CURE OF UNEMPLOYMENT.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 108, 3 November 1908, Page 10

CURE OF UNEMPLOYMENT.

SUMS LOST DURING HARD TIMES. Bound up with this problem is another challenge to organisation — the cure for unemployment. . Figures ars regularly published after a great strike, or lockout to show the amnzmg sums lost to both sides through the stoppage (says a New York paper). What colossal sums aro similarly lost during hard times, when hundreds of factory boilers aro cold and tens of thousands of workmen vainly seek employment. To the nblo organisers of industrial combinations the wastes of duplicate plants, of antiquated factories running on part, time, and of superflous, commercial staffs, are all abhorrent. But theso organisers seem not to. realise the

stupendous wastes of unemployment. The statesman is yet to come who will make the nation conscious of the unparalleled loss involved when Coxey armies are recruited, and who will then enlist the ablest citfzens in organising to ensure steadiness in industry and employment. Collectively we are convicted of stupidity until that organisation is perfected. It is an indictment of our ability to control our affairs when double shifts one year are followed by shutdowns the next year ; when feverish haste to fill orders is succeeded by anxious eagerness to secure orders, and when the crowds .vho come to our shores attracted by the smiles of prosperity are cast adrift as hoboe? in adversity. Organisation is part of the American accepted creed, and the nation will need to go great lengths in the practice of that creed before the social maohincry is running smoothly. _ A further principle besides organisation, a principle equally important for i the future, is discernible in the reconstruction that is going forward. When Mr Rockefeller gives 32,000,000 dollars at ono timo for the improvement of education; when Andrew Carnegie lightheartedly tosses ten millions to college faculties, and when lesser gifts, involving as great sacrifice and good will on the part of tho donors, are reported almost daily, it is clear that, either with full consciousness or without clear formulation, a potent ideal is working in our society Croesus is privileged to express by golden gifia the hope which many vaguely feel.