THE PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 12 January 1944, Page 3

THE PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED

t ITo the Editor! ! sir, —In the cables Sir William g Beveridge is reported as saying, 1 “War does not leave us poorer. There >, will be some material destruction,” - concluding, “I hope that, above all, w e o shall have a new social invention en- - abling us to do without unemployv ment.” He must be entirely divorcf ed from reality who can make such f a statement as the former. It would sound absurd coming from any less s man, but from one planning the des- * tiny of millions it is tragic. t His obsession to make work for all ' is also absurd. With the scientists / and inventors everywhere having * successfully reduced manual labour to the minimum, how possibly can ~ everyone be ejnployed? Lord Lev--1 erhulme was much more correct * when he said “With the means that j ’ science has already placed at our I [ disposal we might provide for all the i „ wants for each of us in food and j ' shelter and clothing by one hour’s j [ work per week for each of us from j schoolage to dotage.” The aim and i object of industry is to provide j goods, not work —and the aim and ; object of money should be to j distribute those goods whether a man is in employment or not— i but Sir William plans to turn all j men into tools to satisfy his obsession, work. To the planner, the end j of man is work—whatever happens j ..h e must be saved from the sin of! ■ | leisure. More work means more j I* goods, and more science and inven- I j tion mean more goods, and unsale- i able goods mean war. How long are 1 we to suffer men that will not give J people sufficient purchasing power I ] for the goods they produce? Sir ! | William’s “unemployment invention” ! was determined with the steam-en- j gine, one hundred years ago. It is ail problem of empayment, not employment, Sir William has to solve. To create yet another Slave State is not • the way. Can an economic system I that has led us from failure to failure, j lead us from success to success? In the words of Professor Soddy “Science without Social Credit is | sheer Suicide.”—l am, etc., PLAIN FACT. Nelson. 10th January.