Unemployment

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31678, 14 May 1968, Page 16

Unemployment

Sir,—, cannot but reply to “A. B. Cedarian’s” very misleading letter of Friday. He first accuses Mr Skinner, then Mr Kirk, over nothing; then he goes away back to 1936 and again accuses the Labour Government about the number of unemployed in 1939. Does he remember or does he not that there were 92,000 unemployed in this country when Labour took over, and has he forgotten the shocking mess this country was in with soup kitchens and charitable aide depots everywhere? Has he not sense to know it takes six years, not three, to get a country in such a mess Or an even keel again? With Michael Joseph Savage as Prime Minister, everybody in this country was very happy and contented, and a sorry day for this country when he left us. —Yours, etc.. D. BRYSON. May 12,1968.

Sir,—fit reply to the president of the local glass workers* union, as an abecedarian 1 do not profess to know but to be learning. He doubtless knows the I. C. and A. Act from A to Z, but I am concerned with democracy. A 12monthly conference, authorising its executive to do something at “an appropriate time," does not mean that the ill-chosen time automatically becomes appropriate to the benefit of a majority it does not represent. The points well raised by “Housewife” show that, before agitators stir up unemployment and its figures, the latter should be pub lished under two headings: “seasonally adjusted,” and “wholly unemployed, excluding school-leavers." The Labour conference foolishly emerged as revivalist, but a revival of one of Labour’s old rulings on employment benefits might be sensible—regular doorstep inquiries by inspectors to check eligibility Mr Isberwood need not complain. By supporting nationalisation of all banks, savings

banks, insurance companies, add agencies, his 1968 conference supported jobs for officialdom.—Yours, etc., A B. CEDARIAN. May 13, 1968.

Sir,—“A. B. Cedarian” is wrong as many of the unemployed of 1939 were not ablebodied men but men with physical and mental disabilities. These unfortunate people could do only part-time, light, or sheltered work. In 1968, under the present National Government, most of the unemployed are able-bodied men and women who have lost their jobs because the Government has listened to depres-sion-type economists. Increases in costs are not due to wage increases, but to shipping vested interests putting up their freight rates to increase their profits. Labour indeed dealt with unemployment in 1936 when it rescued thousands from the dole.— Yours, etc., DISILLUSIONED NATIONALIST. May 13, 1968.