Care of the Destitute

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 180, 28 April 1931, Page 11

Care of the Destitute

Sir, —Commissioner John Cunningham, officer commanding the Salvation Army in New Zealand, is reported to have said: “It was unthinkable that the dole system, which had demoralised millions of people in England, should be allowed to enter this fair land,” and that bravery and courage was needed to apply the ethics of St. Paul, “The man who will not work shall not eat.” I wish to make it perfectly clear that I have the greatest regard for the Army, as one of the greatest institutions successfully combining business and religion the world has even seen. . . . To save the destitute is a noble and divine Idea, but to evolve and apply a Christian system preventing destitution and class degradation is a nobler and more sublime objective. That is' possible only when churchianity and organised selfishness is swallowed up in the one Christlike idea of love of man and his development. The Commissioner speaks of the “dole" in England and “demoralised millions. What would the Commissioner put iu place of the (not the dole), but the unemployment insurance law, to which employees contribute? Would he operate the “Poor Law Act,” depriving men of their vote and rights of citizenship, or would he fill the poor houses of the land with helpless, workless, wrecked humanity? Successive Governments have failed to find employment for those millions divorced from the means whereby they may earn their living. In this age of advanced scientific methods of production, the age when machinery displaces and starves man, it is not moral etiquette to apptj- St. Paul’s ethics on laziness to genuinely industrious failures, caused by a mamonistic system under which they have to bend and break. 1 In moving in the House of Commons last month the right to borrow £20,000,000 toward unemployment insurance to cover estimated liabilities up to and including the half of the month of July this year, Miss Margaret Bondtield, Minister. in charge of the Department for Unemployment, made some . interesting statements. She said that the estimated money to be borrowed .would swell the unemployed.fund debt to the alarming figure of £90,000,000. That the number of unemployed were; increasing weekly and that by the beginning of the summer there would ..be upward of 3,000,000 registered unemployed. The increase of liability was at the rate of £1,000,000 per week. The country cannot bear the strain for more than two more years, unless the sense of heaven rules in reducing abundance to supply wants.. Miss Bondfield is even more interesting when she gives some ot the reasons for unemployment. In digarettemakiug, she says, a machine turning out 1260 per minute, operated by three men, displaced 700 persons. Bankers having installed 215 calculating machines into 120 banks displaced 86 females and 311 men. The amalgamation of companies contributed largely toward . 'increasing the unemployed. The railway combination displaced 200 stationmasters, and the paint and colour manufacturers combine put 1500 men out of work. Commercial greed at- the close of the war imposed its unreasonable dictates upon countries who were not producers of some commodities. Italy had to pay the disastrous sum of £lB per ton for British coal, which compelled her to take steps and . develop hydro-electric power, which is to-day an accomplished fact and, coal not wanted; therefore British miners are idle to that extent. Whatsoever a country soweth, ■ that also shall it reap. Sow to the wind of avarice and greed, and reap to the whirlwind of revolution and utter despair. If the Commissioner can suggest some way other than sustenance when no, work can be found, he is just the wizard now wanted, and if he can, and knows how to, find the work as a Christian and a man he should have the. courage to publish and practice it. If he thinks to reduce the whole standard of living below the fair basis and compel, at the point of starvation, men to work for tqoa alone on some kind of municipal farms, then he advocates the first step toward destruction of the home life. It any man will follow Me, let him deny himself.”—l am, etc., TUCKER. Wellington, April 20. . . S i r ,_May I be allotted a portion, of your valuable space to mention something about Commissioner John Cunninghams condemnation of a New Zealand dole and his land colony suggestion? To the best of my knowledge the average New Zealander is not looking for a dole in preference to work. What the unemployed want is a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay, and if the Commissioner’s statement is true that millions or people in England were demoralised by the dole, he is doing his best to see that the unfortunate New Zealander does not become demoralised or excited about his dole. His suggestion, then, in, unequivocal opposition to the dole is to establish a land colony about five miles from the four centres with dormitory accommodation, - and when the Mayors are. approached for relief they could say: Just a few miles outside this city there is a place for such men as you.” lam very pleased to think that no Mayor will ever adopt such terms in conversing with such unfortunate’people. ' . ; In conclusion, Sir, I will ask Commissioner Cunningham what he has in mindin regard to payment on his land colony. Many of these men are not only begging or asking relief for themselves, but for their wives and children. If he has. entertained any thought of giving a man-what the unemployed ask for, a ; fair days work.for a fair day’s pay, very well, but if the land colony suggestion is put into practice and no labour exploitation takes place, I will unhesitatingly apologise in person and through the press, and if I am in a position I will not quibble about a donation, but until that day my sincere sympathy is extended to the unfortunate who finds ■ himself turning over with a spade Commissioner Cunningham’s land colony before he gets his dinner. — I am, etc., FRED CLARIDGE. Khandallah, April 20.