GETTING BACK TO NORMAL

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 42, 19 February 1931, Page 13

GETTING BACK TO NORMAL

HOW EVERYONE CAN HELP,

(Contributed.) Men and women in steady employment cannot honourably evade their duty to their loss fortunate fellow-citi-zens, and that duty is to do what they can to create a demand for workers in shops and offices and warehouses and manufactories of all kinds. It is possible that very many of these wage and salary earners have during the slump donned a cloak of sackcloth and ashes, none the less effective because it was invisible, as a scourge and reminder against unessential spending. This policy has distinct merit in times of prosperity, for the A B C of political economy is for the individual and the community to make provision for the inevitable rainy day. But when "times are hard" there is an obligation upon all who are in work to expand their financial operations. Now it is a self-evident fact that the times are not actually "hard" for those in receipt of wages or salaries. The pound note, it is true, has participated in the slump, and it now; takes £1 10s lid to buy what 20s would have bought in pre-war days. This fact, however, does not involve hardship to the man whose pay envelope is regular. Tho weekly amount will still buy its value in pounds sterling, and its lesser purchasing power is not a loss of monoy in the sense that a lost job is a financial disaster. It probably has not, for example, beea essential for the salaried man to ration either his food, his clothing, his pastimes, or his hobbies; and yet there is reason to believe that in some of these items he has severely rationed himself. The inevitable result has been a considerable reduction in the output of the goods which his Spartan self-sacrifice has caused Mm to forswear, and the equally, unavoidable shortage of jobs for the hundreds of men and women who handle those S°WAGES AND COST OF LIVING. Tho cut in tho salaries of Civil servants must be followed by a reduction in all wages, a corresponding lessening of all cost of production, and an. appreciable drop in prices of all commodities. It is sound economic fact that when prices are high the value of! mo.ney is low, and that when prices aro low the value of money is high. If an equitable all-round reduction in wages is met by a corresponding fall in ro-, tail prices, not a Single individual -will have suffered a penn'orth of money loss, and the country's financial burdens will be tremendously eased. That the Government is liehind tho wage-earners in this aspect of the situation is plainly evident from the following -extract from the Prime Minister's recent statement: — .It is expected that the benefit of the reduction in salaries and wageß will be passed on to the public in one form or another. In fact, I wish it to be clearly understood that the Government will do its utmost and will use'all its powers to see that there is no exploitation of the situation.' As a precautionary step, the Industries and Commerce Department is being instructed to keep the matter constantly under review, in order to ensure that the reductions in wages and overhead costs are reflected immediately in the cost of- living. In fact, the Government is relying upon further bringing down tho cost' of living to offset the reduction in nominal wages. Surely there is in. this declaration a warrant for a loss nervous outlook and a loosening of purse-strings. AH that is needed is a gradual return to industrial health, but this never can _ be achieved if individuals continue rigoroußly to restrict their spending to the minimum degree. It is not suggested that over-spending shall succeed the period of abstention, but it is suggested that there is a definite obligation upon all those in permanent positions to take a wider view—an impersonal view —of the industrial situation, ana to follow up that view by a practical demonstration of their willingness to help.