DEPRESSION IN BRITAIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 April 1921, Page 11

DEPRESSION IN BRITAIN.

UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM. LABOUR LEADERS’ ADVICE. DIRECT ACTION CONDEMNED. London, February 10. London unemployment figures rose between January 14 and February 5 from 141,316 to 158,760. The number of men idle exceeds 100,000, of whom about 25,000 are in Stepney, Southwark, and Hackney. The figures for the whole country show that the number of unemployed was 1,059,800 for the period ended January 28. With the widening of the industrial depression to the coalmining industry, the number of persons who are under-employed must exceed a further 2,000,000. The position is made worse as compared with pre-war days by the higher cost of living. Recently the unions turned down the Government’s proposals for the absorption of at least 50,000 ex-service men in the building industry. Anticipating an adverse reply from the unions, the Government has had an alternative scheme prepared for the employment of these men on house-building, and thia has been brought before the Cabinet, with a strong recommendation from the Ministers who have been dealing with the question that it should be put in force. The view taken in official circles is that the Government is bound to do everything in its power to provide work for ex-service men, and that the offer made to the building unions was on most generous lines. The Cabinet discussed the matter fully, and it is understood that as the result it was decided to proceed with the Government’s own scheme. In order that this may be made effective, it will be necessary to secure the cooperation of the master builders, and of local authorities. There is reason to believe that the scheme contemplates that the men should be employed on the building of houses- with concrete blocks, and for this class of work very little training is required to render a man efficient. THE TRADE OUTLOOK.

Sir Robert Horne, President of the Board of Trade, addressing a Coalition meeting at Sheffield, said it was impossible to exaggerate the gravity of the depression in trade of unemployment in the country. There were slight signs of a revival, and he thought the lapse of a few months might see evidence of a change in the condition of the country In the meantime there were large stocks in this- country, and the buyers believed that some day these would be offered at very large reductions, and they were waiting for them. “In my opinion,” continued Sir Robert, “trade will never become healthy in this country until we liquidate those stocks-. It will involve hardship, and in many quarters, perhaps, insurmountable difficulties, but such realisation, I think, is inevitable. Once it begins I think, you will see the wheels of industry beginning to go round rapidly again.” It is now becoming evident that the responsible Labour leaders are warning the rank and file of the dangers of direct action. Mr. J. H. Thomas, M.P., addressing a branch of the National Union of Railwaymen, said to those who wanted industrial stoppage or social upheaval: ‘Tn the long history of the world’s progress you will find that no social upheaval -is equal to the revolution in the ideals and thoughts of the people themselves. I will never ask the railwaymen, I will never give a lead to the railwaymen, to withhold their labor, involving the sacrifice and misery and suffering of themselves and others, to accomplish what the exercise of common sense and intelligence of the workers would bring about.” THE PRODUCTION FACTOR. “It has been suggested in some quarters,” writes Mr. J. H. Clynes, Labour M.P., in the Financial Times, “that employers will be driven to seek a remedy for unemployment in the direction of reducing wages. As things are at this moment, I think that would be a ruinous step to take, but if we are not to have reduced wages we cannot suffer reduced production. Both will inevitably lead us toward still greater trouble. There are workmen who think that if they do less there will be more for someone else to do, but against that view it is possible to show the results of actual experience, the only real test. Recent months have been fruitful in examples of the fallacy of reduced production. I do not seek to apportion blame or try to trace the cause, but from one cause or the other last year was one of low production. And toward the end of it we reached the highest figures of unemployment known in recent times. If low production did find work for others surely there would have been no unemployment problem to-day, and the hundreds of thousands of men who are now unhappily out of a job would be engaged in profitable industry. Plenty is the friend of the worker. His difficulties are lessened by increased production, wheteas decreased production increases his burdens and diminishes the purchasing power of his wages.

“Those of us in the Labor movement who try to improve the present system rather than make it unworkable are faced with the criticism that we are all wrong in so doing, and that we should preach a new order, I disagree. The capital system, I believe, will stand until it falls beneath a weight of conscious dissatisfaction with it, and a fixed determination gradually to build a better system. But the system is here, and to me the great question is, are we to make the best ef it or the worst of it? I believe that we should make that system yield the most which the workers can get from it in the way of regular employment, good wages-, and the best obtainable results in relation to their services.” THE PREMIER AND TRADE DEPRESSION. Following are some points made by Mr. Lloyd George, who, speaking at Birmingham, said that what was most needed to enable the country to overcome the difficulties created by the war was that Capital and Labor should stand together: We are going through the inevitable difficulties that follow a great war. What is the good of blaming the Government? If you change the Government you don’t change the facts. In Russia there is no Government at all. It must be a happy land. It is not governments, but facts, that you have to deal with. The heavy burdens of the war are depressing industry. But thie is the only country absolutely paying its way at the present time. M ut together. It waa uaitf

that enabled us to win the war. If Capital and Labor stand together, and men of all parties work together, we shall win through.

The trouble in trade is a real one, and to cure it you must find the causes. There has been a breakdown of international credit. Nobody can trust it to remain where it is, even down.

Trading under these conditions is like playing billiards on an Atlantic when there is a heavy sea on. The exchange is pitching and rolling, and you never know into whose pocket the ball Mill gp.