UNEMPLOYMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 11 March 1930, Page 2

UNEMPLOYMENT

(Mercantile Gazette.)

Many .suggestions are being made and various remedies propounded for dealing with unemployment, hut their authors have not, we think, considered in detail the difficulties erf the problem they attempt to solve. Mr Thomas, the Lord Privy Sea! was requested by the Premier of England, Mr MacDonald, to take wher-

ever steps he considered necessary to enable the party to redeem the pieelection pledge which had been given to the effect that upon their ad.-enr to power they would put into loree a man they had deeeided upon, under which a') workless would at once secire employment. 1 r Thomas immedmtel’. commenced business, and, in the course of the inquiries he made, travelled to Canada and put himself into conn.ideation with .the authorities there and examined oil the snot every avciiue which lie thought would directly or in-

directly assist him. In due course !•'“ returned to England and in a speech he made at Benge on the 23rd Decern-. her last at the. opening of what has been described at the Ernst Irnlc s. I 1 moo Efall near London, he 'S r it. i ted to have used the following words: «I have not solved the impinnhv--> ment problem. There are a hundred and one.difficulties to overcome, befor> j •any schemes that might he put forward could become operative ancl that could not he done in six months, Th° phonic / in this country must not he under any | misapprehension as to the imnortance! and gravity of the problem of unom-j ploy me nt and there is no short cut to the solution. Tf the nrobb-m was simply one of finding work of anv kind f nv I the people now unemployed that would not he a difficult ta-k. but in the end the country would Iv worse than at the commencement. Fvorv year w° are compelled to import £890.003,000 of food and raw material, whb-h can.only' he naid for in two ways—in "old or kind. We could not. pav in gold, therefore, we must develop our export trade. ..... I want the nation to remember that the Government is not unmindful of their responsibilities, hut they realise that anything that shook the credit of the country or the confidence of the Government must injure the very people that they are desirous of helping.”

Thvoimdi the length and breadth of this country the general opinion is there is one cure for dealing with unemployment, the expenditure of money, given the willingness of the local bodies to divert taxpayers money from the original purpose from which it was to he used, exert pressure upon the Government. to subsidize ’ the sum raised and expend this in e»v works whm 1, can he selected for the purpose and then use the money so obtafted in navin<r flip men nw°rd wages of lls per day and the cip’o is complete. Such a process of dealing with the question is much the samp as applying an anodyne to an aching molar, instead ol paving a visit to the dentist. It mnv temporarily act as a palliative, but the cause is not removed. We notice that at a meeting to consider this matter which was held at Christchurch a few days -since, the suggestion was pressed that attempts should be made to distribute the unemployment by hooking orders for labour ifrom employers. This would entail an individual canvass by men skilled in selling. But unemployment is caused h.v had trade, and when business tends to recede, employers seek to reduce costs and retrench expenditure, and we think it will be difficult on a falling market to persuade employers that more assistance is necessary.

When a commercial traveller calls upon a purchaser he warrants that the goods he offers for sale are first class, but it would be an unfair burden to cast upon the salesman that the labour lie offers complies with any standard of excellence, and a further question is, can lie obtain the price which is demanded—the Arbitration Court award rate of 14s per day. His Worship the A favor of Christchurch expressed the wish that wealth could he conscripted and used for the purpose of assisting the unemployed. We do not agree that this would be a

remedy, nor is there any a priori reason why, for the support of the unemployed, one section only of the com munitv -should be called upon to carry the burden.