USING A CLUB

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 49, 26 August 1930, Page 8

USING A CLUB

Public sympathy with the workless will not be increased by the threats and exaggeration used by the Alliance of Labour deputation to the Prime Minister yesterday. Talk of New Zealand as becoming "a community of skeletons" is sheer nonsense, foolish nonsense, reflecting no credit on the users. If things nave come to such a pass, why does the Alliance of Labour reject a Bill which promises at least a measure ofxelief? This rejection and the dictatorial attitude of the Alliance alone supply proof of the exaggeration of die statements. The threats of trie Alliance will not, we believe, influence Parliament. The.House of Representatives is elected to represent the whole of the people, and not to be dictated to by a group of industrial bosses. The. latter may dictate to' the political Labour Party, as apparently they are trying to do, and say that they will noit agree to any party truce. It will'Jse interesting to hear Mr. Holland's reply to these statements, and whether he admits that he and his fellow-Labour members are bound to take their orders from the industrial wing. It is1 just as well that the voters should know where they stand, and understand if they have elected puppets who move as the Alliance of Labour pulls the strings. Itis another matter, however, when this'dictation is used against the whole of Parliament • and when the official spokesman of the . Alliance says of the Unemploymeiat^ill:—:

Even if the Bill becomes law wo will oppose ,it in every possiblo way. We will bo compelled to ask ouv members not to assist in carrying it out.

Because the Alliance cannot'get what it wants, it will act like a petulant child arid accept nothing. Nonobjections could warrant thas threat of de T fiance of the law, and the objections raised are not even *«ufficient to justify reasonable opposition. The flat rate levy of 30s a. week is no. hardship, since those who find most difficulty in paying It will reap the greatest benefit from tbe fund. In any case the levy is little more than the average union subscription. Is there as strong opposition by the Alliance to the collection qS union dues? The allegation that the wage-worker will pay as much as the £5000 a year man is wholly, incorrect .. Tho latter will pay much jnore lihan 30? through income' taxation, towards the Government subsidy on the funds, and he 'will draw no benefits. All the benefits will go.to-'t'ite wages man. The deputation submitted no reasoned argument for altering the financial provfsio.&s of the Bill. The contributory provisions of the scheme have been submitted for good and substantial re;ftsons. They are the only safeguard against the demoralising effects ofa non-contributory dole. Great Britain, is now experiencing the effect of thai demoralisation, induced by the Labour Government's modification of t'jie contributory conditions. There has been some exaggeration in denunciaL'/an'of the dole, and its defenders bju.vc replied that it is not a dole but a. "benefit for which the workers pay. This may have been arguable beforestbe conditions were altered, but now It is no longer correct. An art'/cle £mm "{£}s limes" which

we publish .to-day shows that £13,----000,000 a year is paid in direct doles to the unemployed. Moreover, the modification of conditions has removed die safeguards against deliberate living on the fund. It is not necessary now to look for work, andHhe Act furnishes even more excuses for dropping a job than for not finding one. A man can draw almost as much for being idle as for working. A married man with three children can draw 33s a week for not working and 35s a week if he works on a farm. The position of the unemployed has been improved more than that of the workers. With this example before it Parliament would be most unwise to increase the benefits or lessen the contributions. Sustenance is sufficiently dangerous as it is. It should be more adequately safeguarded. Parliament must at least see that the safeguards are not whittled away in obedience to the truculent demand of the Alliance of Labour.