WORKLESS PROBLEM

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 62, 6 December 1930, Page 21

WORKLESS PROBLEM

Lower Birthrate No Remedy The theory that a fall in population must eventually solve the unemployment problem was discounted by Major Walter Elliott, M.P., speaking at a political school of the Wessex Division of the’ Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations. “I am not at all certain that a fall In the birth-rate means a rise in national prosperity,” he said. “Remember that the residue becomes greater and greater, . the. number of older neople, of passengers, becomes greater proportion to the . younger the people who are pulling the boat. Whereas up to now a child has only to look forward to keeping one grandparent, the alteration in our vital statistics seems to mean that in future he must look forward to keeping two. 1 Major Elliott told a story of a young man who was told by a fortune-teller, that for th» first forty years of his life he wouldl be very poor. “Yes, an I then queried the young man. Then, saiu the fortune-teller, “you will begin to get used to it.” That was the greatest danger which faced the people of this C °DeaUng with unemployment insurance. Major Elliott said they must avoid their opponents’ error of considering it an end in itself. It was not the. front line of the battle, but the ambulance service which took care of the casualties of industry. In reply to a question, the speaker said that to bring the agricultural workers into the scheme would help the fund, but it would hurt the agricultural workers. There was a very strong case against bringing in any fresh classes of workers until we had regularised the position of the classes which were already in the scheme. ______