THE ROOT OF THE EVIL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 16, 20 January 1933, Page 6

THE ROOT OF THE EVIL.

RESTORING PROSPERITY. (To the Editor.) It seems extraordinary that financial 'men of standing, and economists of all decrees seem unwilling to acknowledge that unemploy.' ment is the root of all evil, and the unprecedented fact that all countries suffer from unemployment lias brought about a worldwide state of affairs which we call depression or slump, or some other name. Its real name is "vanished purchasing power." There would be no depression in the world if every nation would employ their unemployed at standard wages. The reduced purchasing power of the masses is the primary cause of low prices of every commodity, and until the purchasing power of the people has been restored no juggling with the exchange or cancellation of book debts between nations, or redistribution of gold will alter the present position. The working man is the machine which keeps money in free circulation, and when you stop employing him at standard wages you stop the free circulation of money, and everybody is affected. It does not need an economist or a financial authority to demonstrate that if the thirty millions unemployed in the world were employed at, say, £4 per week, the released purchasing power of £120,000,000 per week would finish the depression, and would set all industrial wheels going again, which in their turn, would immediately absorb * lot of labour, and prices of all commodities would be restored to a reasonable-level. What is needed is the courage to employ unemployed at standard wages, and capital does not seem to, or does not want/to, realise that this » the only way out of the present difficulty. Hence a lot of academical discussions which lead to nowhere. If. our Government in New Zealand employed all unemployed at standard wages, most of our local depression would cease, and it would not take a long time before the effect felt would relieve the Government of a great deal of the task of, employing labour. Immigration would have to be prohibited, unless immigrants can show that they will not become a charge on the community, and it should be clear that no immigrant should be allowed to land unless he or she has,sufficient liquid funds to exist for twelve months. What we want is to instil or to insist on courage in our Government to end unemploy ; ment in this country, and thereby restore the ■purchasing power of the people. The money can easily be found, and I have on more than one occasion pointed out to the Government how it could b ? e found, only to receive the answer that the Government is not prepared to adopt the means of obtaining money as suggested by me; but it does not know what this country might not be driven to. It is time that we roused the general public out of the appalling apathy with which it is looking on the drift that this country is taking. Forty thousand unemployed in June last year; 75,000 to-day; and next July-August, what? Wake up and start a campaign to restore the purchasing power of the people before it is too late. H. REIMERS,