THE SCHEME OF THINGS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 138, 7 December 1929, Page 23

THE SCHEME OF THINGS

(By M.H.C.)

The pressing question of unemployment, which looms so largely in the life of the nations to-day, is acknowledged to.be one of the most difficult that has ever harrassed Governments and people. Mr. J. H. Thomas (Lord Privy Seal) has raised a considerable storm in '" Great' Britain, by attributing at least, :, part of the unemployment in the Old Country to the fact that many married women work nowadays. Ho assumes that a great number of these work for "pin. money,"- or, in other' words, for money to buy luxuries with, or to spend in enjoyment. It is certain that this ; occurs in some cases, just as it does in the case of many a wealthy man who takes on work to add to his already fine pile of money, to keep his health, and to make life interesting and happy. Mr. „. Thomas and many other economists are 1 very ready'to make rules for one sex, and to attack those who work for money ■when they have already enough to live on. That is when they are women. But nothing is heard in the way of at- ', tack on those men who occupy two jobs, being well paid for both; they do not suggest that any man should give up one of his well-paid positions in favour of another man who has no job at all Then there are the well-pensioned (or superannuated) Civil servants. Where they are men they can take other busi- . ness positions and go ahead at work as much as they like; but when it comes , to,a widow or other poor pensioner, she must not earn more than a pittance, or she is mulcted of her pension. In fact things are extremely uneven. ' No one with any sense of justice whatever should try to cut away any avenues from women where they can earn honestly, no matter what they may do with the money. It is such a narrow way to look at life, to find something wrong, and to try to fasten the wrong on to '•": one part of the community The thing wants' examining from the widest point of View. Take the past years of history. Is not the story one of continual suffering on the part of the poor, and of the unemployment of a section of the people .at all times? The women could not'have been in fault then,.for the.ix avenues of work were small in-; deed, arid desperately ill-paid. The "Song of the Shirt", and the "Cry of the ■ Children " both voiced the sufferings "of many thousands of women and children—and yet there was unemployment, poverty, and suffering. Now there are countless mechanical "robots" that take upon themselves the work of hundreds of thousands of both men and women. Why not look to these for one reason, "for the working of the robots only takes a few human hands to guide and control." The machine worker affects women as well as men, for domestically nowadays there are marvellous conveniences which make life wonderfully easier, and make many a family resolve to do without domestics who nowadays are so thoroughly, untrained that their advent into „ a household is a very doubtful blessing. . Take the case of mechanical music, ■• which hasdeprived hundreds of talented industrious, men and women of work in ■■•■. this country alone, followed by the "talkies," which have done the same — \ -women cannot be blamed for the unem- '■.". ployment that has followed their inception. . They suffer exactly as the male , artists do, with fewer avenues of other . ,:• employment left open to them. Of late 'I. years there has. been a far smaller de- , mand for .dressmakers and milliners, . owing to the simplicity of dress and '. : headgear. Most girls and women , found themselves able to "run up" the ' . straight cut frocks, and they bought >■ their untrimmed felts in thousands in ;; every country. This has meant less employment in an extremely " femi- .•> nine" employment that has not yet 1 ' been exploited b^ men much as work- ': ers, though they in the large majority '■'. of cases rake in the profits, while pay- \ ing the workers the minimum wage. •' Things are altering now, for the new ' styles insisted upon by men who "run" ' the fashions will mean far greater ex- ' pense, with more employment in factories and shops for sewing women—cxi pense which will be handed on to pur- .'•' chasers, of course. Lady Ehondda, " who is credited with being a financial ' genius, and who is in the world of finance, considers that Mr. Thomas shows a surprising lack of the first ■';. principles of economics—"the more ■workers ' the more properous the nation," she remarks. It would seem that what is really ' wanted is, first of all, more avenues of ■/ employment. Every new discovery ■- makes these. Take mechanical music, for instance; there is the making of " records of artists who must be at their ;- best in order to record properly. Or- -: chestras are needed, soloists, both for voice and instrument, accompanists, and so on. Then there are the works ■ where the manufacture is done, the packing and dispatching, and then the • selling, many ways of employment, and ■ many ways of profit. Wireless, motor vehicles, electrical appliances', and many other modern inventions all mean employment for people, and in this way >' the loss by the "robot" is largely evened up; there is little need to "get 'nerves" because of a certain amount of unemployment in another direction. Another question that must be tackled is the "unemployable" section of humanity. There is no use in trying ■ to drive women into a sort of compound in life, with a few domestieal occupations permitted within the narrow lines. They are as human as the men, a fact ■which quite a large proportion of men fail to recognise, and must have freewill in exactly the same proportion. They may, and will, make mistakes just -■■•' like the other half of humanity, but they profit by their mistakes in exactly the same way, and it were far greater wisdom to le.->ve them to work out their otva salvati-Ti than to try to maV.« life more comfoiiable for a large number of. unemployable people by shutting off part of life from any see-, tion. There is no doubt that the number of unemployable people is increasing. They are really the problem, not the smart, clever women who find it possible to run a home comfortably, and yet to do some earning at the same time. Perhaps the real solution will lie in the "equal pay for equal work." Thea the really sound workers of either sex will get employment, exclusive of sex considerations, while the less employable will require some other solution found for them. New avenues of work must be found, and soon, there is little doubt, to provide for a great number of people who are unskilled, lazy, or unteachable. But for those in authority to legislate purely on sex lines is manifestly unfair, as well as unreasonable.