Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1939. FLAG DAV APPEAL.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 December 1939, Page 6

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1939. FLAG DAV APPEAL.

0N its merits, the King Day appeal t<> b<? macle throughout, the Wellington Province tomorrow should meet with a o'enerous response and it must be hoped that the Waiiaiapa Till not Fall short of doing its share in tins way towards providing the funds that are needed, as the Mayor ol Masteiton (Mr T -lordan) has explained, to make “some special provision for the men in Trentham Camp and out stations at Christmas time.”

Thus far there have been indications of a general disinclination to respond to the appeal for patriotic funds and yet this appeal is in every way as well justified as it has been on any past occasion. Some people, feeling the burden ol heaxy taxation, say: “Let the Government do what is necessary but the question is not between taxpayers and the Government, but between the people of the Dominion and the soldiers who have enlisted to tight for them. When all has been done that any -Fovernment can he expected to do in equipping and maintaining troops, something remains that most certain y should be done. It is surely right, that some provision should be made, in our training camps and m the quarters our soldiers presently will be occupying overseas, for the lighter amenities of life and for pleasant entertainment. Neither is it m doubt that this can be done far better by voluntary and spontaneous action, based upon the relationship in which the men in uniform are united with the rest of the community, than under olticia reoulations and the limitations they inevitably connote. Should nol, the people of the Wairarapa and those of every other part of New Zealand welcome the opportunity of making a goodwill offering to the men who are facing for New Zealand, and in the cause of justice and freedom, all the hazards and sacrifices ol wa r ?

It is simply not in character that New Zealanders should turn coldly a wav lio’m the appeal to patriotism now being made, or should"respond to it grudgingly. One entirely mistaken idea that persists to some extent, in spite of its having been denied repeatedly and with final authority, is that the Government exercises some sort.of control over the expendituie of patriotic funds. As Mr -Jordan once again stated yesterday, the funds now being raised, including those obtained by the sale of flags tomorrow, will be received and spent by the Wellington Provincial Patriotic Council, on which this district is well and adequately represented, and the Government has nothing whatever to do with the disposal of ihe funds, b'lag Day tomorrow should carry its own sufficient appeal and effectively break the ice where patriotic effort in this and other districts is concerned. It is an occasion on which all, by modest contribution, may bear their part in conveying to the men wlio have taken up arms on their behalf an assurance ol gratitude, support and encouragement. UNEMPLOYMENT IN AMERICA, AT an immediate view the sudden sharpening of the unemployment crisis in the United States, described in somewhat, staggering terms in a message from New York yesterdax, is the outcoihe of an endeavour to shill the burden ol relief expenditure from the shoulders of the Federal Goxeminent 1o those of Stale and local authorities. 11 is in any ease an appalling condition of affairs that many thousands of people in great American industrial cities should bo subsisting on a single meal daily, or relying for further relief on the charity of their neighbours and friends. Between them the different, governing agencies presumably must find some means ol gixing at least subsistence to people who are out of work through no fault of their own, but. the question of relief is only the surface aspect of a problem which more and more imperatively demands much deeper treatment.

The problem is Jar enough I'roin having developed only in the United States. A cablegram on .Monday mentioned that in Britain the total of registered unemployed, I hough it had been reduced to some extent, stood in tlie middle of last mpnlli al over 1,400,000. Our own unemployment problem in Xew Zealand is covered up rather than solved, and similar accounts are to be given of conditions in many other countries. In the totalitarian nations, unemployment has not in any true sense been overcome, but people are compelled to work, many of them nnprodnetively, for what is available.

YVhile the blight of unemployment, or of something as bad, is widespread, it remains a depressing and a menacing fact that in the United Stales, which is in many details the most highly organised industrial country in the world, the unemployed are still estimated at nine millions, in spite of “business improvement and industrial activity partly due to the war. The possibility obviously appears that in the United Slates and in other count ries, t he return of peace may disastrously intensify lhe unemployment problem, by depriving of their employment large numbers of workers noxv engaged in highly specialised war industries.

In one aspect or another, the danger thus plainly in sight imperatively demands action while there is time, not only in lhe United Stales, but in many ol her count ries. including Britain and the British Dominions. The establishment of future peace must depend not only on the deleat ol aggression, essential though Ilia! is. but in no small degree upon the widest possible development of conditions of economic security.

It is 1 lie more necessary Hull the problem of unemployment should be attacked, speedily and el'l'eet ively, since on the I'ace of it. there is no legitimate excuse for its existence on the scale it has attained in the world today. Where, for example, as in the I'nil ed St at es al present, nine million pen ph' are esl ima ted Io be out of work, the condition of unemployment plainly implies a process of mutual impoverishment. In view of I hi' wonderful advance that American industry has made in efficiency of production, it cannot be doubted that al least a very large proportion of Hie nine million unemployed workers might lie employed happily and profitably in satisfying one another's needs. A nation in which millions of people are unable to liml work and subsistence is in danger even if il is able to stand apart meantime from world conflict, 'I he same danger ol course appears in greater or less degree in any nation which has uu its bauds au unsolved problem of unemployment