THE DEMORALISING DOLE

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 52, 25 November 1929, Page 10

THE DEMORALISING DOLE

“Demoralisation” is the word chosen by Mr. Lloyd George to describe the probable effect on youths' of the latest proposals of the British Labour Government in respect to unemployment doles. Yet it was the Liberal leader himself who, less than twenty years ago, introduced into Great Britain the unemployment insurance scheme whose extension he now condemns as demoralising. Here there is a warning for New Zealand not. to adopt lightly an unemployment insurance system such as the. United Government has promised to enact next session. The initiation of such a scheme is a bad confession of failure, but much worse is its inevitable extension. Once the first step is taken, others follow with fatal facility. In Britain, for instance, the original scheme has been several times enlarged until its originator is forced to condemn its latest development as “demoralising.” Few will dispute Mr. Lloyd George on this point. Anything more demoralising than the present proposal to grant a dole to boys and girls aged 15 can scarcely be imagined. In their “teens,” at the very time when the spur of necessity is most salutary, the youth of Britain are to be taught that it is possible to live in idleness. The effect must be pernicious. The spirit of self-help and independence is sapped just when it should be inspiring youthful endeavour. At the dawn of what should be their working life, boys and girls are made State pensioners. “Dole” is indisputably the correct term because, in this case, the recipients have never worked, and have therefore never contributed to the insurance fund. If New Zealand ever admits the dole, she must expect to see it grow in like manner—grow like a cancer in the body politic. To prevent such a malignant growth, New Zealand must veto any attempt to introduce an insurance scheme, however innocuous its beginnings may seem. As even the British Government is realising, the only cure for unemployment is work.