WAGES FOR WORKERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 934, 29 March 1930, Page 7

WAGES FOR WORKERS

KEEP THE MONEY HERE THE FOLLY OF IMPORTING i *'jr oo( i to eat. boots for our feet, 1 York for our bauds to do f Something is wrong: rotten c lerong — IV p that are strong starve in a throv.g. Helpless a»ai hopeless, too." THAT is not the dirge from an unemployed demonstration, but is taken from the British Rotary Journal, “The Rotary Wheel,” and is the refrain of the "Ballad of the Unem- ; ployed.” which marvels that while ; people want goods, those who cau i make the wares are idle and helpless. J The same evil of unemployment is • forcing itself more and more into ! notice here as seasonal occupations | now cease, and the drift to the towns j for the winter sets in. But the most i paradoxical feature of our unemployment evil is the number of skilled i tradesmen registered on the books of ; our industrial unions as out of work, while the lines they could manufac cure for us are being dumped on our wharves from abroad, and we are pay ing the wages of workers in outside i countries when our own are vainly j looking for work. MONEY LEAVING THE COUNTRY There are still some old-fashioned j economists among us who will prove j to their own satisfaction that we do not send money out of the country to ! pay for our imports. That imports only come in as payment for exports, and the more we import the wealthier we should be. It is true that we do not send silver and gold overseas in direct payment for imports, any more than we get seventy million sovereigns if we raise a loan for that amount. But uo amount of hair-splitting or economic sophistry can disprove the ; painful fact that when we import £ 5.000,000 worth of apparel and footwear every year which we could make i for ourselves front our own materials. we are sendiug that work out of the | country, and those who buy those i goods here are paying the wages of i the workers in the countries where i those imports are made. So that it is really our money which goes into circulation in those countries, and, as every business man : knows, there is no money' that goes so quickly into circulation as the wages paid out to workers. That is why our leaders of thought on all hands are urging the people of New Zealand j to help to fill the pay envelopes of out | own workers by buying more New | Zealand goods, instead of allowing their purchase money to keep workers ; busy in outside countries. Other ' countries are doing this and raising 1 their tariff barriers higher and higher I against our products, while seeking to ! dump more and more of their manuI factured products over our low tariff j wall here. WHAT ABOUT BRITAIN There are some who point out that i Britain is our best customer and one ' who puts no barrier against our goods ■ (or those of our competitors! and j that it is just as patriotic to buy' j British goods as our home-made ones. | But true patriotism, like charity, bei gins at home, right here in New ZeaI land, and it is no consolation to our i out-of-work artisan to learn that he is idle because we are keeping British workers and not foreigners busy. Our I home industries belong to us, and no ; one should deny our workers their : birthright of a home market. The British Trade Commissioner, j Mr. L. A. Paish, put the position very i fairly in speaking at Wanganui when j he said: — "My job here is, primarily, to sell British poods, but we in Britain advise our people to buy Devonshire butter before they buy New Zealand. We naturally expect you to buy New Zealand goods before you buy British.” If we sacrifice our home industries 1 for the sake of Britain or any other : country we are impoverishing our ! own workers, and the whole com i munity must suffer from the loss of production which follows on unemployment here. The discriminating buyer w'ho is anxious to spend his money to the best advantage will give preference to New Zealand goods j every time, but when our own made goods are not procurable then he will stick to British-made every time. IMPORTING BRITISH INDUSTRIES 5 The appeal to the patriotic spirit ! and national sentiment of the New Zealanders is a most valuable factor in helping our industrial production to i expand and add to our national wellbeing, but as Nurse Cavell once said, "Patriotism is not enough,” and when we find our own State authorities wei coming our new Governor-General from a temporary platform built of new foreign timber, we begin to , realise that the patriotic spirit must be safeguarded and protected by political action, and when elections are in the air the demand must issue for a scientific tariff which will bring British industries into operation here, instead of dumping their goods here. This woukl mean a tremendous thing ■in the future development of our country by providing more work for our unemployed, and creating valuable openings for our youth to play i its part in the growth of our nation Australia by its excessive importing 'habit finds itself faced with a crisis in which its credit abroad is gravely imperilled. The new Commonwealth tariff in many cases means almost exclusion of imported goods, and British firms of world-wide repute are exporting their industries instead of their goods to the Commonwealth. By guaranteeing new industries adequate protection and safeguarding n..-re, and properly fostering our established ones, the Dominion would enter a new j era of national prosperity and progress toward self-expression and selfreliance on its own resources. The importance of our manufactur- : ing industries is now becoming man:- ; feat, but until political aid is at hand those who are wise must help our workers by keeping the work tn the country wherever and whenever possible.