IN THE PUBUC MDflf

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 221, 19 September 1938, Page 8

IN THE PUBUC MDflf

MEN ON SUSTENANCE.

INCREASE SWEPT AWAY;^ (To the Editor.) " %; j Government figures give 1321 fit on sustenance. 8000 as unfit to work, the 3~>,000 registered unemployed no 'mention is made of the hundreds or thousands of idm, throughout this country that arc fit for ]3 labouring work. As wp are taxed nationX to combat the horror of unemployment what explanation has the Government'to offer in its failure to evolve a scheme of employnyii for this class of men ? In the multitude of ink! that were provided for the unemployed befa» the Labour Government took office," the nrfo eiple that prevailed was not one of an intend 'fication of the labour process, but one of doing ones best according to physical ability. Wfcf the extinction of this grand principle?" "-Let * eliminate single men on £1 per week also men with wives and families, and take the case of married men on an allowance of 35/ per week. It is a very conservative estimate that rent and fuel cost £1 per week, leaving a balance of 15/ per week to feed and clothe two human beings. Xo such miracle can be performed on this pittance! Take a couple placed thus, facing the problem of buying a pair of shoes costing 20/. Xo member "of the Government, bark-bencher. Cabinet Minister or Prime Ministt-r can give the mathematical formula for the solution of this problem unless lie stipulates the condition of a diet of aqua pura for a period of two weeks or mo**. And men on sustenance have been refused boots (I have made personal application at the Labour Bureau). It is an undebatable truth that they are in such a disgraceful economic position that the purchase of boot* is impossible. Well, boots have been refusedbut, paradoxically, the boot has been give* Why the extinction of this previously given, humane consideration, the supply of boots to those unable to buy them? When this country was submerged in the slough of world depression valid reasons were given for the unenviable position of the unemployed: in this a period of world boom, no such reasons can be piven. The present political regime has given, on the other hand, a monetary increase in sustenance; on the other hand, this increase ha 6 been pounced upon and swept away by the insatiable gluttony of an increased cost of living. Xo Government can defend or claim honour for the present rates of sustenance. Sustenance is the ghoul-headed twin brother to pauperisation; the present rates the perpetuation of a social atrocitv. EMACIATED, NOT EMANCIPATED.