WORLD DEPRESSION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20669, 15 September 1930, Page 11

WORLD DEPRESSION.

UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM. DISTRESS IN UNITED STATES, 3000 MEN IN A BREAD LINE, ■ m ■ ■' Mr. M. Curoda. of Coogee, on returning to Sydney recently. said that no hart visited practically every country in the world, and the only places free from unemployment were France, Belgium,. and Czeclio Slovakia/ In America many people were on the bread-line, and in England the dole seemed to have become a regular institution.

• Mr. Curotta, who is a supporter of tha Labour movement, said lie made a special study of industrial conditions while he was abroad, and was surprised to find that the United States was honeycombed with Communism.

" A recent inquiry revealed that there are about half a million avowed Communists in America," Mr. Curotta said. "It> was also discovered that the money paid by American business men in respect o( Russian trade was not being sent to Russia, but was being distributed by an agency for the dissemination of propaganda throughout the world. The whole trouble with the United States is the presence of a large foreign element, which is responsible for most of the crime and m good deal of the industrial trouble." •

In New York Mr. Curotta saw much evidence of distress and unemployment, and it was quite customary, he said, for as many as 3000 men, some of them still well dressed, to take their places in a bread-line. They had lost their jobs, bub had retained their decent clothes. In the midst of the crisis a conference between manufacturers and industrial leaders took place with the object of devising means of stemming the flow of unemployment. The chief of police was present at the meeting to pass judgment on the morality of individual cases.

As the result of the conference 129 firms agreed to part-time work, 43 agreed to transfer employees to other fields of industry, 66 to manufacture for stock, and 57 to " forward planning." The general tendency was to reduce working hours without any specific decrease in remuneration, although there was a nation-wida movement to bring about a wage reduction of 10 per cent. Commodities, however, were cheap throughout the country. The cattle men and packers had reduced their prices by 30 per cent-., and were bringing pressure to bear on retailers to bring down the cost _to the public to a proportional degree. " America is now importing wood pulp from Russia," said Mr. Curotta. " Canada seems to have been definitely dropped in that respect. There has, nevertheless, been a great deal of trouble as a result of a statement that the pulp was produced bv prison labour. One of the surprising things I discovered was the uses to which the despised prickly pear plant is put. I saw enough to make me realisa that we have much to>learn of its commercial possibilities. In Mexico an immense trade is done in prickly pear candy and gin, and tiiere is also a ready sale for " silk " handkerchiefs made from tha fibre." Questioned as to the prevalence of " graft " in the United States, Mr. Curotta said there was evidence of it on all sides. In the course of his short stay lie bad read of eight judges and 25 magistrates who had been deprived of their offices on account of corruption. Crime was correspondingly rampant, and it was no uncommon tiling for witnesses to b© shot dead on entering a court. Describing his impressions of Germany, Mr. Curotta said that the Germans wera an industrious and highly organised people. Their present objective was to capture the world's markets in spite of all tariff obstacles. Wages had been reduced m order to bring down costs, and were to be reduced still further. There was. however, a great deal of unemployment throughout the country.