CURE OF UNEMPLOYMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 227, 25 September 1930, Page 22

CURE OF UNEMPLOYMENT.

Many suggestions have V»en siade, for the euro of unemployment, Imfc fe# «i them go to the root of the evil; they are merely palliatives whicli, so 4rtr from curing distress, in tne end tend to aggravate it. Among these are the various schemes of unemployment re-> lief; what we want is not relief, but' cure. Can unemployment be radically cured? The answer is emphatically yes, and the process is no difficult one. Whether it will appeal to the worker is another matter. The worker's ideals and his real interests are not always identical; they are often widely divergent. The worker maintains that although his wages have risen, the cost of living has risen in the same proportion, and that he is now just in the same position as he was before. Quite eo. Let us suppose that wages were to sink to the old level, and the cost of living also in the same proportion,- Would the worker then be any worse off? It does not follow that he would, but it would certainly be easier for him to find work, for employers complain that the present high cos.t of labour, coupled with falling prices for their products, renders it impossible for them to pay the same ratep as prevailed during the height of the war, when the prices of many commodities were double the present scale. Sir Otto Nicmeyer is right when he maintains that we will never attain to that general prosperity which minimises unemployment until the cost of production is reduced. An all-round fall in wages means a proportionate fall in the cost of living. Even if it did not, it would certainly pay the worker better to be permanently employed at 10/ a day than only one day a week at £1, and there arc sign* that lie is already commencing to look at it in this light. This is the only solution which seems to go to the root of the evil. To maintain that the cost of living must be reduced before wages can be, is to beg the question. Such a result is certainly to be desired, but is impossible ot attainment; it is putting the cart before the horse. These are not theories, but facts. Let the worker view the matter from a broadminded standpoint. Let more freedom of contract be allowed between employer and employee. At present the former are tied by award rates which are in many instances prohibitive. In Australia, the award rates have been lowered in some cases by 20 per cent or more, and although some of the workers have gone on strike against the decision, others, more sensible, have accepted the situation as inevitable. Wages arc falling all over the world in obedience to a natural economic law; legislation which attempts to defy economic laws only defeats its own ends; it is like trying to sweep back tho sea with a broom. Wages are bound to fall also in New Zealand, but this does not mean necessarily that "real wagesjf will be reduced, or that the worker will be any worse off; quite the reverse, for only so can the spectre of unemployment be effectually laid. —J.D.L.