A GRIM SPECTRE

Hokitika Guardian, 22 February 1930, Page 5

A GRIM SPECTRE

UNEMPLOYMENT IN BRITAIN. 3 [United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copy right. J JyJNDOX, Fob. 20. •' Not since the - war lias the grim spectre of unemployment been so prevalent in England. Lancashire is non facing the darkest hour in its industrial history. Week by week, unemployment is growing apace. Roughly a quarter of a million Lancashire cotton operatives are out of work. The wealing section is m a worse state of poverty than ever befo *o. Its suffering was mid roamed of in ;,ts heyday. Hundreds of homes are within a hair’s breadth of ruin, and the people are living band to mouth,; though, naturally amid the despondency and gloom, there is a lingering hope that the reorganisation of the whole trade will restore better times. The women are the heaviest sufferers. They find themselves discarded by the trade in which they work with real pride. The weaver’s average weekly wage for months past has been less than thirty shillings. In* order to make a decent living the wives have gone to work alongside of the husbands. Today they have been robbed of that opportunity. Real poverty is prevailing among thousands of middle-aged spinsters, who have worked in the mills all their lives. An idea of the extent of the unemployment is gained from the fact that in Nelson, a typical weaving town, of fifteen thousand operatives, this week are four thousand out of work, and this number is growing weekly. In addition to this only a very few mills are working anything like full time.