Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News TUESDAY, JULY 18,1909. THE UNEMPLOYED QUESTION.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4435, 13 July 1909, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News

TUESDAY, JULY 18,1909. THE UNEMPLOYED QUESTION.

This above all—to thine own self be true , And tt must follow at the night the day Thou cantt not then be false to any man Shakespeare.

One cannot take ’up newspapers from any civilised country without finding that the unemployed question is under consideration. Everywhere it is found to he a most difficult -subject to deal with. Some eminent statesmen regard the problem as insoluable. Political economists of the old school thought it best to temporise and to leave time to solve it. But the new school insist that the leave-alone-policy will not do, and that leaders of thought must be prepared to suggest the way out of the difficulty. It is not very long ago since about a million of unemployed in the United States contemplated marching upon Washington. Fortunately trade and industry improved there or the depression might have had very serious results. The Hon. T. Mackenzie, Minister for Agriculture, has publicly hinted at a policy of the Government which will require most careful handling to avert disastrous consequences. We learn that in regard to the unemployed generally, the Minister said that “ the State was already providing work for gome 9 ; QOQ men on the various public works, and this represented roughly an expenditure of something like three-quarters of a million sterling a year. The Government was at the present time straining a point in increasing this large number by giving work to the unemployed, but it might happen in the not far distant future that the Dominion would not be able to continue to find work for the number at present employed.” The Minister, moreover, said that the Agricultural Department intended to have about 200 acres of State land at Levin stumped at a cost of £SOO, and that would give work to some unemployed. We are in deep sympathy with all who are out of work and we hope their position will soon improve, but we fear that the State is entering upon a most dangerous policy. We give the Governrasnt credit for the very best intention, but history warns us against the dangers of a course that we seem to be entering upon. Let us be wise in time. There is no doubt that no Government in any civilized country in the world can safely undertake to find work for all the unemployed, Socialists here and in England are promulgating their theory'of “The right to work,” which means that the State must find pmu work. Why should not the State then find work for women, and why not find trade for those traders who, through no fault of thnir own, are suffering losses through trade and industrial depression ? If it i 8 the duty of the State to find work for men, it is just as much its duty to find work for women and suitable work too ; and, as all must be treated fairly, the Government ought to help those traders and farmers who cannot pull through a depression without loss It is a played out game, and while it is quite legitimate for the State to give men work to tide over an emergency, it has no right to continue to do so when the emergency has passed away. To do so interferes with trade, industry, and agriculture. Our national co perative works were originally started as relief works ; but they have become a fixed institution. The nine thousand men now employed by by the State makes it difficult, if not impossible, for farmers to get farm labourers at a payable wage. In the past our cooperative public works haye seriously hampered farmers by sending up wages and preventing them from getting men. There are rocks ahead and we would fail in our duty to the public if we did not ring out a warning note with bo uncertain sound. Look at France. Turn back to history. In 1848, the Government of which Louis Blanc was president, undertook as a State duty to find work for the unemployed. Louis Philippe had abdicated the throne on the 24th February, 1848. On Ist March public works were proclaimed

by the Provincial Government. By the 21st of the month 30,000 men in Paris demanded work. By 16th of April there were 66,000 ; by 15th May they swelled to 100,000; and by 25th May 115,000 demanded work. The Government was at its wit’s end. It could not employ all the men. The men then revolted. The Government dissolved the State workshops. Fighting took place in the streets between the men and the troops. After three days hard fighting, from 23rd to 26th June, 10,000 men were killed and 12,000 were captured, many being wounded Let New Zealand take warning. If our Government undertake to find work for all the unemployed it may lead to dire disaster,