The Sun FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 1928 CURES FOR UNEMPLOYMENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 447, 31 August 1928, Page 8

The Sun FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 1928 CURES FOR UNEMPLOYMENT

MANY nations to-day are seeking a cure for unemployment. So far none lias found even a reliable remedy. The economic disease is ranked with malignant cancer as incurable and set apart for research. There are, however, numerous pills and panaceas for the relief of unemployment, and all the political practitioners' the world over revel in quackery which, like other nostrums, is highly-coloured, sweet, expensive, worthless,, but soothing. When and where every known remedy fails to cure the idle and demoralised patient, the political physician falls back on that most excellent last resource—optimism. It lias become a pleasant habit on the part of statesmen almost everywhere, on looking at the plight of distressed men deep in a morass of unemployment, cheerfully to advise them not to brood and give way to despair, but to look upward and all around them, and see with renewed hope and happiness the silver lining in the passing cloud and the promise of a better harvest-time. Perhaps it is not altogether strange that the bogged fellows would prefer a stout plank on which to get out of the bog, and enjoy from firmer ground the rosy spectacle of advancing prosperity. In all the countries whose Governments and Parliaments are preparing for general elections, it is interesting to note that optimism sustains the politicians against the incidence, and malignancy of the unemployment disease. In Australia, for example, the Px-ime Minister of the Commonwealth, a real political Wilkins Micawber, assures the people, with an.election in sight, that all that Australians require for the enjoyment of radiant prosperity is a good season. This is odd, because Western Australia has had an exceptionally bountiful season; yet, in spite of it, a common sight in Perth, as in all the other cities of the Commonwealth, is a procession of unemployed parading misery much in the same manner as the march past in Auckland this evening of spiritual warriors mourning for a gay city’s sins. There are occasions apparently when spectacular grief overwhelms and takes the place of the livelier spirit of optimism. Here, in New Zealand, the Government confidently asserts the welcome truth at last that the Dominion has turned the corner of depression, while the Labour Party and the Nationalists in Parliament are so certain' about it that they joined hands with each other in a new brotherhood and voted for an increase in the salaries of civil servants. The Government’s optimism did not rise to the foolish height of agreeing to buy about fifty thousand votes at the expense of the overburdened taxpayer. It was an unpopular thing for the Reform Government to do within the shadow of a general election, but it was the right thing to do at the right time. In Great Britain there is a sharp diversity of opinion about the evil of unemployment and the methods adopted for a cure. Those in favour of the Conservative Government dutifully paint a joyful picture of better times and a glorious future of industrial prosperity, while those against Toryism assert that the Baldwin Ministry relies on faith, hope and charity as a eertaiii cure for unemployment, and displays, as immediate remedies, “bottles of rose-coloured water.” Cux-iously enough, the nation that caused all the world’s economic misery, lost the war, was deprived of one-fourth of its territory, and was compelled to make reparation in gold, now enjoys something like a record prosperity. One of the secrets of Germany’s economic success to-day is the ancient fact that the German worker works hard for his money, and lives simply. That, after all, is the only cure for unemployment.

A KING-MAKER SO many kingdoms have been wiped off the map of post-war Europe that the creation of a new dynasty is a decidedly interesting event. The role of king-maker is being played this time, apparently, by II Duce and the scene of his activity is primitive Albania. Ahmed Bey Zogu, President of the Republic of Albania, has for some time cherished aspirations to wear the purple, and preliminary formalities leading to the gratification of his ambition are expected to be completed this week. He will not he the first king of this wild land. In pre-war days the rulers of Austria and Germany set up a princeling, William of Wied, as.Mpret of Albania, with a palace at Durazzo, but his brief “reign” proved neither spectacular nor advantageous to the two chief plotters. Zogu, a picturesque politician, is a native of Albania who, for some time, has been regarded as a pawn on Mussolini’s chessboard. Albania is admittedly the most backward countrv m Europe, but, as the gateway to the East, it is strategically of vast importance. Politically and financially the country is now dependent on Italy, and by the Treaty of Tirana the President of Albania is promised military support in the event .of revolution or of aggression from neighbouring States. It is this treaty that has caused so much perturbation in Yugoslavia. So a throne that has gone begging these many years will find another occupant. If Mussolini definitely beams his approval it will signify that he has still further extended his power in the Mediterranean. A king at Durazzo will be as a dummy, and the ventriloquist, of course will reside at Rome.