UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 149, 21 March 1927, Page 5

UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF

LABOUR COMMITTEE'S PROTEST. At a largely-attended meeting of the Wellington Labour. Representation Committee, the following motion was carried unanimously:—“That this meeting of the L.R.C., representative of organised Labour in Wellington, enters its most emphatic protest against.the reactionary and inhuman declaration made by the Prime Minister in reference to his Government’s ‘solution’ of the unemployed problem, wherein it offers 9s. a day fot single men and 12s, a day for married men. We consider that such a policy, is a deliberate effort to lower the stanuard of living of the working class generally, and it means with the present cost of living semi-starvation for those economically compelled to accept. We affirm that the Government has deliberately created an army of unemployed (1) by an unrestricted policy of immigration, and (2) by pursuing a stagnant and unprogressive policy within the country, despite the united protest of the Labour movement, and now having done the mischief it brings down a proposal which is nothing short of slavery and is a gross violation of the Arbitration Court’s basic wage. We consider this to be the most reactionary proposal that has been made in this Dominion for the past fifty years. Ihe L.R.C. calls upon . organised Labour throughout the Dominion to fight tins vicious proposal, and we further appeal to the citizens generally to assist us by uniting with us in our effort to maintain a wage that will allow an ordinary standard of comfort and decency in the working man’s home. This . meeting further protests against the. discrimination between married and single men.”