EMERGENCY HELP FOR BOYS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 10, 13 January 1932, Page 8

EMERGENCY HELP FOR BOYS

A new plan has been adopted lo provide emergency help for boys who are without work. The V.M.C.A. Rotary Committee, in association with business men and .Labour representatives, proposes to appeal to employers to find work for tin; boys so that they may at least be saved from idleness and may learn something useful. The urgency of the appeal must be appreciated by all who have given a. moment's . consideration to the subject. If the boys are not trained now many of them will be unfitted to take positions when times improve and opportunities become available. Even at a low wage or relief allowance they will be better off in employment than in idleness. Yet employers who are finding their resources severely taxed cannot be expected to vpay highly for services which are not necessary to their businesses. No scheme which ignored this factor—the employer's financial difficulties—could hope for any measure .of success. The committee has acted wisely in taking this fact into consideration and in proposing to meet employers on the pay question in order to arrange training. At the same time, the "other side of the question must not be overlooked. The great majority of employers, we , are sure, will support the plan with | a real desire to help the boys. But j there must be safeguards' against the possible action of the few who might wreck the scheme by using it to | secure cheap labour; -This, also, has j been taken fully into account by the I promoters. Employers engaging the boys under this scheme will be required to undertake that the youths are really supernumeraries—that their labour will be in addition to the normal requirements of the establishment and not in substitution for some labour that would have to be more highly paid. Supervision will be arranged to give confidence to those who might otherwise look with suspicion *on the scheme. It is gratifying to note that some representatives of Labour have joined in the work of putting the plan into operation. It is such co-operation that is most earnestly desired by those who in a spirit of unselfish helpfulness are seeking lo alleviate one of the most distressing results of the business depression.