The Dominion TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 1926. POLITICS AND UNEMPLOYMENT

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 210, 1 June 1926, Page 6

The Dominion TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 1926. POLITICS AND UNEMPLOYMENT

. Although some estimates of the amount of unemployment that has arisen in the Dominion are exaggerated, the trouble obviously has developed to an extent that justifies the institution of organised measures of relief. On that point no controversy will arise. Ruling sentiment in this country demands that every willing worker should be given an opportunity of earning a living. It is one thing, however, to recognise that relief work must be provided for the unemployed. It is quite another thing to expect the Government and local bodies to organise special works on such a scale and in such conditions that they would draiy or keep workers away from normal employment where that is offering. In a good deal that has recently been said about unemployment, particularly by Labour-Socialist politicians when taking part in deputations to Ministers and on other, occasions, there have been clearer indications of a desire to make political capital than to help the unemployed. It is certainly not helping those who are unfortunate enough to be for the moment out of work to demand that they should be employed at full union rates, irrespective of their ability to earn these rates. Some of those in need of help admittedly are incapable of doing anything like a normal day’s work as labourers, and it is chiefly work of this kind that can be offered by way of relief. The reasonable course in these circumstances is to fix a minimum that will provide for subsistence, distinguishing, of- course, between. single men and married men with families to support. Beyond this, the best plan, where it is practicable, undoubtedly would be to provide for the payment by results of all who are capable of earning more than the minimum rate on relief works. Handled on these lines, any unemployment problem that develops in this country will soon be solved. It is meantime as little in the interests of the unemployed as of the country at large that the dimensions of the problem should be exaggerated. If the Labour-Socialists who have recently had so much to say on the subject really desire to assist the unemployed, their task, is easy. They need only support the measures of assistance and relief that are being taken by the Government and local bodies. There is a good deal to suggest, however, that the real desire of a section of the Labour-Socialists is to embarrass their political opponents by putting forward impossible demands on behalf of the unemployed. It is of some interest from this standpoint that the proposals of Labour-Socialist members of Parliament for the relief of unemployment are practically identical with those of the Communist' Party of New Zealand. This party describes itself as a section of the Third International, and stands avowedly for the “abolition of the Capitalist system of production for profit” and the substitution of “the Soviet system of production for use and not for profit.” As a remedy to meet the immediate situation, where unemployment is concerned, the official organ of the Communist Party urges that: — , ' The unemployed must .organise and demand work or maintenance at full trade union rates from the State. Recent messages from different parts of the Dominion have shown that our Labour-Socialist members of Parliament are busying themselves precisely on these lines. That is to say, in their unemployment agitation, they are acting in complete conformity with the policy of an organisation which does not hide the fact that it aims at overthrowing democratic government and establishing Russian Bolshevism in this country. ______