UNEMPLOYMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19470, 28 October 1926, Page 13

UNEMPLOYMENT.

SYSTEMATIC DEVELOPMENT. PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE BY T. BLOOD WORTH. Mr. Larle Vaile, in his article of Ihe 26tli, says that .so far as he can see there are only two practical ways to " abolish unemployment: (1) Relief works, which lie condemns, and (2) placing inn dustry. and especially the basic producing i, industries, on an economic footing, so that ] they can profitably absorb all available s labour. i Now. what does lit: mean by "placing ■. industries on an economic footing?" I I think his meaning is contained in a parae graph of his article on the 14th. wherein . he writes: "Men must be prepared to accept a much lower standard of living, or y else work much harder, or a little of c both." A somewhat similar statement is ;I contained in his article of the 26th : "The plain fact is that if farming is to be conc tiriued in New Zealand all must be conb tent, with a lower return—the labourer as 1 well as the proprietor." t It is apparent from" those two i quotations, 1 think, that Mr. e Vaile sees only one half of the e problem he sets out to discuss. He - seems to think the only object of employment is production, whereas the real obt jeet of employment and production is conr sumption. e Unemployment does not occur in Great Britain or New Zealand or elsewhere tor day because a sufficiency of goods is not g produced, but because goods have been produced in greater quantities than the n purchasing power of the people will allow r them to consume; the markets are glutted s while the people are starved. Supposo d we adopt Mr. Vaile's remedy and all It agree to a lower standard of living, that ii is, agree to consume less of the goods pron duced, in order that all may be employed, y We would increase the number of producers, and presumably by the use of modern methods, the area and intensitv > of production in both farm and factory, i and by so doing increase the volume of 1 products, but also, by agreeing to accept a lower standard of living, we would ■ decrease our powers to consume. ' Supply and Demand. Would not the problem of the disposal of the product be worse than it is now '! I think it would, and I am strengthened in that conviction by the fact that Great 1 Britain has been trying to adopt the " Vaile programme for the past three years! 1 Millions of her people—those who are 1 wage-earners—have had to adopt a lower 1 standard of living, their wages, and cons sequently their purchasing power, has 3 been steadily reduced, and with each rcduction the volume of employment has 1 correspondingly fallen, and what is perv haps of more direct importance to the New Zealand farmer, with each reduc--0 tion in the purchasing power of the e British worker, owing to the adoption 1 of the Vaile formula for the cure of ui«employment, the difficulty, of disposing of New Zealand's exportable surplus of primary products at satisfactory prices has in--1 creased. 1 here is one remedy for unemployment and one only, that is, employment, and in the long run, people will only lie em s ployed if there is a demand for the pror duct which results from their empioy- ] ment, and there will only be that demand if the people have the means wherewith to purchase. Unemployment insurant-* was not suggested by me or anyone else that I am aware of as a cure for unemployment. tlrough all authorities agree that it has a tendency to check thtj volume of unemployment, and 1. have said, and still say, that a system of unemployment insurance is desirable in the k country, firstly to protect people from the r worst evils of something they are not rei sponsible for. and secondly, to provide reliable statistics which would enable us ; to attempt to prevent the disease, and to cope with it if we were not able to 5 prevent it. I Stabilising Employment. 1 Mr. V a le says 1 have not suggested a | real remedy. Perhaps not; 1 must leave . some details for others, but I did suggest , in my first article that if we had reliable ) statistics of unemployment, we could so stabilise employment as to avoid slumps ' as well as booms, and in my second , article, after quoting Sir William BeverJ j idge. K.C.8., who had said that unem- | plovment due to casual labour could be , abolished in Great Britain in six months if people only set their minds to do it, I said that with tho exercise of a little common sense we could do that here, and so we could, given reliable statistics and ? the will to do it. r We could do it by regulating public - works, by opening up undeveloped land, - bv planting forests, making roads, aye, and by building houses, and we do not need to do any of these things as "relief f works." but as a really essential part j of the development of the country. If . we set out to do these things we would r not have to cry out to stop immigration, ' we would not need to, for population would then be an asset., as it is now . our real need. If we cannot do these things in a , country approximately the size of Britain . with a present population only approxi- , mately one quarter that of the city of London, then the sooner we put up tho r shatters and cease to call ourselves Britons the better for the great name as . colonisers that Britons once had. i New Opportunities. • 1 do not agree with Mr. Vaile's statement that "it cannot be denied that tho ' vast majority of men prefer leisure to ' labour, holidays to working days." I ? shall not attempt to prove him wrong ' but Britons have never been a race of loafers, and are not now, though I admit 1 there are exceptions. Most men I have met, at any rate > most working men. prefer to earn their • own living and be independent of charity, f or even insurance, but in our modern 5 society men are the victims of circum--1 stances, and it should be our aim to so ! arrange that circumstances we all help to create should not press heavily on > any individuals. We are all in a very 1 real sense these da>s our brothers' ■ keepers, and economic circumstances will ' remind ns of that fact if all else failed ! to do so. Mr. Vaile says "Of course all well disposed persons are willing to help the unfortunate.' Well, my proposal is ' merely that in this matter of making provision against unemployment all well disposed people should help to prevent people ■from becoming unfortunate. I started this discussion, not because I was unemployed, but because I knew dozens of good citizens who were, and I wanted to set people thinking about the problem. I will conclude now with a quotation from a man who does not believe salvation lies in accepting a lower standard of living. "For hundreds of years men have talked about the lack of opportunity and the pressing need of dividing up things already in existence. Yet each year h?,s seen some new i idea brought forth arxl developed, and , with it a whole new aeries of opportuni- - ties, until to-day we already have enough i tested ideas which, put into practice. ; would take the world out of its sloughs I and banish poverty by providing livings I for all who will work. Only the old ; outworn notions stand in the way of . these new ideas. The world shackles t itself, blinds its and tijerv wonders ■ whv it cannot run." That is the opening paragraph of Mr. I Henry Ford's new book, "The Great To- | day and Greater Future." 1 recommend [ its pages to the consideration of Mr. -JZaile and others.