In 1920 the Unemployment Insurance Act extended the 1911 scheme to cover most industrial workers. It expanded coverage "from 2- 3 million in 1912 to over 12 million" people (Peden 2000, 168). Aft er the summer of 1920, when unemployment in Britain tripled in just a few months, reconstructionists pushed for many proto- Keynesian proposals of loanfi nanced public works to keep people in jobs; in their means and objectives these projects deeply contrasted with prewar budgetary orthodoxy (see chapters 3 and 6).

Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, loc. 1661