WHEN TIDE TURNS

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 65, 17 March 1934, Page 11

WHEN TIDE TURNS

REDUCTION OF RELIEF

NO EASY PROBLEM

SELF-HELP ESSENTIAL

In his statement to the deputation pla rom the Municipal Association to the 8"' 'rime Minister yesterday, the deputy ter hahman of tho Unemployment Board Mr. ,J. S. Jessep) referred at some jjj) 2ngth to still another problem, which, nee 0 said, would have to be solved by the tho Jovernment and the Unemployment PaJ Soard, that of reducing tho amount p ic f unemployment relief proportionately fac o the reabsorbing of men in industry pol \-hcn the economic tide turns. .^c "No State funds, jio local body _"j. ( uuds," said Mr. Jessep, "absolve tho noi ndividual from the responsibility of, cri 0 the utmost extent and in every way qu: hat it is possible, providing for his oni nyn. Only when every source from of vhich the individual citizen can da lossibly maintain himself, his wife, or on< lis family, has been tried, is he justified thi n looking to his fellow-citizens to help cv lim through. The relief system was tic tot designed to provide a source of all income, permanently available,: as an at ilternative to private employment at th' the choice of. the 7 individual. If it is on allowed to drift, into permanency, the th 2ountry will Ijo burdened indefinitely Lc ivith the weight of relief taxation and, what is perhaps tho greater evil, many Lc individuals would bo deprived of any as incentive to seek to maintain them- no selves." ■.'■:..■■ m s Speaking of that section of the com- pi) munity which is at any time largely Tl dependent upon their fellow citizens, of Mr. Jessep said that fortunately the of percentage- of such unemployables was pc small,, but this element was by no means cr silent, and the intemperate demands P which they had made from time to cl time, and which lie regretted to say tc had occasionally been backed up by tli responsible citizens, had, unfortunately, w tended to alienate sympathy from ai fellow-citizens who were in real distress, si rather than to aid their cause." w REAL DIFFICULTIES AHEAD. ta Mr. Jessep said it was necessary to a, givo very careful thought to the ?' matter of reducing unemployment re- , lief immediately there was any improve- • ment whatever in economic conditions. ,* The real difficulties were ahead. They • would bring a time for specially stringent oversight of relief grants, in °' Oder that every discouragement would exist towards unnecessarily continued dependence on tho public purso for • support. ' Tho attitude which would have to be p combated in the public interests was 1( well illustrated by one request, made c 1 in. all seriousness to the Unemployment .Board, that relief workers be paid from c I the public funds for cultivating their a own -vegetable gardens, in their own j, time, for their own benefit. No sharpness of perception was needed to appreciate the trends which were betrayed ,in examples of this kind, of which many more could be quoted. ■ Through tho centuriesI'the measures taken, to affprd relief had been veiy similar,'said'Mr. Jessep. Tho super- £ ' fluous continuanco of the Boman Corn j ( Laws, which "were framed to meet a r situation analagous in ' essentials to V that of today, gave rise ultimately to I tho spectacle of 350,000' out of an j estimated population of 1,000,000 aban- 1 doning themselves, to dependence on f Sate-given sustenance. That was'cer- l tainly a long time ago, but there were J no grounds for hope that tho social £ eiiiils attendant upon permitting, relief , of involuntary unemployment to do- 1 generate into subsidy on voluntary in- j dolence may be challenged today 'with j any greater impunity than at 'an 1 earlier point in the history of civilisa- < tion. ~, ■■ . ; ~'■'.' ] When industry began again to ab- ' sorb labour, and the need for ielicf . began to decrease, it would not be an easy matter to contract the scope of relief in a proportionate It was probably quite well known that strenuous efforts would be made from some quarters to retain the present scale of relief—and consequently tho present scale of taxation —without regard to1 whether it was or was not required in fact. Those interests would ignofe the essential truth that relief must' be measured by need alo-ne. DANGER &T CONTINUED RELIEF. There were many citizens today, said Mr. Jessep, who had been driven by sheer necessity to tho acceptance of relief from the"- unemployment ■■..fund. They had never previously had assistance from anybody. Their pride had been to give fair'value for wagos i received. If forced by adversity into dependence for a long period on' reHefi unless insistence was stressed on the point that they must to the fullest possible extent avail themselves of every possible oppoitunity of maintaining "themselves, it was quite possible' that they would suffer a diminution of their former independence of spirit. • It was these citizens whom the sub--1 versivc influences already at work • would, seek to finally convince that it was proper for them to rely permanently on their neighbours' purses for support. And it was theso citizens who, in their own interests and m the interests of the State, must be encouraged to take pride once- more in shifting for themselves as soon as y they have the opportunity.. s ''The duty of qncoumgiDg the deserving unemployed citizens torehabili-1 tato themselves in normal employment x as opportunity offeis is more than an • impersonal bureaucratic responsibility I of the Unemployment Board," said Mr. i Jessep. "It is the civic, and .neighbourly duty of local public men. 31