UNEMPLOYMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 103, 4 May 1933, Page 9

UNEMPLOYMENT

SELF RELIANCE OF MAN

THE CANADIAN IDEAL

GOVERNMENT'S ATTITUDE

(From "The Post's" Representative.) VANCOUVER, March 2. A of 1,387,562 persons were receiving unemployment relief in Canada last month, representing 800,000 out of work, according to a statement by the Minister of Labour in the Houso of Commons at Ottawa. Last year, the Dominion Government paid £8,300,000 (par) as its share of the cost of relief, which has averaged slightly over one-third of the total expenditure, the provinces and inuuiei- j palities paying one-third cadh. In addition, the- Federal Government paid in full for the care of 32,000 homeless men in Western Canada, for whom' provincial and local authorities would not accept responsibility, as they came under the category of "transient" workers, who move from place to place, following the harvest or other seasonal work. i. The Dominion has reduced by 40 per cent, its outlay fof the present year, which is an indication that unemployment is expected materially to slacken, during the coming months. Intensive activity in gold mining, without parallel since the days of the Klondike Tush, the "back to the land" movement, and changQ of. former avocation are combining to absorb the more adventurous mid self-reliant among tho army of unemployed. Dominion and Federal Governments aro agreed that the time to embark on public works as a deterrent to unemployment has not yet arrived, and the present year's relief measures will again centre on the necessities of life—food, shelter, fuel, and clothing. ;'■'.' FROM POLITICS. Canada has not followed the practice, adopted in. ithe other Dominions, notably. Australia,and New Zealand, in having; ■unemployment relief admiuis^ tered-by a national commission 6r:bbard. ; In .the main, results have ibebn ;tlie same, as immense sums of money have been disbursed; by the tripartite . administration, which 'has . gradually achieved cohesion -and eliminated duplication and waste. Politics have played no part, although the Liberal leader, Mr. Mackenzie King, believes a national board, modelled on tho wartimes patriotic commission, should have been set up at the outset. Tho Minister, however, deplored tho attitude of the individual to rely more and" more on. the State, and to "let up" on his normal' employment-seeking ' activity. In this, the third year of relief expenditure, the Minister notes a return to the self-reliant spirit of better days. Curiously enough, there has not been, in Canada, as in Australia, New ' Zealand, and South Africa, a demand for a National or Union Government. While tho Liberal Party can see no virtue in the Government's policies re- , garding its major problems of unem- ', ployment relief and the huge loss on !.tho Canadian National Kailway, the ', suggestion of merging tho two major parties in such critical times has never bren seriously considered. The disposilion of political forces at Ottawa re- . mains tho same, with the Bennett " Government firmly in the saddle, enjoy- '_ ing an assured prospect of weathering these lean times without appealing for aid from its political opponents or being "unseated by tho electorate. ;'