SOCIAL PROBLEMS, '

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14223, 20 November 1909, Page 1 (Supplement)

SOCIAL PROBLEMS, '

UNEMPLOYMENT. , - .. No. 11. ■: - r ' BY J. G. HAPDOW. We were asking what bearing upon the question of unemployment has the fact that each idle worker represents a loss to the community of £143 for very year he remains idle. Suppose such a labourer, together with a skilled worker, is given by the State or municipality a work that lasts him just '■_. twelve months, that the materials used are worth £200, and the interest on the capital employed comes to £10. And suppose, also, that the structure or article he fashions is worth, when finished, £210, plus the wages of the skilled worker, and .plus the £143, we have assumed the unskilled worker to be worth. If for the purpose of illustration, we say that the, skilled worker's worth was £180, we shall find our new structure or article should be salable for £533, at least. If the State pays the labourer £2 4s, and the artisan £3 a week, it will receive for the work of overlooking and general profit £52 126 for the year. . In other words, it will take £52 12s gross profit out of the £533. But what the employer and skilled worker get do not really enter into the question. We are assuming now that this work has been devised to prevent the waste of having the unskilled worker idle for the year, and we must assume also that the skilled worker would have been able to look after himself in any case. Our illustration then amounts to this : We have a structure or articlea house or bridge, an organ or boat—which, allowing no exorbitant profits, and no loss, will have cost £533, and should be fairly worth that. It may be objected that it might not sell for that, but that is not to the point. It is a fair assumption that in the average case manufactured articles made by proper methods will pay the cost of manufacture. It is more than a fair assumption. It is a fact. We. know that, in practice, the cost of the production of an article is recovered with something to spare. Were it not so, business would cease. If then this structure, or article, pay 6 for its manufacture and sells for £533, the State has saved, apart from any question of trade profit, £143, the loss that would have arisen from having our labourer idle for one year. The community is £143 better off than it would have been. jT said above that, by taking the risk of loss, we may- avoid the certainty of loss. Thai is what has happened here. To avoid the certainty, the State ? has accepted the risk. It has saved itself the loss of £143, and out of that sum paid a labourer's daily wage and brought joy into a home that was wretched. V And after all, what risk was there ? Probably none. . Certainly none , that could weigh for a moment against the prevention of human, misery. Let us see. . In our illustration we have a profit of £52 12s. This amount may not be excessive, .< but :it could probably be reduced by £33 without any actual loss resulting, more particularly it, instead of two men only being employed, there were a large number, so that the cost of supervision was relatively reduced. Consequently, if the structure, or article; were sold for £500, or £33 below a reasonable and moderate price, the community would ■:" still be the; gainer :■ by the £143 already saved. More than this, 'if / the thing were sold for : £400 the community would still be £43 better off than it would i have been if it had left the ; labourer : unemployed the whole year. Again, the price could stHl further be reduced Ito £357 withoirtrputting the : community to any greater monetary loss than it (would have suffered had it left the labourer to starve. In other words, in the exceedingly rare case in /; which :'• the - thing . made has to be sold for 71 per cent, of 'the actual .cost of . production no less would accrue to the community beyond that which would inevitably have arisen had the labourer been left unemployed. And this result, it is well to observe, take* ho account of, the labour ' created by'=.« labour, of the numerous other workers who must be employed to provide the materials and tools which our one particular labourer has required during the twelvemonth. ; ; If it was a house he had been working upon probably some dozens of different classes. of workers would have benefited indirectly by his being in employment. 'Yet another source of gain we have passed over is-that touched upon 'in a telegram published in the daily papers on the 27th of last' August, in which* it was stated that the chairman of the Wellington and Wairarapa Charitable Aid Board had announced thai the relief .works for the [ unemployed <;'.■•: had greatly reduced the drain of charitable aid. And further, and more important still, we have also left out of consideration the immeasurable gain to society and civilisation! brought about by the destruction of the hungry wolf of unemployment. But how is all this to be achieved And who is to undertake it? The answer to the last question is not difficult to find. The evil is a national one, the responsibility for it is national and the duty of relieving it is also national. The com-' munity, as I have . endeayoured to show, can set about a cure without fear of loss, but the individual cannot. For though the work of a labourer may be worth £143 a year to the community as to whole, each individual's share in that value is infinitesimal, and an individual employer's loss would begin, not when the£l43 had been exhausted, but when his infinitesimal share of it was.' The work should .; not. however, be left solely to the one centralauthority. The municipalities should be empowered, and, by the advance of capital at nominal rates of interest, encouraged to provide for their own unemployed. Among the means at the country's disposal for self-protection I will deal with five propositions, all of which are well worthy of consideration and trial. These five are :—(1) The accumulation and concentration, as far as practicable, of all public work, whether undertaken by the state or by local authorities. (2) Municipal housing schemes. (3) Afforestation, or tree-planting. (4) Bushfelling. . (5) Small farm holdings. _ ; V The first of these has one advantage over all others. It entails no possibility of loss. The suggestion comes from ; England, where it was designed to meet the case of unemployed artisans. But there is no reason why it should not be made use' of for workers of all kinds. The proposition, shortly, is to hold over all public works that are not of immediate importance, and put them in hand as soon as the labour market shows signs of depression. ■;

■■'•; Municipal housing schemes have, been taken up vigorously., in the Old Country, not to find work for the poor but to- find comfortable and healthy homes for them. We have space, blue skies, fresh air. We could make our towns the model dwellingplaces of the humankind, clean, healthy, beautiful. We could give them every attribute to lead to mental and moral amelioration. We could raise up in them a new generation, to whose . Senses ugliness and squalor would be as offensive as cruelty or wrong. i Some day we may do it, if we let the right men lead us —the men with eyes to see. We could ; begin in > a modest way, but from the outset a comprehensive scheme should be decided upon, so that, though tao whole may take a score of years to complete, it shall be a single harmonious work when the end is reached.; If such a plan were adopted the building could be hastened or retarded as the outside demand for labour was small or great, and the worker would be helped in half a dozen different ways without anybody receiving, a farthing in charity. And instead of their being a risk of financial loss to the community, there would be every prospect of solid financial gain. , <■ I am not just now concerned to consider by whom these buildings should be erected —whether by the municipalities, or by private building associations voluntarily limiting their profits is a question outside my present purpose. That purpose is simplv to point out how, model building and townplanning schemes might be turned' to the ao.vantage of the unemployed! .