The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1887. THE UNEMPLOYED.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1654, 1 November 1887, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1887. THE UNEMPLOYED.

The greatest problem which the immediate future will have to deal with is “ the unemployed ” question, and it appears to us that it will prove extremely difficult of solution. In every country with which we are acquainted men are crying out for bread or work, and in most instances when they ask for bread they, literally speaking, get stones. They at all events get the policeman’s baton, if not the soldier’s bayonet. The unemployed of London are particularly active at present. They are holding daily meetings, and urging their claims for consideration upon public attention, but so far it appears they have not succeeded in gaining any great advantage. The latest cablegrams inform us that it has been decided not to raise a Lord Mayor’s fund, but to increase local relief instead—that is, convert the unemployed into paupers at once. There is therefore apparently no brighter prospects before the unemployed of London in the coming winter than that they shall have charity-meal served out to them, and exist as absolute paupers. The condition of the laboring classes is not altogether so bad in America, but even there the unemployed difficulty exists, so does it exist in Victoria, and as for New South Wales, we have been told by a gentleman who has recently returned from there that he never knew what misery was until he went to Sydney. The fact is, every country has its ever increasing crop of unemployed workmen, and how to provide for these is a question which statesmen must grapple with before long. Neither Freetrade nor Protection will settle this question. Protection would certainly promote labor in this colony. If we determined upon making locally £3,000,000 or £4,000,000 worth of the goods we import at present, we should bp able to give employment to thousands of men more than we have in the colony, and we should have no unemployed difficulty to deal with. But looking at the question from a world-wide point of view, this would not improve the position of the unemployed in the least. If we were to make our own goods, the men who have hitherto made them for us in foreign countries would then be idle, and the only difference it would make is that the idle men would be in other countries instead of being here. Thp problem of the unemployed is far more difficult of solution than it appears on the surface, and is one wh'ch no single nation alone can grapple with. It is held by some that the present want of employis due to the fact that alfflpsj; every kind of work is done by machinery, and there is no d übt but gthere is a great deal of truth in it. Henry George attributes'}! to land monopoly, and he to a certain extent is right. But there is still another reason which bears more directly on the question than any yet suggested, and that is the rage for getting cheap goods. Cheap goods, and cheap labor, and cheap everything is the cause of the unemployed, and one of the principal causes of the depression throughout the world. It is;very difficult to prove this in the space at our disposal, for men have so long been accustomed to think that to sell in the dearest and buy in the cheapest market is correct economy that they are prejudiced in favor of it. A little reflection would, we think, convince them that things can become too cheap, and in our opinion that is exactly what has happened now. In this respect we are not alluding to this colony any more than to other countries; that prices have come down everywhere is beyond a question of doubt, and that low prices is the cause of the depression is equally certain- Wbat has brought down the prices is therefore the question that must give the key to the mystery. Over-production is the pause which the self-satisfied philosopher, who has more than enough but groans because be pannot acquire , more wealth, a tributes it. Manufapr ,

turera made more goods than there was any demand for; they are lying on their hands, and their hands to shut their factories until they can get rid of thorn; their employees are idle, and consequently are not spending their wages. Probably they are in many instances living on the poor rates. Now comes the question, Is it overproduction? We certainly do not think it is. How can it be overproduction while there are millions starving and perishing for the want of the goods ? If every man, woman, and child in the world was well fed and well clothed, and there were still surplus stocks on hand, then we would call it over-production; but while people are in want of the goods, and very desirous of securing them if possible, it is necessary to find another cause to which to attribute" the depression. Under-consumption is an indefinite term; it does not express the exact state of things. Inability to acquire, consequent on the povertystricken condition of the people, can alone give due expression to the exact condition of trade at present, and the remedy must therefore be to give people the “ ability to acquire,” and that can only be done by paying them better wages, and charging better prices for the goods. Low wages and cheap goods are at the bottom of it all, If manufacturers charged better prices and paid their employees good wages that would enable them to buy all they stand in need of, and there cannot be the slightest doubt but that everyone would be better off. It is, however, useless to discuss this subject, for it is beyond legislative control. It would not, we suppose, do to go back to the good old days when the law regulated the price of labor and the price of goods, when a master would be punished for giving his servant more than the law allowed him, and when a manufacturer would not be allowed to charge more than a certain price for his goods. This alone could remedy the evil, and it does not appear to us that it is practicable now. The poor will be always with us, but we shall not be surprised if the poor make themselves very troublesome before long.