The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 1931. UNEMPLOYMENT IN AMERICA.

Hokitika Guardian, 31 March 1931, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 1931. UNEMPLOYMENT IN AMERICA.

Inn statistics concerning the extent of unemphn ok nt in the Ended States me n>U very dependable, remarks an exchange. Even at the lowest estimate. however, ilieie is a greater smnme of unemployment in that wealthy country than in any other. A cable message which was published last week ■stated that no fewer than 6.050,000 persons wore unemployed in January and that it had been computed from this that 20,000,000 people in the United States were suffering from 'privation. The winter of ]93(), following on twelve months of serious depression nseriliable to the stock market debacle in 1929, found the cannery illprepared to .shoulder the responsibility of caring for the wreckage of a major industrial upheaval. The outcome of the situation has been a peremptory c.etuand lor an emergency l session of Congress to grapple with the position, T his demand derives support not only liom the vastnes.s of the problem, hut also from the fact- that the relief organisations that exist are noteworthy rather lor their .singularity than for the significance of their contribution to tiie alleviation of the national distress. All over the country there are charitable organisations of various kinds, typical products of the private, seetairiaii and civil, -conscience. nut atiytliing they are capable of achieving would lie powerless to relievo the situation to any appreciable extent. A " riter m the fortnightly Review gives an instance of this when lie states that “New York is trying to raise 6.000,000 dollars, which will he only a drop in the bucket.” He further credits tbo British system ol unemployment insurance. despite its many flaws, with having at least ensured that in times ol acute economic depression, within the last ten years, no one has died of involuntary starvation, and lie considers that it will lie impossible at the end of the present winter to say the same of the Unit ml States. Tt would appear that, when the resources of the American worker himself, or those id his friends, are exhausted it is to private charity that he must turn for aid. Such an agency for meeting i<sti'oss on a scale so enormous as is now recorded must ha wholly ineffectual. It- will be n curious development if, in the event ol special legislation, being enacted, Congress should decide to apply some remedy on the lines of the British “dole.” And it Is certainly a remarkable circumstance that a country with the huge gold reserves held by the Federal Treasury should he that in which unemployment is most prevalent. What explanation can there he for the lengthening bread lines and acute poverty in a country that holds 38.} per cent, of the world’s gold slocks? Mr F. C. Ooodonougli, chairman of Barclay’s Bank, observed recently at the annual meeting of that institution, that the underlying causes of the boom in America, which had produced a world-wide reaction, on the general economic position, wore her tariff wall and the accumulation aril congestion of gold in that countrv. This gave the United States the power to expand credit to n degree far beyond that which could he utilised in a healthy and satisfactory manner. There were also, Mr oGodonongli said, the trading balances accumulated abroad at a time when America was not prooared to invest with confidence in foreign securities- to the extent of her enormous surplus wealth, with the result that a general atmosphere of boom followed, which had resulted in great loss. “These factors,” he added, “have no doubt been mainly responsible for the speculative boom which ended r-o disastrously, and the deprivation to the other countries of the gold which is needed by them is certainly reacting unfavourably upon the industrial and trading position throughout the world and lias helped to accentuate the fall in world prices.”