UNEMPLOYMENT, ITS CAUSES AND A REMEDY.

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 288, 30 July 1932, Page 6

UNEMPLOYMENT, ITS CAUSES AND A REMEDY.

E.

Earle Vaile.)

HANDICAPS OF DEMOCRACY

(By

(No. 2.)

Further intensifying hoom conditions and leading to a more and yet more awful crash was the mischievous system of selling land on ridiculously easy ferms — for instance seaside allotments at £150 to £200, with £1 j to £5 down and the balance at so much or so little per week; or dairy farms with' live and dead stock included on a 10 per cent. or even 5 per cent deposit. llf a man has to save up £150 he is careful how he invests it; but putting (Town £1 and becoming a landed proprietor is so easy that the buyer does not give proper consideration to the price. It is something on the same lines as the lady who bought a car on the very easy payment of only £5 per month, but, when her husband enquired how many of these p'ayments had to be made, she hadn't the faintest idea. Too Much Borrowing Underlying and sqpporting all these absurdly 'exaggerated values was not only private but public borrowing. The market was being fed by false finance through the Government borrowing £10,000,000 per annum abroad at a high rate of interest to he spent here at a fictitious rate of wages in the execution of useless public works — and all for the purpose of buying the cheap vote. By these means also there was placed on the title of every landowner "willy nilly" a first and a second mortgage — a first mortgage to support the Government loans and a second to support the local body loans — or even the loans of several local bodies rating the same lands. An investor may imagine that he is the first mortgagee, but the factis he stands third — a position none the less real because the charges antecedent to his have been placed there "silently, secretly, and surreptitiously," entirely without his consent. Another great cause of unemployment is Government interference with the object of keeping wages at an artificially high level and interest at an artificially low level and for no other apparent reason than that wage earners command many votes and capitalists very few. Both objects aimed at are impossible of achievement. The fixing of prices is absolutely beyond the powers of Parliament. Wagas is the price of labour; interest is the price of money. If Parliament can alter the prices of things let it gat busy and raise the prices of wool, meat and hutter. By interfering in spheres quite beyond ito control, Parliament is worse than futile, and succeeds only in obstructing and delaying those natural adjustmants of values which must precede any real recovery in business. The Crash of Demoeracy But the real basic cause of all our politicai troubles — the reason why modern Demoeracy is crashing before our very 'eyes — is that all politicai power has passed into the hands of the unthinking and irresponsible part of the community. Any candidat'3 who ventures to address the intelligence of his audience and to speak the truth has no chance of being elected. A foolish electorate >elects a foolish Parliament consisting largely of those who have failed in their own private affairs. Can anyone pretand that our Parliament to-day contains tha cream of New Zealand's brains and character. From such material- it is impossible to choose a wise and capable excutive. Is there a single person in public life to-day in whose capacity to lead them out of their difficulties the public has the smallest confidence? Many are on "rationed" work: say one week on and the next week off. Then there are thousands of farmers still on their land not because they are making a living, but because there is nowhere else to go and it does not suit their mortgagees to put them off. Unless business rapidly improves in a way we have no justification for anticipating, these folk will soon be on the unemployment funds. At the same time the sources of the revenues out of which these rapidly increasing hosts may he maintained are rapidly diminishing — indeed disappearing. Inside of a year we shall have reached a position in which we shall no longer be able to maintain the unemployed in anything like the degree of ease to which they have become accustomed, and to which they seem firmly convinced they are by right entitled. And what then? The Remedies The world-wide remedies consist in the reversal of the present state of affairs. Much greater freedom in international trade must be establish'ed. "War debts must he greatly reduced and payment arranged in some way possible of achievement. To meet the situation created by the disproportion which has arisen. and is increasing betvveen producers and consumers the hours of labour must be reduced. Free trade will bring on to the market vast hosts of consumers, but even their wants will ere long be met and so the world as a whole may well "take things easier." Debtor countries will doubtless have to work hard for a while to discharge their obligations, but creditor countri'es with advantage to themselves and to the whole world may well enjoy more leisure. Local Remedies Unfortunately world conditions are entirely beyond our control and relief coming from without, will probably be slow. Meanwhile the position in New Zealand, as already shown, is such* that something must be done and that right speedily. Nothing in the bast adequate is being done. The Government and people of New Zealand behave as though stunned. They know that a great disaster is about to overwhelm them but they display neither brains nor courage to meet it. . The Government's own well-advpr'tised scheme has produced possible openings for 300 men and the Minister seenis quite pleased. But while this has been going on 10,000 names — more than thirty times the number— have been, added to the roll of the unemployed. All the plans at present in practice for scraping grass off footpaths and "titivating up" parks are a waste of human effort and are being carried

out on methods that cut right across all sound eeonomic principles. Men are employed from two to four days a week at 10/- per day in a hopelessly futile and foolish effort to maintain wages at a level far beyond the capacity of the soil of New Zealand. This can end only in complete and absolute disaster — though meanwhile it may secure. votes or avoid the loss of votes. (To he Continued.)