers, young men in small towns on the

prairies who would be glad to go on the farm, having had some experience. They cannot go because they have a home; scores of them have been refused on the ground that they have a place to live. The young men who are homeless come in the main from the cities; in the first place they are not suited to farm work, they are of no use to the farmer, and they do not like such work. Therefore, those who want it cannot get it and those who can get it do not want it and are not of much use to the people to whom they go.

I was interested the other day to receive a postcard from the Ottawa Young Men's Christian Association notifying me that Hon. Norman McL. Rogers would be the guest speaker, taking as his subject "The outlook of Youth." I am sorry I did not hear that address.

Mr. McLEAN (Melfort):

You are past that stage anyhow.

Mr. SPEAKER:

Order.

Mr. DOUGLAS:

Whether the Minister of Labour told these young men or not, the fact remains that for fifty or sixty thousand young men in Canada to-day the outlook of youth is $5 a month on a farm; otherwise they can go to the mission and get two meals per day. Some people think that $5 a month is a lot of money, and sometimes I am amazed at the sense of values shown by hon. gentlemen opposite. I have here a copy of an order in council, which I mentioned before, showing that Colonel Ralston, counsel for the Turgeon grain inquiry, receives $20 a day for expenses, and a salary of $200 per day. Compare that with the lot of these young men. Let us leave out the living expenses, though they are not altogether comparable; the boys get board and this gentleman gets $20 a day. Let us take Colonel Ralston's salary and make a calculation on the basis of it. It would take a young man, working under the farm placement scheme, eighty-seven years to make as much as Colonel Ralston makes in a month of twenty-six days, or 1,054 young men working a year to make as much money as he would make if he worked one year.

Mr. McLEAN (Melfort):

Will my hon.

friend allow me-

Order.

Mr. DOUGLAS:

I have been very patient. The hon. member for Melfort has not made many speeches this session, and I am sure the house will be glad to hear him if he has anything to say.

Mr. McLEAN (Melfort):

The question was quite pertinent.

The Budget-Mr. Douglas

Mr. DOUGLAS:

In the meantime I suggest that the hon. gentleman resume his seat. Even if we accept the statement of the Minister of Finance that there has been a five per cent decrease in unemployment, it means that the unemployment problem, diminished to the extent of five per cent, is with us for at least twenty years.