THE STATE AND UNEMPLOYMENT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20959, 24 February 1930, Page 12

THE STATE AND UNEMPLOYMENT.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—There is grave danger of Mr •Neilson becoming a gymnastic verbalist, ■the pubflc is not enlightened by loquacious disquisitions that lack solid and sound information at a time when sound information is most urgently required We are face to face with a problem of world-wide dimensions. Unemployment is a scourge, a punishment inflicted to awaken our consciousness to the necessity of correcting certain industrial defects which as yet are not definitely located bv experts, and are far from being correctly understood, by the public.' In these circumstances it is premature on the part of anyone to declare that private ownership is the source from’ which unemployment arises without producing some tangible evidence to sustain it. As Mr Neilson persistently refuses to supply the necessary evidence we are perfectly justified in pronouncing him ,to be an emotional enthusiast gifted by nature with a strong political temperament, highly susceptible to pain, and to the injustice with which this world abounds. Happily, the great majority of people are not profoundly poetical; they are found to have a much stronger love for justice than for poetry. As the elements productive of justice require a scientific temperament subject to the controlling influence of Christianity, the unseen cause of unemployment may "r traced to the absence of Chi istianity as a root cause much more effectively than to private ownership, which is only a sequel and not a pi iniary cause. Humanity is struggling , under■ conditions of competition with which the Christian conscience is unable to comply, and the question arises, Has Christianity anything to do witli the solution of the problem? At present our theologians and exponents of Christianity arc silent. There is no indication of a divine afflatus and all human wis(lorn, wlicn questioned, replies in terms agnostic. Everywhere the dominant ruling power is strikingly materialistic, and, trom a Christian point of view, distinctly mammonistic. What function, then, has the church as an organisation to perform in connection with the solution? If the church represents the voice of God, then we should hear the divine afflatus sounding no uncertain note on the side of righteousness, but no such evidence if? found at present. All is silent. Monev is the only thing that speaks, and Mammon is its Master.—l am, etc., W. Sivertseh.