Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, APRIL 8, 1940. UNEMPLOYMENT AHEAD?

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 April 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, APRIL 8, 1940. UNEMPLOYMENT AHEAD?

-IT is very probable that there will be severe pttentplo.™™! I after the war,” the British Unemployment. Insmance StaiXl CowLttee has stated in ’ p.arised in a cablegram pnbbsbet on S. lit - apparently is of opinion that nothing a 1 been lea>ne<» ih< domain of economic policy fro '’' eonrpanv no ‘■is s sfer is'jttxw — alarm. matter of keeping’ faith with those who nie non vn unu lheir lives in defence of human rights and libeities, hit of an elementary regard for the future welfare and seeiiiiti of democratic. States, it should be agreed that means must be found of making an end of conditions in wlu . able and eager to work are cast mto miprovu ent 1 ones n e ample material factors of production are wasted 01 left unused. It needs to be recognised that, while democracy has in Hitlerism an immediate enemy and one that must )e nv l thrown at all costs, there is a threat, hardly less dangerous t civilised communities in the alternation of boom , * with all that this last implies in the disorganisation and wrecking of social life and crushing hardship suffered bj a multitude of individuals. On the other no better method of .making peace, when it is ultnnatdi i established, secure, than by providing a firm foundation economic order on which to erect stable prosperity. The difficulties to be overcome in making an end of unemployment are sufficiently emphasised, not leas nieonn i g like the United States, where an unemployed host, o Inn u millions exists side by side with the greatest ami most 0 aboiae organisation of industry and ot iminstimd equipment *' world has ever seen. 11 is of life and death miporlanee, however that means should be found of overling the periodical para’lvsis of industry and production and the British Empire cannot worthily be content with anything less than a supreme effort to avert 'a recurrence of the evils 01. depression and unemployment. that, developed after the last war. Tn the handling of this great problem, scope may be found for Empire-wide co-operation in promoting a more advantageous distribution of population and of industry but each country of the Empire lias its individual part to play and the peo pit of New Zealand should be more than willing Io acknowledge their own responsibility in the matter. Those who have gone and are "oing abroad from this country to tight lor the Empm were assured by the late Prime Minister that on retnrnmg they would not have Io Imnl .for a job. No donbl llitil promise will be echoed and endorsed wholeheartedly by our present I ruiie Minister and it is for the people of the Dominion to see o it. for their own sake as well as that of the members ol our hglilmg forces when they return, that the promise shall not have been made in vain. While manv detail aspects of the total problem demand alienlion, the most hopeful method immediately available to this eounlrv of averting or al least very greatly muddying after-war depression and unemployment is Io plan and prepare ihe way for an expansion of industry directed to producing goods and services needed within Hie Dominion. 'I Im sale ol export produce and the purchase of imports bulk and must conliniie to bulk large in our national economy and il is upon these branches of our production ami trade that any external economic disorder will react, most seriously. We have no means of safeguarding ourselves directly against the clients of external trade depression, but it is open to us to do a great deal by the expansion of internal production to oltsef I lie effects of adverse external trade. Even in. the repatriation of our soldiers, when the lime comes Io undertake it. something may be done to st imulale and advance Hie expansion of industries. Selected men might lie ..•iven opportunities, for example, of observing indiist rms abroad and if possible of getting some framing, with a vk’h to the establishment of now industries in New Zealand, «ili the same end in view, leclinieians and key men might lie imported from Britain and perhaps from other countries as well. Various oilier lines ol aelion are possible and Iheie eerminly should be no thought of awaiting passively Hie repro (lnctioii in lliis eounlrv of the miserable and calamitous comli H<,ns il experienced in Hie years that followed Hie economic blizzard of 1929.