UNEMPLOYMENT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 20 February 1931, Page 2

UNEMPLOYMENT

SOME OF ITS PROBLEMS ADDRESS TO THE ROTARY CLUB BY REV. RAY DUDLEY At yesterday’s Rotary Club, luncheon the Rev. Ray Dudley gave a talk on the Problems of Unemployment. Mr Dudley said the facts concerning unemployment are too well known for them to be enlarged upon and the distress and misery too widespread for those facts to be gainsaid. Many numerous and obvious causes, however, may be seen at work.

CAUSES OF UNEMPLOYMENT The Unemployment Committee appointed by the present Government brought down its first report in October 1929 and classifies unemployment as follows : —(1) Seasonal unemployment in the primary industries—butter and cheese making, shearing, meat freezing, harvesting. (2) Unemployment in other industries, because of the seasonal nature of these products as, for instance, in connection with the transport and 'shipment of butter and cheese, wool - and meat. (3) Unemployment arising out of the permanent replacement of manual labour by the use of improved methods and machinery, as, for instance the use of tractors, gear for loading and unloading-vessels, steam shovels, and other manufacturing labour saving devices. (4) Unemployment arising out of incapacity or from improper training.

The shortsightedness of many parents, said Mr Dudley, is one of the supremest tragedies of life. It is a deplorable selfishness that, sends children out to work in occupations of the “blind alley” type, where hopes for advancement are nil and the only inducement a fairly enhanced initial wage. Yet the above classification tells only part of the story and several other definite causes may clearly be traced. Though immigration seems to have ceased in recent months, yet there has been for some time past a steady influx of workers and potential workers which has intensified the problem with which our legislators and social workers have been faced.

The restless nature and migratory habits of many people must not be forgotten, he continued, and it is not uncommon for individuals comfortably and profitably employed transferring their skill to some other corner of the industrial vineyard. However, in most cases, there are powerful deterrents to such mobility and a man’s services to his employer and the community are guarded by ties of education, language, custom, family and the costs that removal would entail.

The vagaries of fashion are not without their influence upon unemployment, said the speaker, and the tendency to longer dresses, to mention nothing else, will provide a degree of employment for quite a number if it does little more. The problem is largely one of maladjustment. To place as it has been said “tlie jobless man in the manless job.” The organisation of a labour agency should be such that unemployed labour is directed immediately into the channels where it may be required. WORKERS’ WAGES “I once heard a man say,” said the speaker, “that if it hadn’t been for the Trade Unions the worker would be still .working. ’ ’ Of course that is a grossly unfair statement against the unions for they have done much to espouse the cause of the workers .and obtain better conditions of labour. However strikes, trade disputes and parleys have occasioned an appalling loss of wages and distressing misery. The artificial maintenance of wage rates and .their lag have been a very pronounced cause for unemployment. When trade is good the worker demands, and rightly so, an increase in the amount of his remuneration which is not reduced as rapidly as prices fall when industrial conditions become unfavourable. The natural result is that the industry concerned cannot withstand the payment of high wage rates—labour is displaced. In the case of minimum wages the immediate effect of an industrial depression is for the least efficient labour to be discharged in favour of the more efficient. Trades crises, popularly known as bad times, said Mr Dudley, bring in their train distress, misery and unemployment.

EFFECTS OF UNEMPLOYMENT The first obvious effect of unemployment, said the speaker, is that of the loss of wages and the consequent misery especially of women and children. Education is interfered with, home life is ruined, the growing child becomes prone to the diseases that malnutrition and poverty usually bring. The mechanic or tradesman thrown out of his trade is compelled to take what is offering and there, “a square peg in a round hole” he steadily loses the skill acquired through long and patient years of toil. Unemployment makes unemployables. Modern society is becoming accustomed to the gaunt figures of men trudging through miles of dusty country roads seeking work and not charity. It is not long before there comes mental and physical reaction unfitting the formerly efficient for any useful task. “As men walk up city streets together or stand in groups at corners conscious of failure and the impossibility of finding employment,” said Mr Dudley, “they become a ready mark for the revolutionary propagandist and the seeds of Bolshevism and anarchy find fertile soil. That is not all: unemployment means national loss. It is a slur upon the organisation and enterprise of a country. Others gain at its expense, while its people develop that objectionable of all things, the inferiority complex. It is true to-day as ever it was that to say ‘business is bad’ is bad .business. Sorrow and suffering stalk the city streets, men and women grow prematurely old, and children are robbed of their rightful heritage. What can be done to stem the tide?

REMEDIES AND PALLIATIVES “Unemployment insurance is being organised the world over, and its claims and objectives are too well known to re-

quire criticism here,” continued 'Mr Dudley. “The land settlement policy, however, is not as vigorous as some would desire. Opportunities to bona fide settlers should be provided and access to unoccupied lands with favour-, able financial terms granted. Vocational training and guidance cannot be stressed too much in these days of specialisation and boys and girls should be encouraged to train effectively for those avenues of service for which they are best equipped. Labour bureaux organised similar to those on the Continent would greatly minimise maladjustments and would by judicious advice and practical aid increase the mobility of labour.

“There should be greater plasticity in wage rates and more frequent revisions while more emphasis would seem to be a desirable thing in the supplementary use of index numbers.

“Public relief work, such as is being organised, most effectively alleviates much unemployment distress. It has, further, been suggested that the State should order its stocks, if not of an urgent nature nor perishable, in times of economic stress to provide opportunities for labour and to prevent it from being displaced. “Greater emphasis should be placed on saving in good times, and every facility and encouragement offered. Tins itself is not only an insurance against evil davs but “will tend to save the worker from the dejection which an uncertain future nearly always brings.’ Lastly, said the speaker, it is an iniquitous thing that while workers are starving married women should be permitted to supplement their husbands wages by employment. The Government should bring down legislation on this matter and insist that where a man is earning £5 weekly, employment cannot bp granted to his wife: or that the total earnings of husband and wife must not exceed.£3oo per annum, Ihe schemes outlined may be illusory and the opinions that of an impractical visionary, but if so my hope and my prayer becomes that of vV hittier m “The Eternal Goodness,” and I, too, would say, ‘Oh, brothers, if my hope is vam, If hopes like these betray. Pray for me, that my feet, „ Should gain the safe and surer way.