PUBLIC WORKS IN WAR

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23001, 22 April 1940, Page 5

PUBLIC WORKS IN WAR

.TO THB EDITOR OF TUX PBSBB. Sir,-i-Mr Holland says that there are more men on public works than before the war started. This, must indicate that the employers generally have not replaced the men who have gone to camp and to the war. It also shows that some employers have put off these extra men, who have had to go on public works. This means that primary and secondary employers are displacing men by machinery, In "The Press" advertisements the men looking for productive work are

greater than the number of situations vacant. One reason why production is going down is that the heads of the agricultural Industry prefer getting an increase of income from the State. This reduces the need of increased working capital to increase crop areas and to increase the numbers" of breeding stock. To get money direct from the State is quicker and carries no risk. If "Seventy-Four" had his way and public works were closed down, he would find that if these men got other jobs then 12,000 to 20,000 other men would be forced on sustenance. The workingman cannot make employment. That is the function" of the State and private enterprise. If public works were closed a rich field for "pickings" would be lost to private enterprise. Their turnover would drop about £20,000,000 in one year.—Yours, etc., KAYE HOE. April 19, 1940.