Grey River Argus THURSDAY, June 13, 1935. A REASONABLE PLEA.

Grey River Argus, 13 June 1935, Page 4

Grey River Argus THURSDAY, June 13, 1935. A REASONABLE PLEA.

The outlook being what it is for the unemployed, that of bare subsistence, the case advanced last evening- by a deputation to the Hospital Board from the local branch of the U.W.M. organisation. must be regarded as a strong one. In substance, it was that the Unemployment Fund should be available to meet maternity needs in the ease of the unemployed. Undoubtedly the justice of such a call upon the fund in question is far and away greater than demands that have freely been met by the Board on behalf of employers of labour and of people for whom costly structures have been subsidised. The proposal to have a Dominionwide. application of the relief funds to the maternity cases in question is one that no opponent would find it easy or reasonable to discredit. There is the instance of the firms interested in the building trade organising publicly so that the Unemployment Fund may be utilised in a greater degree for providing new houses. No doubt those builders are well-disposed towards the people who ar c without homes of their own, but at. the same time they also regard the Fund as a means to the end of obtaining more contracts for themselves. Comparing their ease with that of the wives of unemployed who are in need of a maternity benefit, it appears that the latter have , decidedly first claim to consideration, because their’s is the greater need. If the Fund is designed for one end more than any other, it is to meet the needs of the poorest people. The Minister of Employment has suggested that this | maternity matter is one for Hospital Boards to deal with, but if he and his own Board are faced with the proposal that their funds should be available, it will b 0 for them a very diffieul matter to demonstrate that the wives of the unemployed have not a greater claim on those funds than on the Hospital Boards. The issue raised is simply what the purpose may be of the unemployment taxation. and whether people who are not poor shall under any circumstances obtain more consideration than people who are poor. The reasonableness of the case for a living wage was never better illustrated than it is by this particular phase of the unemployment question. The self respect of people who are in difficult cir- ( cumstances through no fault of their own ought, meantime, to be studied by the authorities. By all means the local authorities should do what they can to assist in that direction, but they have also a strong argument to

submit to the Unemployment Board for at least the greatest possible degree of financial cooperation. It might be suggested that the proposal would be a new departure, but that is scarcely true, because there is already provision for maternity benefits in so many instances that what is advocated is no more than an extension of the principle, and that to a section of the community among whom it would be relatively of greater benefit than it is to any other section now benefiting bv it.