OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 July 1939, Page 8

OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

UNEMPLOYMENT (To the Editor.) Sir, —Your correspondent L. B. Maunsell has accused me of being more concerned with politics than with unemployment. If trying to give credit where it was due, namely, to the present Government, is being politically minded, I must stand condemned; but surely this is not the standard used for measuring politieal-mindedness. I felt, myself, that my previous letter faced up to the position very straightforwardly. I attempted to outline quite a number i,of channels into which our surplus labour could be turned and which would prove productive. I am pleased to see that, at the end of his letter, Mr Maunsell admits, though somewhat grudgingly, that the time may come when it will not be possible to employ all men in ordinary industry. Of course the time is well past when that was possible and hence the necessity for looking in every possible direction for new ways of producing national wealth. I am in the fullest agreement with Mr Maunsell when he says the public are to be blamed for expecting the politician to do all their thinking for them and I would add that it is just as blameworthy to attack the Government for not having fully solved all our problems in the comparatively short time they have been on the job. All great movements have commenced from small beginnings. If, instead of condemning the Government it were possible for the leading citizens of this district to get together and .study the position as it applies to us; to find out how the district could be made more productive and able to support a bigger population; then, having worked out a plan or plans, place them before the Government with the assurance that all would be done to make the plan or plans work out successfully — that co-operation and not criticism would be our part—l believe something could be achieved and that success in our little settlement would lead to similar action elsewhere. The real trouble seems to be that the question of providing employment is going to cost something—that profits will not be so great. We shall never achieve anything until there is less greed of gain and selfishness. A new. spirit is needed and is, I believe, appearing. In a recent newspaper report that fine old Christian gentleman, Archbishop O’Shea is quoted as follows:—“ ‘There is an uneasy feeling in Europe and America about the money power.’ He had been told by a very distinguished statesman that there was worry about it. Both in England and America there was fear that it would lead to dictatorship. They were afraid that people would get disgusted at the unequal distribution of wealth.” •

It is “the devil take the hindmost” system that is at the root of all the world's troubles and which is causing great wealth on one hand and poverty and distress on the other. Even the Rt. Hon. David Lloyd George (who is not a Labour supporter) several years ago told the MacDonald Government that: ‘‘Since the war the City of London. has been invariably wrong in its advice. Rapid deflation was a mistake; the precipitate establishment of the gold standard was another mistake. The settlement of the American debt was City advice.” And again: “The cause of the depression throughout the world is due to the mishandling of monetary questions. It is not due to a shortage of things.” Thus we see how deep the question of unemployment really goes. We can do a great deal to provide employment by seeking ways and means of developing our district, but there is a still bigger problem to be solved, the solving of which will make the way easier for the solving of other problems. —Yours, etc., E.G.C.'

Masterton, July 19.