Work if Wanted.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18947, 11 March 1927, Page 10

Work if Wanted.

The statement by the Prime Minister published yesterday morning, outlining the Government's scheme for providing work for those who cannot obtain it on their own initiative, would have called for no comment but for the extraordinary criticism to which it has been subjected. When Mr Coates says that "while the Government cannot "reasonably be expected to shoulder "the whole responsibility of finding "employment for those who are out " of work, the interests of the country "as well as the dictates of humanity "render it necessary that at the pre"sent moment the utmost should be "done that can be done," he expresses the feelings of the average kindly majority. Yet an attempt has already been made to construe his wage proposals into " a blow at organised "Labour." Mr Coates makes it clear that, as the present unemployment will not be permanent, there is no inten* tion of paying wages that will induce the extra men to stay with the Public Works Department, which has undertaken to provide the relief work. The financial arrangements for the year will be appreciably disorganised by this new programme, and it is essen* tial that as normal avenues of employment are opened the Department shall get rid of its surplus staff. The payment of full wages might also be taken to imply that the Government is obliged to assume, whenever called on, the duties of a private employer. Much has been said about the demoralising effects of the dole in Britain, but if a Government on demand had to provide convenient work at union wages, the consequences would be just as unfortunate. If the unemployed accept the Government's offer in the gpirit in which it is made—as an expedient to tide over a period of distress—they will better their standing in the eyes of the community and their changes of getting permanent employment later on. They should examine carefully the motives of those who counsel another course and make sure that their misfortunes are not being capitalised. The prpnjj.ngiamento of thg New Zealand labour Party on tie subject, published this morning, is a good example of the political use that be made of unemployment, It starts with extravagant expressions of sympathy for those to whom the Government's offer is made, and it ends with a category pf the Reform Govern, ment's crimeg apd a suggestion that there will be work for all, even immigrants, in Labour's Utopia. In other words, the labour Party professes to regard the Government as hard-hearted in its dealings with the unemployed, and shows its own queer sympathy by presenting them with an abridged election manifesto.