RELIEF SCHEME NO. 2

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 137, 6 December 1930, Page 8

RELIEF SCHEME NO. 2

(To the Editor.) Sfr, —The Unemployment Board's scheme No. 2 has created not only surprise, but alarm. It seems definitely laid down that unemployment funds not only may, but are to be used for the purpose of improving the property of those who are in a better position than are the majority of the contributors to the scheme. This opens the door to all who happen to own a bit of property of getting something for nothing, at the expense of the workers, and with the approbation •of the Government. Under such circumstances we may expect that most of the future work wilj be held up ia the hopes of getting a subsidy, and so creating a propertied mendicant class. All those who are in a. positonto benefit by this scheme No. 2 have had the full benefit of the past good times. If to-day they cannot carry on without the aid of funds designed to assist the unemployed, then it can only be due to their past extravagance, and they have no moral right to expect the poor to find the money to pay for that. The position created is iniquitous and inequitable. Am I, because I am unemployed, to pay my last 7s 6d to the levy for the purpose of improving the property of a man who is at any rate better off than I am, on the pretext of finding work for another man? If this is the sum total of the board's idea of equity and fair dealing, then it will not be long before they receive a yery rude shock.—l am, etc., W. MADDISON.