UNEMPLOYMENT IN AMERICA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 November 1940, Page 3

UNEMPLOYMENT IN AMERICA

A human society tainted by unemployment is immoral to the extent that it fails to seek a cure, states the Labour Day message of the American Federal Council of Churches. We would, therefore, confess the corporate sin of our society in which millions today are denied the right to work. The conserva- ( live estimates of the National Industrial Conference Board indicate that about nine million potential workers were unemployed in April, 1940. The problem of unemployment must not become a political football. It must not be used for partisan purposes by any party. It must be the common concern of all. Economic desperation leads multitudes of well-meaning citizens into temptation. Baffled, confused, embittered, seeing themselves in want in an age of potential plenty, not knowing where to turn, they arc an easy prey for demagogues and would-be dictators. It is in such a psychology of despair that class bitterness increases, “scapegoats" are blamed for all the trouble, race hatreds flourish, civil liberties are curtailed or destroyed, labour’s rights of organisation are imperilled, and the ground is prepared for violence and dictatorship, either from the right or from the left. Let America accept the challenge to discover and put into effect measures for the cure of unemployment as one of the greatest possible contributions to democracy and to enduring peace among all nations.