INCOME IS LIVING

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 106, 1 November 1933, Page 22

INCOME IS LIVING

BUTWOEK IS LIFE

MENTAL: STRESS OF IDLE

(By 'fellow Ciay;") la occupational pride a mainspring of the life of the a-verage human being? Is the average -unemployed person unable to say "My mind to me a king- ■ dom is," andis ho- therefore unable to enrich by thought !that leisure which "is thrust on-.him by worklcssness? Is the loss of occupational pride as damaging a factor to the unemployed as.'the loss.of wage-income? / These questions arise on reading a letter written,by Dean Wells oil the •British Unemployed (who are given a small payment without work) and oil the mental element in their misery. In .tho letter, which is published in "Tho Listener," the -writer contends that ■ " the kernel of the' problem of unemployment is the loss of regular occupation. There is, indeed, much real suffering'involved, in the drastic lowering of .the habitual standard, of consumption which follows the loss- of work, but" that assumes tragic proportions only .when the wage-earner and' his wife have sixteen hours of every day in 'which to ■.remember it.''. I. "believe that ■many of the present.'unemploj»ed suffered quite .as much from the lack of "commodities. and food during the war years as they do today; but none- complained unduly then because .each had a job to do and an obvious incentive to doing it well. To a similar loss of purchasing power is added, today, an intolerable burden of thought. Men and women whoso virtues-are all active find themselves depressed to a level of impotence suitable only for a philosopher or the Grand Lama of Tibet. They may eat—a little; they may' walk —much; .'they may clean and. refurbish their .houses so long as they can afford the necessary materials. Beyond that they may Only .think, although they rarely possess the intellectual equipment which alone- can make thinking a creative activity and delight. The-invariable ; result is.a newly awakened sense of a lowered, status, and isolation, which makes for a' terrible individual loneliness. I believe this to be at the root of so much of their mental misery." In Now Zealand an Occupation (part time) goes with the relief work payment, but.does it carry with it "occupational "pride"'"? Can an ex-carpenter take pride in road-construction? Thero are plenty.of public works round Wellington which have been "done by unemployed men and in which the citizen can take pride. A road itself ia a-thing of beauty (but. is it a thing of beauty only for him who has not worked on; it?) Re-grading of a road that has been for years,'-'up here and down there" is an eye-satisfying thing ■to.the pedestrian, and-perhaps he hopes that, it conveys, some satisfaction to the men who did -the job. .Who., knows? Then there is- 'a . great . subdi visional ■job like that on.' Wilton 's. Black. In the days of-the relief strife-Wilton's Block often figured-in the newspapers as a "centre of discontent. Now that the job is done, anyone can see that is a worth while job, and it is perhaps- permissible to hope that men who were employed on it feel some occupational pride in it. Still, that is hardly the occupational prido. of a skilled, artisan back in his own industry. ■ ' - Dean Wells concludes: —"If-there is any-good aspect to this problem of unemployment, it is contained in the growing realisation, that an occupation is as necessary to the normal human being as an income. But —not any occupation; it must .be an occupation whose purpose is of common importance. Hitherto, working for" wages has provided 'this common purpose, although most of our industrialists and economists believed 'that the receipt of a •njeekly wage exhausted that purpose for the wage-earner.-Only-now. axe we beginning tb realise how .much the varied occupations involved in the conduct' of a large -yielded in, in-terest-arid stimulation to rthe individual worker. "He-derived" an-emotional satisfaction: that-was-none the;less real because it■ was" inarticulate;- he ob* tamed, also "by derivation,.a sta.nding amongst Bis fellows-which; is now de ; aied him once" he.'joins the army of the unemployed.' How deep- are: the reservoirs of intelligent interest;/ occupational pride; andloyalty,-these Memoirs give some indication. .Iwholeheartedly congratulate the 8.8.C. on the.imaginative sympathy and courage shown m its efforts to make these aspects of the unemployment problem more generally known. " '■'' ■-. —■ ■' -