Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1909. THE UNEMPLOYED.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4474, 12 October 1909, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1909. THE UNEMPLOYED.

Thii above all—to thine owntelfbe true, And it mutt follow as the night the dag Thou eamt not then be falee to any man Shakeepeare.

Only those whose hearts are like flint can be indifferent to bona fide working men who cannot get work. Wo say bona fide working men. It is necessary to distinguish between them and the strikers who bring the whole class into disfavour. Some men are only half awake when they look for a job. Nothing could possibly grieve some of them more than the finding of work. These latter are always tired. The feeling u chronic. Employers easily diagnose their case and invariably pass them by as incurable. Some of them are alcoholised wrecks who oould not do a fair day’s work at anything harder than sitting in an easy chair to see that visitors shut the garden gate so that stray cows do not trespass. Even at that they go to sleep. We have no sympathy with that latter class. They are parasites and loafers on the community and they injure the genuiue workers by bringing them into disfavour amongst those who do not discriminate between the good, bad, and indifferent. But we do sympathise with the bona fide workers and we shall always hold the scales evenly between employers and employed, and resent and resist unfair coercive measures of Unions «ed Associations of either party. We shall always (Champion the cause of the deserving Wftsmployed. Nothing is more trying” and distressing than a manly fellow’s inability to procure work. To go out day after day, knowing that ono a savings are swiftly diminishing, failing to get work after hard and honest endeavours, i* more tiring thau opes ordinary lalbow. It is doubly distressing wiheu one’s funds s*e exhausted and the unemployed have sickness in their fanuly. Sometimes working man under

those circumstances require as much fortitude as soldiers on the battle field. We think that sometimes some of the unemployed are very badly ac vised to bold out for the higher -rate of wages when they could obtain work at a lower rate. A half a loaf is surely hotter than none, and sometimes a man who is working at a lower rate than is nsual, commends himself to his employer and gets a rise in pay to the usual current rate. Trade Unions not infrequently entail great hardships upon their members by not allowing them to work for wapes below the regular scale.

Moreover some of the hurried and crude legislation that disfigures our Statute Book, gives many men the impression that there is “no room for rich men ”in New Zealand. Mr A. W. Rutherford, a New Zealand pastoralist and a former M P. for Hurunui, Baid in Adelaide, recently, when he was visiting there :

“ Although my visit to the Australian States was primarily for pleasure, I have kept my eyes open with a view to eventualities. In New Zealand our land Acts penalise a person owning land above a certain value, and our labour laws discourage those inclined to invest in secondary industries ; so that practically there is no investment for surplus money.” If that belief becomes very prevalent, it will be the working classes who will suffer most. Another instance was re • cently afforded in which a capitalist in England intended to settle out in Australia, but the labour laws presented his doing so. We cannot but think that if more competent men were returned to Parliament they would devise laws that would not injure the workers whom they really wish to help and would not scare capitalists whnn they ought to encourage But to get abler legislators requires that more people should take a genuine and intelligent interest in politics. The working man must bestir himself and make a better choice than he does. Switzerland affords many illustrations of what can be legitimately and successfully done for the unemployed. While on the one hand the authorities there deal promptly and effectively with losfers and intemperate drinkers, and compel them to work, they pay special attention to the willing workers and industrious who cannot find work. The man who is out of work there through his own fault is treated as a criminal because he is a menace to the community. The genuine worker is cot subjected to any humiliation. Efforts are made to find him suitable employment, aqd if it cannot be found in the immediate locality his requirements for maintenance are provided for and he is given letters commendatory to the civic authorities from place to place until he gets work. Grants of money are made out of special funds to reputable persons who are temporarily out of work. In some parts the authorities provide special work at a little lower rate than current wages, and thus men are often tided over emergencies. Provision stations are provided and anyone who has letters of commendation can under certain precaution, obtain relief-in-kind. The authorities great efforts are to see that no respectable person who desires work and cannot get it shall suffer, and to prevent the loafer from imposing on the community. Everybody should sympathise with our unemployed in New Zealand who would work if they could get it to do, and we hope that the evil of the unemployment will result in good by driving 1 surplus labourers into the country where, if they will work for farmers for reason able wages, and do a fair days work, they will benefit themselves and the persons they work for.