WAGES AND THE DEPRESSION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 177, 29 July 1938, Page 6

WAGES AND THE DEPRESSION.

Like your other correspondents. Mr. H. Denby has neither answered nor attempted to answer what I on this subject. Th« subject chosen was the all over the Dominion by Ministers and their followers—that the late Government caused, or at .east enormously aggravated, the depression by disastrously reducing the. purchasing power of wages, and the facts prove decisive!* that the charge is Useless and destitute of the least trace of sense or fairn-« The depression was in full blast, was ruinirg thousands all over the Dominion, before the cut. were made, and after the cuts were mid? real wages were higher than thev were in or in almost any year in our historv. The cuts, m fact, only partially brought nominal wage rates into line with the changed value of money, as can be seen by a glance at the -r5 f°/,- effectn : e rat <* Jriren on pa2 e i2L* if J? r ? Y ° ar Book - The "nemplovte i W --52 d « " rmfr U,P de P™=*ion «** nothing to do with tins question. The returns from our exports were down by 4fi.7 per cent. How, pray, could employers whose monev returns «ere down to that extent continue to P av pre-depressmn money rates of wage** The cuts no more caused unemplovment than onr overcoats cause the rain. Thev gave a cr'aiu measure of protection to employers, thai was • J- JOHXSTOXE.