The Daily News. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1921. BRITAIN’S UNEMPLOYED.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 September 1921, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1921. BRITAIN’S UNEMPLOYED.

It .would seem that the unemployed in Britain at\» likely, before long, to bring matters to a crisis. With hundreds of thousands of workers idle—London’s quota alone totals 150,000 —there must come a time when the money available for relief will run out. Already, according to a recent cablegram, the London contingent has mostly exhausted the period in which they are entitled to national unemployment benefits, and are flocking by thousands in search of relief by the various poor law guardians, naturally drifting to those parishes where they can get most money. It is stated that some guardians are paying the unemployed more than the family’s normal wages, so that the recipients are better off tlian if they were at work. It will be readily understood that in ’districts where this state of affairs exists the masses are having the time of their lives. Not so the ratepayers, who have to find the money. One result of this pernicious charity is that the members of the Poplar Council have refused to levy any rates, and are apparently prepared to pay the penalty of their defiance of the law, preferring to go to prison—and become an additional burden on the State—than to add to the burdens of their constituents. They were paying nearly £6OOO a week to meet unemployment relief, and as Poplar is mostly populated by the poor, the councillors consider that the wealthy boroughs should contribute, especially as unemployment is due to national and international causes. If, as these councillors anticipate, their imprisonment ensues, there is the prospect of a no-rent strike, which may lead to troubles far greater than any Britain has yet been called upon to face as regards internal affairs. Unemployment relief is claimed as a right, and it appears to vary from £3 13s 6d to £4 Ils Id, the number of children being a factor. No surer method for pauperising a community can be imagined than by making the relief given exceed normal wages. No wonder the query has been raised, ‘‘Why work?” Such a policy is a direct incentive to idleness, and cannot fail to prove disastrous. The effect is seen in the demand by the Woolwich unemployed for payment that equals the earnings of unskilled laborers, and they have threatened to seize the guardians’ offices if their demand is not met. Manifestly the position is going from bad to worse, and unless some practical and equitable scheme is evolved, Britain will become a seething mass of idle people ready to go to extremes. While it is quite right that no one should be allowed to starve, it is equally necessary that reasonable value should be given for relief payments, and the only way in which that can be done is by providing work for the unemployed. The problem is one that is admittedly difficult to solve. It is worthy of note that while the unemployed are so numerous, the arbitrary action of the Bricklayers’ Union in Lincolnshire has added to the ranks of the unemployed three hundred men who were ordered out because the work they were doing was construed as piece work -by reason of a special bonus being paid for expedition. This is another illustration of union methods being adverse to the interests of the workers. Apparently there are inimical forces at work in Britain, and elsewhere, that make for anarchy. It would be a wise policy to devote special attention to instituting an effective antidote before the problem becomes too complicated to solve.