The Hawera Star. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 1929. POVERTY IN AMERICA.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 3 April 1929, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 1929. POVERTY IN AMERICA.

Delivered every evening by 6 o’clock in Hawera. Manaia, Normanby. Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Alton, Hurley ville, Patea, Waverley, Mokoia, Whakamara, Obangai. Meremere, Fraser Road, and Ararata.

A recent statement by the United States Secretary of Labour, Mr James J. Davis, that “86 per cent, of Americans are poor" has been received with surprise in most places, including America. The information will certainly be regarded as news by the warstricken countries which are bitterly conscious of America’s national wealth, and even New Zealand is hardly prepared to accept a. bald statement to the effect that so. many people are poor iu the land which is regarded here as one of hustle and wealth. Mr Davis made this startling statement in a letter to the “Western Mail” of Cardiff, Wales, in which he expressed his sympathy with the unemployed miners of South Wales, the district in- which lie was born. He admits that there exists a world-wide- impression that all Americans are prosperous and that poverty is conspicuous by its absence, but he goes on to state that “no. country can be considered Utopian when S 6 per cent, of its people are poor.” He says that it is true that the American worker’s standard of living is higher than that of the worker in,any other country, and that it is also true that the “real” wage of the American worker is “twice as high as that of the worker in Lon--5 on. (three times as high as that of the worker in Paris, and more than four times as high as that of the worker of Brussels, Rome and Madrid. ’ ’ He further “admits” that the American worker is better off than any other worker in the world, but declares that tijo people of Europe have been deceived by appearances which are far removed from reality. “The brotherhood of poverty is world-wide,” he tells his Welsh readers, “and wo share it w T ith you.” This letter, upon being cabled back to the American Press, met with a mixed reception. Some of the Democratic papers have, seized the opportunity to. taunt the Republicans with inconsistency, reminding them of President Hoover’s election campaign speeches, in which ho announced that America was nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land. The political opponents of the Hoover administration are. now asking if the Republicans keep one brand of prosperity talk for political campaigns and another brand of calamity talk to discourage immigration from Europe. Other organs of public opinion declare that Secretary Davis’ statement indicates a returning sanity in America on the subject of prosperity. The New York “World” says: “It is all very well to. talk about our business wealth, but it is wise to recognise that prosperity has been spotty, that since 1923 real wages have risen but slightly, and that millions of American families have, an income below proper welfare levels.” The uneven distribution of the country’s wealth is revealed by figures compiled by the Federal Tra.de Commission, according to, which 13 per cent., of the people own 90 per cent, of the. wealth and S 7 per cent, own 10 per cent. A writer in a periodical carries these figures further and declares that the 87 per cent, can be again subdivided, leav ing 77 per cent, of the population of the United States who, own no smallest part of its vast wealth. The outsider has to exercise the .greatest caution in endeavouring to. ascertain the relative positions of American’s poor and the poor of England and the Continent There are great gulfs between the (standards of living demanded by the masses in America and in England and wider differences, of course, between the. American and European standards. It may (easily be that the American idealist who declares that the United States has wealth sufficient to, abolish poverty from the land, has in mind something very different from the pov ni'ty of the British coalfields. That writer bemoans the low average wage ruling throughout the country, but this I wage works out at something Kko £5 2s 6d a. week, an amount which would not be scorned in the most prosperous pf the British Dominions and would lie regarded as wealth in some of the older countries. Here: again,, of course, the standard of living has its effect, both as regards the meaning of “reasonable” income and of “real wages. ’ ’ Money will buy less in the States than in England, and the American worker expects and receives a greater measure of those things which in: England would bo regarded as coming within the luxury class. Nevertheless, the fact remains that, apart from standards and costs of living, America has its problems arising from irregularity of employment and it has to, find enormous sums eaeh year for .the maintenance of private: atnd public charities —sums which are drawn, directly or indirectly, from the .13 per cent, of the population which owns 90 per cant, of the national wealth.