UNEMPLOYMENT.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20712, 24 November 1932, Page 9

UNEMPLOYMENT.

♦ NEW MEASURES TO BE TAKEN. | massiyeness of problem i REALISED. % j \l'>lT i: O !'!l I,SH AS S O CI A Tl O X-H 5: £L£CTniC I TKLEGiIAi'II CCrVRIOUT.) j Miecoived November 23rd, 11.15 p.m.) LON DON", November 23. 11 is understood from the King's s l eech and from Mr liamsay !MacI'onald's. statement that the Government is tackling unemployment, from a new angle. JI i thcrto the question lias been associated with tho falling-oil in *>rld trade, I tie so-called (< cconoiriic bli:«ard," and the temporary collup.se of Hie basic industries, and "it has been assumed that the unemployed would bo absorbed when better times came. The Government appears to have realised that; a large amount of unemployment; is destined to bo permanent, owing to the vast daily displacements, duo to unceasing extensions of machinery, the cassation of migration, the overmanning ui many industries (for example, tho coal industry), and the displacements due to reductions in armaments and warship Not least of the causes is tho post-war invasion by women of the labour market, practically doubling the total supply of labour. Will be a Residuum. Mr Mac Don ald states that, even when us bus ,- v !ls anyone can expect it to become there wilt bo a residuum of. population, which, it not composed of human beings, might be described as scrap material. 'I ho Government is dctormined not to allow this residuum, a\iiich .Mr Mac Donald says, will perhaps amount to 2,000,000 men and women, to become "superfluous scrap." Therefore he regards the problem of unemployment not a matter for temporary relie'f. Air Nc\illo Chamberlain had previously mentioned the liguro of 1,000,000 who might possibly be permanently unemployed.

Shocking Figures. The Archbishop of Canterbury said that it was a shock to him to learn this trum the Chancellor of the Exchequer. It was surely impossible for us lo acquiesce in such a permanent burden on the social life of the nation. The newspapers foreshadow vast Government plans to help the unemployed. It has been decided to divide the country into areas, each with an organiser to provide work in his centre and to make allotments for physical training and educational facilities to settle youths 011 the land.