THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1932 BRITAIN'S UNEMPLOYED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21349, 25 November 1932, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1932 BRITAIN'S UNEMPLOYED

The British Government is reported to be preparing to attack unemployment from a new angle. Broadly stated the intention is based on the belief that this social problem is not a mere transitional condition that will be cured more or less automatically as trade and industry revive. There is believed to be a core of unemployed people who have been thrown out of work by changes in social and industrial conditions, in international relations, in facilities for free movement about the world and a number of other developments characteristic of the post-war age. Therefore, according to this theory, a great army of the unemployable, variously estimated at from 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 souls, has been created. Its absorption into ordinary employment is not possible within the structure of the present industrial, commercial and social fabric. Consequently organised, deliberately planned and systematic policies must be applied to prevent these people from becoming completely derelict, and presumably dependent on relief systems for a bare existence. Accepting this outline as a true reflection of Britain's conditions to-day, anybody with a trace of the historical sense must recognise in it features that are not new. They belong to a period of British history which has passed and been forgotten except by those whose attention has been directed to the records of almost a century ago. In a word, much that was characteristic of the "hungry forties" could be seen in the picture. To-day, however, there is a livelier social conscience, a stronger sense of the responsibility the community owes to the individual. The ultimate cure for what Britain faced in the forties came from a vast process of development commonly called the industrial revolution. Migration on a great scale played a part, but it is an entire subject in itself, which cannot be considered now in relation to contemporary British conditions. The use of the term "forties" is not accurate if taken too literally, but serves to distinguish a period which really extended, at both ends, beyond the dedade between 1840 and 1850. The readjustment came by a process of development which the analysis of present conditions, tacitly but none the less surely, represents as having reached its limits. The centre of activity shifted from the agricultural countryside to the industrial city, which found eager markets to absorb its increasing products. The power of industry to produce is now represented as having outstripped the world's capacity to absorb. The machines with which factories were equipped multiplied output but demanded many hands to tend them. The machine is now stated to have developed so far that the tending hands have become largely superfluous. Above all, the abundant accessible stores of British coal, ex> ploited with a skill and energy unparalleled elsewhere, put Britain first in the race for industrial supremacy. Raw coal no longer holds its monopolistic place as the world's source of power, and supplies in other countries have been developed in fierce competition with the British. All these conditions have combined to check the onward march of British industry during which all the world contributed raw material for the factory and food for the workpeople, gladly accepting manufactured products in return. In the absence of the fortuitous conditions which opened the way for the vast recovery of the industrial revolution, thought has to be taken in search of means by which British energies, powers of production and abilities in distribution may be given a new orientation. The nation must be kept busy, fed and clothed, and means of achieving this end be found. In the proposals being made to meet the position there are points which suggest Britain is likely to put the clock back in a remarkable way. At the beginning of the industrial era all protective duties were swept away in the superb confidence that Britain could win and hold the markets of the world, and need fear no challenge at home. The prophecy was fulfilled, and prosperity abounded for generations. Now protective duties are going back to conserve the home market against competitors who have been described—with a good deal of justification—as supplied with capital and a?med with skill by Britain herself. The nation was warned that as corn laws and other protection on foodstuffs and raw material were abolished, agriculture must inevitably decline. The ardent advocates of laissez faire replied that it could decline ; the whole world would be Britain's food store, industry would supply the means to buy what was needed. That, too, happened as predicted, and nobody who protested found any considerable number of listeners. Now attention is returning to the soil. That the British in Britain are virtually a landless people is held to be a reproach. The land, as a source of at least their own food, is being increasingly considered in relation to the unemployed. Much has been heard of a revival of British agriculture for years, but now it is being discussed in increasingly clear and definite terms. That there has been little done as yet gives no guarantee there will never be any achievement. Britain is not to be despised as a potential food producer. Soil, climate and farming technique are all there. With capital, energy and application wonders may be achieved. This is a possibility that cannot be discounted by the countries which have grown up supplying Britain with food—countries like New Zealand. The disturbed condition of industry everywhere is driving nations to a process of stocktaking. Britain can be trusted to do this with customary thoroughness and determination, in the effort to cope with the pressing problem of unemployment.