Mr Polson Outlines Scheme For Unemployment Relief

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7271, 26 September 1933, Page 8

Mr Polson Outlines Scheme For Unemployment Relief

ISSUE OF SCRIPT TO WORKERS ADVOCATED.

Mr. J. W. Poison, M.P., delivered an address before the Palmerston North Rotary Club yesterday under the title of “Can We Cure Unemployment?” Iti the course of his remarks, Mr. Poison explained his scheme for absorbing men back into the industry for which they had been trained. Ilis method of doing this would be the use of script, or certificates, to be issued by tho Government to employers, payable for goods, services, etc., and finally redeemable at a national office.

Introducing his subject, the speaker said that while many of his ideas might appear unorthodox, the present was a time of changing opinion, and with Jo million certified unemployed in the world, there was surely a profound need for radically new thought and action. This figure presented a definite chal lc-nge: in fact, almost an impeachment of our present attempts to cope with the problem. There was a call for something definite and constructive that would come to grips with unemployment. President Roosevelt had shown that lie felt there was something very much the matter with the machine of industry as it now -was, and he had called for a new cure for the enforced leisure of millions. We talked a lot of equal opportunities for all, but it was difh cult to point to equality to-day. Roosevelt was tackling a big job and attempting to furnish those opportunities for all. He was steering a course of his own, and was seeking through organised democracy to arrive at a new way of living for his nation. Much criticism had been levelled at the existing measures to put men back into "work, and certainly important changes were needed if we were going to n-et to the heart of things. We would have to go about it in a different way, and seek cures, not palliatives. There was a paramount need to-day for an increase in purchasing power. Everybody needed commodities, but many did' not have the money to buy. Wo had to ascertain whether we could take men from unemployment and put them back into the industry m which they had been trained—if necessary by monetary assistance from the Government. The speaker said he thought n would be possible. Proposals on these lines had been put forward by several leaders of economic thought, both at Geneva aiul in America. Another suggestion, emanating from an English authority, was in effect that the Government should make grants to contracting firms to counteract foreign competition It was claimed that were this done under proper supervision, direct and material savings would result to the country as a whole. <i My proposal, ’ ’ said Mr. I olsou, m f or the establishment of a National Council, to supersede the present Unemployment Board. It would have the power to issue loan certificates to employers, who would undertake to apply them in the direction of employing additional workers. The men would be issued with script which would be mac c legal tender by shops and business people generally, and nltimately redeemable by the National Council, llus would create extra purchasing power for extra production. The scheme would be made sufficiently flexible to include rent and services as well as goods. 'There was nothing novel m the idea, said the speaker, as coupons and certificates of all kinds were m current u»c. If all the unemployed in the coun ij were re-employed, at standard ratt. under the scheme, a sum of M 0,000,00(. would be required. It was unit however, that all the men would bo drawn back to work, but ho was ins hypothetical figure as a basis of calculation. Existing figures gave nc national income of the country at £9O 000.000. An expenditure of ~ , > 00o’ in rehabilitating industry would give a great fillip both to Production and consumption. The population of the Dominion did not represent anything like our national income, but Mi..lml son held that tho issue of tho £10,000,001 in certificates would increase the income bv nothing less than £20,000,000. Mr Poison quoted an impressive army of figures indicating the prospective earnings and expenditure of the workers under his scheme. If only half of the unemployed were absorbed, it would create many millions of additional wages by direct and indirect methods. Subsidised industry such as was suggested in the scheme put forward would make it quite possible to absorb the men back into their own industries, and this would actually involve the country in less outlay than was necessitated under the present uneconomic relief measures.

The old methods had proved themselves inadequate, and they had . got us nowhere. The scheme explained would, if adopted, work in conjunction with land developments, and the sults would bo substantial. If New Zealanders to-day would only put their brains together and get to work on. a definite plan of some sort, things in the Dominion would soon move in the right direction.

The time was ripe for such action, as there was manifest in the country to-day a tide of social unrest, which if not allayed would react dangerously ou all sections of the community. At present we had no plan, and so any practical scheme must at least merit consideration.

President Roosevelt was going to. set up a new system that would pull civilisation well out of the mire if he were given reasonable co-operation. In this country, too, it behoved us to help ourselves back to prosperity, and it therefore behoved us to stir ourselves and embark on some really constructive measure, concluded Mr. Poison amid applause. The speaker was accorded a hearty vote of thanks on the motion of Eotarian G. G. Haneox. Visitors welcomed to the luncheon were: Messrs. J. Linklater, M.P., W. J. Pearce, E. T. Burrough, and T. R. Hodder. Eotarian W. G. Black presided.