THE UNEMPLOYED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19986, 30 June 1928, Page 14

THE UNEMPLOYED.

Sir, —Your correspondent, "E.N.D.," maintains that assistance given to unemployed men shall have a permanent and beneficial effect, also that it mast be given without throwing others out of work. No one disputes either of those propositions. It may be true, also, as he says, that more general knowledge of iho causes of unemployment and trade cycles is necessary. But I maintain that ability' and strength of will to put our knowledge into practice is still more necessary, and this ability and strength of will cannot be created and developed without acting on the moral and spiritual forces of the nation and of the community. I trust your readers will not run away with the supposition that from my point of view the ascertainment of sound economic remedies for unemployment is not necessary. Being a Fellow of the Royal Economic Society, it would be strange indeed if I had not my own ideas, derived from the study of political economy, regarding unemployment and its causes. But it would need a pamphlet, perhaps a volume, to express all that one would like to say on a question such as this, and I have neither the time nor the inclination just now to "launch out" in that manner. It is a difficult and complicated subject, and I will content myself just now with this observation only: Unemployment, due mainly to trade cycles, cannot be better dealt with than by adopting a policy "of shifting public work from busy seasons and prosperous times into dull seasons and hard times. The idea is that of dovetailing public work into the periods of unemployment in private work." The words between the inverted commas are from Professor L. D Edie's book, on "The Stabilisation of Business." If all our public men accepted this as a practical expedient for unemployment like that which at present confronts us, such a policy would absorb nearly, if not all, the unemployment of to-day. In my judgment things commercially have already begun to ascend, and probably this winter will see almost the last of our unemployment for some years to come. In the meantime we should strike while the iron is hot with regard to public works. One remark of your correspondent might possibly give a wrong impression, and, to obviate the danger, I should like to correct it. I do not consider either the question of prohibition or that of Christian education to be of secondary importance. For example, the principle of Christian education. if thoroughly practised, would solve all our social and economic problems in less than a century. Of course, I mean truly Christian education, not merely religious, still less sectarian, education. J.f the youth of the present day were not merely made acquainted with facts, but imbued with Christian principles in dealj ing with those facts, if civic and national | responsibility wore early inculcated in the youthful mind, if the boy's mind were saturated with- the thought, "I am my brother's keeper," and he were taught to apply the principle fearlessly to every question, we should be able to say goodbye to war, drink, gambling (both coroj mercial and other), unemployment, overcrowding, poverty, and all the rest of the bunch before the bells rang in the advent of the 21st century. C. B. Jordan. Parsonage, New Lynn.